User Guide Version: 1.6.
User Guide Version 1.6.1 Last Revision: 2017-04-18 Objectif Lune, Inc. 2030 Pie-IX, Suite 500 Montréal, QC, Canada, H1V 2C8 +1 (514) 875-5863 www.objectiflune.com All trademarks displayed are the property of their respective owners.
© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2017. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced, transmitted or distributed outside of Objectif Lune Inc. by any means whatsoever without the express written permission of Objectif Lune Inc. Objectif Lune Inc. disclaims responsibility for any errors and omissions in this documentation and accepts no responsibility for damages arising from such inconsistencies or their further consequences of any kind. Objectif Lune Inc.
Table of Contents Table of Contents 5 Welcome to PrintShop Mail Connect 1.6.
Pages Master Pages Media Email Designing an Email template Creating an Email template with a Wizard Email context Email templates Email header settings Email attachments Content elements Element types Editing HTML Attributes Inserting an element Selecting an element Styling and formatting an element Barcode Boxes Business graphics Date Hyperlink and mailto link Images Table Text and special characters Snippets Adding a snippet Creating a snippet JSON Snippets Styling and formatting Local formatting versus s
Background color and/or image Border Colors Fonts Locale Spacing Personalizing Content Loading data Variable Data Formatting variable data Showing content conditionally Dynamic Images Writing your own scripts How scripts work Creating a new script Writing a script Managing scripts Testing scripts Optimizing scripts Loading a snippet via a script Control Scripts Designer User Interface Dialogs Menus Panes Toolbars Welcome Screen Print Options Job Creation Presets Output Creation Settings Designer JavaScript
Generating Print output Saving Printing options in Printing Presets. Connect Printing options that cannot be changed from within the Printer Wizard.
Welcome to PrintShop Mail Connect 1.6.1 Note Since we are always looking for new ways to make your life easier, we welcome your questions and comments about our products and documentation. Shoot us an email at doc@ca.objectiflune.com. PrintShop Mail Connect is a tool designed to optimize customer communications. It is designed to improve the creation, distribution, interaction and maintenance of your communications.
Tip Complementary information that may help you better use PrintShop Mail Connect or suggests an easier method. Warning Information that is potentially critical to using PrintShop Mail Connect. Pay close attention.
Setup And Configuration This chapter describes the PrintShop Mail Connect installation and the different considerations that are important in regards to the installation and use of PrintShop Mail Connect. l "System and Hardware Considerations" below l "Installation and Activation" on page 21 System and Hardware Considerations There are a variety of considerations to be aware of.
Note Windows 8.0, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and older versions of Windows are not supported by PrintShop Mail Connect. Minimum Hardware Requirements l NTFS Filesystem (FAT32 is not supported) l CPU Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell (4 Core) l 8GB RAM (16GB Recommended) l Disk Space: At least 10GB (20GB recommended) Note For tips and tricks on performance, see "Performance Considerations" on page 19.
time. Terminal Server/Service PrintShop Mail Connect does not support Terminal Server (or Terminal Service) environment as possible under Windows 2000, 2003 and 2008. This is to say, if Terminal Service is installed on the server where PrintShop Mail Connect is located, unexpected behaviours may occur and will not be supported by Objectif Lune Inc.. Furthermore, using PrintShop Mail Connect in a Terminal Service environment is an infringement of our End-User License Agreement.
l Click on Start, Run. l Type in services.msc and click OK. l Locate the Windows Search service and double-click on it. l Change the Startup Type to Disable, and click Stop to stop the service. l Try the installation again. l Once completely, you may re-enable the service and start it. Commandline switches and .ini entries PrintShop Mail Connect is intended to work stably and reliably, based on Java and the Eclipse framework.
available. l l max_allowed_packet = 500M : In some implementations, especially when using Capture OnTheGo, large packet sizes are required to allow transferring binary files. This substantial packet size maximum setting ensures that the data received by PrintShop Mail Connect will be able to be stored within the database. character-set-server = utf8 , collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci , default-characterset=utf8 : These indicate database support for UTF-8/Unicode.
Connect\.settings\ConnectHostScope\com.objectiflune.repository.eclipselink.generic.pref s) Updating With No Local MySQL Product l l When updating a Connect installation from 1.5.0 which contains a Server Product but no local MySQL Product, the DB Configuration Page will detect which db type was set before (especially if the db configuration was switched from MySQL to MS SQL using the Server Configuration Tool), and default to those settings. On Update from 1.4.
To remove this dependency the user needs to do the following 1. Have a foreign MSSQL running, ready for use with Connect Server. 2. Use the Server Configuration Tool (SCT) to switch the database to MSSQL. 3. (Re-)start Connect Server Service, so that the modifications will become active. 4. Counter check that everything is working properly with MSSQL. 5. Open a commandline prompt with full administration rights. 6. Enter the command sc config OLConnect_Server depend= /. This removes the dependency.
1. Run the Update to Connect 1.6. This will assume the local MySQL database needs to be updated and configured, so the user has to enter a root password on the MySQL Configuration Page (can be any password matching Connect security rules). 2. After the update, the Connect 1.6 Setup needs to be run once more to modify Connect. 3. On the Product Selection page, now the MySQL product can be unselected. 4.
l English l French l German l Spanish l Italian l Portuguese l Chinese (Simplified) l Chinese (Traditional) l Japanese. The default language is English. The PrintShop Mail Connect help system (this document) is currently only available in English. l Encoding: l Issues can sometimes be encountered in menus and templates when running PrintShop Mail Connect on a non-English operating system. These are due to encoding issues and will be addressed in a later release.
l l l l For the Merge Engine: see C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\MergeEngine\Mergeengine.ini For the Weaver Engine: see C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\weaverengine\Weaverengine.ini The parameters are -Xms640m for the minimum RAM size, -Xmx640m for the maximum RAM size. Explaining Java arguments is beyond the scope of this document. Please read references here, here and here for more details (fair warning: these can get pretty technical!).
l l l l A physical, non-virtualized server. VMWare servers are great for reducing the numbers of physical machines in your IT space, but they must share the hardware between each other. While you can create a virtual machine that seems as powerful as a physical, it will still be sharing hardware with any other virtual machines, and this will adversely affect performance. MySQL Database on a separate machine.
l If you are a Reseller, the installers can be downloaded from the Objectif Lune Partner Portal: http://extranet.objectiflune.com/ For information on licensing, please see Activating your license. Installation Pre-Requisites l l l l l Make sure your system meets the System requirements. PrintShop Mail Version 1.6.1 can be installed under a regular user account with Administrator privileges. Connect must be installed on an NTFS file system. PrintShop Mail requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.
The Importance of User Credentials on Installing and Running PrintShop Mail Connect OL Connect and required credentials depends heavily on the Connect component and respective tasks and what sort of user credentials are needed. First of all, it is important to distinguish between installation and run-time Installation The Connect installer puts all required files, folders, registry entries and much more to their correct places and locations.
Additionally, the Server user must be able to access any network resources that are required for OL Connect to function properly. This includes e.g. additional drives, printers, scanners, other computers and, where appropriate, internet resources, URLs, mail servers, FTP servers, database servers and everything else planned to be used for the intended operation of Connect. The Server user is the run-time user.
Installing PrintShop Mail Connect on Machines without Internet Access Installing PrintShop Mail Connect1.6.1 in offline mode requires some extra steps. These are listed below. GoDaddy Root Certificate Authority needs to be installed. In order to install PrintShop Mail Connect it is necessary for the GoDaddy Root Certificate Authority to be installed (G2 Certificate) on the host machine and for this to be verified online.
However, if the machine in question does not have internet access, the retrieval of the CRL must fail, which will lead to subsequent validation issues. To circumvent such issues it is highly recommended to switch off the CRL retrieval prior to installing Connect on machines without internet access. There is no security risk associated with this, as the CRLs would never be retrievable without internet access, anyway.
Selecting the required components After clicking the Next button, the component selection page appears, where the different components of PrintShop Mail Connect can be selected for installation. Currently, the following are available: l l PrintShop Mail Connect Designer: The Designer module. It may be used as a standalone with no other installed modules, but it will not have certain capabilities such as automation and commingling. Installation Path: This is the location where modules are to be installed.
l l l Configure Update Check checkbox: This option is enabled by default. It causes the Product Update Manager to run after the installation is complete. This allows configuring PrintShop Mail Connect to regularly check for entitled updates. Note: this checkbox may not be available in the event that an issue was encountered during the installation. Show Log... : If an issue was encountered during the installation, click this button to obtain details.
corrupted and require a re-installation. Running Connect Installer in Silent Mode PrintShop Mail Connect can be installed in a so called "silent mode" to allow an automated setup during a company wide roll-out or comparable situations. The trigger for the Connect Installer to run in silent mode is a text file with the fixed name install.properties, which is located either in the same folder as the PrintShop Mail_Connect_Setup_x86_64.exe or in the unpacked folder of the installer.exe.
# Verbose logging logging.verbose = true # Product selection install.product.0 = Connect Designer install.product.1 = Connect Server # Server settings server.runas.username = Localadmin server.runas.password = admin # Database configuration database.type = mysql database.host = 192.168.116.10 database.port = 3308 database.username = root database.password = admin database.schema = my_ol Verbose Logging (Optional) By default, the Silent Installer will log the same way as the GUI installer.
Server Configuration (required if Server is selected for install) For Server, the following properties need to be provided: server.runas.username = server.runas.password = Server Extension Configuration (required if Server Extension is selected for install) For Server Extension, the following properties need to be provided: server.runas.username = server.runas.password = server.master.host = server.master.port = server.master.
Connect Server), the database.unlocked property is irrelevant. Note The port will be defined automatically for the MySQL installation. All connect products selected in the Silent Installer will automatically be configured to use the MySQL running under the port defined by the database.port property, regardless of the default port 3306 or any other user defined port. A different port is required if 3306 is already taken on that machine by another application.
Server is SQL Server 2012. To configure an external Microsoft SQL Server database, the following properties should be defined: database.type = Microsoft SQL Server (required) database.host = (default value is localhost, otherwise required) database.port = (default value is 1433, otherwise required) database.username = (default value is sa, otherwise required) database.password = (required) database.
l When the application opens, if it has never been activated or the activation has expired, the Software Activation dialog appears: l License Information subsection: l l l l l l l l l l Name: Displays the name of the application or module relevant to this activation. Serial Number: Displays the activation serial number if the product has been activated in the past.
Programs, then Objectif Lune, then PrintShop Mail Connect and is named Software Activation. Since it does not load the software, it is faster to access for the initial activation. Requesting a license After getting the Magic Number, a license request must be done for PrintShop Mail Connect: l l Customersmust submit their Magic Number and serial number to Objectif Lune via the Web Activations page: http://www.objectiflune.com/activations.
Warning After installation message will appear warning that the Server services will need to be restarted. Just click OK to proceed. Migrating to a new computer Currently there are no special migration tools to move data from one PrintShop Mail Connect installation to another. Instructions for migration will be available for later versions of the software when those tools become available. Uninstalling This topic provides some important information about uninstalling (removing) PrintShop Mail Connect1.6.
Impacts upon other Applications and Services l l The Uninstall will terminate the installed Server / MySQL service(s) The following applications / services should be stopped in a controlled fashion, before running the PrintShop Mail Connect Uninstall: 1. PrintShop Mail Connect 2. Any Connect Workflow using PrintShop Mail Connectplugins which connect to this server. 3. PrintShop Mail Connect Server Extensions on remote systems which connect to this machine as the Master Server. 4.
The Designer The Designer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that lets you create templates for various output channels: Print, Email and Web. A template may contain designs for multiple output channels: a letter intended for print and an e-mail variant of the same message, for example. Content, like the body of the message or letter, can be shared across these contexts. Templates are personalized using scripts and variable data.More advanced users may use native HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
2. Fill the template Add text, images and other elements to the template and style them. See "Content elements" on page 101 and "Styling and formatting" on page 168. 3. Personalize the content Personalize the content using variable data. See "Personalizing Content" on page 200. 4. Generate output Adjust the settings, test the template and generate output: letters and emails. See "Generating output" on page 492. Note Steps 2 and 3 are not necessarily to be followed in this order.
"Styling and formatting" on page 168. Make your Designer templates look pretty and give them the same look and feel with style sheets. "Personalizing Content" on page 200. Personalize your customer communications using variable data. "Writing your own scripts" on page 221. Scripting can take personalization much further. Learn how to script via this topic. "Generating output" on page 492. Learn the ins and outs of generating output from each of the contexts.
It is, however, not possible to use a Template Wizard when adding a context or section to an existing template. Tip If an Email context is going to be part of the template, it is recommended to start with an Email Template Wizard; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page 86. After creating a template, contexts can be added to it, but that can not be done with a wizard. Saving a template A Designer template file has the extension .OL-template.
1. Select the menu option Window > Preferences > Save. 2. Under Auto backup, check the option Enable to activate the Auto Backup function. 3. Type the number of revisions to keep. 4. Select the directory in which the backups should be stored. Backup files have the same name as the original template with two underscores and a progressive number (without leading zeros) at the end: originalname__1.OL-template, originalname__2.OL-template, etc.
To save a template to a package file: 1. Select File > Package files. 2. Select the template to send. By default the currently active template is listed. Click Browse to select another template. You may select more than one template in the Browse dialog, and each of them is added to a package file. A template file has the extension .OL-template. 3. Use the drop-down to select a Job Creation Preset to send. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets.
When refering to them, normally you would simply use the path directly with the file name. The structure within those folders is maintained, so if you create a "signatures" folder within the "Images" folder, you need to use that structure, for example in HTML: 
. In scripts, you can refer to them in the same way, for example: results.loadhtml("snippets/en/navbar.
Web resources Web resources are simply accessed using a full URL. This URL needs to be publicly accessible: if you type in that URL in a browser on the server, it needs to be visible. Authentication is possible only through URL Parameters (http://www.example.com/data.json?user=username&password=password) or through HTTP Basic Auth (http://username:password@www.example.com/data.json). Contexts Contexts are parts of a template that are each used to generate a specific type of output: Email or Print.
If present in the same template, a Print context and a Web context can be attached to an Email context. Outputting other combinations of contexts, and selecting sections based on a value in the data, can be done via a Control Script; see "Control Scripts" on page 239. Adding a context To add a context, right-click the Contexts folder on the Resources pane and click New print context, New email context or New web context. Only one context of each type can be present in a template.
Tip If an Email context is going to be part of the template, it is recommended to start with an Email Template Wizard; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page 86. After creating a template, contexts can be added to it, but that can not be done with a wizard. Editing a section To open a section, expand the Contexts folder on the Resources pane, expand the respective context (Print or Email) and double-click a section to open it.
Warning No backup files are maintained in the template. The only way to recover a deleted section, is to click Undo on the Edit menu, until the deleted section is restored. After closing and reopening the template it is no longer possible to restore the deleted context this way. Renaming a section To rename a section: l On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the folder of the respective context, right-click the name of the section, and then click Rename.
1. Click and hold the mouse button on the style sheet on the Resources pane. 2. Move the mouse cursor within the Resources pane to the section to which the style sheet should be applied. 3. Release the mouse button. Using the Includes dialog 1. On the Resources pane, right-click the section, then click Includes. 2. Choose which CSS files should be applied to this section. You can also change the order in which the CSS files are read. This can have an effect on which CSS rule is applied in the end.
It is, however, possible to include or exclude sections when the output is generated, or to set another section as the 'default', depending on a value in the data. A Control Script can do this; see "Control Scripts" on page 239. See "Generating output" on page 492 to learn how to generate Print documents or Email. Print With the Designer you can create one or more Print templates and merge the template with a data set to generate personal letters, invoices, policies etc.
See "Pages" on page 66 for an overview of settings and elements that are specific for pages. Headers, footers, tear-offs and repeated elements (Master page) In Print sections, there are often elements that need to be repeated across pages, like headers, footers and logos. In addition, some elements should appear on each first page, or only on pages in between the first and the last page, or only on the last page.
Creating a Print template with a Wizard A Print template may consist of various parts, such as a covering letter and a policy. Start with one of the Template Wizards for the first part; other parts can be added later. To create a Print template with a Template Wizard: 1. l In the Welcome screen that appears after startup: l l l Choose Browse Template Wizards and scroll down until you see the Print Template wizards and select the Postcard or Formal Letter wizard.
Print Template Wizards There are three Print Template wizards: one for a formal letter, one for a postcard and one for a Print template based on a PDF that you provide. Postcard The Postcard Wizard lets you choose a page size and two background images, one for the front and one for the back of the postcard. When you click Finish, the Wizard creates: l l l l l A Print context with one section in it, that has duplex printing (printing on both sides) enabled. See "Printing on both sides" on page 58.
l l l l Duplex means double-sided printing. The margins define where your text flow will go. The actual printable space on a page depends on your printer. The bleed is the printable space around a page. It can be used on some printers to ensure that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. Printers that can’t print a bleed, will misinterpret this setting. Set the bleed to zero to avoid this. The number of sections is the number of parts in the Print context.
initially invisible. The address lines will stick to the bottom of that cell, even when the address has fewer lines. See "Styling and formatting" on page 168 to learn how to style elements. Tip Click the Edges button on the toolbar to highlight borders of elements on the Design tab. The borders will not be visible on the Preview tab. PDF-based Print template The PDF-based Print template wizard creates a document from an existing PDF file: a brochure, voucher, letter, etc.
Print context The Print context is the folder in the Designer that can contain one or more Print templates. Print templates, also called Print sections, are part of the Print context. They are meant to be printed to a printer or printer stream, or to a PDF file (see "Generating Print output" on page 494). The Print context can also be added to Email output as a PDF attachment; see "Generating Email output" on page 508.
In Print sections, there are often elements that need to be repeated across pages, like headers, footers and logos. In addition, some elements should appear on each first page, or only on pages in between the first and the last page, or only on the last page. Examples are a different header on the first page, and a tear-off slip that should show up on the last page. This is what Master Pages are used for. Master Pages can only be used in the Print context. See "Master Pages" on page 73.
It is also possible to exclude sections from the output, or to include a section only on a certain condition that depends on a value in the data. This can be done using a Control Script; see "Control Scripts" on page 239. Printing on both sides To print a Print section on both sides of the paper, that Print section needs to have the Duplex printing option to be enabled; see "Enabling double-sided printing" on page 65. This setting can not be changed in a Job Creation Preset or an Output Creation Preset.
Setting the bleed The bleed is the printable space around a page. It can be used on some printers to ensure that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. The bleed is one of the settings for a section. See "Page settings: size, margins and bleed" on page 67. Print sections Print templates, also called Print sections, are part of the Print context. They are meant to be printed to a printer or printer stream, or to a PDF file (see "Generating Print output" on page 494).
Using stationery (Media) When the output of a Print context is meant to be printed on paper that already has graphical and text elements on it (called stationery, or preprinted sheets), you can add a copy of this media, in the form of a PDF file, to the Media folder. Media can be applied to pages in a Print section, to make them appear as a background to those pages. This ensures that elements added to the Print context will correspond to their correct location on the preprinted media.
"Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page 76 and "Applying Media to a page in a Print section" on page 80. Tip Editing PDF files in the Designer is not possible, but when they're used as a section's background, you can add text and other elements, such as a barcode, to them. To create a new Print template from a PDF file, use the PDF-based Print template (see "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on page 52).
output in the order in which they appear on the Resources pane, so changing the order of the sections in the Print context changes the order in which they are outputted to the final document. To rearrange sections in a context: l l On the Resources pane, expand the Print context and drag and drop sections to change the order they are in. Alternatively, on the Resources pane, right-click a section in the Print context and click Arrange.
With this feature it is possible to create a Print template from an arbitrary PDF file. Of course, the PDF file itself can't be edited in a Designer template, but when it is used as a section's background, text and other elements, such as a barcode, can be added to it. To use a PDF file as background image: 1. On the Resources pane, expand the Print context, right-click the print section and click Background. 2. Click the downward pointing arrow after Image and select From PDF resource.
because the number of pages in a PDF file can not be determined via the http and http protocols. Therefor, with an external image, the option Save with template is always checked. 4. Select the PDF's position: l Fit to page stretches the PDF to fit the page size. l Centered centers the PDF on the page, vertically and horizontally. l Absolute places the PDF at a specific location on the page.
1. On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Print context and rightclick the Print section. 2. Click Finishing. 3. Choose a Binding style and, if applicable, the number of holes. To set the binding style of the Print context, see "Setting the binding style for the Print context" on page 58. Overriding binding styles in a job creation preset A Job Creation Preset can override the binding styles set for the Print sections and for the Print context as a whole.
3. When duplex printing is enabled, further options become available. l l l Check Tumble to duplex pages as in a calendar. Check Facing pages to have the side margins switched alternately, so that after printing and binding the pages, they look like in a magazine or book. See "Pages" below to find out how to set a left and right margin on a page. If an odd page count is generated, the last page (which is a duplex backside) has only the master page.
l l Conditional content and dynamic tables, when used in a Print section, may or may not leave an empty space at the bottom of the last page. To fill that space, if there is any, an image or advert can be used as a whitespace element; see "Whitespace elements: using optional space at the end of the last page" on the facing page. Dynamic tables can be used in all contexts, but transport lines are only useful in a Print context; see Dynamic table.
example: 150mm). To change the default unit for measurement settings to centimeters or millimeters: on the Window menu, click Preferences, click Print, and then click Measurements. Whitespace elements: using optional space at the end of the last page Print sections with conditional content and dynamic tables (see "Personalizing Content" on page 200) can have a variable amount of space at the bottom of the last page.
Page numbers Inserting page numbers Page numbers can be added to a Print section, but they are usually added to a Master Page, because headers and footers are designed on Master Pages; see also: "Master Pages" on page 73. To insert a page number, select Insert > Special character > Markers on the menu, and then click one of the options to decide with what kind of page number the marker will be replaced: l l l l l l Page number: The current page number in the document.
Creating a table of contents A table of contents can only be created in a template script. The script should make use of the pageRef() function. For an example, see "pageRef()" on page 460. If you don't know how to write a script, see "Writing your own scripts" on page 221. Configuring page numbers By default the page numbers are Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) without leading zeros nor prefix, and page numbering starts with page 1 for each section. But this can be changed. To do that: 1.
By default, to prevent orphans and widows, lines are moved to the next page as soon as two lines get separated from the rest of the paragraph. This setting can be changed for the entire Print context, per paragraph and in tables. Note Widows and orphans are ignored if the page-break-inside property of the paragraph is set to avoid. In the entire Print context To prevent widows and orphans in the entire Print context: 1. On the menu, select Edit > Stylesheets. 2. Select the Print context. 3.
2. Select Format > Paragraph, on the menu. 3. After Widows and Orphans, type the number of lines to be considered a widow or orphan (this amounts to the minimum number of lines that may be separated from a paragraph, minus one). In tables The CSS properties widows and orphans can be used in tables.
l After: Sets whether a page break should occur after the element. Equivalent to the page-break-after property in CSS; see CSS page-break-after property for an explanation of the available options. Click the button Advanced to add CSS properties and values to the inline style tag directly. Note You cannot use these properties on an empty
or on absolutely positioned elements.
flow. Only one Master Page can be applied per page in printed output. Then a Print template is created, one master page is added to it automatically. You can add more Master Pages; see "Adding a Master Page" below. Initially, the original Master Page will be applied to all pages, but different Master Pages can be applied to different pages; see "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page 76.
A Master Page can contain text, images and other elements (see "Content elements" on page 101), including variable data and dynamic images (see "Personalizing Content" on page 200). All elements on a Master Page should have an absolute position or be inside an element that has an absolute position. It is good practice to position elements on a Master Page by placing them in a Positioned Box (see "Content elements" on page 101). Keep in mind that a Master Page always remains a single page.
3. Finally, apply the master page to a specific page in a print section. See "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" below. Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section Every page in a print section has a natural position: it can be the first page, the last page, one of the pages in between (a 'middle page'), or a single page. For each of those positions, you can set a different Master Page and Media (see "Media" on the next page).
Media When the output of a Print context is meant to be printed on paper that already has graphical and text elements on it (called stationery, or preprinted sheets), you can add a copy of this media, in the form of a PDF file, to the Media folder. Media can be applied to pages in a Print section, to make them appear as a background to those pages. This ensures that elements added to the Print context will correspond to their correct location on the preprinted media.
Setting Media properties Media have a number of properties that you can set, as described below. What you cannot set are a Media's page size and margins. The page size and margins are derived from the section to which the Media is applied. You can, however, specify a PDF file (or any other type of image file) for both the front and the back of the Media, and specify how the virtual stationery should be positioned on the page. This is done as follows: 1.
6. Click Finish. 7. For each of the PDF files, select a position: l Fit to page stretches the PDF to fit the page size. l Centered centers the PDF on the page, vertically and horizontally. l Absolute places the PDF at a specific location on the page. Use the Top field to specify the distance between the top side of the page and the top side of the PDF, and the Left field to specify the distance between the left side of the page and the left side of the PDF. 8. Finally, click OK.
l l On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, rightclick the Media and click Rename. Type the new name and click OK. Alternatively, on the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, right-click the Media and click Properties. Type the new name in the Name field and click OK.
Dynamically switching the Media In addition to applying Media to sheets via the settings, it is possible to change Media dynamically, based on a value in a data field, in a script. The script has already been made; you only have to change the name of the Media and the section in the script, and write the condition on which the Media has to be replaced. 1. On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Print context, rightclick the print section and click Sheet configuration. 2.
1. Create a job creation preset that indicates that Media has to be printed: select File > Presets and see "Job Creation Presets" on page 399 for more details. 2. Select that job creation preset in the Print Wizard; see "Generating Print output" on page 494. Email With the Designer you can create one or more Email templates and merge the template with a data set to generate personalized emails.
Output, generated from an Email template, can have the following attachments: l The contents of the Print context, in the form of a single PDF attachment. l Other files, an image or a PDF leaflet for example. Attaching the Print context is one of the options in the Send (Test) Email dialog. See "Email attachments" on page 99 and "Generating Email output" on page 508. Designing an Email template With the Designer you can design Email templates.
Nesting tables (putting tables in table cells) and applying CSS styles to each table cell to make the email look good on all screen sizes is a precision work that can be a tedious and demanding. Connect's Designer offers the following tools to make designing HTML email easier. Email templates: Slate and others The most obvious solution offered in the Designer is to use one of the templates provided with the Designer; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page 86.
| | All standard abbreviations can be found in Emmet's documentation: Abbreviations. To learn more about Emmet, please see their website: Emmet.io and the Emmet.io documentation: http://docs.emmet.io/. Preferences To change the way Emmet works in the Designer, select Window > Preferences, and in the Preferences dialog, select Emmet; see "Emmet Preferences" on page 286.Do not capture your email in one big image Most e-mail clients do not automatically download images, so do not capture your email in one big image. The recipient initially sees a blank message and probably deletes it right away. Do not resize images in your email Many mail clients do not support image resizing and will show the image in its original dimensions. Resize the images before you link to or embed them.
1. In the Welcome screen that appears after startup: l l Choose Browse Template Wizards. Scroll down until you see the Email Template Wizards. There are three types of Email Template Wizards: l Basic Email templates l Banded Email templates l Slate: Responsive Email templates by Litmus. Or choose Create a New Template and select the Email template. This starts the Basic Action Email wizard. Alternatively, on the File menu, click New, and: l l Select Email Template.
l A style sheet, named context_htmlemail_styles.css, and another style sheet depending on which Template Wizard was used. The style sheets can be found in the Stylesheets folder on the Resources pane. The Wizard opens the Email section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page 101, "Email context" on page 90, and "Email templates" on page 92. Tip Use the Outline pane at the left to see which elements are present in the template and to select an element.
More than 50% of emails are opened on mobile. These five responsive HTML email templates are optimized for small screens and they look great in any inbox. They’ve been tested in Litmus and are completely bulletproof. Tip After creating the email template, click the Responsive Design View icon workspace to see how the email looks on different screen sizes. at the top of the The only thing you can set in advance for a Slate template is the color of the call-to-action button. Enter a hexadecimal color code.
could use an online color picker tool (such as W3Schools' Color Picker). The color can be changed later; see "Colors" on page 192. l The web address where the recipient of the email will be taken after clicking the button in the email. Type the URL in the Link field. In addition, for an Invoice email you can change the following content settings: l l Show Welcome Message. Check this option to insert a salutation and one paragraph with dummy text in the email. Detail Table Name.
pane. These style sheets are meant to be used for styles that are only applied to elements in the Email context. The Wizard opens the Email section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page 101 and "Email templates" on the facing page. Sending email When the template is ready, you can generate Email output; See "Generating Email output" on page 508. To test a template, you can send a test email first.
1. On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, and right-click the Email context. 2. Click Properties. 3. Change the properties of the PDF file that will be attached when the Print context is attached to the email. Lossless is the maximum quality. Note that this will produce a larger PDF file. Uncheck this option to be able to set a lower quality. The quality is set in a percentage of the maximum quality. Tile Size is the size of the files in which the image that is being compressed is divided.
'default' Email section (see below) before generating Email output; see also "Generating Email output" on page 508. Adding an Email template When an Email template is created (see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page 86), only one Email section is added to it. An Email context may contain various templates, but per record only one of those can be sent when you generate Email output. It is not possible to add an Email section to an existing Email context with the help of a Template Wizard.
backup functions in the preferences (see "Saving Preferences" on page 291). Styling and formatting an Email template The contents of an Email section can be formatted directly, or styled with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). See "Styling and formatting" on page 168. Email clients do not read CSS files and some even remove a
