View or Edit the Properties of an Object

To view or edit properties using the Object Inspector Pane:

1. Select the object.
2. In the Object Inspector Pane, make any necessary modifications to the properties.

To view or edit properties using the properties dialog box:

1. Double-click the object.
2. Edit the Properties for the object.
3. Click OK.

Common Object Properties

The following properties are common to all objects in PlanetPress Design:

Basic Attributes

• Display Name: Enter a name for the object. Although PlanetPress Design supplies a default name, it is recommended you choose a name that reflects the content or purpose of the object. 
• Name: Enter a name by which the object can be referred to through PlanetPress Talk. The name you choose should be both descriptive and unique, cannot begin with a number, and can contain only the following ASCII characters: underscore (_), upper and lower case letters of the alphabet, all digits 0 through 9.If you use an underscore in the name, it should not appear as either the first or last character of the name as this may cause internal conflicts in the software. Names are case-insensitive and must be unique; no two elements in a document can have the same name. Names can be a maximum of 50 characters in length. Finally, PlanetPress Talk variable and command names are reserved words; you cannot use any of these reserved words as a name.
• Position and size Note that you can also click and drag on the object after you add it to the document to adjust its position and/or size. Also note that the unit of measure used is the one set in the PlanetPress Design User Options dialog box (see Miscellaneous Preferences)
  • Left: Set the distance to offset the left edge of the object from the left edge of the page. If the object is within a group, this is the distance to offset the left edge of the object from the left edge of the group that contains it.
  • Top: Set the distance to offset the top edge of the object from the top edge of the document page.
  • Width: Set the width of the object. The width of the contents of an n-up object depends on the scaling of each of the repeated pages, the number of repeats of each page, and the horizontal space between each repeat; the Width box does not update to reflect these settings.
  • Height: Set the height of the object. The Repeat properties of an n-up object use the height as it appears in the Height box.
    

    The following apply to both the Width and Height settings:

    • Data selection, barcode and picture objects automatically adjust height and width, so you should not define them manually.
    • If the &width or &height variable is defined in the PlanetPress Talk Before code of an object, the setting in its basic attributes will be ignored.
    • The maximum width and height of any object is 32 inches (80 centimeters).
    • When you adjust the width of a group, PlanetPress Design scales the width of each element in the group, such that the new width of the group accommodates all the elements and preserves their spatial relationships.

  • Dynamic height: This option is available only in text objects, and only when word wrap is on in the text object. You use it when you define a background box for the text object. It determines whether the background box, when word wrap is on, adjusts to fit the word-wrapped text. Select to have the height of the background box adjust to accommodate all of the word-wrapped text. Clear to leave the size of the background box fixed and independent of the word-wrapped text. You define the default setting for this option in the User Options dialog box. If you select this option, you cannot adjust the object height.
  • Angle: Set the angle of rotation. The pivot point for the rotation is the lower-left corner of the object. Note that if you use PlanetPress Talk code to define the angle of rotation, PlanetPress Design automatically locks the object to prevent an inadvertent change to this value due to selecting, moving, or resizing the object using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts.
  • Opacity % (PDF 1.4+ Only): Enter a percentage value for the opacity of this object. Opacity levels currently do not show at Design time, and will not affect Printed output. Only PDF output in version 1.4 or higher are affected by this setting.

    Some objects, such as Barcodes and Capture Fields, as this would affect their readability and break their functionality.

• Style and Condition
  • Style: Select the style for the object. This is the style all text in the object uses by default. It is also the style any PlanetPress Talk code you enter in the PlanetPress Talk properties of the object uses by default. The default style is the style that appears by default in this box. Note that the style for a group does not override any styles referenced by individual objects/groups within that group.
  • Size: Select or type the point size for the font the style uses.
  • Bold: Click to turn the Bold property for the style on or off.
  • Italic: Click to turn the Italic property for the style on or off.
  • Underline: Click to turn the Underline property for the style on or off.
  • Color button: Click to select a color for the style using the Color Picker.
  • Color box: Displays the current color for the style.
  • Ratio: Enter the percentage by which you want to shrink or stretch the font spacing in the style.
  • Condition: Select the condition you want to associate with the object. You can select or enter the name of an existing global condition. You can also enter a PlanetPress Talk expression that defines the condition. The expression must evaluate to a Boolean value.

Repeat

The options available here depend on the Repeat Mode selected. For more information, see Line Repeat and Data Overflow.

No Repeat: No option to configure, the object does not repeat.

Static Repeat:

• Horizontally
  • Number of repeats: Enter the number of times you want to repeat the object or group along the horizontal axis.
  • Space between each repeat: Enter the amount of space to leave between each repeat of the object or group, along the horizontal axis.
• Vertical
  • Number of repeats: Enter the number of times you want to repeat the object or group along the vertical axis.
  • Space between each repeat: Enter the amount of space to leave between each repeat of the object or group, along the vertical axis.
• Expand to make a grid:  Select this checkbox to have PlanetPress Design use the values you enter in the Number of repeat boxes to create a table rather than a single row and/or column. The number of horizontal repeats, plus one for the source object, becomes the number of rows in the table. The number of vertical repeats, plus one for the source object, becomes the number of columns in the table. The total number of cells in the table is equal to the number of rows times the number of columns.

Line Repeat (not available for PDF data files):

• From line: Enter the line on which the repeat starts.
• To line: Enter the line at which the repeat stops. The value "0" means it will repeat until the end of the current data page.
  

You can also click the Use Data Selector button to select the line range.

• Repeat choice: Select the axis or axes along which PlanetPress Design repeats the source object or group.
• Select Horizontal to create the repeats along the horizontal axis, starting to the right of the source object or group and progressing towards the right.
• Select Vertical to create the repeats along the vertical axis (a column), starting below the source object or group, and progressing towards the bottom of the document page.
• Select Both, horizontal first to create the repeats along both the horizontal and vertical axis, starting with repeats along the horizontal axis first (a table, constructed row by row).
• Select Both, vertical first to create the repeats along both the horizontal and vertical axis, starting with repeats along the vertical axisfirst. Use the Iterations per row/column box to set the number of repeats in each column.
• Horizontal displacement: Enter the amount of space between each repeat of the source object or group, along the horizontal axis.
• Vertical displacement: Enter the amount of space between each repeat of the source object or group, along the vertical axis.
• Iterations per row/column: Enter the number of repeats in each row (if you selected Both horizontal first in Repeat choice) or in each column (if you selected Both vertical first in Repeat choice). This option is available only when you select either Both horizontal first, or Both vertical first in Repeat choice.
• Use the Iterations per row/column box to set the number of repeats in each row.
• Iteration condition: Set a condition on the current line of data. This is effective only within the line range defined in the From/to line property. It determines whether the data selections of the element that PlanetPress Design is currently processing and that reference that line or record appear in the output. If a data selection does not appear in the output (the condition resolves to False), PlanetPress Design inserts a blank space for it in the element. If the source object or group contains a data selection object, and you do not want a blank space to appear when the condition you set here resolves to False, you can set a line condition in that data selection object to remove the blank space. Any condition set on the source object or group takes precedence over this condition. In other words, if a condition set on the source object or group resolves to False, the object or group is not displayed, regardless of whether the condition here resolves to True or False.
• Condition to Exit and Overflow: Use this condition to manage data overflow. Set it the to number of iterations after which this object should stop processing data from the current data page. When this condition becomes true, PlanetPress Design executes the remaining objects in the page and repeats the page until all the remaining data has been processed.

Line Repeat (XML):

When using an XML Data file, the Line Repeat options change slightly. The "From line" and "To line" disappear, replaced by the following options:

• XPath: Displays the current path to the XML element you are repeating on. Empty until the data selector has been used to select an XML value.
• From iteration: Enter the iteration of the XML element on which the repeat starts.
• To iteration: Enter the iteration at which the repeat stops. The value "0" means it will repeat until the last XML Element.
• Use Data Selector: Click to open the data selector and choose which element to repeat on.
• Do not overflow if last record reached: Select this option to prevent an overflow from occurring if you have reached the last record.

Snapping Points

• Snap to previous object: Check to snap the object to the closest snapping point set in a previous object.
  • Snapping point selection: Select one of the 9 positions to select where this object will snap to with the other object's snapping point.
  • Horizontal offset: Enter the horizontal distance you want to appear between this object's snapping point and the snapping point of the object it snaps to.
  • Vertical offset: Enter the vertical distance you want to appear between this object's snapping point and the snapping point of the object it snaps to.
• Set snapping point: Check to set this object as a snapping point for the next object(s) that have the Snap to previous object option set.

Manipulation

• Scalable orientation: Define the axes along which you can resize the object/group when you click and drag the handles on its bounding box or select it and use keyboard shortcuts to resize it. This does not prevent changes to the Height and Width properties of the object/group using either the Object Inspector or the object’s/group’s properties dialog box.
  • Select Horizontal only to restrict resizing the object/group along the X axis.
  • Select Vertical only to restrict resizing the object/group along the Y axis. Select Horizontal Vertical to permit resizing along both the X and Y axes.
  • Select None to prevent resizing along either the X or Y axis. If you use PlanetPress Talk code to define the Angle, Height, Width, Top, or Left properties of an object/group, PlanetPress Design automatically sets Scalable orientation to None, to prevent an inadvertent change to the PlanetPress Talk code due to a resize of the object/group using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts.
• Movable orientation: Define the axes along which you can move the object/group when you click and drag it in the Page area or select it and use keyboard shortcuts to move it. This does not prevent changes to the Left and Top properties of the object/group using either the Object Inspector or the object’s/group’s properties dialog box.
  • Select Horizontal only to restrict moving the object/group along the X axis.
  • Select Vertical only to restrict moving the object/group along the Y axis.
  • Select Both to permit moving along both the X and Y axes.
• This object can be selected on the page: Select to permit selection of the object/group with the mouse in the Page area. Clear to lock the object/group. When you lock an object/group, you cannot select it using the mouse in the Page area, or resize or move it using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. This option applies only to selecting, moving and resizing the object/group in the Page area and does not affect selecting the object in the Structure area, or using the Object Inspector to resize or move the object/group. Note that when you clear this option, PlanetPress Design automatically sets both Scalable orientation and Movable orientation to None to also prevent moving and resizing the object or group using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. You can also use the items in the Tools menu to lock and unlock objects/groups.

PlanetPress Talk Before and PlanetPress Talk After

Both the PlanetPress Talk Before and PlanetPress Talk After options are discussed in the PlanetPress Talk Chapter. See PlanetPressTalk Before and After.

Preview options

At the bottom of the object property window, two options are available to control the Object Preview window (see Use the Object Preview):

• Show/Hide Object Preview: This button controls whether or not the object preview appears.
• Data page selector: Controls which data page to use for the preview. Enter a data page, or use the up/down arrows to navigate through the pages.