IBM i QuickTip: Date, Time, and System Stamping PC5250 Screens

I had a need come up last week where for Sarbanes-Oxley reporting, the auditors wanted us to date & time-stamp PC5250 screen shots as we were performing specific functions.

The auditors wanted to make sure that our user adds, changes, and deletes were being processed in a timely manner so they could look at a screen shot for a Delete User Profile command (DLTUSRPRF) for example, and make sure it wasn’t performed two weeks after the request came in.

Started picking through my PC5250 settings and found that you can easily add customized session information to a PC5250 print screen by setting up customized headers or footers that print out with your screen shots.

Here’s how to do it:

1. In PC5250, select File–>Page Setup from the PC5250 menu bar.

2. Select the Header and Footer tab on the Page Setup screen to get this screen.

3. Click on either the Customize Header or Customize Footer buttons to add field specific information at the top or the bottom of your printouts. This is what it looks like when I click on the Customize Header button.

On this screen, I can select any number of informational fields and have them print on either the left, right, or center part of my PC5250 printout screen This information can include general info, such as date, time, or the PC User doing the work, or it can include session specific info such as which system am I attached to, what PC5250 session am I using, etc.

I filled this screen in to show the data, time, PC user name (IBM i user profile), and the name of the system I’m working. Now, whenever I click on the PC5250 File–>Print Screen selection, it will print this information along with the printout.

Easy and it keeps my Sarbanes-Oxley auditors happy.

So whenever I take the PC5250 print screen option, it will automatically add this information to my printouts.

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