Objectif Lune PrintShop Mail Connect - 1.6 Operation Manual

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User Guide

Version:1.6.1

User Guide Version 1.6.1 Last Revision:2017-04-18

Objectif Lune, Inc. 2030 Pie-IX, Suite 500 Montréal, QC, Canada, H1V 2C8

+1 (514) 875-5863

www.objectiflune.com

All trademarks displayed are the property of their respective owners.

© Objectif Lune, Inc. 1994-2017. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced, transmitted or distributed outside of Objectif Lune Inc. by any means whatsoever without the express written permission of Objectif Lune Inc. Objectif Lune Inc. disclaims responsibility for any errors and omissions in this documentation and accepts no responsibility for damages arising from such inconsistencies or their further consequences of any kind. Objectif Lune Inc. reserves the right to alter the information contained in this documentation without notice.

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Table of Contents 5

Welcome to PrintShop Mail Connect 1.6.1 9

Setup And Configuration 11

System and Hardware Considerations 11

System Requirements 11 Environment considerations 12 Database Considerations 14 Network considerations 18 Language and Encoding considerations 18 Performance Considerations 19

Installation and Activation 21

Installation Pre-Requisites 22 User accounts and security 22 The Importance of User Credentials on Installing and Running PrintShop Mail Connect 23 Installing PrintShop Mail Connect on Machines without Internet Access 25 Installation Wizard 26 Running Connect Installer in Silent Mode 29 Activating a License 33 Migrating to a new computer 36

Uninstalling 36

Important Note:Stop any Anti-Virus Software before uninstalling Connect. 36 Impacts upon other Applications and Services 37 Uninstallation Wizard 37

The Designer 38

Basic Steps 38

Features 39 Templates 40 Contexts 45 Sections 46

Print 50

Creating a Print template with a Wizard 52 Print context 56 Print sections 59

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Pages 66 Master Pages 73 Media 77

Email 82

Designing an Email template 83 Creating an Email template with a Wizard 86 Email context 90 Email templates 92 Email header settings 95 Email attachments 99

Content elements 101

Element types 101 Editing HTML 102 Attributes 103 Inserting an element 104 Selecting an element 105 Styling and formatting an element 106 Barcode 106 Boxes 147 Business graphics 151 Date 153 Hyperlink and mailto link 154 Images 156 Table 160 Text and special characters 164

Snippets 166

Adding a snippet 166 Creating a snippet 167 JSON Snippets 167

Styling and formatting 168

Local formatting versus style sheets 168 Layout properties 169 Styling templates with CSS files 169 Styling text and paragraphs 177 How to position elements 181 Rotating elements 183 Styling a table 184

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Background color and/or image 188 Border 189 Colors 192 Fonts 196 Locale 198 Spacing 199

Personalizing Content 200

Loading data 202 Variable Data 209 Formatting variable data 215 Showing content conditionally 217 Dynamic Images 220

Writing your own scripts 221

How scripts work 222 Creating a new script 222 Writing a script 224 Managing scripts 226 Testing scripts 229 Optimizing scripts 232 Loading a snippet via a script 237 Control Scripts 239

Designer User Interface 252

Dialogs 254 Menus 318 Panes 326 Toolbars 340 Welcome Screen 345 Print Options 346 Job Creation Presets 399 Output Creation Settings 407

Designer JavaScript API 426

Designer Scripts API 427 Control Script API 476

Generating output 492

Optimizing a template 493

Scripts 493 Images 493

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Generating Print output 494

Saving Printing options in Printing Presets. 495 Connect Printing options that cannot be changed from within the Printer Wizard. 496 Print Using Standard Print Output Settings 496 Print Using Advanced Printer Wizard 498 Adding print output models to the Print Wizard 498 Splitting printing into more than one file 499 Variables available in the Output 500 Generating Tags for Image Output 506

Generating Email output 508

Email output settings in the Email context and sections 509 Using an ESP with PrintShop Mail Connect 510

Print Manager 516

Print Manager Introduction Video 516 Print Manager usage 516 Print Manager Interface 516

Menu options 517 Printers pane 518 Printer Queue pane 521 Printer Capabilities pane 522 Job Queue pane 523 History pane 524 Printer Status pane 525 Messages pane 526 Print Manager Preferences 526

Release Notes 529

Overview 529 Connect 1.6.1 General Enhancements and Fixes 530 Connect 1.6.1 Designer Enhancements and Fixes 532 Connect 1.6.1 Output Enhancements and Fixes 533 Known Issues 535

Legal Notices and Acknowledgments 538

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Welcome to PrintShop Mail Connect

Note

Since we are always looking for new ways to make your life easier, we welcome your questions and comments about our products and documentation. Shoot us an email at

doc@ca.objectiflune.com.

Note

Information that is important or essential to the completion of a task.

1.6.1

PrintShop Mail Connect is a tool designed to optimize customer communications. It is designed to improve the creation, distribution, interaction and maintenance of your communications.

The PrintShop Mail Connect Designer is designed to create output for print and email within a single template and from many data types. Output presets applied outside the design phase make printing device independent.

The Designer has an easy-to-use interface that makes it possible for almost anyone to create multi-channel output. More advanced users may use native HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

This online documentation covers PrintShop Mail Connect version 1.6.1.

Icons used in this guide

Icons are used throughout this guide to point your attention to certain information.

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Tip

Complementary information that may help you better use PrintShop Mail Connect or suggests an easier method.

Warning

Information that is potentially critical to using PrintShop Mail Connect. Pay close attention.

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Setup And Configuration

This chapter describes the PrintShop Mail Connect installation and the different considerations that are important in regards to the installation and use of PrintShop Mail Connect.

l "System and Hardware Considerations" below

l "Installation and Activation" on page21

System and Hardware Considerations

There are a variety of considerations to be aware of. These are documented in the following pages:

l "System Requirements" below

l "Environment considerations" on the facing page

l "Database Considerations" on page14

l "Network considerations" on page18

l "Language and Encoding considerations" on page18

l "Performance Considerations" on page19

System Requirements

These are the system requirements for PrintShop Mail Connect 1.6.1

Operating System (64-bit only)

l Microsoft Windows 2008/2008 R2 Server

l Microsoft Windows 2012/2012 R2 Server

l Microsoft Windows Vista

l Microsoft Windows 7

l Microsoft Windows 8.1

l Microsoft Windows 10 (Pro and Enterprise versions only)

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Note

Windows 8.0, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and older versions of Windows are not supported by PrintShop Mail Connect.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Note

For tips and tricks on performance, see "Performance Considerations" on page19.

Warning

Copying (duplicating) a Virtual Machine with Connect installed and using both images simultaneously constitutes an infringement of our End-User License Agreement.

Note

While some virtual machine environments (from VMWare and Microsoft) are supported, other virtual environments (such as Parallels, Xen and others) are not supported at this

l NTFS Filesystem (FAT32 is not supported)

l CPU Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell (4 Core)

l 8GB RAM (16GB Recommended)

l Disk Space: At least 10GB (20GB recommended)

Environment considerations

Virtual Machine Support

PrintShop Mail Connectsupports VMWare Workstation, VMWare Server, VMWare Player, VMWare ESX (including VMotion), Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V/Azure infrastructure environments as software installed on the Guest operating system.

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time.

Terminal Server/Service

PrintShop Mail Connect does not support Terminal Server (or Terminal Service) environment as possible under Windows 2000, 2003 and 2008. This is to say, if Terminal Service is installed on the server where PrintShop Mail Connect is located, unexpected behaviours may occur and will not be supported by Objectif Lune Inc.. Furthermore, using PrintShop Mail Connect in a Terminal Service environment is an infringement of our End-User License Agreement.

Remote Desktop

Tests have demonstrated that PrintShop Mail Connect can be used through Remote Desktop. It is however possible that certain combination of OS could cause issues. If problems are encountered, please contact OLSupport and we will investigate.

PrintShop Mail Connect 1.3 and later have been certified under Remote Desktop.

64-bit Operating Systems

PrintShop Mail Connect is a 64-bit software and can only be installed on 64-bit operating systems.

Antivirus Considerations

l Antivirus software may slow down processing or cause issues if they are scanning in

temporary folders or those used by PrintShop Mail Connect. Please see KB-002: Antivirus Exclusions for more information.

l Antivirus software might interfere with installation scripts, notably a vbs script to install

fonts. McAfee, in particular, should be disabled temporarily during installation in order for MICR fonts to install and the installation to complete successfully.

Windows Search Indexing Service

Tests have concluded that the Windows Search service, used to provide indexing for Windows Search, can interfere with Connect when installing on a virtual machine. If the installation hangs during the last steps, it is necessary to completely disable this service during installation.

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l Click on Start, Run.

Type in services.msc and click OK.

Locate the Windows Searchservice and double-click on it.

Change the Startup Type to Disable, and click Stop to stop the service.

Try the installation again.

Once completely, you may re-enable the service and start it.

Commandline switches and .ini entries

PrintShop Mail Connect is intended to work stably and reliably, based on Java and the Eclipse framework. To ensure this reliability and robustness, many Java and Eclipse parameters have been tested and tuned, which is reflected in the respective .ini entries and the used command line switches. A collection of valuable settings has been elaborated and found its entry in PrintShop Mail Connect “good switches list” (called the “whitelist”).

The protection of the end user’s system is one of our main goals and therefore we have implemented a very strict verification mechanism, which ensures, that only these whitelisted ini entries and commandline switches are accepted, when one of Connect components is started and run. Please be therefore advised, that any non-whitelisted ini entry or commandline switch will be accepted and will - if tried to be used - lead to the respective application’s “sudden death”. If you should encounter such a behaviour then please double-check your Connect log file/s for respective entries.

Database Considerations

This page describes the different considerations and pre-requisites for the database back-end used by PrintShop Mail Connect, whether using the MySQL instance provided by the installer, or pre-existing instance.

Using the MySQL Instance from the Installer

The MySQL Instance provided in the Installation Wizard is already pre-configured with options to provide the most stable back-end setup.

These are the specific options that have been changed in our version of "my.ini":

max_connections = 200 : PrintShop Mail Connect uses a lot of database connections. This number ensures that even in high volume environments, enough connections will be

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available.

Note

Since PrintShop Mail Connect version 1.6 the minimum required version of the MS SQL Server is SQLServer 2012.

max_allowed_packet = 500M : In some implementations, especially when using Capture OnTheGo, large packet sizes are required to allow transferring binary files. This substantial packet size maximum setting ensures that the data received by PrintShop Mail Connect will be able to be stored within the database.

character-set-server = utf8 , collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci , default-characterset=utf8 : These indicate database support for UTF-8/Unicode.

Using a pre-existing MySQL Instance

If MySQL server is already installed and you wish to use it, the following should be taken into consideration:

l The MySQL account must have access to all permissions using the GRANT Command,

including creating databases.

l The database configuration must include the options detailed in the "Using the MySQL

Instance from the Installer" on the previous page topic above.

l The SQL instance must be open to access from other computers. This means the bind-

address option should not be set to 127.0.0.1 or localhost.

Using MS SQL Server from the Installer

When MS SQL is selected, the default values for root user are sa and 1433 for the port.

l If db settings from a previous installation are found, the pre-exising settings will be

displayed for the matching db type (for MS SQL settings, this will only work if they were created with Server Config Tool 1.5.0 or later, or the Connect installer 1.6.0 or later). If the db type is changed in the configuration page, the default values for this db type will be displayed. If the pre-existing db settings are set to Hsqldb, the default db type selection will be MySQL.

l Selected db settings are stored in the preferences as usual (C:\ProgramData\Objectif

Lune\Ol

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Connect\.settings\ConnectHostScope\com.objectiflune.repository.eclipselink.generic.pref

Note

The MSSQL selection capability will be available only with 1.6 version and upwards.

Updating With No Local MySQL Product

l When updating a Connect installation from 1.5.0 which contains a Server Product but no

local MySQL Product, the DB Configuration Page will detect which db type was set before (especially if the db configuration was switched from MySQL to MS SQL using the Server Configuration Tool), and default to those settings.

l On Update from 1.4.2 or earlier, the DB Configuration Page will always default to MySQL

connection settings, and if the installation was manually tweaked to connect to MS SQL Server, the user has to switch to "Microsoft SQL Server" type and enter connection details again.

Installing / Updating Connect Using a Local MySQL

l The Configuration page for the local MySQL is displayed.

l MySQL settings are pre-filled with default values if no existing MySQL db configuration is

found.

l MySQL settings are pre-filled with existing db configuration settings, if they point to a

MySQL db type.

When modifying Connect

l If local MySQL is removed from an installation, the DB Configuration page will offer

additionally the Microsoft SQL Server db type with respective default values.

l If local MySQL is added to an installation, the usual MySQL Configuration page with

default values will be displayed.

If the user has installed the Installer Supplied MySQL and then switches to a foreign MSSQL by using the Server Configuration Tool, the supplied MySQL cannot be switched off. By design the installer adds a service dependency between Connect Server and the supplied MySQL service.

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To remove this dependency the user needs to do the following

Warning

If a Connect 1.5 user wants to use MSSQL instead of MySQL for the Connect Server, there are several points to be taken care of:

IF there should possibly be available some foreign MySQL instance, which could be used intermediately, then this should be selected during the setup. This ensures, that no stuff gets installed. Otherwise the supplied MySQL needs to be installed and the switch to MSSQL needs to be done as outlined above.

l It is not possible to uninstall the supplied MySQL in this case via a Connect 1.5

modify.

1. Have a foreign MSSQL running, ready for use with Connect Server.

2. Use the Server Configuration Tool (SCT) to switch the database to MSSQL.

3. (Re-)start Connect Server Service, so that the modifications will become active.

4. Counter check that everything is working properly with MSSQL.

5. Open a commandline prompt with full administration rights.

6. Enter the command sc config OLConnect_Server depend= /. This removes the dependency. Please be aware: The key word depend must be followed immediately by the equal sign, but between the equal sign and the forward slash there must be a space. Additional information can be found here: http://serverfault.com/questions/24821/how-

to-add-dependency-on-a-windows-service-after-the-service-is-installed#228326.

7. After the dependency has been removed, it is possible to stop the supplied MySQL service (OLConnect_MySQL).

Important

If a Server Product and a MySQL Product were selected to be installed on Connect 1.5.0, and then the Server Configuration Tool is used to switch the database used by the Server to an external Microsoft SQL, then the Update to 1.6 requires an extra step. The procedure is as follows:

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Note

If Connect was initially installed not containing the local MySQL product (i.e. on 1.5 installation an external MySQL was configured as database), then the Update to 1.6 will allow to select either external MySQL or external Microsoft SQL on the DB Configuration Page.

Run the Update to Connect 1.6. This will assume the local MySQL database needs to be updated and configured, so the user has to enter a root password on the MySQL Configuration Page (can be any password matching Connect security rules).

After the update, the Connect 1.6 Setup needs to be run once more to modify Connect.

On the Product Selection page, now the MySQL product can be unselected.

4. When stepping forward in the Wizard, the DB Configuration page will be displayed which allows to configure the Microsoft SQL Server with appropriate settings.

After this modification, the local MySQL is removed, and also the service dependency from Server to MySQL is removed.

Network considerations

The following should be taken into consideration in regards to network settings and communications

If a local proxy is configured (in the Internet Explorer Optionsdialog, the option Bypass proxy server for local addresses must be checked, or some features depending on

local communication will not work.

Language and Encoding considerations

Please note the following considerations:

Language:

l PrintShop Mail Connect is currently offered in several languages. These languages

can be switch between via the Preferences dialog. The current languages include:

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Encoding:

l Issues can sometimes be encountered in menus and templates when running

l English

l French

l German

l Spanish

l Italian

l Portuguese

l Chinese (Simplified)

l Chinese (Traditional)

l Japanese.

The default language is English. The PrintShop Mail Connect help system (this document) is currently only available in English.

PrintShop Mail Connect on a non-English operating system. These are due to encoding issues and will be addressed in a later release.

Performance Considerations

This page is a comprehensive guide to getting the most performance out of PrintShop Mail Connect as well as a rough guideline to indicate when it's best to upgrade.

Performance Analysis Details

In order to get the most out of PrintShop Mail Connect, it is important to determine how best to maximize performance. The following guidelines will be helpful in extracting the best performance from PrintShop Mail Connect before looking into hardware upgrades or extra PrintShop Mail Connect performance packs.

RAM Configuration: By default, each instance of the Merge Engine and Weaver Engine is set to use 640MB of RAM. This means that regardless of speed units, if not enough memory is available, output speed might not be as expected. Assuming that the machine itself is not running any other software, the rule of thumb is the following: The total number of used memory in the machine should be pretty much the maximum available (around 95%).

For each engine, it's necessary to modify the .ini file that controls its JAVA arguments. Edit as follows:

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l For the Merge Engine: see C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL

Connect\MergeEngine\Mergeengine.ini

l For the Weaver Engine: see C:\Program Files\Objectif Lune\OL

Connect\weaverengine\Weaverengine.ini

l The parameters are -Xms640m for the minimum RAM size, -Xmx640m for the

maximum RAM size. Explaining Java arguments is beyond the scope of this document. Please read references here, here and here for more details (fair warning: these can get pretty technical!).

Template and data mapping optimization: Some functionality offered by the Designer module are very useful, and sometimes downright awesome, but can cause the generation of records and of contents items to slow down due to their nature. Here are some of them:

Loading external and network resources: In Designer, using images, javascript or css resources located on a slow network or on a slow internet connection will obviously lead to a loss of speed. While we do our best for caching, a document with 100,000 records which queries a page that takes 1 second to return a different image each time will, naturally, slow output generation down by up to 27 hours.

External JavaScript Libraries: While loading a single JavaScript library from the web is generally very fast (and only done once for the record set), actually running a script on each generated page can take some time. Because yes, JavaScript will run for each record, and often take the same time for each record.

Inefficient Selectors: Using very precise ID selectors in script wizards can be much faster than using a text selector, especially on very large documents. (more details on this in another upcoming page).

Complex Scripts: Custom scripts with large, complex or non-optimized loops can lead to slowing down content creation. While it is sometimes difficult to troubleshoot, there are many resources online to help learn about JavaScript performance and coding mistakes. Here, here, and here are a few. Note that most resources on the web are about JavaScript in the browser, but the greatest majority of the tips do, indeed, apply to scripts in general, wherever they are used.

High-Performance Hardware

The following is suggested when processing speed is important. Before looking into a Performance Packs to enhance performance, ensure that the below requirements are met.

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Note

A PDF version of this guide is available for use in offline installations. Click here to

download it.

A physical, non-virtualized server. VMWare servers are great for reducing the numbers of physical machines in your IT space, but they must share the hardware between each other. While you can create a virtual machine that seems as powerful as a physical, it will still be sharing hardware with any other virtual machines, and this will adversely affect performance.

MySQL Database on a separate machine. MySQL's main possible bottleneck is file I/O, and as such a high-performance setup will require this server to be on a separate machine, ideally with a high-performance, low-latency hard drive. A Solid State Drive (SSD) would be recommended.

High-Quality 16+ GB Ram.This is especially true when working with many server instances ("speed units") running in parallel. The more parallel processing, the more RAM is recommended.

4 or 8 physical cores. We're not talking Hyper-Threading here, but physical cores. Hyper-Threading is great with small applications, but the overhead of "switching" between the virtual cores, and the fact that, well, they're virtual, means the performance is much lesser on high-power applications such as OL Connect. In short, a dual-core processor with Hyper-Threading enabled is not equivalent to a quad-core processor.

Installation and Activation

This topic provides detailed information about the installation and activation of PrintShop Mail Connect 1.6.1.

Where to Obtain the Installers:

The installers for PrintShop Mail Connect 1.6.1 can be obtained on DVD or downloaded as follows:

l If you are a Customer, the installers can be downloaded from the Objectif Lune Web

Activations page: http://www.objectiflune.com/activations

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l If you are a Reseller, the installers can be downloaded from the Objectif Lune Partner

Note

From PrintShop Mail Connect Version 1.2 onwards, the new version (1.1.8)of the Update Client is included by default with all setups.

Portal: http://extranet.objectiflune.com/

For information on licensing, please see Activating your license.

Installation Pre-Requisites

l Make sure your system meets the System requirements.

l PrintShop Mail Version 1.6.1 can be installed under a regular user account with

Administrator privileges.

Connect must be installed on an NTFS file system.

l PrintShop Mail requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 already be installed on the target

system.

l As with any JAVA application, the more RAM available, the faster the product will

execute.

User accounts and security

Permissions for PrintShop Mail Connect Designer

PrintShop Mail Connect Designer does not require any special permissions to run besides a regular program. It does not require administrative rights and only needs permission to read/write in any folder where Templates are located.

If generating Print output, PrintShop Mail Connect Designer requires permission on the printer or printer queue to send files.

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The Importance of User Credentials on Installing and Running PrintShop Mail Connect

OL Connect and required credentials depends heavily on the Connect component and respective tasks and what sort of user credentials are needed.

First of all, it is important to distinguish between installation and run-time

Installation

The Connect installer puts all required files, folders, registry entries and much more to their correct places and locations. As many of these locations are protected against malicious accesses, that very user under whose context the Connect installation is started and running, needs very extensive rights on the respective computer. This user must belong to the Local Administrators group on that machine. Here are some required capabilities, this user:

l Must be able to write into the "Programs" folder.

l Must be allowed to check for existing certificates and must also be allowed to install new

ones into the global certificate store on that machine.

l Must be able to write into HKLM and any subtree of it in the registry.

l Must be able to INSTALL, START and RUN services and also to MODIFY service

settings.

l Must be known in the network the machine belongs to and must also need to be able to

use shared network resources like shared drives and/or printers etc.

This list may not be complete, but it gives the extent of the requirements. Generally, the local administrator of the machine will have all these credentials, but there may exist network restrictions and policies, which will block one or more of these capabilities. In such cases, the respective network administrator should provide a valid user account for the installation.

User Account

The user account shall be used to later RUN one of the Connect Server flavors (Server or Server Extension). This dedicated user account has to be entered on the respective installer dialog page and must be allowed to START, STOP and RUN services on this machine. This is different from the credentials of the installation user account, which additionally requires the right to INSTALL services. Please be aware of this fact!

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Additionally, the Server user must be able to access any network resources that are required for OL Connect to function properly. This includes e.g. additional drives, printers, scanners, other computers and, where appropriate, internet resources, URLs, mail servers, FTP servers, database servers and everything else planned to be used for the intended operation of Connect. The Server user is the run-time user.

Connect Components

Usually, a standard end user will only be facing Connect Designer and maybe the License Activation Tool. Designer this does not require administrator rights. Either everything required to create documents or also to run some tasks will be already available (installed by the installer) or be accessible in a way, where no specific credentials are required. However some tasks like starting an email campaign will possibly require a respective account at a mail server. But this has generally nothing to do with the credentials of the Designer user.

Activation Tool

To run the Software Activation Tool, administrator rights are required because this tool needs to write the license file in one of the protected folders of Windows. The tool will however allow to restart it with respective credentials if required.

MySQL

MySQL database service is installed by the install user (thus again the requirement of installing, starting, running and modifying services). Once running it will just work.

Merge and Weaver Engines

These components do run under the Designer (if only Designer is installed) or the Server / Extension service(s) and inherit the rights of their parent application.

Server (Extension) Configuration Tool

This component needs to access the settings of the Server. As these are stored and read by the Server, it should be clear that the user used to run the Configuration tool should be the same as the Server Service user as explained above.

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Installing PrintShop Mail Connect on Machines without Internet Access

Installing PrintShop Mail Connect1.6.1 in offline mode requires some extra steps. These are listed below.

GoDaddy Root Certificate Authority needs to be installed.

In order to install PrintShop Mail Connect it is necessary for the GoDaddy Root Certificate Authority to be installed (G2 Certificate) on the host machine and for this to be verified online. When a machine hosting the installation does not have access to the Internet, the installation will fail because the verification cannot be performed. To solve this problem one must first ensure that all Windows updates have been installed on the host machine. Once the Windows updates are confirmed as being up to date, then complete the following steps:

1. Go to https://certs.godaddy.com/repository and download the following two certificates to copy to the offline machine:

l GoDaddy Class 2 Certification Authority Root Certificate - G2 - the file is gdroot-

g2.crt

l GoDaddy Secure Server Certificate (Intermediate Certificate) - G2 - the file is

gdig2.crt

2. Install the certificates: Right mouse click -> Install Certificate, and follow the steps through the subsequent wizard.

3. Now copy the PrintShop Mail Connect installer to the offline machine and start the installation as normal

Windows certificate validation - Certificate Revocation List retrieval should be switched off

For your security Objectif Lune digitally signs all relevant files with our own name and certificate. The integrity of these files is checked at various times by different, context related, methods. One of these checks, done during the installation process, uses the Windows certificate validation check. .

The Windows certificate validation process not only checks the integrity of a file against its signature, but also usually checks if the certificate itself is still valid. That check is done against the current Certificate Revocation List (CRL), which needs to be retrieved from the internet.

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However, if the machine in question does not have internet access, the retrieval of the CRL

Note

PrintShop Mail Connect requires prior installation of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (please refer to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21 for more details).

must fail, which will lead to subsequent validation issues.

To circumvent such issues it is highly recommended to switch off the CRL retrieval prior to installing Connect on machines without internet access. There is no security risk associated with this, as the CRLs would never be retrievable without internet access, anyway. Advantage of the switch will not only be found during the installation and operation of Connect, but also in some speed improvements for any application which use signed binaries.

To switch off CRL retrieval on the computer, complete the following steps:

1. Open the “Internet Options” via the Control Panel

2. Select the “Advanced” tab and scroll down to “Security” node.

3. Uncheck the entry “Check for publisher’s certificate revocation” under that node.

4. Click the OKbutton to close the dialog.

5. Re-start the computer.

Installation Wizard

Starting the PrintShop Mail Connect installer

The PrintShop Mail Connect installer may be supplied as an ISO image or on a DVD:

l If an ISO image, either burn the ISO onto a DVD or unzip the contents to a folder (keeping

the folder structure)

l If on a DVD, either insert the DVD and initiate the installation from there or copy the

contents to a folder (keeping the folder structure)

Navigate to the PrintShop Mail_Connect_Setup_x64.exe or and double-click on it. After a short while the Setup Wizard will appear as a guide through the installation steps.

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Selecting the required components

After clicking the Next button, the component selection page appears, where the different components of PrintShop Mail Connect can be selected for installation. Currently, the following are available:

PrintShop Mail Connect Designer: The Designer module. It may be used as a standalone with no other installed modules, but it will not have certain capabilities such as automation and commingling.

Installation Path: This is the location where modules are to be installed.

The installer can also calculate how much disk space is required for installing the selected components as well as how much space is available:

Disk space required: Displays the amount of space required on the disk by the selected components.

Disk space available on drive: Displays the amount of space available for installation on the drive currently in the Installation Path.

Recalculate disk space: Click to re-check available disk space. This is useful if space has been made available for the installation while the installer was open.

Source repository location: Displays the path where the installation files are located. This can be a local drive, installation media, or a network path.

Selection Confirmation

The next page confirms the installation selections made. Click Next to start the installation itself.

End User License Agreement

The next page displays the End User License Agreement, which needs to be read and accepted before clicking Next.

Click Next to start the actual installation process. This process can take several minutes.

Completing the installation

This screen describes a summary of the components that have been installed.

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Technical

Before activating the software, please wait 5 minutes for the database to initialize. If the software is activated and the services rebooted too quickly, the database can become

Configure Update Check checkbox: This option is enabled by default. It causes the Product Update Manager to run after the installation is complete. This allows

configuring PrintShop Mail Connect to regularly check for entitled updates. Note: this checkbox may not be available in the event that an issue was encountered during the installation.

Show Log... : If an issue was encountered during the installation, click this button to obtain details. This information can then be provided to Objectif Lune for troubleshooting.

l When ready, click the Finish button to close the installation wizard, and initialize the

Product Update Manager, if it was selected.

The Product Update Manager

If the Configure Update Check option has been selected, the following message will be displayed after clicking “Finish” in the setup:

Click “Yes” to install or open the Product Update Manager where the frequency with which the updates can be checked and a proxy server (if required) can be specified. Note: if the Product Update Manager was already installed by another Objectif Lune application, it will be updated to the latest version and will retain the settings previously specified.

Select the desired options and then click OK to query the server and obtain a list of any updates that are available for your software.

l Note that the Product Update Manager can also be called from the “Objectif Lune Update

Client” option in the Start menu.

l It can be uninstalled via Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.

Product Activation

After installation, it is necessary to activate the software. See Activating your license for more information.

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corrupted and require a re-installation.

Running Connect Installer in Silent Mode

Note

Only the installation can be run silently. Silent Mode does not apply to uninstalling, modifying, or updating Connect. Any previous version of Connect must be uninstalled before using the Silent Installer.

Note

install.properties file notation must follow commons configuration rules. Please refer to

Properties files for more details.

PrintShop Mail Connect can be installed in a so called "silent mode" to allow an automated setup during a company wide roll-out or comparable situations. The trigger for the Connect Installer to run in silent mode is a text file with the fixed name install.properties, which is located either in the same folder as the PrintShop Mail_Connect_Setup_x86_64.exe or in the unpacked folder of the installer.exe.

The required properties file has the following attributes:

l Comment Lines, starting with # (e.g. # The options to configure an external database)

l Key = Value pairs (e.g. install.product.0 = Connect Designer)

For supported keys, please refer to the next paragraph.

Required and Optional Properties

Required properties depend on the specified product. Only fields related to that specified product must be entered. If no product is mentioned, properties must be specified for all valid Connect products.

Here is an example of an install.properties file.

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# Verbose logging

Note

The values of install.product properties must contain the exact product names.

logging.verbose = true

# Product selection install.product.0 = Connect Designer install.product.1 = Connect Server

# Server settings server.runas.username = Localadmin server.runas.password = admin

# Database configuration database.type = mysql database.host = 192.168.116.10 database.port = 3308 database.username = root database.password = admin database.schema = my_ol

Verbose Logging (Optional)

By default, the Silent Installer will log the same way as the GUI installer. That means logging of error and warnings, and certain information during database configuration. A more verbose logging can be switched on by using logging.verbose = true.

Product Selection (Optional)

By default, if nothing is entered for the products to be installed (install.product.X), Silent Installer will install all products which are visible to the user for the respective brand (except for

the Server Extension, because only Server or Server Extension can be installed at the same time).

PrintShop Mail Defaults

install.product.0 = Connect Designer install.product.1 = Connect Print Manager install.product.2 = MySQL Product

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Server Configuration (required if Server is selected for install)

Note

The unlocked option should only be used when the database requires an external access.

If the Silent Installer runs with the default product selection, MySQL Product is included, and hence the database.unlocked = true property may be optionally set if MySQL on this machine

is intended to serve as the central database also for remote machines.

If the Silent Installer runs with the explicit installation of a stand-alone (install.product.0 =

For Server, the following properties need to be provided:

server.runas.username = <username> server.runas.password = <password>

Server Extension Configuration (required if Server Extension is selected for install)

For Server Extension, the following properties need to be provided:

server.runas.username = <username> server.runas.password = <password> server.master.host = <IP or name> server.master.port = <port> server.master.authenticate = true or false server.master.username = <username for the Connect Server> server.master.password = <password>

Database Configuration

Case 1: MySQL is among the selected Connect products to be installed (new MySQL

installation)

If MySQL is selected and there is no previous MySQL configuration on the machine, the following properties should be defined:

database.password = <password> (required and must meet the rules) database.port = <port> (3306 is the default port value) database.unlocked = true or false (the default value is false, optional)

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Connect Server), the database.unlocked property is irrelevant.

Note

The port will be defined automatically for the MySQL installation. All connect products selected in the Silent Installer will automatically be configured to use the MySQL running under the port

defined by the database.port property, regardless of the default port 3306 or any other user defined port.

A different port is required if 3306 is already taken on that machine by another application.

Case 2: The Connect Server is selected and an external database needs to be

Note

Since PrintShop Mail Connect version 1.6 the minimum required version of the MS SQL

configured

In this case, an external database must be configured for the Server (and other Connect products included in the Silent installation) to be used.

2a: Configuring an external MySQL database

To configure an external MySQL database, the following properties should be defined:

database.type = mysql (required) database.host = <host> (default value is localhost, otherwise required) database.port = <port> (default value is 3306, otherwise required) database.username = <username> (default value is root, otherwise required) database.password = <password> (required) database.schema = <schema name> (default value is objectiflune, optional)

2b: Configuring an external Microsoft SQL Server database

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Server is SQLServer 2012.

To configure an external Microsoft SQL Server database, the following properties should be defined:

database.type = Microsoft SQL Server (required) database.host = <host> (default value is localhost, otherwise required) database.port = <port> (default value is 1433, otherwise required) database.username = <username> (default value is sa, otherwise required) database.password = <password> (required) database.schema = <schema name> (default value is objectiflune, optional)

Activating a License

PrintShop Mail Connect includes 30 day trial periods during which it is not necessary to have a license for reviewing basic functionality. If a modification to the license if required, such as to allow an extension to the trial period, or for extra functionality, then a new activation code will need to be requested.

Obtaining the PrintShop Mail Connect Magic Number

To obtain an activation file the OL™ Magic Number must first be retrieved. The Magic Number is a machine-specific code that is generated based on the computer's hardware and software using a top-secret Objectif Lune family recipe. Each physical computer or virtual computer should have a different Magic Number, thus require a separate license file to be functional.

To get the PrintShop Mail Connect Magic Number, open the PrintShop Mail Connect Designer application:

Open the Start Menu

Click on All Programs, then Objectif Lune, then PrintShop Mail Connect

Open the PrintShop Mail Connect Designer [version] shortcut.

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l When the application opens, if it has never been activated or the activation has expired,

Note

The Software Activation dialog can also be reached through a shortcut located in All

the Software Activation dialog appears:

License Information subsection:

Magic Number: Displays the PrintShop Mail Connect Magic Number.

Copy to Clipboard: Click to copy the Magic Number to the clipboard. It can then be pasted in the activation request email using the CTRL+V keyboard shortcut.

Licensed Products subsection:

Name: Displays the name of the application or module relevant to this activation.

Serial Number: Displays the activation serial number if the product has been activated in the past.

Expiration Date: Displays the date when the activation will expire (or the current date if the product is not activated)

Web Activations: Click to be taken to the online activation page (not yet functional).

End-User License Agreement (Appears only when loading a license file):

License: This box displays the EULA. Please note that this agreement is legally binding.

I agree: Select to accept the EULA. This option must be selected to install the license.

I don't agree: Select if you do not accept the EULA. You cannot install the license if this option is selected.

Load License File: Click to browse to the .olconnectlicense file, once it has been received.

Install License: Click to install the license and activate the software (only available when a license file is loaded).

Close: Click to cancel this dialog. If a license file has been loaded, it will not automatically be installed.

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Programs, then Objectif Lune, then PrintShop Mail Connect and is named Software Activation. Since it does not load the software, it is faster to access for the initial activation.

Requesting a license

After getting the Magic Number, a license request must be done for PrintShop Mail Connect:

Customersmust submit their Magic Number and serial number to Objectif Lune via the Web Activations page: http://www.objectiflune.com/activations. The OL Customer Care team will then send the PrintShop Mail Connect license file via email.

Resellerscan create an evaluation license via the Objectif Lune Partner Portal by following the instructions there: http://extranet.objectiflune.com/

Note that if you do not have a serial number, one will be issued to you by the OL Activations team.

Accepting the license will activate it, after which the PrintShop Mail Connect services will need to be restarted. Note that in some case the service may not restart on its own. To resolve this issue, restart the computer, or start the service manually from the computer's Control Panel.

Activating PrintShop Mail Connect

To activate PrintShop Mail Connect, simply save the license file somewhere on your computer where you can easily find it, such as on your desktop. You can then load the license by doubleclicking on it, or through the start menu:

Open the Start Menu

Click on All Programs, then Objectif Lune, then PrintShop Mail Connect

Open the PrintShop Mail Connect Designer [version] shortcut. The “PrintShop Mail Connect Software Activation” tool displays information about the license and the End-

User License Agreement (EULA).

Click the Load License File button.

l Read the EULA and click I agree option to accept it.

Click Install License to activate the license. The license will then be registered on the computer and you will be able to start using the software.

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Warning

After installation message will appear warning that the Server services will need to be restarted. Just click OK to proceed.

Migrating to a new computer

Note

The PrintShop Mail Connect Setup Wizard might take some seconds to appear.

Currently there are no special migration tools to move data from one PrintShop Mail Connect installation to another. Instructions for migration will be available for later versions of the software when those tools become available.

Uninstalling

This topic provides some important information about uninstalling (removing) PrintShop Mail Connect1.6.1.

To uninstall PrintShop Mail Connect select the application from within the Add/Remove programs option under the Control Panel. This will start the PrintShop Mail Connect Setup Wizard in uninstall mode.

Important Note:Stop any Anti-Virus Software before uninstalling Connect.

Some anti-virus systems are known to block the uninstallation of MySQL datafiles, as well as blocking the uninstallation of the MySQLdatabase application itself. Therefore it is highly recommended that any anti-virus application be stopped prior to uninstalling PrintShop Mail Connect, as otherwise the Connect uninstallation might not work correctly.

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Impacts upon other Applications and Services

l The Uninstall will terminate the installed Server / MySQL service(s)

l The following applications / services should be stopped in a controlled fashion, before

running the PrintShop Mail Connect Uninstall:

1. PrintShop Mail Connect

2. Any Connect Workflow using PrintShop Mail Connectplugins which connect to this server.

3. PrintShop Mail Connect Server Extensions on remote systems which connect to this machine as the Master Server.

4. Connect products on remote systems which refer to this MySQL database.

Uninstallation Wizard

The uninstallation is done by running the PrintShop Mail Connect Setup Wizard in uninstall mode. The Wizard consists of the following pages:

PrintShop Mail Connect SetupAn information page, listing what will be uninstalled, and also warning about impacts upon running Applications and Services.

Data Management: A page that provides options for backing up or deleting Connect data. Selections are as follows:

Delete Connect Workspace Data: Check this box to delete the Workspace data for the current user, or for selected users (as determined by the "Select Users" button)

l Backup Connect Workspace Data for all specified Users: Check this box

to backup the Workspace data for the specified users (as previously determined) into a compressed ZIP file (whose location can be customized), before deletion of the full Workspace data.

Delete MySQL objectlune Data: Check this box to delete the MySQL database installed with PrintShop Mail Connect.

Backup MySQL Date: If the deletion check box is selected, this option appears to allow backing up the MySQL database to a customizable location, prior to uninstallation.

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The Designer

The Designer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that lets you create templates for various output channels: Print, Email and Web. A template may contain designs for multiple output channels: a letter intended for print and an e-mail variant of the same message, for example. Content, like the body of the message or letter, can be shared across these contexts. Templates are personalized using scripts and variable data.More advanced users may use native HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

The following topics will help to quickly familiarize yourself with the Designer.

l "Basic Steps" below. These are the basic steps for creating and developing a template.

l "Features" on the next page. These are some of the key features in the Designer.

l "Designer User Interface" on page252. This part gives an overview of all elements in the

Designer User Interface, like menus, dialogs and panes.

More help can be found here:

l Tutorials On Video: watch an introductory video, overview tutorials or practical how-to

videos.

l Forum: Browse the forum and feel free to ask questions about the use of Connect

software

l Demo site. Download demonstrations of OL products.

Basic Steps

With the Designer you can create templates for personalized letters and emails, and generate output from them.

These are the basic steps for creating and developing a template:

Create a template

Create a template, using one of the Template Wizards. See "Creating a template" on page40.

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Note

Steps 2 and 3 are not necessarily to be followed in this order. For example, as you add elements to a template, you may start personalizing them right away, before adding other elements to the template.

Fill the template

Add text, images and other elements to the template and style them. See "Content elements" on page101 and "Styling and formatting" on page168.

Personalize the content

Personalize the content using variable data. See "Personalizing Content" on page200.

Generate output

Adjust the settings, test the template and generate output: letters and emails. See "Generating output" on page492.

Features

The Designer is Connect's module to create templates for personalized customer communications. These are some of the key features in the Designer:

"Templates" on the facing page. Start creating, using and sharing templates.

"Contexts" on page45. A context contains one or more designs for one output channel:

l "Print" on page50. This topic helps you design and fill sections in the Print context.

l "Email" on page82. This topics helps you design an email template.

l Web. This topic helps you design a web page.

"Sections" on page46. Sections in one context are designed for the same output channel.

"Content elements" on page101. Elements make up the biggest part of the content of each design.

"Snippets" on page166. Snippets help share content between contexts, or insert content conditionally.

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"Styling and formatting" on page168. Make your Designer templates look pretty and give them the same look and feel with style sheets.

"Personalizing Content" on page200. Personalize your customer communications using variable data.

"Writing your own scripts" on page221. Scripting can take personalization much further. Learn how to script via this topic.

"Generating output" on page492. Learn the ins and outs of generating output from each of the contexts.

Templates

The Designer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool to create templates. This topic gets you started. It explains how to create a template, what is found in a template file, and how output can be generated.

Creating a template

In the Welcome screen that appears after startup, get off to a flying start choosing Browse Template Wizards. Scroll down to see all the Template Wizards. After deciding which output

channel – printor email – will be prevalent in your template, select a template.

The Template Wizards can also be accessed from the menu: click File, click New, expand the Template folder, and then expand one of the templates folders.

There are Wizards for the three types of output channels, or contexts as they are called in the Designer: Print, Email and Web. See:

l "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page86

l "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on page52

l Creating a Web template with a Wizard

After creating a template you can add the other contexts (see "Contexts" on page45), as well as extra sections (see "Sections" on page46), to the template.

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It is, however, not possible to use a Template Wizard when adding a context or section to an

Tip

If an Email context is going to be part of the template, it is recommended to start with an Email Template Wizard; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page86. After creating a template, contexts can be added to it, but that can not be done with a wizard.

existing template.

Saving a template

A Designer template file has the extension .OL-template. It is a zip file that includes up to 3 contexts, all the related resources and scripts, and (optionally) a link to a Data Mapping Configuration.

To save a template for the first time, select File > Save as. After that you can save the template by selecting File > Save or pressing Ctrl+S.

When more than one resource (template or data mapping configuration) is open and the Designer software is closed, the Save Resources dialog appears. This dialog displays a list of all open resources with their names and file location. Selected resources will be saved, deselected resources will have all their changes since they were last saved dismissed.

Auto Save

After a template has been saved for the first time, Connect Designer can auto save the

template with a regular interval. To configure Auto Save:

Select the menu option Window > Preferences > Save.

Under Auto save, check the option Enable to activate the Auto Save function.

3. Change how often it saves the template by typing a number of minutes.

Auto Backup

Connect Designer can automatically create a backup file when you manually save a template. To configure Auto Backup:

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Note

The Auto Save function does not cause backup files to be created.

Select the menu option Window > Preferences > Save.

Under Auto backup, check the option Enable to activate the Auto Backup function.

3. Type the number of revisions to keep.

4. Select the directory in which the backups should be stored.

Backup files have the same name as the original template with two underscores and a progressive number (without leading zeros) at the end: originalname__1.OL-template,

originalname__2.OL-template, etc.

Sharing a template

To share a template, you can send the template file itself, or save the template to a package file, optionally together with a Job Creation Preset and an Output Creation Preset. (See "Job

Creation Presets" on page399 and "Output Creation Settings" on page407 for more details.)

To create a package file, select File > Package file, see "Package files" below. The package file has the extension .OL-package.

Generating output from the Designer

Output can be generated directly from the Designer; see "Generating Print output" on page494, "Generating Email output" on page508 and Generating Web output.

To test a template first, select Context > Preflight. Preflights executes the template without actually producing output and it displays any issues once it's done (see also: "Testing scripts" on page229).

Package files

The Package file dialog saves templates and print presets as a package file. Print presets make it possible to do such things as filtering and sorting records, grouping documents and splitting the print jobs into smaller print jobs, as well as the more standard selection of printing options, such as binding, OMR markings and the like. See "Job Creation Presets" on page399 and "Output Creation Settings" on page407 for more details.

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To save a template to a package file:

Select File > Package files.

2. Select the template to send. By default the currently active template is listed. Click Browse to select another template. You may select more than one template in the Browse dialog, and each of them is added to a package file. A template file has the extension .OL-template.

Use the drop-down to select a Job Creation Preset to send. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets. A Job Creation Preset file has the extension .OL-jobpreset.

Use the drop-down to select an Output Creation Preset. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets. An Output Creation Preset file has the extension .OL-outputpreset.

Click OK to save the package file.

Resources

This page clarifies the difference between Internal, External and Web resources that may be used in a template, and explains how to refer to them in HTML and in scripts.

Internal resources

Internal resources are files that are added to and saved with the template. To add images, fonts, style sheets, and snippets to your template, you can drag or copy/paste them into the Resources Pane. See also: "Images" on page156, "Snippets" on page166, "Styling templates with CSS files" on page169 and "Fonts" on page196.

Resource files can also be dragged or copy/pasted out of the the application to save them on a local hard drive.

Once imported, internal resources are accessed using a relative path, depending where they're called from. Resources can be located in the following folders:

l images/ contains the files in the Images folder.

l fonts/ contains the files in the Fonts folder.

l css/ contains the files in the StyleSheets folder.

l js/ contains the files in the JavaScripts folder.

l snippets/ contains the files in the Snippets folder.

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When refering to them, normally you would simply use the path directly with the file name. The

Note

When referring to images or fonts from a CSS file, you need to remember that the current path is css/, meaning you can't just call images/image.jpg. Use a relative path, for example: #header { background-image: url('../images/image.jpg'); }

structure within those folders is maintained, so if you create a "signatures" folder within the "Images" folder, you need to use that structure, for example in HTML: <img src="images/signatures/johnsmith.gif">. In scripts, you can refer to them in the same way, for example:

results.loadhtml("snippets/en/navbar.html");

See also: "Loading a snippet via a script" on page237 and "Writing your own scripts" on page221.

External resources

External resources are not stored in the template, but on the local hard drive or on a network drive. They are accessed using a path. The path must have forward slashes, for example <img src="file:///c:/resources/images/signatures/johnsmith.gif"> or var json_variables = loadjson

("file:///d:/jsondata/variables.json");. The complete syntax is:file://<host>/<path>. If the

host is"localhost", it can be omitted, as it is in the example, resulting infile:///<path>. The empty string is interpreted as `the machine from which the URL is being interpreted'.

Network paths are similar: results.loadhtml

("file://servername/sharename/folder/snippet.html"); (note that in this case file is

followed by 2 slashes only).

Some limitations

l Style sheets cannot refer to external resources.

l The Connect Server user needs access to whichever network path is used. If the network

path is on a domain, the Connect Server must be identified with domain credentials that have access to the domain resources.

For more information on network paths, please see this Wikipedia entry: file URI scheme.

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Web resources

Tip

Web resources are simply accessed using a full URL. This URL needs to be publicly accessible: if you type in that URL in a browser on the server, it needs to be visible. Authentication is possible only through URL Parameters (http://www.example.com/data.json?user=username&password=password) or through HTTP Basic Auth (http://username:password@www.example.com/data.json).

Contexts

Contexts are parts of a template that are each used to generate a specific type of output: Email or Print.

l The Print context outputs documents to either a physical printer a PDF file; see "Print

context" on page56.

l The Email context outputs HTML email, composed of HTML code with embedded CSS.

See "Email context" on page90.

When a new template is made, the Context appropriate to that new template is automatically created, including one section. After a template has been created, the other two contexts can be added to it; see "Adding a context" on the facing page.

Outputting and combining contexts

All three contexts can be present in any template and they can all be used to output documents; see "Generating Email output" on page508, "Generating Print output" on page494 and Generating Web output.

They can even be combined in output.

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If present in the same template, a Print context and a Web context can be attached to an Email

Warning

No backup files are maintained in the template. The only way to recover a deleted section, is to click Undo on the Edit menu, until the deleted section is restored. After closing and reopening the template it is no longer possible to restore the deleted context this way. To prevent losing any work, it is recommended to configure the auto-save and autobackup functions in the preferences (see "Saving Preferences" on page291).

context.

Outputting other combinations of contexts, and selecting sections based on a value in the data, can be done via a Control Script; see "Control Scripts" on page239.

Adding a context

To add a context, right-click the Contexts folder on the Resources pane and click New print context, New email context or New web context. Only one context of each type can be

present in a template. Each context, however, can hold more than one section; see "Sections" below.

Deleting a context

To delete a context, right-click the context on the Resources pane and click Delete.

Sections

Sections are parts of one of the contexts in a template: Print or Email. They contain the main text flow for the contents. In each of the contexts there can be multiple sections. A Print context, for example, may consist of two sections: a covering letter and a policy.

Adding a section

To add a section to a context, right-click the context (Email or Print) on the Resources pane, and then click New section.

It is not possible to use a Template Wizard when adding a section to an existing template.

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Tip

Editing a section

To open a section, expand the Contexts folder on the Resources pane, expand the respective context (Print or Email) and double-click a section to open it.

Each section can contain text, images and many other elements (see "Content elements" on page101), including variable data and other dynamic elements (see "Personalizing Content" on page200).

Copying a section

Copying a section, either within the same template or from another template, can only be done manually. You have to copy the source of the HTML file:

Open the section that you want to copy and go to the Source tab in the workspace.

Copy the contents of the Source tab (press Ctrl+A to select everything and then Ctrl+C to copy the selection).

3. Add a new section (see "Adding a section" on the previous page).

Go to the Source tab and paste the contents of the other section here (press Ctrl+V).

5. When copying a section to another template, add the related source files, such as images, to the other template as well.

Deleting a section

To delete a section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the folder of the respective context, right-click the name of the section, and then click Delete.

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Warning

Renaming a section

Note

Sections cannot have an integer as name. The name should always include alphanumeric characters.

To rename a section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the folder of the respective context, right-click the name of the section, and then click Rename.

Section properties

Which properties apply to a section, depends on the context it is part of. See also: "Print sections" on page59, "Email templates" on page92, and Web pages.

To change the properties for a section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the folder of the respective context, right-click the name of the section, and then click one of the options.

Applying a style sheet to a section

In order for a style sheet to be applied to a specific section, it needs to be included in that section. There are two ways to do this.

Drag & drop a style sheet

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1. Click and hold the mouse button on the style sheet on the Resources pane.

2. Move the mouse cursor within the Resources pane to the section to which the style sheet should be applied.

3. Release the mouse button.

Using the Includes dialog

On the Resources pane, right-click the section, then click Includes.

2. Choose which CSS files should be applied to this section. You can also change the order in which the CSS files are read. This can have an effect on which CSS rule is applied in the end.

Arranging sections

Changing the order of the sections in a context can have an effect on how they are outputted; see: "Print sections" on page59, "Email templates" on page92 and Web pages.

To rearrange sections in a context:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the folder of the respective context, and then drag and drop sections to change the order they are in. Alternatively, right-click a section and click Arrange. In the Arrange Sections dialog you can change the order of the sections in the same context by clicking the name of a section and moving it using the Up and Down buttons.

Outputting sections

Which sections are added to the output, depends on the type of context they are in.

When generating output from the Print context, each of the Print sections is added to the output document, one after the other in sequence, for each record. The sections are added to the output in the order in which they appear on the Resources pane. See "Generating Print output" on page494.

In email output, only one section can be executed at a time. The section that will be output is the section that has been set as the 'default'. See "Generating Email output" on page508 and "Email templates" on page92.

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It is, however, possible to include or exclude sections when the output is generated, or to set another section as the 'default', depending on a value in the data. A Control Script can do this; see "Control Scripts" on page239.

See "Generating output" on page492 to learn how to generate Print documents or Email.

Print

With the Designer you can create one or more Print templates and merge the template with a data set to generate personal letters, invoices, policies etc.

The Print context is the folder in the Designer that can contain one or more Print sections.

Print templates, also called Print sections, are part of the Print context. They are meant to be printed to a printer or printer stream, or to a PDF file (see "Generating Print output" on page494). The Print context can also be added to Email output as a PDF attachment; see "Generating Email output" on page508. When generating output from the Print context, each of the Print sections is added to the output document, one after the other in sequence, for each record.

When a Print template is created (see "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on page52), or when a Print context is added to an existing template (see "Adding a context" on page46) the Print context folder is created along with other folders and files that are specific to a Print context (see "Print context" on page56).

Only one Print section is created at the start, but you can add as many Print sections as you need; see "Print sections" on page59.

Pages

Unlike emails, Print sections can contain multiple pages. Pages are naturally limited by their size and margins. If the content of a section doesn't fit on one page, the overflow goes to the next page. This happens automatically, based on the section's page size and margins; see "Page settings: size, margins and bleed" on page67.

Although generally the same content elements can be used in all three contexts (see "Content elements" on page101), the specific characteristics of pages make it possible to use special elements, such as page numbers; see "Page numbers " on page69.

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See "Pages" on page66 for an overview of settings and elements that are specific for pages.

Headers, footers, tear-offs and repeated elements (Master page)

In Print sections, there are often elements that need to be repeated across pages, like headers, footers and logos. In addition, some elements should appear on each first page, or only on pages in between the first and the last page, or only on the last page. Examples are a different header on the first page, and a tear-off slip that should show up on the last page.

This is what Master Pages are used for. Master Pages can only be used in the Print context.

See "Master Pages" on page73 for an explanation of how to fill them and how to apply them to different pages.

Stationery (Media)

When the output of a Print context is meant to be printed on paper that already has graphical and text elements on it (called stationery, or preprinted sheets), you can add a copy of this media, in the form of a PDF file, to the Media folder.

Media can be applied to pages in a Print section, to make them appear as a background to those pages. This ensures that elements added to the Print context will correspond to their correct location on the preprinted media.

When both Media and a Master Page are used on a certain page, they will both be displayed on the Preview tab of the workspace, the Master Page being 'in front' of the Media and the Print section on top. To open the Preview tab, click it at the bottom of the Workspace or select View >

Preview View on the menu.

The Media will not be printed, unless this is specifically requested through the printer settings in the Print Wizard; see "Generating Print output" on page494.

See "Media" on page77 for further explanation about how to add Media and how to apply them to different pages.

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Creating a Print template with a Wizard

Tip

Use the Outline pane at the left to see which elements are present in the template and to select an element.

Use the Attributes pane at the right to see the current element's ID, class and some other properties.

Use the Styles pane next to the Attributes pane to see which styles are applied to the currently selected element.

A Print template may consist of various parts, such as a covering letter and a policy. Start with one of the Template Wizards for the first part; other parts can be added later.

To create a Print template with a Template Wizard:

1. l

In the Welcome screen that appears after startup:

Choose Browse Template Wizards and scroll down until you see the Print Template wizards and select the Postcard or Formal Letter wizard.

Or choose Create a New Template and select the PDF-based Print wizard.

Alternatively, on the File menu, click New, expand the Template folder, and then:

l Select the PDF-based Print wizard.

Or expand the Basic Print templates folder, select Postcard or Formal Letter and click Next.

See "Print Template Wizards" on the next page for information about the various types of Template wizards.

2. Make adjustments to the initial settings (the options for each type of template are listed below). Click Next to go to the next settings page if there is one.

Click Finish to create the template.

See "Print context" on page56 and "Print sections" on page59 for more information about Print templates.

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Print Template Wizards

There are three Print Template wizards: one for a formal letter, one for a postcard and one for a Print template based on a PDF that you provide.

Postcard

The Postcard Wizard lets you choose a page size and two background images, one for the front and one for the back of the postcard.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

l A Print context with one section in it, that has duplex printing (printing on both sides)

enabled. See "Printing on both sides" on page58.

l Two Master Pages that each contain a background image. The first Master Page is

applied to the front of every page in the Print section. The second Master Page is applied to the back of every page in the Print section. See "Master Pages" on page73.

Scripts and selectors for variable data. The Scripts pane shows, for example, a script called "first_name". This script replaces the text "@first_name@" on the front of the postcard by the value of a field called "first_name" when you open a data set that has a field with that name. See "Variable Data" on page209.

l A script called Dynamic Front Image Sample. This script shows how to toggle the image

on the front page dynamically. See also "Writing your own scripts" on page221.

l One empty Media. Media, also called Virtual Stationery, can be applied to all pages in the

Print section. See "Media" on page77.

The Wizard opens the Print section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page101. It already has two Positoned Boxes on it: one on the front, for text, and one on the back, for the address.

See "Print context" on page56 and "Print sections" on page59 for more information about Print templates.

Formal letter

The Formal Letter Wizard first lets you select the page settings, see "Page settings: size, margins and bleed" on page67.

These settings are fairly self-explanatory, except perhaps these:

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l Duplex means double-sided printing.

l The margins define where your text flow will go. The actual printable space on a page

depends on your printer.

The bleed is the printable space around a page. It can be used on some printers to ensure that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. Printers that can’t print a bleed, will misinterpret this setting. Set the bleed to zero to avoid this.

l The number of sections is the number of parts in the Print context. Although this Template

wizard can add multiple Print sections to the Print context, it will only add content to the first section.

On the next settings page (click Next to go there), you can type a subject, the sender's name and the sender's title. These will appear in the letter. You can also:

Click the Browse button to select a signature image. This image will appear above the sender's name and title.

l Select Virtual Stationery: a PDF file with the letterhead stationery. Also see Media.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

l A Print context with one section in it; see "Print context" on page56 and "Print sections"

on page59.

l One empty Master Page. Master Pages are used for headers and footers, for images and

other elements that have to appear on more than one page, and for special elements like tear-offs. See "Master Pages" on page73.

One Media. You can see this on the Resources pane: expand the Media folder. Media 1 is the Virtual Stationery that you have selected in the Wizard. It is applied to all pages in the Print section, as can be seen in the Sheet Configuration dialog. (To open this dialog, expand the Contexts folder on the Resources pane; expand the Print folder and rightclick "Section 1"; then select Sheet Configuration.) See "Media" on page77.

Selectors for variable data, for example: @Recipient@. You will want to replace these by the names of fields in your data. See "Variable Data" on page209.

The Wizard opens the Print section. You can add text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page101.

The formal letter template already has an address on it. The address lines are paragraphs, located in one cell in a table with the ID address-block-table. As the table has no borders, it is

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initially invisible. The address lines will stick to the bottom of that cell, even when the address

Tip

Click the Edges button on the toolbar to highlight borders of elements on the Design tab. The borders will not be visible on the Preview tab.

has fewer lines. See "Styling and formatting" on page168 to learn how to style elements.

PDF-based Print template

The PDF-based Print template wizard creates a document from an existing PDF file: a brochure, voucher, letter, etc. The PDF is used as the background image of the Print section (see "Using a PDF file as background image" on page62). Variable and personalized elements, like a reseller address, voucher codes and so on, can be added in front of it (see "Personalizing Content" on page200 and "Variable Data" on page209).

By default, the PDF itself is added to the Image folder located in the Resources pane. Uncheck the option Save with template if the PDF should not be imported in the template. If not saved with the template, the image will remain external. Note that external images need to

be available when the template is merged with a record set to generate output, and that their location should be accessible from the machine on which the template's output is produced. External images are updated (retrieved) at the time the output is generated.

After clicking Next, you can change the settings for the page. The initial page size and bleed area are taken from the selected PDF.

When you click Finish, the Wizard creates:

l A Print context with one section in it; see "Print context" on the facing page and "Print

sections" on page59. The selected PDF is used as the background of the Print section; see "Using a PDF file as background image" on page62. For each page in the PDF one page is created in the Print section.

l One empty Master Page. Master Pages are used for headers, footers, images and other

elements that have to appear on more than one page, and for special elements like tearoffs. See "Master Pages" on page73.

l One empty Media. Media, also called Virtual Stationery, can be applied to all pages in the

Print section. See "Media" on page77.

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Print context

Tip

Editing PDF files in the Designer is not possible, but when they're used as a section's background, you can add text and other elements, such as a barcode, to them. To create a new Print template from a PDF file, use the PDF-based Print template (see "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on page52). To use a PDF file as background image for an existing section, see "Using a PDF file as background image" on page62.

The Print context is the folder in the Designer that can contain one or more Print templates.

Creating the Print context

You can start creating a Print template with a Wizard (see "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on page52), or add the Print context to an existing template (see "Adding a context" on page46).

When a Print template is created, the following happens:

The Print context is created and one Print section is added to it. You can see this on the Resources pane: expand the Contexts folder, and then expand the Print folder.

The Print context can contain multiple sections: a covering letter and a policy, for example, or one section that is meant to be attached to an email as a PDF file and another one that is going to be printed out on paper. Only one Print section is added to it at the beginning, but you can add as many print sections as you need; see "Print context" above. See "Print sections" on page59 to learn how to fill a Print section.

One Master Page is added to the template, as can be seen on the Resources pane, in the Master Page folder.

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This is what Master Pages are used for. Master Pages can only be used in the Print context.

See "Master Pages" on page 73.

Initially, the (empty) master page that has been created with the Print context will be applied to all pages in the Print section, but more Master Pages can be added and applied to different pages.

One Media is added to the template, as is visible on the Resources pane, in the Media folder. This folder can hold the company's stationery in the form of PDF files. When applied to a page in a Print section, Media can help prevent the contents of a Print section from colliding with the contents of the stationery. See "Media" on page77 to learn how to add Media and, optionally, print them. Initially, the (empty) media that has been created with the Print context, is applied to all pages in the Print section. You can add more Media and apply them each to different pages.

One Stylesheet, named context_print_styles.css, is added to the template, as you can see on the Resources pane, in the Stylesheets folder. This stylesheet is meant to be used for styles that are only applied to elements in the Print context. See also "Styling

templates with CSS files" on page169.

Print settings in the Print context and sections

The following settings in the Print context and Print sections have an impact on how the Print context is printed.

Arranging and selecting sections

The Print context can contain one or more Print sections. When generating output from the Print context, each of the Print sections is added to the output document, one after the other in sequence, for each record. The sections are added to the output in the order in which they appear on the Resources pane. This order can be changed; see "Print sections" on page59.

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It is also possible to exclude sections from the output, or to include a section only on a certain

Note

Your printer must support duplex for this option to work.

condition that depends on a value in the data. This can be done using a Control Script; see "Control Scripts" on page239.

Printing on both sides

To print a Print section on both sides of the paper, that Print section needs to have the Duplex printing option to be enabled; see "Enabling double-sided printing" on page65. This setting can not be changed in a Job Creation Preset or an Output Creation Preset.

Setting the binding style for the Print context

The Print context , as well as each of the Print sections, can have its own Finishing settings. In printing, Finishing is the way pages are bound together after they have been printed. Which binding styles can be applied depends on the type of printer that you are using.

To set the binding style of the Print context:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, and right-click the Print context.

Click Properties.

3. Choose a Binding style and, if applicable, the number of holes.

To set the binding style of a Print section, see "Setting the binding style for a Print section" on page64.

Overriding binding styles in a job creation preset

A Job Creation Preset can override the binding styles set for the Print sections and for the Print context as a whole. To bind output in another way than defined in the template’s settings:

1. Create a Job Creation Preset that overrides the settings of one or more sections: select File > Presets and see "Job Creation Presets" on page399 for more details.

2. Select that Job Creation Preset in the Print wizard; see "Generating Print output" on page494.

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Setting the bleed

The bleed is the printable space around a page. It can be used on some printers to ensure that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. The bleed is one of the settings for a section. See "Page settings: size, margins and bleed" on page67.

Print sections

Pages

See "Pages" on page66 for an overview of settings and elements that are specific for pages.

Using headers, footers, tear-offs and repeated elements

This is what Master Pages are used for. Master Pages can only be used in the Print context.

See "Master Pages" on page73 for an explanation of how to fill them and how to apply them to different pages.

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Using stationery (Media)

Note

See "Media" on page77 for a further explanation about how to add Media and how to apply them to different pages.

Note: The Media will not be printed, unless this is specifically requested through the printer settings; see "Generating Print output" on page494.

Adding a Print section

The Print context can contain multiple sections: a covering letter and a policy, for example, or one section that is meant to be attached to an email as a PDF file and another one that is meant to be printed out on paper. When a Print template is created (see "Creating a Print template with a Wizard" on page52 and "Print context" on page56), only one Print section is added to it, but you can add as many print sections as you need.

To add a section to a context:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, right-click the Print context , and then click New section.

The first Master Page (see "Master Pages" on page73) and Media (see "Media" on page77) will automatically be applied to all pages in the new section, but this can be changed, see

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"Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page76 and "Applying Media to a

Tip

Note

Via a Control Script, sections can be added to a Print context dynamically; see "Control Scripts" on page 239.

Warning

page in a Print section" on page80.

Deleting a Print section

To delete a Print section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Print context, rightclick the name of the section, and then click Delete.

Arranging Print sections

When generating output from the Print context, each of the Print sections is added to the output document, one after the other in sequence, for each record. The sections are added to the

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output in the order in which they appear on the Resources pane, so changing the order of the sections in the Print context changes the order in which they are outputted to the final document.

To rearrange sections in a context:

On the Resources pane, expand the Print context and drag and drop sections to change the order they are in.

Alternatively, on the Resources pane, right-click a section in the Print context and click Arrange. In the Arrange Sections dialog you can change the order of the sections by clicking the name of a section and moving it using the Up and Down buttons.

Styling and formatting a Print section

The contents of a Print section can be formatted directly, or styled with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). See "Styling and formatting" on page168.

In order for a style sheet to be applied to a specific section, it needs to be included in that section. There are two ways to do this.

Drag & drop a style sheet

1. Click and hold the mouse button on the style sheet on the Resources pane.

2. Move the mouse cursor within the Resources pane to the section to which the style sheet should be applied.

3. Release the mouse button.

Using the Includes dialog

On the Resources pane, right-click the section, then click Includes.

2. Choose which CSS files should be applied to this section. You can also change the order in which the CSS files are read. This can have an effect on which CSS rule is applied in the end.

Using a PDF file as background image

In the Print context, a PDF file can be used as a section's background. It is different from the Media in that the section considers the PDF to be content, so the number of pages in the section will be the same as the number of pages taken from the PDF file.

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With this feature it is possible to create a Print template from an arbitrary PDF file. Of course,

Note

From DataMapper input cannot be used in PrintShopMail Connect. The

DataMapper is included only in PlanetPress Connect and PreS Connect so far.

Note

It is not possible to use a remotely stored PDF file as a section's background,

the PDF file itself can't be edited in a Designer template, but when it is used as a section's background, text and other elements, such as a barcode, can be added to it.

To use a PDF file as background image:

On the Resources pane, expand the Print context, right-click the print section and click Background.

Click the downward pointing arrow after Image and select From PDF resource.

For a PDF resource, you have to specify where it is located. Click the Select Image button. Click Resources, Disk or Url, depending on where the image is located.

Resources lists the images that are present in the Images folder on the Resources pane.

Disk lets you choose an image file that resides in a folder on a hard drive that is accessible from your computer. Click the Browse button to select an image. As an alternative it is possible to enter the path manually. The complete syntax

is:file://<host>/<path>. Note: if the host is"localhost", it can be omitted, resulting infile:///<path>, for example: file:///c:/resources/images/image.jpg.

Check the option Save with template to insert the image into the Images folder on

the Resources pane.

Url allows you to choose an image from a specific web address. Select the protocol (http or https), and then enter the web address (for example, http://www.mysite.com/images/image.jpg).

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because the number of pages in a PDF file can not be determined via the http and http protocols. Therefor, with an external image, the option Save with template is always checked.

Note

The number of pages in the Print section is automatically adjusted to the number of pages in the PDF file that are being used as the section's background image.

Note

To set the background of a section in script, you need a Control Script; see "Control Script API" on page 476.

Select the PDF's position:

Fit to page stretches the PDF to fit the page size.

Centered centers the PDF on the page, vertically and horizontally.

Absolute places the PDF at a specific location on the page. Use the Top field to specify the distance between the top side of the page and the top side of the PDF, and the Left field to specify the distance between the left side of the page and the left side of the PDF.

Optionally, if the PDF has more than one page, you can set the range of pages that should be used.

Finally, click OK.

Setting the binding style for a Print section

In printing, Finishing is the binding style, or the way pages are bound together. Each Print section can have its own Finishing settings, as well as the Print context as a whole; see "Setting the binding style for the Print context" on page58.

To set the binding style of a Print section:

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Note

Your printer must support duplex for this option to work.

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Print context and rightclick the Print section.

Click Finishing.

3. Choose a Binding style and, if applicable, the number of holes.

To set the binding style of the Print context, see "Setting the binding style for the Print context" on page58.

Overriding binding styles in a job creation preset

A Job Creation Preset can override the binding styles set for the Print sections and for the Print context as a whole. To bind output in another way than defined in the template’s settings:

1. Create a Job Creation Preset that overrides the settings of one or more sections: select File > Presets and see "Job Creation Presets" on page399 for more details.

2. Select that Job Creation Preset in the Print wizard; see "Generating Print output" on page494.

Enabling double-sided printing

To print a Print section on both sides of the paper, that Print section needs to have the Duplex printing option to be enabled. This is an option in the Sheet Configuration dialog. (See "Sheet Configuration dialog" on page307.)

To enable duplex printing:

On the Resources pane, expand the Print context, right-click the print section and click Sheet configuration.

Check Duplex to enable content to be printed on the back of each sheet.

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3. When duplex printing is enabled, further options become available.

Check Tumble to duplex pages as in a calendar.

Check Facing pages to have the side margins switched alternately, so that after printing and binding the pages, they look like in a magazine or book. See "Pages" below to find out how to set a left and right margin on a page.

l If an odd page count is generated, the last page (which is a duplex backside) has

only the master page. To suppress the master page on this last page and exclude this page from page counting, check the option Omit Master Page Back in case of an empty back page.

Pages

The widow/orphan setting lets you control how many lines of a paragraph stick together, when content has to move to another page; see "Preventing widows and orphans" on page70. You can also avoid or force a page break before or after an entire element, see "Page breaks" on page72.

Each page in a print section has a natural position: it is the first page, the last page, a 'middle' page (a page between the first and the last page) or a single page. For each of those positions, a different Master Page and Media can be set. A Master Page functions as a page's background, with for example a header and footer. A Media represents preprinted paper that a page can be printed on. See "Master Pages" on page73 and "Media" on page77.

Page specific content elements

The specific characteristics of pages make it possible to use these special elements:

Page numbers can only be used in a Print context. See "Page numbers " on page69 to learn how to add and change them.

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l Conditional content and dynamic tables, when used in a Print section, may or may not

Tip

By default, measurements settings are in inches (in). You could also type measures in centimeters (add 'cm' to the measurement, for example: 20cm) or in millimeters (for

leave an empty space at the bottom of the last page. To fill that space, if there is any, an image or advert can be used as a whitespace element; see "Whitespace elements: using optional space at the end of the last page" on the facing page.

Dynamic tables can be used in all contexts, but transport lines are only useful in a Print context; see Dynamic table.

Positioning and aligning elements

Sometimes, in a Print template, you don't want content to move up or down with the text flow. To prevent that, put that content in a Positioned Box. See "Content elements" on page101.

When it comes to positioning elements on a page, Guides can be useful, as well as Tables. See "How to position elements" on page181.

Page settings: size, margins and bleed

On paper, whether it is real or virtual, content is naturally limited by the page size and margins.

These, as well as the bleed, are set per Print section, as follows:

On the Resources pane, right-click a section in the Print context and click Properties.

For the page size, click the drop-down to select a page size from a list of common paper sizes. Changing the width or height automatically sets the page size to Custom.

Margins define where your text flow will go. Static elements can go everywhere on a page, that is to say, within the printable space on a page that depends on the printer.

The bleed is the printable space around a page. It can be used on some printers to ensure that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. Note: Printers that can’t print a bleed, will misinterpret this setting. Set the bleed to zero to avoid this.

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example: 150mm). To change the default unit for measurement settings to centimeters or millimeters: on the

Window menu, click Preferences, click Print, and then click Measurements.

Whitespace elements: using optional space at the end of the last page

Note

l Only a top-level element (for example, a paragraph that is not inside a table or

div) can function as a whitespace element.

l Do not place the promotional image or snippet inside an absolute positioned

box. Whitespacing only works for elements that are part of the text flow, not for absolute-positioned boxes.

Print sections with conditional content and dynamic tables (see "Personalizing Content" on page200) can have a variable amount of space at the bottom of the last page. It is useful to fill the empty space at the bottom with transpromotional material, but of course you don’t want extra pages created just for promotional data. 'Whitespace elements' are elements that will only appear on the page if there is enough space for them.

To convert an element into a whitespace element:

1. Import the promotional image or snippet; see "Images" on page156 and "Snippets" on page166.

2. Insert the promotional image or snippet in the content.

3. Select the image or the element that holds the promotional content: click it, or use the breadcrumbs, or select it on the Outline tab; see "Selecting an element" on page105.

On the Attributes pane, check the option Whitespace element.

(Optional.) Add extra space at the top of the element: on the menu Format, click the option relevant to the selected element (Image for an image, Paragraph for a paragraph, etc.) and adjust the spacing (padding and/or margins). Do not add an empty paragraph to provide space between the whitespace element and the variable content. The extra paragraph would be considered content and could end up on a separate page, together with the whitespace element.

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Page numbers

Note

When a marker is inserted, a class is added to the element in which the marker is inserted. Do not delete that class. It enables the software to quickly find and replace the marker when generating output. The respective classes are: pagenumber, pagecount, contentpagenumber, contentpagecount, sheetnumber, and sheetcount.

Inserting page numbers

Page numbers can be added to a Print section, but they are usually added to a Master Page, because headers and footers are designed on Master Pages; see also: "Master Pages" on page73.

To insert a page number, select Insert > Special character > Markers on the menu, and then click one of the options to decide with what kind of page number the marker will be replaced:

Page number: The current page number in the document. If a page is empty or does not display a page number, it is still added to the page count.

Page count: The total number of pages in the document, including pages with no contents or without a page number.

Content page number: The current page number in the document, counting only pages with contents that are supplied by the Print section. A page that has a Master Page (as set in the Sheet Configuration dialog, see "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page76) but no contents, is not included in the Content page count.

Content page count: This is the total number of pages in the current document that have contents, supplied by the Print section. A page that has a Master Page but no contents, is not included in the Content page count.

Sheet number: The current sheet number in the document. A sheet is a physical piece of paper, with two sides (or pages). This is equivalent to half the page number, for example if there are 10 pages, there will be 5 sheets.

Sheet count: This marker is replaced by the total number of sheets in the document, whether or not they have contents.

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Creating a table of contents

Note

Even if a section is disabled, so it doesn't produce any output, this setting is still taken into account for the other sections. This means that if Restart Numbering is checked on a disabled section, the page numbering will be restarted on the next section. Disabling a section can only be done in a Control Script (see "Control Scripts" on page239). Control Scripts can also change where page numbers restart.

A table of contents can only be created in a template script. The script should make use of the

pageRef() function. For an example, see "pageRef()" on page460. If you don't know how to

write a script, see "Writing your own scripts" on page221.

Configuring page numbers

By default the page numbers are Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) without leading zeros nor prefix, and page numbering starts with page 1 for each section. But this can be changed. To do that:

On the Resources pane, right-click a section in the Print context and click Numbering.

Uncheck Restart Numbering if you want the page numbers to get consecutive page numbers, instead of restarting the page numbering with this section.

Use the Format drop-down to select uppercase or lowercase letters or Roman numerals instead of Arabic numerals.

In Leading Zeros, type zeros to indicate how many digits the page numbers should have. Any page number that has fewer digits will be preceded by leading zeros.

Type the Number prefix. Optionally, check Add Prefix to Page Counts, to add the prefix to the total number of pages, too.

6. Close the dialog.

Preventing widows and orphans

Widows and orphans are lines at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph respectively, dangling at the bottom or at the top of a page, separated from the rest of the paragraph.

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By default, to prevent orphans and widows, lines are moved to the next page as soon as two

Note

Widows and orphans are ignored if the page-break-inside property of the paragraph is set to avoid.

lines get separated from the rest of the paragraph.

This setting can be changed for the entire Print context, per paragraph and in tables.

In the entire Print context

To prevent widows and orphans in the entire Print context:

On the menu, select Edit > Stylesheets.

Select the Print context.

Click New (or, when there are already CSS rules for paragraphs, click the selector p and click Edit).

Click Format.

After Widows and Orphans, type the number of lines that should be considered a widow or orphan (this amounts to the minimum number of lines that may be separated from a paragraph, minus one).

Alternatively, manually set the set the widows and orphans properties in a style sheet:

Open the style sheet for the Print context: on the Resources pane, expand the Styles folder and double-click context_print_styles.css.

2. Add a CSS rule, like the following:

p { widows: 4; orphans: 3 }

Per paragraph

To change the widow or orphan setting for one paragraph only:

Select the paragraph, using the breadcrumbs or the Outline pane (next to the Resources pane).

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Select Format > Paragraph, on the menu.

After Widows and Orphans, type the number of lines to be considered a widow or orphan (this amounts to the minimum number of lines that may be separated from a paragraph, minus one).

In tables

The CSS properties widows and orphans can be used in tables. They are not available in the Table Formatting dialog, however, so they must be added manually, either directly in the style attribute of the <table> element (on the Source tab in the Workspace) or in a style sheet rule, as follows:

On the menu, select Edit > Stylesheets.

Select the Print context.

Click New (or, when there are already CSS rules for tables, click the selector table and click Edit).

Click the Advanced button.

5. Add a rule for widows and/or orphans, typing the name of the CSS property in the left column and the value in the right column.

6. Close the dialogs.

Page breaks

A page break occurs automatically when the contents of a section don't fit on one page.

Inserting a page break

To insert a page break before or after a certain element, set the page-break-before property or the page-break-after property of that element (a paragraph for example; see also "Styling text and paragraphs" on page177):

1. Select the element (see "Selecting an element" on page105).

On the Format menu select the respective element to open the Formatting dialog.

In the Breaks group, set the before or after property.

Before: Sets whether a page break should occur before the element. This is equivalent to the page-break-before property in CSS; see CSS page-break-before

property for an explanation of the available options.

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Note

You cannot use these properties on an empty <div> or on absolutely positioned elements.

After: Sets whether a page break should occur after the element. Equivalent to the page-break-after property in CSS; see CSS page-break-after property for an explanation of the available options.

Click the button Advanced to add CSS properties and values to the inline style tag directly.

Preventing a page break

To prevent a page break inside a certain element, set the page-break-inside property of that element to avoid:

l Select the element (see "Selecting an element" on page105).

On the Format menu, select the respective element to open the Formatting dialog.

In the Breaks group, set the inside property to avoid, to prevent a page break inside the element. This is equivalent to the page-break-inside property in CSS; see CSS page-

break-inside property for an explanation of all available options.

Adding blank pages to a section

How to add a blank page to a section is described in a how-to: Create blank page on field

value.

Master Pages

In Print sections, there are often elements that need to be repeated across pages, like headers, footers and logos. In addition, some elements should appear only on specific pages, such as only the first page, or the last page, or only on pages in-between. Examples are a different header on the first page, and a tear-off slip that shows up on the last page.

This is what Master Pages are used for. Master Pages can only be used in the Print context (see "Print context" on page56).

Master Pages resemble Print sections, and they are edited in much the same way (see "Editing a Master Page" on the facing page) but they contain a single page and do not have any text

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flow. Only one Master Page can be applied per page in printed output. Then a Print template is created, one master page is added to it automatically. You can add more Master Pages; see "Adding a Master Page" below. Initially, the original Master Page will be applied to all pages, but different Master Pages can be applied to different pages; see "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page76.

Examples

This how-to demonstrates the use of Master Pages to show terms and conditions on the back of the first page of a Print section only:

l Showing a Terms and Conditions on the back of the first page only.

How to use Master Pages to add a tear-off slip to the first page of an invoice is explained in the following how-to :

l A tear-off section on the first page of an invoice.

Adding a Master Page

When a Print template is created, one master page is added to it automatically. Adding more Master Pages can be done as follows:

On the Resources pane, right-click the Master pages folder and click New Master Page.

l Type a name for the master page.

l Optionally, set the margin for the header and footer. See "Master Pages" on the previous

page.

Click OK.

Initially, the master page that has been created together with the Print context will be applied to all pages in the Print section. After adding more Master Pages, different Master Pages can be applied to different pages; see "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" on page76.

Editing a Master Page

Master Pages are edited just like sections, in the workspace. To open a Master Page, expand the Master pages folder on the Resources pane, and double-click the Master Page to open it.

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A Master Page can contain text, images and other elements (see "Content elements" on

Note

Editing the Master Page is optional. One Master Page must always exist in a Print template, but if you don't need it, you can leave it empty.

page101), including variable data and dynamic images (see "Personalizing Content" on page200). All elements on a Master Page should have an absolute position or be inside an element that has an absolute position. It is good practice to position elements on a Master Page by placing them in a Positioned Box (see "Content elements" on page101).

Keep in mind that a Master Page always remains a single page. Its content cannot overflow to a next page. Content that doesn't fit, will not be displayed.

Adding a header and footer

Headers and footers are not designed as part of the contents of a Print section, but as part of a Master Page, which is then applied to a page in a print section.

To create a header and footer:

1. First insert elements that form the header or footer, such as the company logo and address, on the Master Page; see "Editing a Master Page" on the previous page.

2. Next, define the margins for the header and footer. The margins for a header and footer are set in the Master Page properties. This does not change the content placement within the Master Page itself; in Master Pages, elements can go everywhere on the page. Instead, the header and footer of the Master Page limit the text flow on pages in the Print sections to which this Master Page is applied. Pages in a Print section that use this Master Page cannot display content in the space that is reserved by the Master Page for the header and footer, so that content in the Print section does not collide with the content of the header and footer. To set a margin for the header and/or footer:

On the Resources pane, expand the Master pages folder, right-click the master page, and click Properties.

2. Fill out the height of the header and/or the footer. The contents of a print section will not appear in the space reserved for the header and/or footer on the corresponding master page.

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3. Finally, apply the master page to a specific page in a print section. See "Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section" below.

Applying a Master Page to a page in a Print section

Every page in a print section has a natural position: it can be the first page, the last page, one of the pages in between (a 'middle page'), or a single page. For each of those positions, you can set a different Master Page and Media (see "Media" on the next page). It can even have two master pages, if printing is done on both sides (called duplex printing).

To apply Master Pages to specific page positions in a Print section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Print context; right-click the Print section, and click Sheet configuration.

Optionally, check Duplex to enable content to be printed on the back of each sheet. Your printer must support duplex for this option to work. If Duplex is enabled, you can also check Tumble to duplex pages as in a calendar, and Facing pages to have the margins of the section switch alternately, so that pages are printed as if in a magazine or book.

If the option Same for all positions is checked, the same Master Page will be applied to every page in the print section (and to both the front and the back side of the page if duplex printing is enabled). Uncheck this option.

4. Decide which Master Page should be linked to which sheet (position): click the downward pointing arrow after Master Page Front and select a Master Page. If Duplex is enabled, you can also select a Master Page for the back of the sheet and consequently, check Omit Master Page Back in case of an empty back page to omit the specified Master Page on the last backside of a section if that page is empty and to skip that page from the page count.

5. Optionally, decide which Media should be linked to each sheet.

6. Click OK to save the settings and close the dialog.

Deleting a Master Page

To delete a Master Page, expand the Master pages folder on the Resources pane, right-click the master page, and click Delete.

Note that one Master Page as well as one Media must always exist in a Print template. Just leave it empty if you don't need it.

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Media

For further explanation about how to apply Media to different pages, see "Applying Media to a page in a Print section" on page80.

Media will not be printed, unless you want them to; see below.

Per Media, a front and back can be specified and you can specify on what kind of paper the output is meant to be printed on. This includes paper weight, quality, coating and finishing; see "Adding Media" below.

Adding Media

To add a Media, right-click the Media folder on the Resources pane and select New Media.

The new Media is of course empty. You can specify two PDF files for the Media: one for the front, and, optionally, another for the back.

Specifying and positioning Media

Specifying a PDF for the front: the fast way

To quickly select a PDFfile for the front of a Media, import the PDF file by dragging it from the Windows Explorer to the Images folder on the Resources pane. Then drag that the PDF file from the Images folder and drop it on one of the Media in the Media folder. With this method you can not set any options.

To be able to specify a PDF file for both the front and the back of the Media, and to specify a position for the Media's PDF files, you have edit the properties of the Media.

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Setting Media properties

Note

It is not possible to use a remotely stored PDF file as virtual stationery, because the number of pages in a PDF file can not be determined via the http and http protocols. Therefor, with an external image, the option Save with

template is always checked.

Media have a number of properties that you can set, as described below. What you cannot set are a Media's page size and margins. The page size and margins are derived from the section to which the Media is applied.

You can, however, specify a PDF file (or any other type of image file) for both the front and the back of the Media, and specify how the virtual stationery should be positioned on the page. This is done as follows:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, rightclick the Media and click Virtual Stationery.

Click the Select Image button to select a PDF image file.

Click Resources, Disk or Url, depending on where the image is located.

Resources lists the PDF files that are present in the Images folder on the Resources pane.

is:file://<host>/<path>. Note: if the host is"localhost", it can be omitted, resulting infile:///<path>, for example: file:///c:/resources/images/image.jpg.

Check the option Save with template to insert the image into the Images folder on

the Resources pane.

Url allows you to choose an image from a specific web address. Select the protocol (http or https), and then enter the web address (for example, http://www.mysite.com/images/image.jpg).

4. Select a PDF file.

5. If the PDF file consists of more than one page, select the desired page.

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Click Finish.

7. For each of the PDF files, select a position:

Fit to page stretches the PDF to fit the page size.

Centered centers the PDF on the page, vertically and horizontally.

Finally, click OK.

Setting the paper's characteristics

To set a Media's paper characteristics:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, and right-click the Media. Click Characteristics.

2. Specify the paper's characteristics:

Media Type: The type of paper, such as Plain, Continuous, Envelope, Labels, Stationery, etc.

Weight: The intended weight of the media in grammage (g/m2).

Front Coating: The pre-process coating applied to the front surface of the media, such as Glossy, High Gloss, Matte, Satin, etc.

Back Coating: The pre-process coating applied to the back surface of the media.

Texture: The intended texture of the media, such as Antique, Calenared, Linen, Stipple or Vellum.

Grade: The intended grade of the media, such as Gloss-coated paper, Uncoated white paper, etc.

Hole Name: A predefined hole pattern that specifies the pre-punched holes in the media, such as R2-generic, R2m-MIB, R4i-US, etc.

Click OK.

Rename Media

To rename Media:

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Note

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, rightclick the Media and click Rename. Type the new name and click OK.

Alternatively, on the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Media folder, right-click the Media and click Properties. Type the new name in the Name field and click OK.

Applying Media to a page in a Print section

To apply Media to specific page positions in a Print section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Print context; right-click the Print section, and click Sheet configuration.

If the option Same for all positions is checked, the same Media will be applied to every page in the print section. Uncheck this option.

4. Decide which Media should be linked to each sheet position: click the downward pointing arrow after Media and select a Media.

5. Optionally, decide which Master Page should be linked to each sheet; see "Master Pages" on page73.

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Dynamically switching the Media

In addition to applying Media to sheets via the settings, it is possible to change Media dynamically, based on a value in a data field, in a script. The script has already been made; you only have to change the name of the Media and the section in the script, and write the condition on which the Media has to be replaced.

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Print context, rightclick the print section and click Sheet configuration.

2. Decide which pages should have dynamically switching media: every first page in the Print section, every last page, one of the pages in between (a 'middle page'), or a single page. (Uncheck the option Same for all positions, to see all page positions.)

In the area for the respective sheet position, click the Edit script button next to Media. The Script Wizard appears with a standard script:

results.attr("content","Media 1");

Media 1 will have been replaced with the name of the media selected for the chosen sheet position. The field Selector in the Script Wizard contains the name of the section and the sheet position that you have chosen.

4. Change the script so that on a certain condition, another media will be selected for the content. For instance:

if(record.fields.GENDER === 'M') {

results.attr("content","Media 2"); }

This script changes the media to Media 2 for male customers. See "Writing your own scripts" on page221 if you are not familiar with how scripts are written.

Click Apply, open the tab Preview and browse through the records to see if the script functions as expected.

When you click OK, the script will be added to the Scripts pane.

Printing virtual stationery

Media are not printed, unless you want them to. Printing the virtual stationery is one of the settings in a Job Creation Preset. To have the virtual stationery printed as part of the Print output:

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Create a job creation preset that indicates that Media has to be printed: select File > Presets and see "Job Creation Presets" on page399 for more details.

2. Select that job creation preset in the Print Wizard; see "Generating Print output" on page494.

Email

With the Designer you can create one or more Email templates and merge the template with a data set to generate personalized emails.

The Email context is the folder in the Designer that can contain one or more Email templates, also called Email sections. The HTML generated by this context is meant to be compatible with as many clients and as many devices as possible.

Email template

It is strongly recommended to start creating an Email template with a Wizard; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page86. Designing HTML email that displays properly on a variety of devices and screen sizes is challenging. Building an email is not like building for the web. While web browsers comply with standards (to a significant extent), email clients do not. Different email clients interpret the same HTML and CSS styles in totally different ways.

When an Email template is created, either with a Wizard or by adding an Email context to an existing template (see "Adding a context" on page46), the Email context folder is created along with other files that are specific to an Email context; see "Email context" on page90.

Only one Email section is created at the start, but you can add as many Email sections as you need; see "Email templates" on page92. However, when the Designer merges a data set to generate output from the Email context, it can merge only one of the templates with each record; see "Generating Email output" on page508.

Email templates are personalized just like any other template; see "Variable Data" on page209.

Sending email

When the template is ready, you can change the email settings (see "Email header settings" on page95) and send the email. To test a template, you can send a test email first.

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Output, generated from an Email template, can have the following attachments:

l The contents of the Print context, in the form of a single PDF attachment.

l Other files, an image or a PDF leaflet for example.

Attaching the Print context is one of the options in the Send (Test) Email dialog.

See "Email attachments" on page99 and "Generating Email output" on page508.

Designing an Email template

With the Designer you can design Email templates. It is strongly recommended to start creating an Email template with an Email Template Wizard, because it is challenging to design HTML email that looks good on all email clients, devices and screen sizes that customers use when they are reading their email.

This topic explains why designing HTML email design is as challenging as it is, which solutions are used in the Email Template Wizards and it lists good practices, for example regarding the use of images in HTML email. It will help you to create the best possible Email templates in the Designer.

HTMLemail challenges

Creating HTMLemail isn't like designing for the Web. That's because email clients aren't like web browsers. Email clients pass HTML email through a preprocessor to remove anything that could be dangerous, introduce privacy concerns or cause the email client to behave unexpectedly. This includes removing javascript, object and embed tags, and unrecognized tags. Most preprocessors are overly restrictive and remove anything with the slightest potential to affect the layout of their email client. Next, the HTML has to be rendered so that it is safe to show within the email client. Unfortunately, desktop, webmail, and mobile clients all use different rendering engines, which support different subsets of HTML and CSS. More often than not, the result of these operations is that they completely break the HTML email's layout.

Designing HTML email in PrintShop MailDesigner

The problem of HTML email is that preprocessing and rendering engines break the HTML email's layout. HTML tables, however, are mostly left untroubled. As they are supported by every major email client, they are pretty much the only way to design HTML emails that are universally supported. That's why Tables are heavily used to position text and images in HTML email.

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Nesting tables (putting tables in table cells) and applying CSS styles to each table cell to make

Tip

Click the Edges button on the toolbar to make borders of elements visible on the Design tab. The borders will not be visible on the Preview tab or in the output.

the email look good on all screen sizes is a precision work that can be a tedious and demanding. Connect's Designer offers the following tools to make designing HTML email easier.

Email templates: Slate and others

The most obvious solution offered in the Designer is to use one of the templates provided with the Designer; see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page86. The layout of these templates has been tested and proven to look good in any email client, on any device and screen size. The Tables in these templates are nested (put inside another table) and they have no visible borders, so readers won't notice them.

Emmet

Emmet is a plugin that enables the lightning-fast creation of HTML code though the use of a simple and effective shortcut language. The Emmet functionality is available in the HTML and CSS source editors of Connect Designer. Emmet transforms abbreviations for HTML elements and CSS properties to the respective source code. The expansion of abbreviations is invoked with the Tab key.

In the Source tab of the Workspace, you could for example type div.row. This is the abbreviation for a <div> element with the class row. On pressing the Tab key, this abbreviation is transformed to:

To quickly enter a table with the ID 'green', one row, and two cells in that row, type:

table#green>tr>td*2

On pressing the Tab key, this is transformed to:

<tr>

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</tr>

</table>

All standard abbreviations can be found in Emmet's documentation: Abbreviations.

To learn more about Emmet, please see their website: Emmet.io and the Emmet.io documentation: http://docs.emmet.io/.

Preferences

To change the way Emmet works in the Designer, select Window > Preferences, and in the Preferences dialog, select Emmet; see "Emmet Preferences" on page286.

Using CSS files with HTML email

Email clients do not read CSS files and some even remove a <style> tag when it is present in the email's header. Nevertheless, CSS files can be used with the Email context in the Designer. When generating output from the Email context, the Designer converts all CSS rules that apply to the content of the email to inline style tags, as if local formatting was applied.

Using images in email campaigns: tips

Host images on a public server

In the Designer you can add images as resource to the template document. When used in email messages these images are automatically embedded on sending the email. These embedded images appear instantly when viewing the message in your email client. There is, however, a downside to this method: embedded images can't be used to track email open rates. Email services like mandrillapp.com embed a tiny tracer image at the bottom of your message. Each time a recipient opens the email the tracer image (aka beacon image) is downloaded and yet another 'open' is registered. On mobile devices this happens when the user clicks the Display Images button. So, when tracking open rates in your email campaigns, store your images on a publiclyaccessible server (preferably your own server - you could set up a process in Workflow to serve images and track open rates) or a reputable image hosting service, like photobucket.com. Don't forget to set the Alternate Text for your images on the Attributes pane.

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Do not capture your email in one big image

Most e-mail clients do not automatically download images, so do not capture your email in one big image. The recipient initially sees a blank message and probably deletes it right away.

Do not resize images in your email

Many mail clients do not support image resizing and will show the image in its original dimensions. Resize the images before you link to or embed them.

Use background images wisely

Most mail clients do not support background images: a very good reason to stay away from them in your mainstream email campaign. There is one situation in which they do come in handy. Both iPhone and Android default mail have solid CSS support and cover most of the mobile marketspace. You could use background images to substitute images when viewed on these devices. This is done by hiding the actual image and showing a mobile-friendly image as background image instead. This is a technique used in Responsive Email Design.

Creating an Email template with a Wizard

With the Designer you can design Email templates as well as PDF attachments. PDF attachments are designed in the Print context; see "Print context" on page56.

It is strongly recommended to start creating an Email template with a Wizard, because designing HTML email that displays properly on a variety of devices and screen sizes is challenging. Email clients can, and will, interpret the same HTML and (inline) CSS in totally different ways (see "Designing an Email template" on page83).

With an Email Template Wizard you can easily create an Email template that outputs emails that look good on virtually any email client, device and screen size.

After creating an Email template, the other contexts can be added to it, as well as other sections (see "Contexts" on page45 and "Email templates" on page92).

To create an Email template with a Template Wizard:

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In the Welcome screen that appears after startup:

Choose Browse Template Wizards. Scroll down until you see the Email Template Wizards. There are three types of Email Template Wizards:

l Basic Email templates

l Banded Email templates

l Slate: Responsive Email templates by Litmus.

Or choose Create a New Template and select the Email template. This starts the Basic Action Email wizard.

Alternatively, on the File menu, click New, and:

l Select Email Template. This starts the Basic Action Email wizard.

Or expand the Template folder, and then expand the Basic Email templates folder, the Banded Email templates folder, or the Slate: Responsive Email Templates by Litmus folder.

See "Email Template Wizards" on the facing page for information about the various types of Template Wizards.

Select a template and click Next. If you don't know what template to choose, see below; the characteristics of each kind of template are described further down in this topic.

3. Make adjustments to the initial settings (the options for each type of template are listed below). Click Next to go to the next settings page if there is one.

Click Finish to create the template.

The Wizard creates:

l An Email context with one section in it. The section contains dummy text and one or more

selectors for variable data, for example: "Hello @first@". You will want to replace those by the names of fields in your data. See "Variable Data" on page209. The Invoice email template also contains a Dynamic Table; see Dynamic table.

One script, named "To". Double-click that script on the Scripts pane to open it. This script ensures that the email is sent to an email address that is specified in a data field called "email-to". After loading data, you can change the script so that it uses the actual field in your data that holds the customer's email address. See "Email header settings" on page95

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l A style sheet, named context_htmlemail_styles.css, and another style sheet depending

Tip

Use the Outline pane at the left to see which elements are present in the template and to select an element.

Use the Attributes pane at the right to see the current element's ID, class and some other properties.

Use the Styles pane next to the Attributes pane to see which styles are applied to the currently selected element.

Tip

Click the Edges button on the toolbar to highlight borders of elements on the Design tab. The borders will not be visible on the Preview tab.

on which Template Wizard was used. The style sheets can be found in the Stylesheets folder on the Resources pane.

The Wizard opens the Email section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page101, "Email context" on page90, and "Email templates" on page92.

Note that the contents of the email are arranged in tables. The many tables in an Email template ensure that the email looks good on virtually any email client, device and screen size. As the tables have no borders, they are initially invisible.

Email Template Wizards

There are Wizards for three kinds of Email templates: for Basic Email, for Banded Email, and Slate templates for responsive email designed by Litmus.

Slate: Responsive Email Templates by Litmus

Scroll past the Web Template Wizards to see the Slate: Responsive Email templates, created by Litmus (see https://litmus.com/resources/free-responsive-email-templates).

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More than 50% of emails are opened on mobile. These five responsive HTML email templates

Tip

After creating the email template, click the Responsive Design View icon at the top of the workspace to see how the email looks on different screen sizes.

are optimized for small screens and they look great in any inbox. They’ve been tested in Litmus and are completely bulletproof.

The only thing you can set in advance for a Slate template is the color of the call-to-action button. Enter a hexadecimal color code. The color value must be a valid HTML Color Name, or a valid hexadecimal color code. To get a hexadecimal color code, you could use an online color picker tool (such as w3schools' Color Picker). The color can be changed later; see "Colors" on page192.

Basic Email and Banded Email

The difference between Basic and Banded email is that the contents of a Basic email extend to the email's margin, rather than to the edge of the window in which it is read, as the contents of Banded emails do. The Banded Email Action Template is a simple call-to-action email with a message, header and a button linking to a website, such as an informational or landing page. The Banded Email Invoice Template is an invoice with an optional Welcome message and Pay Now button.

Settings

For a Blank email you can not specify any settings in the Wizard.

For an Action or Invoice email, the Email Template Wizard lets you choose:

l The subject. You can change and personalize the subject later, see "Email header

settings" on page95.

l The text for the header. The header is the colored part at the top. The text can be edited

later.

l The color of the header and the color of the button. The color value must be a valid HTML

Color Name, or a valid hexadecimal color code. To get a hexadecimal color code, you

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could use an online color picker tool (such as W3Schools' Color Picker). The color can be

Note

Detail tables can not be used in PrintShopMail Connect. They are created with the DataMapper module that is included in PlanetPress Connect and PreS Connect.

changed later; see "Colors" on page192.

l The web address where the recipient of the email will be taken after clicking the button in

the email. Type the URL in the Link field.

In addition, for an Invoice email you can change the following content settings:

Show Welcome Message. Check this option to insert a salutation and one paragraph with dummy text in the email.

Detail Table Name. Type the name of a detail table to fill the lines of the invoice with data. In the Designer, a detail table is a field in the Data Model that contains a variable number of items (usually transactional data).

Email context

In the Designer the Email context is the folder that contains Email templates. From the Email context, output can be generated in the form of email (see below).

When an Email template is created (see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page86) or when an Email context is added to a template (see "Adding a context" on page46) the following happens:

The Email context is created and one Email section is added to it. You can see this on the Resources pane: expand the Contexts folder, and then expand the Email folder. See "Email templates" on page92 to learn how to fill an Email section.

Although only one email can be sent per record when generating Email output, the Email context can contain multiple sections. One Email section is created at the start, but you can add more; see "Adding an Email template" on page93.

l A style sheet, named context_htmlemail_styles.css, is added to the template. Depending

on which Template Wizard was used to create the template, another style sheet can be added as well. Style sheets are located in the folder Stylesheets on the Resources

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pane. These style sheets are meant to be used for styles that are only applied to elements

Note

To split the Print context into multiple attachments, or to attach multiple Web sections as separate attachments, you need to create a Control Script that specifies parts; see "Parts: splitting and renaming email attachments" on page 244.

in the Email context.

The Wizard opens the Email section, so that you can fill it with text and other elements; see "Content elements" on page101 and "Email templates" on the facing page.

Sending email

When the template is ready, you can generate Email output; See "Generating Email output" on page508. To test a template, you can send a test email first.

Output, generated from an Email template, can have the following attachments:

l The contents of the Print context, in the form of a single PDF attachment.

l Other files, an image or a PDF leaflet for example.

Attaching the Print context is one of the options in the Send (Test) Email dialog.

See "Email attachments" on page99.

Email output settings

The following settings in an Email context influence how the Email output is generated.

Compressing PDF attachments

For PDF attachments, generated from the Print context, you can set the Print Context Image Compression to determine the quality of the files, and with that, the size of the files.

To set the Print Context Image Compression:

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On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, and right-click the Email context.

Click Properties.

3. Change the properties of the PDF file that will be attached when the Print context is attached to the email. Lossless is the maximum quality. Note that this will produce a larger PDF file. Uncheck this option to be able to set a lower quality. The quality is set in a percentage of the maximum quality. Tile Size is the size of the files in which the image that is being compressed is divided. (If the image height or width is not an even multiple of the tile size, partial tiles are used on the edges.) Image data for each tile is individually compressed and can be individually decompressed. When low Quality values are used to optimize images smaller than 1024 x 1024 pixels, using the largest tile size will produce better results.

Setting a default section for output

When generating output from the Email context, only one of the Email templates can be merged with each record. One of the Email sections is the 'default'; see "Setting a default Email template for output" on page95.

Email templates

Email templates (also called Email sections) are part of the Email context in a template. The Email context outputs HTML email with embedded formatting to an email client through the use of an email server. Since email clients are numerous and do not support same features, the HTML generated by this context is not optimized for any specific client - rather, it's meant to be compatible with as many clients and as many devices as possible.

In Email templates, many content elements can be used; see "Content elements" on page101. However, special attention must be paid to the way elements are positioned. In Email sections, it is advisable to position elements using Tables and to put text in table cells.

Email templates are personalized just like any other template; see "Variable Data" on page209.

The subject, recipients (To, CC and BCC), sender and reply-to address are specified with Email Script Wizards; see "Email header settings" on page95.

An Email context can contain multiple templates. When generating output from the Email context, however, only one of the Email templates can be merged with each record. Set the

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'default' Email section (see below) before generating Email output; see also "Generating Email

Warning

output" on page508.

Adding an Email template

When an Email template is created (see "Creating an Email template with a Wizard" on page86), only one Email section is added to it. An Email context may contain various templates, but per record only one of those can be sent when you generate Email output.

It is not possible to add an Email section to an existing Email context with the help of a Template Wizard.

To provide alternative content for your email, you could use Conditional Content (see "Showing content conditionally" on page217), or Snippets and a script (see "Snippets" on page166 and "Loading a snippet via a script" on page237).

If you would like to start with a template that is identical to the one you already have, consider copying it (see "Copying a section" on page47).

To add a section to the Email context:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, right-click the Email folder, and then click New Email.

Deleting an Email template

To delete an Email section:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, expand the Email context, rightclick the name of the section, and then click Delete.

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backup functions in the preferences (see "Saving Preferences" on page291).

Styling and formatting an Email template

Tip

Before you can style an element, you have to select it. In an Email context it can be difficult to select an element by clicking on it. Use the breadcrumbs at the top and the Outline pane at the left, to select an element. See "Selecting an element" on page105.

The contents of an Email section can be formatted directly, or styled with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). See "Styling and formatting" on page168.

In order for a style sheet to be applied to a specific section, it needs to be included in that section. There are two ways to do this.

Drag & drop a style sheet

1. Click and hold the mouse button on the style sheet on the Resources pane.

2. Move the mouse cursor within the Resources pane to the section to which the style sheet should be applied.

3. Release the mouse button.

Using the Includes dialog

On the Resources pane, right-click the section, then click Includes.

2. Choose which CSS files should be applied to this section. You can also change the order in which the CSS files are read. This can have an effect on which CSS rule is applied in the end.

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Setting a default Email template for output

Tip

Use a Control Script to dynamically select an Email section for output depending on the value of a data field.

An Email context can contain multiple templates. When generating output from the Email context, however, only one of the Email templates can be merged with each record.

To select the Email section that will be output by default:

On the Resources pane, expand the Email context, right-click a section and click Set as Default.

Email header settings

Email header settings define the information that goes into the header of each email that is generated from an Email template.

The default Email SMTP settings and the sender's name and address are defined in the Connect Designer preferences and can be adjusted per run in the Send Email and Send Test Email dialogs.

The subject, the recipients (To, CC and BCC), the sender and the reply-to address can be specified with Email Script wizards.

Tip: Load data first, so you can create Email Scripts that use a field in your data. See "Loading data" on page202.

Email SMTP settings

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the standard protocol for sending emails across the Internet.

Default SMTP settings can be specified in the Preferences dialog: select Window > Preferences, expand the Email preferences and click SMTP.

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You can add as many presets as needed, for example for different Email Service Providers

Note

When updating the software from a version prior to version 1.5, pre-existing presets will be maintained in the new version.

(see "Using an ESP with PrintShop Mail Connect" on page510). To do this, click the Add button at the right. Then fill out the following settings:

Name: The name of the preset. This will show up in the Send Email dialog.

Host: The SMTP server through which the emails are to be sent. This can be a host (mail.domain.com) or an IP address.

Port: You can specify a port number. This will be added to the host name, for example: smtp.mandrillapp.com:465.

Use authentication: Check this option and fill in the user name if a user name and password are needed to send emails through the host. (The password has to be specified in the Send Email or Send Test Email dialog.)

Start TLS: This option is enabled if authentication is checked. It sends emails through Transport Layer Security (TLS), which is sometimes referred to as SSL.

When you click the Restore button, the presets for a number of Email Service Providers will appear.

In the "Send Email" on page304 and "Send Test Email" on page305 dialogs you will be able to choose one of the presets and adjust the settings to your needs.

Subject

To specify a subject for an email template:

On the Resources pane, expand the Contexts folder, and expand the Email section.

Right-click the section of which the subject should change and click Properties. Now you can change the subject.

Creating a dynamic subject with variable data

To replace an Email section's subject by a dynamic subject:

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On the Scripts pane, click the black triangle on the New button and click Email Subject Script. A new script named Subject is added to the Scripts pane.

2. Double-click the new script to open it.

3. Select a data field and type a prefix and/or suffix.

The result of this script will appear in the email as the subject line.

To create a dynamic subject without variable data, or to create a subject that depends on the value of a data field, click Expand and modify the script. If you don't know how to write a script, see "Writing your own scripts" on page221.

Recipients: To, CC and BCC

The Email To Script Wizard defines the email address to which the email will be sent. The Email CC Script Wizard and the Email BCC Script Wizard define additional email addresses to which the email will be sent.

The To and CC email addresses will be visible to all of the recipients. The BCC ('blind carbon copy') email address(es) will not be visible to any of the other recipients.

To specify recipients for Email output:

On the Scripts pane, click the black triangle on the New button and click Email To Script, Email CC Script or Email BCC script. A new script is added to the Scripts pane.

2. Double-click the new script to open it.

3. Select a data field that holds an email address.

The result of this script goes in the email's To, CC, or BCC address field, respectively. It should be a valid, fully-formed email address.

Sender

From address

A default From name and email address can be specified in the Preferences dialog: select Window > Preferences, expand the Email preferences and click General.

This name and email address will appear as the default in the "Send Email" on page304 and "Send Test Email" on page305 dialogs.

To dynamically specify a From address you have to use the Email From Script Wizard:

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Tip

A dynamical From address is often used when sending email campaigns and to do tracking of email replies. Include the recipient's email address in the From address to enable automatic detection and removal of undeliverable e-mail addresses. (This technique is called VERP; see Wikipedia).

On the Scripts pane, click the black triangle on the New button and click Email From Script. A new script is added to the Scripts pane.

2. Double-click the new script to open it.

3. Select a data field that holds an email address.

The result of this script overwrites the address given in the Send Email dialog or Send Test Email dialog. It should be a valid, fully-formed email address.

Reply-To address

The Reply-To address has to be specified in a script:

On the Scripts pane, click the black triangle on the New button and click Email From Script or Email Reply-To Script. A new script is added to the Scripts pane.

2. Double-click the new script to open it.

3. Select a data field that holds an email address.

The result of this script should be a valid, fully-formed email address.

Email PDF password

The Email PDF Password Script Wizard defines a password with which to protect the PDF generated when using the Print context as PDF Attachment option in the Send Email or Send Test Email dialogs (see "Generating Email output" on page508). The result of the script will be the password necessary to open the PDF when it is received by email.

To define a password to protect the generated PDF attachment:

On the Scripts pane, click the black triangle on the New button and click Email PDF password Script. A new script is added to the Scripts pane.

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2. Double-click the new script to open it.

Note

If a template has a Control Script that creates multiple PDF attachments, all the attachments are secured by the same password.

Note

Via a Control Script it is possible to set a different user password and owner password, see "Control Script: Securing PDF attachments" on page 251, "Control Scripts" on page 239 and "Control Script API" on page 476.

Note

To split the Print context into multiple attachments, or to attach multiple Web sections as separate

3. Select a data field and optionally, type a prefix and/or suffix.

Password types

PDF allows for two types of passwords to be set on a secured PDF file: a user password and owner password. The user password allows a limited access to the file (e.g. printing or copying text from the PDF is not allowed). The owner password allows normal access to the file. The Email PDF password script sets both the user and owner password to the same value, so that when the recipient provides the password, he can manipulate the file without limitations.

Email attachments

Output, generated from an Email template, can have the following attachments:

l The contents of the Print context, in the form of a single PDF attachment.

l Other files, an image or a PDF leaflet for example.

Attaching the Print context is one of the options in the Send (Test) Email dialog.

By default, when adding the Print context to an email, all Print sections are output to a single PDF file, named after the email subject, which is then attached to the email. The PDF can be protected with a password (see "Email PDF password" on the previous page).

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attachments, you need to create a Control Script that specifies parts; see "Parts: splitting and renaming email attachments" on page 244.

This topic explains how to attach files other than those generated by the Print or Web context. This is also described in a how-to; see Add custom email attachments.

Attaching external files

To attach files other than those generated by the Print or Web context to Email output:

1. Add the files to the template; see Adding images, or put them in a folder that is available to the machine that outputs the emails.

Create a script: on the Scripts pane at the bottom left, click New. A new script appears in the list. Double-click on it to open it. If you are not familiar with scripts, see "Writing your own scripts" on page221 for an explanation of how scripts work.

3. Change the name of the script, so that it reflects what the script does.

Choose the option Selector and in the Selector field, type head.

5. Write a script that appends a <link> element to the results (the selector is head, so the results contain the <head> of the email).

Make sure to set the rel attribute to related.

The href attribute determines where the file comes from. For resources inside of the template, use 'images/file.extension' , or 'fonts/myfont.otf', etc. For external resources, you need the full path to the file, such as 'file:///c:/resources/attachments/instructions.pdf'. Of course, you can also use dynamic calls such as 'file:///c:/clientfiles/' +

record.fields.client_id + '/invoices/' + record.fields.invoice_number + '.pdf'.

Examples

The following script attaches a PDF file named letter-CU00048376.pdf to each generated email. The PDF file is located in the Images folder on the Resources panel.

results.append("<link rel='related' href='images/letterCU00048376.pdf'>");

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Objectif Lune PrintShop Mail Connect - 1.6 Operation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Table of Contents

Setup And Configuration

System and Hardware Considerations

System Requirements

Environment considerations

Database Considerations

Network considerations

Language and Encoding considerations

Performance Considerations

Installation and Activation

Installation Pre-Requisites

User accounts and security

Installing PrintShop Mail Connect on Machines without Internet Access

Installation Wizard

Running Connect Installer in Silent Mode

Activating a License

Migrating to a new computer

Uninstalling

Impacts upon other Applications and Services

Uninstallation Wizard

The Designer

Basic Steps

Features

Templates

Contexts

Sections

Print

Creating a Print template with a Wizard

Print context

Print sections

Pages

Master Pages

Media

Email

Designing an Email template

Creating an Email template with a Wizard

Email context

Email templates

Email header settings

Email attachments