PlanetPress Design documents

A PlanetPress Design document is a file created with the Design module of PlanetPress Suite.

Design documents are used to produce an output, merged with data (i.e. the job file). They contain static data such as logos, addresses and graphic formatting, as well as placeholders for data. Documents may also contain conditions and programming logic.

For more information about PlanetPress Design documents, please see the PlanetPress Design User Guide.

Generating output with PlanetPress Design documents

PlanetPress Design documents are typically selected in certain Output tasks designed to merge data with a Design document, but they can also appear in other tasks that produce formatted data such as the Digital Action task and the Add Document task.
If a task lets you select a PlanetPress Design document to be used with the task, the selection list will appear on one or more of the tabs in the Task Properties dialog that appears when you add the task to a process (see Adding tasks).
For information about the options in the selection list, see Selecting a resource file in task properties.

Printer-centric printing

PlanetPress Design lets you send documents to printers as well as to OL Connect Workflow servers.

  • If you send a document to printers only and not to any OL Connect Workflow server, you will not be able to see this document in the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program. To let OL Connect Workflow know that the document is available, you will have to add a printer resident document to your OL Connect Workflow configuration (see Adding printer resident documents to the Configuration Components Pane).
  • If you send a document to OL Connect Workflow servers only and not to any printer, you will be able to see this document in the Configuration Components Pane of the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program, but it will not be directly available on any printer.
  • If you send a document to OL Connect Workflow servers and to printers, you will be able to see this document in the Configuration Components Pane of the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program and it will be available on the printers.

Fonts used in Design documents

The fonts used in PlanetPress Design documents installed on OL Connect Workflow workstations should be available locally. To install TrueType fonts, use the standard Windows procedure. To install PostScript fonts, use the Install PostScript Font command in the Workflow ribbon (see The OL Connect Workflow Ribbon).

Adding printer resident documents to the Configuration Components Pane

By default, the Documents group displayed in Configuration Components pane of the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program includes all those documents that are available on your local OL Connect Workflow server. Those documents that are not available on your local OL Connect Workflow server, but that are either available on printers or on other OL Connect Workflow servers must be added to the list, otherwise you will not be able to use them in your OL Connect Workflow configuration.

To add a resident document to the Configuration Components pane:

  1. In the OL Connect WorkflowConfiguration Components pane, right-click PPS/PSM Documents and choose Insert > Insert Resident Document. The Add Resident Document dialog box is displayed.
  2. Enter the document’s name. Note that the name you enter must exactly match the actual document name or OL Connect Workflow will not be able to use it on the printer or remote OL Connect Workflow server.
  3. Click OK.

Importing PlanetPress Design documents

This procedure describes how to import PlanetPress Design documents into OL Connect Workflow. Importing documents can be useful when transferring configurations between OL Connect Workflow installations.

To import documents into OL Connect Workflow:

  1. Click the OL Connect Workflow button.
  2. Choose Import, then Import PlanetPress Document. The Import PlanetPress Design Document dialog box appears.
  3. In the File type box, select the desired file type.
  4. Navigate to the document you want to import, select it and click Open.

The document is imported and displayed in the Configuration Components pane under PPS/PSM Documents. This physically installs the documents to the Documents folder relative to the install folder of OL Connect Workflow.

Tip: To navigate quickly to the Workflow working folders, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+Shift+F4 from within the Workflow configuration tool.

Using files attached to PlanetPress Design documents

Data files

When sending a PlanetPress Design Document from PlanetPress Design to OL Connect Workflow, all data files used in the document are automatically sent to OL Connect Workflow along with the Design document. These data files appear under the document in the PPS/PSM Documents section of the Configuration Components.

Setting an attached data file as a sample data file in a process

The attached data file can be used as a sample data file in a process. This sets the emulation of the process (About data emulation) and makes it possible to debug it (see Debugging your OL Connect Workflow process).

  1. Make sure the PPS/PSM Documents section is visible by clicking the button if it appears.
  2. Expand the document (name.ptk) by clicking the button.
  3. Right-click on the data file, then click Set as sample data file.

Viewing an attached data file

  1. Make sure the PPS/PSM Documents section is visible by clicking the button if it appears.
  2. Expand the document (name.ptk) by clicking the button.
  3. Double-click on the data file to open the data selector (see The Data Selector).

Note: Double-clicking on the data file does the same thing as right-clicking on it an then selecting Set as sample data file. Clicking Cancel instead of OK after viewing will prevent this action from being taken.

Saving an attached data file to disk

  1. Make sure the PPS/PSM Documents section is visible by clicking the button if it appears.
  2. Expand the document (name.ptk) by clicking the button.
  3. Right-click on the data file, then click Save sample data file.

Metadata

When a Design document uses Metadata, it can also be attached with the document. One Metadata file is generated for each data file attached to the Design document. Metadata does not appear in the Configuration Components pane but it follows the data file and can be viewed from the Metadata tab whenever the data file is viewed through the Data Selector.

Document Preview

When sending a PlanetPress Design document from PlanetPress Design to OL Connect Workflow, a PDF Preview of the job's output is automatically sent to OL Connect Workflow along with the Design document. This preview appears under the PPS/PSM Documents section of the Configuration Components pane.

The PDF contains the result of a preview with the active data file (for all data pages) run as an Optimized PostScript Stream.

Viewing the Document Preview

  1. Make sure the PPS/PSM Documents section is visible by clicking the button if it appears.
  2. Expand the document (name.ptk) by clicking the button. The Document Preview has the same name as the document but with a PDF extension.
  3. Right-click on the Document Preview, then click Open in PDF Viewer.

Saving the Document Preview to disk

  1. Make sure the PPS/PSM Documents section is visible by clicking the button if it appears.
  2. Expand the document (name.ptk) by clicking the button. The Document Preview has the same name as the document but with a PDF extension.
  3. Right-click on the Document Preview, then click Save PDF File.

Viewing PlanetPress Design document properties

To view the properties of a PlanetPress Design document, do one of the following:

  • In the Configuration Components pane, under PPS/PSM Documents, click any Design document (under PPS/PSM Documents) to display its properties in the Object Inspector.
  • In the Configuration Components pane, under PPS/PSM Documents, double-click any Design document to display its properties in the PlanetPress Design Document Options dialog box.

For a list of all properties, see PlanetPress Design document properties.

The OL Connect Workflow Configuration tool lets you view a number of the properties associated with the PlanetPress Design documents you use, but most of those properties are set in PlanetPress Design and cannot be edited using the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program.

The Document name of printer-resident documents can be changed using OL Connect Workflow Configuration program simply because it is initially set using that program.

The properties available via the Printer Settings tab define how documents are printed. They are also set using the OL Connect Workflow Configuration program and are retained when documents are assigned to printer queues. They can be edited by selecting documents within the PPS/PSM Documents category of the Configuration Components pane, which changes the document’s default printer settings, or within the Printer Queues category, which changes the document properties on the selected queue.