User Guide Version: 1.7.
User Guide Version 1.7.1 Last Revision: 2019-05-23 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. 1994-2019. 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.
Table of Contents Table of Contents 4 Welcome to PrintShop Mail Connect 1.7.
Contexts Sections Print Creating a Print template with a Wizard Print context Print sections 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 Deleting an element Styling and formatting an element Barcode Boxes Business graphics Date Hyperlink and mailto link Images Table Text and special chara
Styling and formatting Local formatting versus style sheets Layout properties Styling templates with CSS files Styling text and paragraphs How to position elements Rotating elements Styling a table Background color and/or image Border Colors Fonts Locale Spacing Personalizing Content Variable data Conditional content Dynamic images Snippets Scripts Loading data Variable Data Formatting variable data Showing content conditionally Dynamic Images Writing your own scripts Script types Creating a new script Writ
Keyboard shortcuts Menus Panes Toolbars Welcome Screen Print Options Job Creation Presets Output Creation Settings Script API Designer Scripts API Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Examples Example Example Example Example Example Examples Creating a table of contents Example Examples Examples Examples Examples Replace elements with a snippet Replace elements with a set of snippets 340 346 355 370 375 376 435 444 464 465 490 491 492 4
Example Example Control Script API Generating output 516 516 516 533 Print output Email output Optimizing a template Scripts Images Generating Print output Saving Printing options in Printing Presets. Connect Printing options that cannot be changed from within the Printer Wizard.
Additional Information Release Notes 577 578 Overview Connect 1.7.1 General Enhancements and Fixes Connect 1.7.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes Connect 1.7.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes Known Issues Previous Releases Overview Connect 1.6.1 General Enhancements and Fixes Connect 1.6.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes Connect 1.6.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes Known Issues Overview Connect 1.4.2 Enhancements and Fixes Connect 1.4.1 New Features and Enhancements Connect 1.4.
Welcome to PrintShop Mail Connect 1.7.1 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. Use the feedback tool at the bottom of the page or 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.
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 25 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 21.
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.
Installing Connect using an existing Microsoft SQL Server instance If Microsoft SQL Server is already present and you wish to use it, the following should be taken into consideration: Warning If you chose not to install the supplied MySQL database, and instead opt for using a preexisting (External) database then you yourself must ensure that the External database is accessible to Connect. Objectif Lune Inc. will take no responsibility for database connections to any but the supplied MySQL database.
l On Update from 1.4.2 or earlier, the DB Configuration Page will always default to MySQL connection settings, and if the installation was manually tweaked to connect to MS SQL Server, the user has to switch to "Microsoft SQL Server" type and enter connection details again. When modifying Connect l l If local MySQL is removed from an installation, the DB Configuration page will offer additionally the Microsoft SQL Server db type with respective default values.
7. After the dependency has been removed, it is possible to stop the supplied MySQL service (OLConnect_MySQL). Warning If a Connect 1.5 user wants to use Microsoft SQL instead of MySQL for the Connect Server, there are several points to be taken care of: l l IF there should possibly be available some foreign MySQL instance, which could be used intermediately, then this should be selected during the setup. This ensures, that no stuff gets installed.
external MySQL was configured as database), then the Update to 1.6 will allow to select either external MySQL or external Microsoft SQL on the DB Configuration Page. Network considerations The following should be taken into consideration in regards to network settings and communications l If a local proxy is configured (in the Internet Explorer Options dialog), the option Bypass proxy server for local addresses must be checked, or some features depending on local communication will not work.
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. Performance Considerations This page is a comprehensive guide to getting the most performance out of PrintShop Mail Connect as well as a rough guideline to indicate when it's best to upgrade.
obviously lead to a loss of speed. While we do our best for caching, a document with 100,000 records which queries a page that takes 1 second to return a different image each time will, naturally, slow output generation down by up to 27 hours. l l l External JavaScript Libraries: While loading a single JavaScript library from the web is generally very fast (and only done once for the record set), actually running a script on each generated page can take some time.
Designer and the Connect database need 1GB each, that each Merge engine needs 1GB and the Weaver engine needs 1GB as well, you can roughly estimate how much memory is needed. l Consider using hardware with more physical cores. PrintShop Mail Connect doesn't limit the number of Merge engines that is used for a print job, so if the number of physical cores is low, it makes sense to see if that can be increased. When running on a virtual machine, this is usually easy.
exclusion list, if possible. The executable will be installed to the installation target "Connect Server" sub-folder. If the default folder was selected during the installation process the file is likely to be as follows: C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\Connect Server\Service.
responsible person for the computer protection has to decide about the monitoring of such temporary folders following the company guidelines. Database 2 Another database instance is used by Connect. This is the Connect back-end database. The path to this folder is stored in the standardized system variable %PROGRAMDATA%. The Connect back-end database is located in the subfolder "Connect\MySQL".
l Installation Prerequisites l User accounts and security l The importance of User Credentials when installing and running Connect l Migrating to a new computer Installation - "How to" guides For information on how to conduct the installation itself, chose from the following topics: l Installation l Silent Installation l Installation on machines without Internet access Activation For information on licensing, please see Activating your license.
If generating Print output, PrintShop Mail Connect Designer requires permission on the printer or printer queue to send files. 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.
different from the credentials of the installation user account, which additionally requires the right to INSTALL services. Please be aware of this fact! 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.
Installing PrintShop Mail Connect on Machines without Internet Access Installing PrintShop Mail Connect1.7.1 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.
details on how to install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, if this is not already done. Note If the same version of PrintShop Mail Connect is already installed on the target machine, you will be presented with options to either Uninstall or Modify the existing instance. If Modify is selected, the standard installation Wizard sequence will be followed, but with all options from the existing installation selected.
Selection Confirmation The next page confirms the installation selections made. Click Next to start the installation itself. End User License Agreement The next page displays the End User License Agreement, which needs to be read and accepted before clicking Next. Click Next to start the actual installation process. This process can take several minutes. Completing the installation This screen describes a summary of the components that have been installed.
Select the desired options and then click OK to query the server and obtain a list of any updates that are available for your software. l l Note that the Product Update Manager can also be called from the “Objectif Lune Update Client” option in the Start menu. It can be uninstalled via Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features. Product Activation After installation, it is necessary to activate the software. See Activating your license for more information.
For supported keys, please refer to the next paragraph. Note install.properties file notation must follow commons configuration rules. Please refer to Properties files for more details. Required and optional properties Required properties depend on the specified product. Only fields related to that specified product must be entered. If no product is mentioned, properties must be specified for all valid Connect products. Here is an example of an install.properties file. # Verbose logging logging.
Product selection (optional) By default, if nothing is entered for the products to be installed (install.product.X), Silent Installer will install all products which are visible to the user for the respective brand (except for the Server Extension, because only Server or Server Extension can be installed at the same time). PrintShop Mail defaults install.product.0 = Connect Designer install.product.1 = Connect Print Manager install.product.2 = MySQL Product Note The values of install.
Database configuration Case 1: MySQL is among the selected Connect products to be installed (new MySQL installation) If MySQL is selected and there is no previous MySQL configuration on the machine, the following properties should be defined: database.password = (required and must meet the rules) database.port = (3306 is the default port value) database.
2a: Configuring an external MySQL database To configure an external MySQL database, the following properties should be defined: database.type = mysql (required) database.host = (default value is localhost, otherwise required) database.port = (default value is 3306, otherwise required) database.username = (default value is root, otherwise required) database.password = (required) database.
In Silent Installer mode, the installation process looks for the property product.repository in the install.properties file and then proceeds with the following steps: 1. If the property exists, and its value contains an existing file location with a repository, the installer will attempt to install from that repository. 2. If the property exists, and its value starts with http://, the installer will attempt to install from that location. It will fail if no repository can be found at this location. 3.
l ja-JP (Japanese, Japan) l zh-CN (Chinese, China) l zh-HK (Chinese, Hongkong) l zh-MO (Chinese, Macau) l zh-TW (Chinese, Taiwan) l it-IT (Italian, Italy) l pt-BR (Portuguese, Brazil) l es-419 (Spanish, Latin America) Locale selection by defining user.language and user.country If both user.language and user.country are defined in the install.properties file, the combination must match exactly one of the supported locales, otherwise the Installer will exit with an error. For example, user.
3. As last resort, the first Locale in the preinstall.ini is selected (usually that should be enUS). Getting the exit code of a silent installation If getting the exit code of a silent installation is desirable, use the following procedure. 1. Create a new local folder on the machine (or VM) on which Connect shall be installed and copy/extract the contents of the Connect ISO into this folder. 2. Open a command prompt with Administrator privileges and cd into this local folder. 3.
Sample batch file @echo off preinstall.exe if errorlevel 10 goto err_installer if errorlevel 2 goto err_unknown if errorlevel 1 goto err_preinstall echo Success goto:eof :err_installer echo "Installer error - see OL_Install_.log" goto:eof :err_unknown echo "Unknown preinstall error - see preinstall_err.log" goto:eof :err_preinstall echo "Preinstall error - see preinstall_err.
l Open the Start Menu l Click on All Programs, then Objectif Lune, then PrintShop Mail Connect l Open the PrintShop Mail Connect Designer [version] shortcut. 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.
Note The Software Activation dialog can also be reached through a shortcut located in All 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.
l Click Install License to activate the license. The license will then be registered on the computer and you will be able to start using the software. 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 workstation The purpose of this document is to provide a strategy for transferring a Connect installation to a new workstation. The following guide applies to OLConnect v1.x.
Technical Although it is not necessary to convert all of your documents when upgrading to the latest version, we strongly recommended doing so. It is considered "Best Practise" to convert the documents to the version installed and then re-send them to the Workflow Tools. Backing up Connect Resources The following resources are used by Connect and can be backed up from their respective folders: l l l l l Job Presets (.OL-jobpreset): C:\Users\\Connect\workspace\configurations\JobCreatio nConfi
Secondary Software and Licenses The following only apply for specific secondary products and licenses that interacts or is integrated into the main product. Image, Fax and Search Modules l l Reconfigure the Image and Fax outputs with the new host information. Import the Search Profile and rebuild the database in order to generate the database structure required by the Workflow. Capture l l l l l l Download the latest version of the Anoto PenDirector.
• Re-run the OL Connect Send printer driver setup on client system and select the Repair option to point the clients to the new Server URL. Configuring the Connect Engines Any changes made to the Server preferences required the OLConnect_Server service to be restarted to take effect.
l l Open the Server Extension Configuration from: C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL Connect\Connect Server Extension\ServerExtension.
To apply the PlanetPress Capture License l l Open the Workflow Configuration Click on Help on the Menu Bar and click on PlanetPress Capture License manager to import your license. Uninstalling PrintShop Mail Connect from the previous workstation It is recommended to keep the previous install for a few days until everything is completed. However, once your transition is successful and complete, the OL Connect software must be uninstalled from the original server.
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. Connect products on remote systems which refer to this MySQL database. Uninstallation Wizard The uninstallation is done by running the PrintShop Mail Connect Setup Wizard in uninstall mode.
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 117 and "Styling and formatting" on page 186. 3. Personalize the content Personalize the content using variable data. See "Personalizing Content" on page 219. 4. Generate output Adjust the settings, test the template and generate output: letters and emails. See "Generating output" on page 533. Note Steps 2 and 3 are not necessarily to be followed in this order.
"Styling and formatting" on page 186. Make your Designer templates look pretty and give them the same look and feel with style sheets. "Personalizing Content" on page 219. Personalize your customer communications using variable data. "Writing your own scripts" on page 240. Scripting can take personalization much further. Learn how to script via this topic. "Generating output" on page 533. 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 101. After creating a template, contexts can be added to it, but that can not be done with a wizard. Opening a template To open a template from the Welcome screen, select Open an Existing Template.
When more than one resource (template or data mapping configuration) is open and the Designer software is closed, the Save Resources dialog appears. This dialog displays a list of all open resources with their names and file location. Selected resources will be saved, deselected resources will have all their changes since they were last saved dismissed. Auto Save After a template has been saved for the first time, Connect Designer can auto save the template with a regular interval.
The file properties can also be used in scripts; see "template" on page 527. If you are not familiar with writing scripts, refer to "Writing your own scripts" on page 240. Sharing a template To share a template, you can send the template file itself, or save the template to a package file, optionally together with a Job Creation Preset and an Output Creation Preset. (See "Job Creation Presets" on page 435 and "Output Creation Settings" on page 444 for more details.
The following zip file contains both the template and data mapping configuration that are used to generate the standard template report: http://help.objectiflune.com/en/archive/reporttemplate.zip. Generating output from the Designer Output can be generated directly from the Designer; see "Generating Print output" on page 535, "Generating Email output" on page 549 and Generating Web output. To test a template first, select Context > Preflight.
Resources This page clarifies the difference between Internal, External and Web resources that may be used in a template, and explains how to refer to them in HTML and in scripts. Internal resources Internal resources are files that are added to and saved with the template. To add images, fonts, style sheets, and snippets to your template, you can drag or copy/paste them into the Resources Pane.
External resources External resources are not stored in the template, but on the local hard drive or on a network drive. They are accessed using a path. The path must have forward slashes, for example 
or var json_variables = loadjson ("file:///d:/jsondata/variables.json");. The complete syntax is: file:///. If the host is "localhost", it can be omitted, as it is in the example, resulting in file:///.
When a new template is made, the Context appropriate to that new template is automatically created, including one section. After a template has been created, the other two contexts can be added to it; see "Adding a context" below. 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 101. After creating a template, contexts can be added to it, but that can not be done with a wizard.
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. Sections Sections are parts of one of the contexts in a template: Print or Email. They contain the main text flow for the contents. In each of the contexts there can be multiple sections.
Copying a section Copying a section, either within the same template or from another template, can only be done manually. You have to copy the source of the HTML file: 1. Open the section that you want to copy and go to the Source tab in the workspace. 2. Copy the contents of the Source tab (press Ctrl+A to select everything and then Ctrl+C to copy the selection). 3. Add a new section (see Adding a section). 4. Go to the Source tab and paste the contents of the other section here (press Ctrl+V). 5.
Section properties Which properties apply to a section, depends on the context it is part of. See also: "Print sections" on page 73, "Email templates" on page 107, and Web pages. To change the properties for 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 one of the options.
l On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the folder of the respective context, and then drag and drop sections to change the order they are in. Alternatively, right-click a section and click Arrange. In the Arrange Sections dialog you can change the order of the sections in the same context by clicking the name of a section and moving it using the Up and Down buttons. Outputting sections Which sections are added to the output, depends on the type of context they are in.
When a Print template is created (see "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on the facing page), or when a Print context is added to an existing template (see "Adding a context" on page 60) the Print context folder is created along with other folders and files that are specific to a Print context (see "Print context" on page 70). Only one Print section is created at the start, but you can add as many Print sections as you need; see "Print sections" on page 73.
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. When both Media and a Master Page are used on a certain page, they will both be displayed on the Preview tab of the workspace, the Master Page being 'in front' of the Media and the Print section on top.
below). Click Next to go to the next settings page if there is one. 3. Click Finish to create the template. See "Print context" on page 70 and "Print sections" on page 73 for more information about Print templates. Tip Use the Outline pane at the left to see which elements are present in the template and to select an element. Use the Attributes pane at the right to see the current element's ID, class and some other properties.
l l A script called Dynamic Front Image Sample. This script shows how to toggle the image on the front page dynamically. See also "Writing your own scripts" on page 240. One empty Media. Media, also called Virtual Stationery, can be applied to all pages in the Print section. See "Media" on page 91. The Wizard opens the Print section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page 117.
l l l l A Print context with one section in it; see "Print context" on the facing page and "Print sections" on page 73. One empty Master Page. Master Pages are used for headers and footers, for images and other elements that have to appear on more than one page, and for special elements like tear-offs. See "Master Pages" on page 88. One Media. You can see this on the Resources pane: expand the Media folder. Media 1 is the Virtual Stationery that you have selected in the Wizard.
be available when the template is merged with a record set to generate output, and that their location should be accessible from the machine on which the template's output is produced. External images are updated (retrieved) at the time the output is generated. After clicking Next, you can change the settings for the page. The initial page size and bleed area are taken from the selected PDF.
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 66). To use a PDF file as background image for an existing section, see "Using a PDF file as background image" on page 77.
add Media and, optionally, print them. Initially, the (empty) media that has been created with the Print context, is applied to all pages in the Print section. You can add more Media and apply them each to different pages. l One Stylesheet, named context_print_styles.css, is added to the template, as you can see on the Resources pane, in the Stylesheets folder. This stylesheet is meant to be used for styles that are only applied to elements in the Print context.
Setting the binding style for the Print context The Print context , as well as each of the Print sections, can have its own Finishing settings. In printing, Finishing is the way pages are bound together after they have been printed. Which binding styles can be applied depends on the type of printer that you are using. To set the binding style of the Print context: 1. On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, and right-click the Print context. 2. Click Properties. 3.
Pages Unlike emails, Print sections can contain multiple pages. Pages are naturally limited by their size and margins. If the content of a section doesn't fit on one page, the overflow goes to the next page. This happens automatically, based on the section's page size and margins; see "Page settings: size, margins and bleed" on page 82.
displayed on the Preview tab of the workspace, the Master Page being 'in front' of the Media and the Print section on top. To open the Preview tab, click it at the bottom of the Workspace or select View > Preview View on the menu. See "Media" on page 91 for a further explanation about how to add Media and how to apply them to different pages. Note: The Media will not be printed, unless this is specifically requested through the printer settings; see "Generating Print output" on page 535.
Note Via a Control Script, sections can be added to a Print context dynamically; see "Dynamically adding sections (cloning)" on page 267. Deleting a Print section To delete a Print section: l On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Print context, rightclick the name of the section, and then click Delete. 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.
Styling and formatting a Print section The contents of a Print section can be formatted directly, or styled with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). See "Styling and formatting" on page 186. In order for a style sheet to be applied to a specific section, it needs to be included in that section. There are two ways to do this. Drag & drop a style sheet 1. Click and hold the mouse button on the style sheet on the Resources pane. 2.
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. Note From DataMapper input cannot be used in PrintShopMail Connect. The DataMapper is included only in PlanetPress Connect and PreS Connect so far. 3. For a PDF resource, you have to specify where it is located. Click the Select Image button. Click Resources, Disk or Url, depending on where the image is located.
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. 5. Optionally, if the PDF has more than one page, you can set the range of pages that should be used.
To set the binding style of the Print context, see "Setting the binding style for the Print context" on page 73. 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. To bind output in another way than defined in the template’s settings: 1.
Pages Unlike emails, Print sections can contain multiple pages. Pages are naturally limited by their size and margins. If the content of a section doesn't fit on one page, the overflow goes to the next page. This happens automatically, based on the section's page size and margins; see "Page settings: size, margins and bleed" on the facing page.
When it comes to positioning elements on a page, Guides can be useful, as well as Tables. See "How to position elements" on page 199. Page settings: size, margins and bleed On paper, whether it is real or virtual, content is naturally limited by the page size and margins. These, as well as the bleed, are set per Print section, as follows: l On the Resources pane, right-click a section in the Print context and click Properties.
1. Import the promotional image or snippet; see "Images" on page 173 and "Snippets" on page 183. 2. Insert the promotional image or snippet in the content. Note l l Only a top-level element (for example, a paragraph that is not inside a table or div) can function as a whitespace element. Do not place the promotional image or snippet inside an absolute positioned box. Whitespacing only works for elements that are part of the text flow, not for absolute-positioned boxes. 3.
l l l l Content page number: The current page number in the document, counting only pages with contents that are supplied by the Print section. A page that has a Master Page (as set in the Sheet Configuration dialog, see "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page 90) but no contents, is not included in the Content page count. Content page count: This is the total number of pages in the current document that have contents, supplied by the Print section.
Note Even if a section is disabled, so it doesn't produce any output, this setting is still taken into account for the other sections. This means that if Restart Numbering is checked on a disabled section, the page numbering will be restarted on the next section. Disabling a section can only be done in a Control Script (see "Control Scripts" on page 258). Control Scripts can also change where page numbers restart. 3.
1. On the menu, select Edit > Stylesheets. 2. Select the Print context. 3. Click New (or, when there are already CSS rules for paragraphs, click the selector p and click Edit). 4. Click Format. 5. After Widows and Orphans, type the minimum number of lines that should be kept together. Alternatively, manually set the set the widows and orphans properties in a style sheet: 1. Open the style sheet for the Print context: on the Resources pane, expand the Styles folder and double-click context_print_styles.css.
4. Click the Advanced button. 5. Add a rule for widows and/or orphans, typing the name of the CSS property in the left column and the value in the right column. 6. Close the dialogs. Page breaks A page break occurs automatically when the contents of a section don't fit on one page.
l Select the element (see "Selecting an element" on page 121). l On the Format menu, select the respective element to open the Formatting dialog. l In the Breaks group, set the inside property to avoid, to prevent a page break inside the element. This is equivalent to the page-break-inside property in CSS; see CSS pagebreak-inside property for an explanation of all available options.
l A tear-off section on the first page of an invoice. Adding a Master Page When a Print template is created, one master page is added to it automatically. Adding more Master Pages can be done as follows: l On the Resources pane, right-click the Master pages folder and click New Master Page. l Type a name for the master page. l l Optionally, set the margin for the header and footer. See "Adding a header and footer" on the facing page. Click OK.
Adding a header and footer Headers and footers are not designed as part of the contents of a Print section, but as part of a Master Page, which is then applied to a page in a print section. To create a header and footer: 1. First insert elements that form the header or footer, such as the company logo and address, on the Master Page; see "Editing a Master Page" on the previous page. 2. Next, define the margins for the header and footer.
check Tumble to duplex pages as in a calendar, and Facing pages to have the margins of the section switch alternately, so that pages are printed as if in a magazine or book. 3. If the option Same for all positions is checked, the same Master Page will be applied to every page in the print section (and to both the front and the back side of the page if duplex printing is enabled). Uncheck this option. 4.
Per Media, a front and back can be specified and you can specify on what kind of paper the output is meant to be printed on. This includes paper weight, quality, coating and finishing; see "Adding Media" below. Adding Media To add a Media, right-click the Media folder on the Resources pane and select New Media. The new Media is of course empty. You can specify two PDF files for the Media: one for the front, and, optionally, another for the back.
1. Click Resources, Disk or Url, depending on where the image is located. l l l Resources lists the PDF files that are present in the Images folder on the Resources pane. Disk lets you choose an image file that resides in a folder on a hard drive that is accessible from your computer. Click the Browse button to select an image. As an alternative it is possible to enter the path manually. The complete syntax is: file:///.
Setting the paper's characteristics To set a Media's paper characteristics: 1. On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, and right-click the Media. Click Characteristics. 2. Specify the paper's characteristics: l l l l l l l Media Type: The type of paper, such as Plain, Continuous, Envelope, Labels, Stationery, etc. Weight: The intended weight of the media in grammage (g/m2).
To apply Media to specific page positions in a Print section: 1. On the Resources pane, expand the Print context; right-click the Print section, and click Sheet configuration. 2. Optionally, check Duplex to enable content to be printed on the back of each sheet. Your printer must support duplex for this option to work.
results.attr("content","Media 1"); Media 1 will have been replaced with the name of the media selected for the chosen sheet position. The field Selector in the Script Wizard contains the name of the section and the sheet position that you have chosen. 4. Change the script so that on a certain condition, another media will be selected for the content. For instance: if(record.fields.GENDER === 'M') { results.attr("content","Media 2"); } This script changes the media to Media 2 for male customers.
Email template It is strongly recommended to start creating an Email template with a Wizard; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page 101. Designing HTML email that displays properly on a variety of devices and screen sizes is challenging. Building an email is not like building for the web. While web browsers comply with standards (to a significant extent), email clients do not. Different email clients interpret the same HTML and CSS styles in totally different ways.
This topic explains why designing HTML email design is as challenging as it is, which solutions are used in the Email Template Wizards and it lists good practices, for example regarding the use of images in HTML email. It will help you to create the best possible Email templates in the Designer. HTML email challenges Creating HTML email isn't like designing for the Web. That's because email clients aren't like web browsers.
Tip Click the Edges button on the toolbar to make borders of elements visible on the Design tab. The borders will not be visible on the Preview tab or in the output. Emmet Emmet is a plugin that enables the lightning-fast creation of HTML code though the use of a simple and effective shortcut language. The Emmet functionality is available in the HTML and CSS source editors of Connect Designer. Emmet transforms abbreviations for HTML elements and CSS properties to the respective source code.
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 308. Using CSS files with HTML email Email clients do not read CSS files and some even remove a
