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 (called 'sections') can be added later.

Print template wizards can be found in the Welcome screen and on the File menu.

In the Welcome screen that appears after startup:

Choose New at the left, then Print at the right.
Select Blank template, PDF-based, or Microsoft Word-based; or scroll down and select one of the Print templates from the online resources.

Tip: Click the Home icon Home icon at the top right to reopen the Welcome screen.

Alternatively, on the menu select File > New, and expand the Template folder.
Now you can select PDF-based Print or Microsoft Word-based Print.
Or expand the Basic Print templates or ERP templates folder, and select a template type.

Tip: The quickest way to create a Print template based on a PDF file is to right-click the PDF file in the Windows Explorer and select Enhance with Connect.

The various template types and their options are described below.

See Print context and Print sections 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.

Use the Styles pane next to the Attributes pane to see which styles are applied to the currently selected element.

Tip: To get started quickly, you can import various resources (master pages, media, sections, images, style sheets, scripts, and the data model) from an existing template. See Import Resources dialog.

PDF-based Print template

Tip: The quickest way to create a Print template based on a PDF file is to right-click the PDF file in the Windows Explorer and select Enhance with Connect.

The PDF-based Print template wizard creates a document from an existing PDF file: a brochure, voucher, letter, etc. The PDF is used as the background image of the Print section (see Using a PDF file or other image as background). Variable and personalized elements, like a reseller address, voucher codes and so on, can be added in front of it (see Personalizing content).

By default, the PDF itself is added to the Image folder located in the Resources pane. Uncheck the option Save with template if the PDF should not be imported in the template. If it isn't saved with the template, the image remains external. Note that external images need to 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.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

A Print context with one section in it; see Print context and Print sections. The selected PDF is used as the background of the Print section; see Using a PDF file or other image as background. For each page in the PDF one page is created in the Print section.
One empty Master Page. Master Pages are used for headers, footers, images and other elements that have to appear on more than one page, and for special elements like tear-offs. See Master Pages.
One empty Media. Media, also called Virtual Stationery, can be applied to all pages in the Print section. See Media.

Tip: For an example, see this howto: Creating a print template from a PDF.

Word-based Print template

The Word-based Print template wizard creates a document from an existing Microsoft Word (.docx) file: a brochure, voucher, letter, mail merge document, etc. The images, lists, tables, and other content within the document are imported into Designer and used for a new template.

After clicking Next, you can change the settings for the page. The initial page size, margins, and orientation are taken from the original document settings, and you can adjust them on the dialog. You can also select the number of sections and a minimum number of pages. After the template is created, you can change the size of images and text boxes, and adjust the page size and margins.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

A Print context with the specified number of sections in it; see Print context and Print sections. For each page in the document one page is created in the Print section.

The following will be added to the template:

Image files for each image in the original file. As with other templates, you can place images on the master page if you want them to appear in every document in the same place.
A folder to contain the imported image files.
A separate .css file in the Stylesheets for every stylesheet that is imported with the MS Word file. The css files are linked to the active section. They can be edited (see Styling your templates with CSS files).

Microsoft Word documents with mail merge fields

If the Microsoft Word document contains mail merge fields, these mail merge fields (or markers) are added to the Data Model of the OL Connect template.

Select File > Add data > From File Data Source to import the corresponding data.

Or create a data mapping configuration to fill the Data Model with actual data.

In the template, the mail merge fields are replaced with expressions. (See: Handlebars expressions.)

The brackets from the mail merge fields are converted to double curly braces.

Limitations

The conversion of a Word file to a template will most likely not be perfect. Here are some known limitations:

If an image is cropped it will appear stretched in OL Connect.
The position of an object is incorrect if it is positioned relative to something else (e.g.: 100 points below a paragraph).
Text wrapping is not supported in OL Connect. What you see in OL Connect generally corresponds to the layout option "In Line with Text" in MS Word.
Lines and borders around objects are not supported.
Headers and footers are not supported.

Basic Print template wizards

There are two 'basic' Print Template wizards: one for a formal letter, and one for a postcard.

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:

A Print context with one section in it, that has duplex printing (printing on both sides) enabled. See Printing on both sides.
Two Master Pages that each contain a background image. The first Master Page is applied to the front of every page in the Print section. The second Master Page is applied to the back of every page in the Print section. See Master Pages.
Scripts and selectors for variable data. The Scripts pane shows, for example, a script called "first_name". This script replaces the text "@first_name@" on the front of the postcard by the value of a field called "first_name" when you open a data set that has a field with that name. See Variable data in the text.
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.
One empty Media. Media, also called Virtual Stationery, can be applied to all pages in the Print section. See Media.

The Wizard opens the Print section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see Content elements. It already has two Positoned Boxes on it: one on the front, for text, and one on the back, for the address.

See Print context and Print sections for more information about Print templates.

Formal letter

The Formal Letter Wizard first lets you select the page settings, see Page settings: size, margins and bleed.

These settings are fairly self-explanatory, except perhaps these:

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. Although this Template wizard can add multiple Print sections to the Print context, it will only add content to the first section.

On the next settings page (click Next to go there), you can type a subject, the sender's name and the sender's title. These will appear in the letter. You can also:

Click the Browse button to select a signature image. This image will appear above the sender's name and title.
Select Virtual Stationery: a PDF file with the letterhead stationery. Also see Media.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

A Print context with one section in it; see Print context and Print sections.
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.
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. It is applied to all pages in the Print section, as can be seen in the Sheet Configuration dialog. (To open this dialog, expand the Contexts folder on the Resources pane; expand the Print folder and right-click "Section 1"; then select Sheet Configuration.) See Media.
Selectors for variable data, for example: @Recipient@. You will want to replace these by the names of fields in your data. See Variable data in the text.

The Wizard opens the Print section. You can add text and other elements; see Content elements.

The formal letter template already has an address on it. The address lines are paragraphs, located in one cell in a table with the ID address-block-table. As the table has no borders, it is initially invisible. The address lines will stick to the bottom of that cell, even when the address has fewer lines. See Styling and formatting to learn how to style elements.

Tip: Click the Edges button on the toolbar temporarily adds a frame to certain elements on the Design tab. These will not Print or output.

ERP templates

The ERP template wizard creates a business document. There is a collection of business documents that you can choose from: Sales Invoice, Purchase Order, Collection Letter, etc..
Currently all of these documents follow the corporate style designed by Microspective.

The first page of the wizard lets you select the page settings, see Page settings: size, margins and bleed. A few clarifications:

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. Although this Template wizard can add multiple Print sections to the Print context, it will only add content to the first section.

On the next settings page (click Next to go there):

Choose the desired type of business document from the General drop-down.
Select a color for the colored parts of the document; see Color Picker.
Enter your contact details.
Click the Browse button to select a logo, or select to use a placeholder logo or no logo at all.
Select a PDF file with the letterhead stationery. Also see Media.

Tip: Your info and preferences are saved and will be reused the next time you create an ERP template.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

A Print context with one section in it; see Print context and Print sections.
One 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.
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. It is applied to all pages in the Print section, as can be seen in the Sheet Configuration dialog. (To open this dialog, expand the Contexts folder on the Resources pane; expand the Print folder and right-click "Section 1"; then select Sheet Configuration.) See Media.
Selectors for variable data, for example: @Name@, @Amount@. You will want to replace these by the names of actual fields in your data. See Variable data in the text.

The Wizard opens the Print section. You can add text and other elements; see Content elements. See Styling and formatting to learn how to style elements..