BVS Tools Unleashes SPLTOOL's True PDF Generation Capability

Published: June 20, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Do you have a hankering to create big PDF documents from OS/400 spool files? We're not talking a few dozen pages here, but thousands upon thousands of pure, unadulterated PDF bliss. If you do, the latest release of BVS Tools' SPLTOOL (Spooled File Tools) may be for you.

SPLTOOL is a handy OS/400 utility for converting standard SCS spooled files into more easily distributable formats, including PDF, HTML, RTF, and plain text files. You can work with the program in interactive mode to convert a single spool file and place it into a specific IFS folder. Or, it can be used to automatically convert whole bunches of spool files in batch mode using wildcard variables, all the while maintaining original spooled file elements like page formatting and bold typeface. You can even have your converted reports distributed automatically via e-mail if you implement SPLTOOL with another BVS Tools product called MAILTOOL.

With SPLTOOL 8.5, BVS Tools has eliminated any and all restrictions on the size of converted PDF files. In the previous release, SPLTOOL hit the wall when users tried to convert spool files with more than about 10,000 pages into PDFs, while the maximum was 3,000 PDF pages before that. (In some reports, that barely gets you past the table of contents!) Now, there's no restriction on the size of reports you can generate, which should really free up your sales team to start generating truly massive reports.

SPLTOOL 8.5 is available for download now at the BVS Web site. The product costs $399 per system, and $199 for every additional LPAR.