ARTS PDF VARIFORM LITE 1.3 User Manual
ARTS PDF
Variform
Lite
Version 1.3
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 Macintosh................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.2 Windows .................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Installation .........................................................................................................5
2.2.1 Demo Mode ............................................................................................................... 5
3.0 USING ARTS PDF VARIFORM LITE...................................................................6
4.0 ACROBAT FORM FIELDS...................................................................................7
4.1 Appearance ....................................................................................................... 8
4.2 Options ..............................................................................................................8
4.3 Actions............................................................................................................... 8
4.4 Format ...............................................................................................................8
4.5 Validate .............................................................................................................9
4.6 Calculate ...........................................................................................................9
5.0 PREFERENCES .................................................................................................10
5.1 Default Data File Folder ..................................................................................10
5.2 Embed Custom Fonts...................................................................................... 10
5.3 Ignore Field Formats ....................................................................................... 10
6.0 SETUP ................................................................................................................11
6.1 Data File .......................................................................................................... 11
6.2 Delimiter .......................................................................................................... 12
6.3 Field Highlighting Options ...............................................................................12
6.4 Custom Fonts ..................................................................................................12
7.0 PRINT..................................................................................................................14
7.1 Print Records:.................................................................................................. 14
7.2 Page Range ....................................................................................................14
7.3 Print to ............................................................................................................. 14
7.4 File Options ..................................................................................................... 15
8.0 EXPORT FIELD NAMES ....................................................................................16
8.1 Export Options................................................................................................. 16
9.0 WATCHED FOLDERS........................................................................................17
9.1 Watched Folder Setup..................................................................................... 18
10.0 TROUBLESHOOTING........................................................................................19
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.3
Page 2 of 19 Copyright © 2004 ARTS PDF
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). This effectively
eliminates the use of Acrobat forms for a number of popular appearance-critical
applications, such as, mail merge, invitations, certificates, etc, or where organizationidentity fonts are required.
But perhaps a greater restriction is that Acrobat forms were designed for web serverbased applications. 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. Such prospects are either beyond the reach of most individuals,
difficult to implement given organizational constraints, beyond available budgets, or
achievable in the next decade.
ARTS PDF believes that there are literally millions of private databases. These exist in
the form of word processing documents, spreadsheet files, PC databases, and even
custom query results from large databases. These all share the common trait that they
can be represented in a simple delimited text file on a personal computer.
Adobe’s Acrobat forms plug-in allows virtually any PDF document created from virtually
any desktop application to be turned into a variable data form. But please remember
that the term “form” is used in the general sense. It can include multi-line blocks of text.
The definition is only restricted by our imaginations.
Combining the freedom of independent Acrobat forms design and ARTS PDF Variform
Lite’s local access means that general usage of Acrobat forms can be extended to
individuals, small or home offices, small businesses, self-employed professionals,
branch offices, corporate departments, membership organizations, etc.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.3
Page 3 of 19 Copyright © 2004 ARTS PDF
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.
Data files can be created from any application or database which is capable of exporting
records to a delimited file. ARTS PDF Variform Lite supports tab, comma, semicolon or
space-delimited formats.
Any Acrobat form document using form fields and appropriate security settings can be
used as a merge document.
Merged data can be printed to any PostScript printer or to a PostScript file. New, merged
PDF documents can be created by ARTS PDF Variform Lite by printing directly to the
Acrobat Distiller printer or by printing to a PostScript file and then using Acrobat Distiller.
Subsequently, these merged PDF documents may be printed on any PCL or PostScript
printer.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.3
Page 4 of 19 Copyright © 2004 ARTS PDF
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. If you rename, move, or delete these folders the product will not work correctly.
2.2 Installation
In addition to the User’s Guide, the ARTS PDF Variform Lite folder contains other
support files needed by ARTS PDF Variform Lite. The installation CD also has some
sample PDF documents that demonstrate different data merge applications. The sample
files are not installed to your hard disk.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite will use and PostScript or TrueType fonts installed on the
system for font selection.
To validate the software’s registration and/or to view the installation status, open Acrobat
and view the “About Plug-Ins” box at the bottom of the Acrobat Help pulldown menu for
“ARTS PDF Variform Lite...”. The word “***Unregistered***” appears in the ARTS PDF
Variform Lite “About” box when the version is not fully licensed. To validate your license,
click on the “Register...” button, and then enter the serial number provided by ARTS
PDF.
To deactivate the plug-in, move it and the ARTS PDF Variform Lite folder out of the
Acrobat Plug-Ins folder before launching Acrobat.
2.2.1 Demo Mode
When ARTS PDF Variform Lite is in demo mode it will print DEMO on all output.
Otherwise, the demo version of ARTS PDF Variform Lite is identical to the licensed
version.
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.3
Page 5 of 19 Copyright © 2004 ARTS PDF
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. In order to use ARTS PDF Variform Lite it will be necessary to
remove document security before attempting to merge a data file.
Figure 1: The ARTS PDF Variform Plus menu
Variform Lite Setup
Export Field Names
Variform Watched Folder
Variform Print
Figure 2: The ARTS PDF Variform Plus toolbar
ARTS PDF Variform Lite 1.3
Page 6 of 19 Copyright © 2004 ARTS PDF
Loading...