PPUserGuide_Ch2

Chapter 2 ‐ Designing Documents

This chapter describes how to design a document. It contains the following sections:

• Overview

• Using the Design Interface

• Setting up the Workspace Window

• Using the Design Button

• Using the Ribbon

• Using the Quick Access Toolbar

• Accessing Object Properties

• Stylizing Objects

Overview

Document design encompasses many features of PlanetPress software including but not limited to the following:

• PlanetPress design interface with a PlanetPress Button, PlanetPress Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, Docking Window, and Design Objects Properties

• Styles and text objects

• Working with objects

• Variables and conditions

• Picture objects

• Metadata

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Using the Design Interface

Using the Design Interface

The design interface (see Figure 2) enables you to select common editing tools from the Design Button (red button), gives you quick access to the most common actions that you perform (Ribbon), enables you to configure what buttons you use the most (Quick Access Toolbar), and contains a docking window.

Figure 2 PlanetPress Design Interface

Setting up the Workspace Window

You can configure a workspace that works for you. You can drag and drop the Document Structure Pane (see Figure 3), Object Inspector Pane (see Figure 4), Talk Messages Pane (see Figure 5), and Data Pane (see Figure 6) from the Ribbon to the workspace area in whatever order that makes sense to you.

Note: You can reset the pane positions anytime by restarting PlanetPress Design and holding the CTRL key down while it restarts.

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Figure 3 Document Structure Pane

Figure 4 Object Inspector Pane

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Figure 5 PlanetPress Talk Messages Pane

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Using the Design Button

Figure 6 Data Pane

Using the Design Button

When you right-click on the big, red Design Button and drop-down menu displays. This menu contains the common Windows actions plus the options shown in Figure 7.

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Using the Ribbon

Figure 7 Design Button

Using the Ribbon

The Ribbon contains five tabs: Home, View, Page Layout, and Help (see Figure 8). The options change depending on which tab you are using. For example, in the Home tab, you can select and zoom a specific section of a window, cut, copy, and paste and use many more options.

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Using the Quick Access Toolbar

Figure 8 Design Ribbon

Using the Quick Access Toolbar

You can configure the toolbar with the most used tools by dragging and dropping the icons into the toolbar. If you hover your mouse over an icon, a pop-up displays its function. Figure 9 shows the toolbar.

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Accessing Object Properties

Figure 9 Quick Access Toolbar


There are three ways to access an object’s properties. First, you can right-click on the object, and click Properties in the menu. See Figure 10. Or, you can double-click the object (see Figure 11), or open the Object Inspector (see Figure 12) and modify the object directly.

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Figure 10 Object Properties

Figure 11 Basic Attributes

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Stylizing Objects

Figure 12 Barcode Options

Stylizing Objects

The term “style” generally means attributes assigned to a character or paragraph. The attributes can be the font type, size, color, bold, italic, or in the case of a paragraph, the attributes can be left indent, left-aligned, or justified, font face, etc. Styles determine the “look” of an object or a page in PlanetPress software. See Figure 13.

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Stylizing Objects

Figure 13 Styles and the Affected Text

New Style

To create a new style, perform the following steps.

1. Go to Home > Style > New. See Figure 14.

Figure 14 Creating New Style from Ribbon

OR

2. Right-click the style itself in the Document Structure Pane A drop-down menu displays as shown in Figure 15.

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Stylizing Objects

Figure 15 Style Drop-Down Menu

3. Click Style and the Style Properties window displays. See Figure 16.

Figure 16 Style Properties Window

4. Define the font type as PostScript (PS) or True Type (TT).

5. Select the host as single byte.

6. Select the font name.

7. Keep the default encoding.

8. Choose the font size.

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Stylizing Objects

9. Assign a name in the “Design Name” field and the “PP Talk ID” field. the name should be something relevant to what the style does to the object or page.

10. Click OK.

Style Test

To test the style, perform the following steps.

1. Add a text object in the Workspace Pane by clicking Text in the PlanetPress Ribbon. A text properties window and a menu on the left displays as shown in Figure 17. The style that you just created is the default now.

Figure 17 Text Object Window

Note: You can create another style in this window by clicking the font icon (capital “A”). See Figure 18. Repeat Steps 2 through 8. Remember to select the PPD that matches the printer that you want to use if you going to use a PS font.

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Stylizing Objects

Figure 18 Creating Another Style in the Text Window

2. Input some text in the text box area.

3. Highlight the text and select the style you want to use. If the text changes, your new style works.

4. Click OK.

Style Application to Data

To apply a style to data, perform the following steps.

1. Open the Sample Data page.

2. Highlight the text in the Sample Data Pane to change.

3. Drag and drop into Workspace. the new data selections displays in the Document Structure Pane. See Figure 19.

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Stylizing Objects

Figure 19 Data Selection

4. Drag the new style from the Styles folder to the new data page and drop the style on the appropriate item. For example, if you created a style for name and address for an invoice, drop that style on the name and address area of the invoice. See Figure 20.

Figure 20 New Style Created for an Invoice

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Adding Metadata Fields


To add a metadata field, perform the following steps.

1. Choose Home | Document | Metadata Field, or right-click on Metadata Fields in the Document Structure Pane and click Metadata Field.

2. Enter the PlanetPress Talk ID, the unique identifier for your new metadata field (Note that Metadata objects do not possess a Display Name attribute).

3. Choose the Level where your new field should be created in the metadata structure.

4. Use the Fields list to add metadata fields, providing a Value, a Condition (optional) and a Create action.

5. Click OK.

Metadata Field Properties

PlanetPress Talk ID is an unique identifier for a metadata field. The name you choose should be descriptive. Names are case insensitive and must be unique. No two elements in a document can have the same name. Names can be a maximum of 50 characters in length.

The name cannot begin with a number and can contain only the following ASCII characters:

• Underscore (_)

• Upper- and lower-case letters

• All digits 0 through 9

Note: If you use an underscore, it should not be the first or last character of the name because this causes internal conflicts in the software.

Warning! PlanetPress Talk variables and command names are reserved words. You cannot use any of these reserved words as an PlanetPress Talk ID.

Levels are hierarchical in which the new field gets created. Fields are attributes for the field created and contain the following:

• Value: Actual value of the new field.

• Condition: Global or local condition that determines whether or not the field gets created.

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• Create action: Behavior of a field if the added field already exists.

• Add button: New element to add to the metadata field which creates an array of metadata values within it.

• Delete button: Given value gets removed from the metadata field.

• Move up/Move down buttons: Order gets modified within the metadata field.

Document Pages

There are three ways to add new blank pages as follows:

1. Go to Home > Page.

OR

2. Right-click on the Pages folder in the Document structure and click the Page icon.

OR

3. Right-click on any element under the Pages folder of the Document structure and click Add > Page.

New pages display at the end of the document structure.

Page Order

To edit the order of pages in a document, perform the following steps.

1. Go to Document Structure and select the page.

2. Drag it to its new position and drop. As you drag, a blue bar displays the new position of the page if you release the mouse button at that point.

Duplicate Pages

To duplicate one or more pages, perform the following steps.

1. Select the page to duplicate in the Document Structure.

2. Go to Page Layout > Duplicate.

OR

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3. Press Ctrl-D to duplicate the page.

Page Deletions

To delete one or more pages, perform the following steps.

1. Select the page to delete in the Document Structure.

2. Press the Delete key.

OR

3. Right-click the page and click Delete.

If no elements in the document reference any of the selected pages, PlanetPress deletes the page. If any elements in the document reference any of the selected pages, PlanetPress prompts you to define how you want to handle the deletion of each of the referenced pages.

To use the Page Deletion dialog box, perform the following steps.

1. Adjust the options to reflect how you want PlanetPress to handle the deletion. The name of the page you selected for deletion displays in the title bar of the Page Deletion dialog box, and the list of elements that reference it display on the right of the dialog box. You have the following options:

• Replace reference by: Deletes the page and replaces all references to it with a reference to another page in the document.

• Pages available: Selects the replacement page. You can use the Page button to create a new page to add to this list.

• Page button: Creates a new page.

• Delete: Deletes the page and all document elements that reference it.

2. Click OK.

Object Layering Order

Is the order in which objects display in the Document Structure area significant? The order you use determines the order in which the document gets executed as well as which object displays on top when two objects overlap.

You can think of each object as existing on its own layer. As you add objects, you add layers. The most recently added object always occupies the foreground layer. In the Document Structure, the topmost object occupies the background layer.

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If two objects overlap, the one closest to the foreground displays on top. If you have several objects you want to place on top of or under another object or group, you can group the objects into a single unit and edit the layering order of the group.

To edit the layering order of objects, go to Page Layout > Arrange > Order in the PlanetPress main menu. Choose any of the following:

• Bring Forward: Move the selected objects or groups forward one layer. This also results in moving the selected objects or groups downward one spot in the Document Structure.

• Send Backward: Move the selected objects or groups backward one layer. This also results in moving the selected objects or groups upward one spot in the Document Structure.

• Bring to Front: Move the selected objects or groups to the very front of all layers. This also results in moving the selected objects or groups to the bottom of the Document Structure.

• Send to Back: Move the selected objects or groups to the very back of all layers. This also results in moving the selected objects or groups to the top of the Document Structure.

Group and Ungroup Objects

A group is a set of objects that act as a single unit. A group can be individual objects, groups, or both. There is no restriction on the type of object you can include in a group, or on the number of different types of objects you can include in a single group. However, any objects and groups you want to include in the group must exist on the same page of a document.

To create a group, perform the following steps.

1. Select the objects and/or groups you want to include in the group.

2. Go to Page Layout > Arrange > Group.

To ungroup a group, perform the following steps.

1. Select the group to ungroup in the Document Structure or the Page area.

2. Go to Page Layout > Arrange > Ungroup.

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PPUserGuide_Ch2

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