Specifications

ID Works Standard and Enterprise Version 5 Administrator’s Guide
11 Projects with Multiple
Cards
You can use one or more variable
graphic fields to make minor
changes to a card design, but if you require significantly different
cards (for example, changing between portrait and landscape
orientation), you must create additional card designs. See “Variable
Graphic Field” on page 31.
You can have as many different card designs as you need in your ID
Works project. The only theoretical limit is the amount of disk space
you have for storing the designs. There are, however, practical
considerations. When an ID Works project is opened in Designer,
every card design in the project is loaded into RAM. A large number
of card designs may reduce your system’s performance.
Which of the card designs in the project will be printed is determined
by a list field in the Production Form. The list field may or may not be
connected to and stored in a column in a database table. For
example, a school district might want one style of ID cards for faculty
and a different design for non-teaching staff. The database column in
the school district’s employee database that specifies the type of
employee can be connected to the list field that determines which
card design is printed. This is the classic implementation of data-
driven card production.
On the other hand, an employer can use one card design for
employees’ identification badges and a completely different design
for a card to be displayed inside employees’ cars to verify parking
privileges. Many, if not most, employees would be issued both kinds
of cards. In this case, the decision as to which card to print would be
made by the Production operator and not stored in a database at all.
You can combine data-driven card production with variable graphic
fields in the card designs for even more flexibility. In the example of a
parking card, you could add a graphic that indicates which parking lot
an employee is allowed to use.