ARTS PDF Variform Lite Version 1.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Product Highlights ............................................................................................. 4 2.0 ARTS PDF VARIFORM LITE SETUP .................................................................. 5 2.1 System Requirements ....................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.0 INTRODUCTION Welcome to personalized printing with Adobe ® Acrobat ® forms and ARTS PDF Variform Lite™ from ARTS PDF™. ARTS PDF Variform Lite extends Acrobat forms and overcomes several restrictions that limit their usability. With Acrobat versions to date, the rendering of text fields has been limited to a small set of fonts (Courier, Times, Helvetica, Symbol, and Zapf Dingbats).
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.1 Product Highlights ARTS PDF Variform Lite provides a set of tools for managing and printing data from external files to PDF forms documents. With ARTS PDF Variform Lite, you can control the fonts used in printing forms, specify the range of records from a data file to be printed and extract form field names from an existing Acrobat form document to an external file.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 2.0 ARTS PDF VARIFORM LITE SETUP 2.1 System Requirements 2.1.1 Macintosh • • PowerMacintosh G3 or G4 System 9.2 or 10.2 or higher • Adobe ® Acrobat ® 5.05 or higher 2.1.2 Windows • PC with Pentium processor • Windows ® NT 4.0, Windows ® 2000 or Windows ® XP • Adobe ® Acrobat ® 5.05 or higher CAUTION: Any folders or files which are created during installation are required by ARTS PDF Variform Lite.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 3.0 USING ARTS PDF VARIFORM LITE To use the software, select “ARTS PDF Variform Lite” from the Acrobat “Tools” pulldown menu. Alternatively, you can launch ARTS PDF Variform Lite using the tool button on the Acrobat toolbar. ARTS PDF Variform Lite will then display its print dialog box. Note: ARTS PDF Variform Lite must temporarily modify a PDF document during the data merge/print operation. For this reason it cannot be used with PDF documents which have security settings applied.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 4.0 ACROBAT FORM FIELDS There are currently seven different types of form fields which can be created in Acrobat 4. These are described briefly below. Due to the nature of certain form field types, ARTS PDF Variform Lite will only merge data into Combo boxes or Text boxes. If other field types are used with ARTS PDF Variform Lite the resulting output for those fields will be blank.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 4.1 Appearance When creating form fields, Acrobat allows the user to define a number of items affecting the field’s appearance. These include such things as border color, width, and style, background color, text color, font and font size. ARTS PDF Variform Lite supports all of these choices and the output from ARTS PDF Variform Lite will include them. The user may also choose whether the form field is read only and/or required.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 4.5 Validate When a field’s format is numeric, Acrobat allows for validation of the data entry. As with the Format option (above), ARTS PDF Variform Lite supports the use of validations, but care should be exercised when defining them. If the data in a file to be merged does not meet the validation criteria, ARTS PDF Variform Lite will report an error whenever it encounters a data entry which does not meet the form field’s defined validation requirement.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 5.0 PREFERENCES The preferences for ARTS PDF Variform Lite can be set using the standard Acrobat method of File -> Preferences -> ARTS PDF Variform Lite. After making changes in this window click “OK” to make them permanent. Clicking “Cancel” will return the preferences to the last values stored. 5.1 Default Data File Folder This determines the default path where ARTS PDF Variform Lite will look for data files when it is launched.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 6.0 SETUP The ARTS PDF Variform Lite Setup window allows the user to select all of the parameters necessary to merge an external file with the Acrobat form. 6.1 Data File This box contains the path and file name of the data file to be used for merging. The information may be typed in manually, or the user can use the “Set...” button to browse the hard disk to select a file. The initial default for this field is blank, or no entry.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 6.2 Delimiter This drop-down list is used to select the type of delimiter used in the data file. Valid delimiters are Tab, Comma, Semicolon, or Space. If the delimiter selected does not match what ARTS PDF Variform Lite finds in the data file, a warning message will appear and printing will not be allowed until the correct choice is made. 6.3 • Field Highlighting Options Highlighting There are three options for highlighting fields in the output.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite The Select Font window will display all of the fonts currently installed on the system. This includes both PostScript and TrueType fonts. To change the fonts assigned to a form field, select the font name from the list and click “OK”. To return to the ARTS PDF Variform Lite Setup Dialog without making a change, click “Cancel”. Note: If custom fonts are selected and/or used Acrobat will prompt the user to save the file when closing it.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 7.0 PRINT 7.1 Print Records: The user can choose to print all of the data records in the source file or a selected range. ARTS PDF Variform Lite will automatically parse the data file to determine the total number of records. The result will be displayed in the “to” field. 7.2 Page Range If a form has more than 1 page, this section of the Print window can be used to specify whether all pages, a specific range of pages, or even and/or odd pages are to be merged. 7.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 7.4 File Options “Single File” is a checkbox which indicates whether the output should be a separate PostScript file for each record in the data file, or one consolidated file. The “File Name” may be entered manually. Entry of a file name will be active only when “Single File” is ON (checked). The initial default file name will be the same as the name of the PDF document being used for this job.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 8.0 EXPORT FIELD NAMES The “Export Field Names” window can be accessed by selecting “Export Field Names” from the Acrobat “Tools” pulldown menu, or by clicking on the Acrobat toolbar. button on the In order to correctly merge data with an Acrobat form, ARTS PDF Variform Lite requires that the field names in the PDF and those in the data file exactly match. Note: Data files must have the field names in the first line of the file.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 9.0 WATCHED FOLDERS ARTS PDF Variform Lite Watched Folders is a “hot folders” approach to automation. First you select an existing folder on your hard disk to act as a watched folder, next choose an Acrobat form to associate with the folder, then select a delimiter and your output options and you are ready. After everything is set up, make sure that Acrobat has been launched, then simply drop data files that you want processed in the appropriate watched folder.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 9.1 Watched Folder Setup ARTS PDF Variform Lite will automatically create three folders inside each selected watched folder. First is a folder labeled “Success”. This is where data files will be moved after they have been successfully processed. Second is a folder called “Output”. This folder will contain the PostScript file(s) from the merge activity if “Print to File” was selected. The third folder is named “Error”. This is where any files which fail to process will be placed.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 10.0 TROUBLESHOOTING Before contacting us please check the ARTS PDF Variform Lite conference at the ARTS PDF Forum on our web site at: http://forum.artspdf.com If you have no luck there, please e-mail techsupport@artspdf.com and supply the information below to help us replicate the problem you are experiencing. a.
