ARTS PDF Variform Plus Version 1.0.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Product Highlights ............................................................................................. 4 2.0 ARTS PDF VARIFORM PLUS SETUP................................................................. 5 2.1 System Requirements ....................................................................................... 5 2.2 Installation ..
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 6.0 ARTS PDF VARIFORM PLUS PILOT ................................................................ 19 6.1 Pilot Setup ....................................................................................................... 19 6.1.1 6.1.2 6.1.3 6.1.4 6.1.5 6.1.6 Add........................................................................................................................... 20 Edit ............................................................................................
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 1.0 INTRODUCTION Welcome to personalized printing with Adobe ® Acrobat ® forms and ARTS PDF Variform Plus™ by ARTS PDF™. ARTS PDF Variform Plus extends Acrobat forms and overcomes restrictions that limit their usability. Acrobat forms were designed with web server-based applications in mind. So for anyone to consider an Acrobat forms application, this immediately brings to mind a significant “forms project” and trying to enlist the help of IT or MIS department.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 2.0 ARTS PDF VARIFORM PLUS SETUP 2.1 System Requirements • • PC with Pentium processor Memory and disk space the same as required by Adobe ® Acrobat ® • Windows ® NT 4.0 (S.P.4 or higher), Windows ® 2000 or Windows ® XP • Adobe ® Acrobat ® 5.05 or higher 2.2 Installation Note: If you have multiple versions of Acrobat installed ARTS PDF Variform Plus will automatically be installed to the most recent version of Acrobat. 1.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 3.0 USING ARTS PDF VARIFORM PLUS To use ARTS PDF Variform Plus, first locate the ARTS PDF Variform Plus tool buttons or menu items under the Acrobat menu. Use either the toolbar or the menu items from Acrobat’s menu to setup the watched folder, or ARTS PDF Variform Plus print settings. Once you have set the properties, you can use it to merge data to the selected PDF form.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 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 Plus will only merge data into Combo boxes or Text boxes. If other field types are used with ARTS PDF Variform Plus the resulting output for those fields will be blank.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 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 Plus supports all of these choices and the output from ARTS PDF Variform Plus will include them. The user may also choose whether the form field is read only and/or required.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 4.5 Validate As with the Format option (above), ARTS PDF Variform Plus 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 Plus will report an error whenever it encounters a data entry which does not meet the form field’s defined validation requirement. This cannot be overridden by ARTS PDF Variform Plus. 4.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 5.0 USING ARTS PDF VARIFORM PLUS To use the software, select “ARTS PDF Variform Plus…” from the Acrobat “Tools” pulldown menu. Alternatively, you can launch ARTS PDF Variform using the button on the Acrobat toolbar. ARTS PDF Variform Plus will then display its main window. See the following sections for more details on setup, printing and using Pilot folders.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus • Remember Session Login If this is turned on, Variform will only ask for the user ID and password once during a session (A session being from the time Acrobat is launched until Acrobat quits). If it is off, the user will be prompted for the user ID and password each time they try to connect to a password protected database.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 5.1.2 Default Folder Preferences • Use Default Query File Folder: Variform uses these folders when you click "Load/Save" to select a query. • Use Default Delimited File Folder: This determines the default path where Variform will look for delimited data files when “Set” is clicked. • Use Default Output Folder: This determines the default folder where ARTS PDF Variform Plus will send PDF files when “PDF” is selected in the main window. Page 12 of 28 ARTS PDF Variform Plus 1.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 5.2 The “ARTS PDF Variform Plus” Main Window This window is the first step in preparing to merge data. With the PDF form open in Acrobat the user selects the data source options and other features such as highlighting. 5.2.1 Data Source Options • Use Database When selected the Setup button becomes active and allows the user to connect to a registered ODBC data source. Other options will appear during setup. See Database Basics later in this document.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus • Use Delimited File This allows the user to select a tab, comma, semicolon or space delimited text file for merging. File Name: This box will display the path to the selected file. 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. Qualifier: Delimited data files may contain qualifiers to separate blocks of data that contain the delimiter.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus • Auto-Map Fields When selected this option means that Variform will compare the field names in the selected data source with the field names in the PDF form. When exact matches are found ARTS PDF Variform Plus will “connect” the fields so that they will merge. • Map Fields If Auto-Map Fields is deselected you may manually map fields. Clicking Match Fields will cause Variform to attempt to match field names in the PDF with those in the delimited file.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 5.2.4 Page Range When the PDF contains multiple pages this option can be used to select which pages are included in the merged output. The All and Range: options are the same as Print Records shown above. Additional options are available in the drop-down list for further specifying which pages are to be output. The choices are: Even & Odd, Even Only, or Odd Only. ‘Even Only’ and ‘Odd Only’ can be used in combination with All to output all even pages or all odd pages.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus Form Field: This option allows the user to select from a list of the form fields in the PDF to be used for naming the merged PDF files. As an example, if “FirstName” is a field name in the PDF and it is chosen here, then the output files would be named something like “Joe.pdf”, “Jane.pdf” and so on. 5.2.6 Save Settings / Load Settings Using these buttons you can save your ARTS PDF Variform Plus settings for each job that you routinely run.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 5.3 The “Export Field Names” Window The “Export Field Names” window can be accessed by selecting “Export ARTS PDF Variform Plus Field Names” from the Acrobat “Tools” pulldown menu, or by clicking on the button on the Acrobat toolbar.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 6.0 ARTS PDF VARIFORM PLUS PILOT ARTS PDF Variform Plus Pilot (Pilot) is a “hot folders” approach to automation. You may either select an existing folder on your hard disk to act as a watched folder or create a new folder. Once a folder is selected, choose an Acrobat form to associate with the folder, then select your options and you are ready. After everything is set up, simply drop data files that you want processed in the appropriate watched folder.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 6.1.1 Add The user may select an existing folder on their hard disk or create a new folder. 6.1.2 Edit Allows changes to all of the parameters for an existing Pilot folder. 6.1.3 Remove This button removes the selected folder from the Pilot setup. It does not delete the folder or any subfolders or files within the folder from the hard disk. 6.1.4 Disable/Enable This button is used to deactivate the automatic processing of files for the selected Pilot folder.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 6.1.6 Add/Edit Pilot Folder Settings • Folders Form Clicking Set… allows selection of a PDF form to be associated with this Pilot folder. Pilot Folder Clicking Set… allows selection of a folder to be used as the main Pilot folder. You may select an existing folder or create a new folder. Variform will automatically create three folders inside each selected watched folder – Success, Error, and Output.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus • Settings The selections here are the same as those in the main ARTS PDF Variform Plus setup window. When active, ARTS PDF Variform Plus constantly scans the watched folders. When it sees a new data file to be processed, it will begin the merge process using the settings for that Pilot folder. Upon completion, the data file will be moved to the Success Folder.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 7.0 CONNECTING TO AND USING DATABASE FILES ARTS PDF Variform uses standard Microsoft methods for connecting to ODBC databases. For detailed information consult Microsoft documentation on ODBC. The following is a basic example of connecting to and using a Microsoft Access File Data Source with Variform. There are many possibilities when working with ODBC database files. 7.1 Connect to a data source ARTS PDF Variform Plus supports connection to any registered ODBC data source.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 7.1.2 Select Database Your next step is to select a database file that matches the data source type and contains the data you wish to merge. After you select the data file and click OK you will be returned to the Setup Database Query window. Page 24 of 28 ARTS PDF Variform Plus 1.0.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 7.2 Connect to an authenticated database ARTS PDF Variform Plus supports also supports connection to an authenticated database. Assuming that the Database authentication option has already been set in the database, it is now necessary to configure a valid data source that will be used to make the connection from the SQL database to ARTS PDF Variform Plus. In addition, the user needs to include the user id and password for logging into the database. 7.2.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus To connect to an authenticated database, use the ‘Machine Data Source’ option Simply follow the steps below: • • • • • • • Go to the ARTS PDF Variform Plus main window, then to ‘Setup’ -> Connect… Select the 'Machine Data Source' and click on ‘New’ Check the 'System Data Source' then select the appropriate database driver. Then add the name of the database, description and choose the relevant server the database is located on E.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 7.3 SQL Queries SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standard interactive and programming language for getting information from and updating a database. Although SQL is both an ANSI and an ISO standard, many database products support SQL with proprietary extensions to the standard language. Queries take the form of a command language that lets you select, insert, update, find out the location of data, and so forth. A database query can be either a select query or an action query.
ARTS PDF Variform Plus 8.0 TROUBLESHOOTING Before contacting us please check the ARTS PDF Variform Plus 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.
