Easycatalog Manual 691a6w

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EASYCATALOG FOR ADOBE® INDESIGN®

GUIDE 65bit Software Ltd

Revision History Version

Date

Remarks

2.0.0

13 July 2005

First draft for InDesign CS2 modifications.

2.0.1

8 Nov. 2005

Synchronised English and French versions of manual

2.1.0

13 March 2006

2.1.1

25 May 2006

3.0.0

6 July 2007

3.0.1

12 October 2007

3.0.2

18 March 2008

3.0.3

16 January 2009

Added new features added since 18 March

5.0.0

1 October 2010

Modifications for CS5 version, addition of Custom Fields reference

6.0.0

14 June 2012

Modifications for the release of EasyCatalog 2.1 Addition of chapter for the EasyCatalog Record Added functionality from Release Notes, new CS3 release. Added missing ‘Fill Proportionally’ picture import option Modifications to fix grammatical problems, clarification on some points.

Modifications for CS6 version, additional functions added to Custom Fields reference, Pagination Rules Reference.

© Copyright 2005 - 2012 65bit Software Limited. All Rights reserved. Reproduction or copying prohibited. Adobe and InDesign are either trademarks or ed trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED.......................................... 17 Welcome......................................................................................... 17 What is EasyCatalog?.................................................................... 17 Demo Version................................................................................. 19 Purchasing EasyCatalog................................................................ 19 Activating EasyCatalog.................................................................. 19 Common Activation Errors............................................................. 20 Transferring an Activation............................................................... 21 Keeping Up To Date....................................................................... 22 Questions......................................................................... 22 Integration opportunities................................................................ 22 Resellers......................................................................................... 22 Package Contents.......................................................................... 23 Editing Documents Without EasyCatalog Loaded......................... 24

CHAPTER 2 IMPORTING YOUR DATA................................. 25 Introduction.................................................................................... 25 Data Provider Modules................................................................... 25 Importing Your Data....................................................................... 26 Importing From a File..................................................................... 26 Formatting Fields................................................................. 29 Importing the Data.......................................................................... 29 Common Errors and Warnings....................................................... 29 Data Caching And The Workspace Folder..................................... 32 Specifying a Workspace Folder........................................... 32 Deleting a Data Source.................................................................. 32

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 3 FIELD OPTIONS............................................... 33 Introduction.................................................................................... 33 Editing Field Options...................................................................... 33 The Field Options Dialog................................................................ 34 Field Format................................................................................... 34 Alphanumeric....................................................................... 34 Formatted........................................................... 35 HTML.................................................................. 35 Ignore White Space Changes............................. 36 Number................................................................................ 36 General options.............................................................................. 37 Currency............................................................................... 37 Custom Formats.................................................................. 37 Formatting String................................................................. 38 Formatting String Samples................................. 38 Hyperlink.............................................................................. 40 Imported Text....................................................................... 40 General Formatting Options........................................................... 41 Style..................................................................................... 41 Prefix.................................................................................... 42 Suffix.................................................................................... 42 Cleansing Options................................................................ 42 Regular Expressions........................................... 43 Importing Cleansing Options............................................... 43 InDesign Metacharacters/Special Characters..................... 43 Picture Import Options................................................................... 45 Image File Location Attributes............................................. 47 Importing Images from a File System.................................. 47 Extension.............................................................................. 47 Replacement Image............................................................. 49 Database Update........................................................................... 49 Advanced Options.......................................................................... 50 Source Data Number Format............................................... 50 Field Group........................................................................... 50 Language............................................................................. 51 Exclude from ‘Update ’............................................... 51 Exclude from ‘Update Document’........................................ 51 Fill Down On Synchronize.................................................... 51 Flag Empty Pictures as Errors.............................................. 52 Importing and Exporting Field Options.......................................... 52 Export................................................................................... 52 Import................................................................................... 52

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 4 FIELD FORMATTING TAGS.............................. 53 Introduction.................................................................................... 53 Default Formatting Tags................................................................. 54 Defining Formatting Tags............................................................... 55 Status Column..................................................................... 55 Tag........................................................................................ 55 Action................................................................................... 55 Creating a new Tag......................................................................... 56 Editing a tag................................................................................... 57 Deleting a tag................................................................................. 57 Exporting Tag Definitions............................................................... 57 Importing Tag Definitions................................................................ 57

CHAPTER 5 EASYCATALOG S.................................. 59 Introduction.................................................................................... 59 Opening a new EasyCatalog Data ....................................... 59 Overview............................................................................... 60 The InDesign ‘Window’ menu........................................................ 61 Table Rows..................................................................................... 61 The Status Column.............................................................. 61 Status Colours..................................................................... 62 Finding Fields in the Document...................................................... 62 Placed Fields........................................................................ 62 Error...................................................................................... 62 Selecting Rows and Fields............................................................. 63 Field Selection...................................................................... 63 Row Selection...................................................................... 63 Marquee Selection............................................................... 63 Editing Data In The ............................................................... 64 Reordering Rows............................................................................ 64 Sorting.................................................................................. 64 Sub-sorting.......................................................................... 64 Manually re-ordering rows................................................... 64 Reordering Columns...................................................................... 65 Showing and Hiding Columns........................................................ 65 Fixing the Position of Columns...................................................... 65 Grouping Data................................................................................ 66 Creating Groups............................................................................. 66 Grouping Configuration Dialog....................................................... 66 Adding a field to the grouping.............................................. 66 Removing a field from the grouping..................................... 67 Display alternative field as header’...................................... 67 Grouped s.............................................................................. 68 How Sorting and Reordering Can Help With Pagination............... 68 Locking a .............................................................................. 69

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 5 (CONTINUED)

Loading and Saving Configurations..................................... 69 Saving a configuration................................................ 69 Loading a configuration.............................................. 70 Exporting and importing configurations..................... 70 Defining a Default Configuration.......................................... 70 Closing a .............................................................................. 71 Hiding a ...................................................................... 71 Closing a .................................................................... 71 Creating a New View of the Data................................................... 71

CHAPTER 6 FILTERING DATA.............................................. 73 Introduction.................................................................................... 73 Filtering on field content................................................................. 73 Search Entire Data............................................................... 74 Search Currently Shown Items............................................ 74 Save As................................................................................ 74 Match All (logical ‘and’)........................................................ 74 Match Any One (logical ‘or’)................................................. 74 Show Entire Group............................................................... 74 Advanced Subsets......................................................................... 75 Show Items That Are Flagged As......................................... 75 Show Items That.................................................................. 76 Saved Subsets............................................................................... 76 Applying a saved filter.......................................................... 76 Deleting filter definitions....................................................... 76 Automatically Creating Queries...................................................... 77 Removing a Filter From a ..................................................... 77

CHAPTER 7 SYNCHRONIZING............................................ 79 Introduction.................................................................................... 79 Getting the Latest Data.................................................................. 79 Synchronizing With a Different File................................................. 80 Updating the Document................................................................. 80 Updating a Book............................................................................ 81 Checking For Errors....................................................................... 81 Text Content......................................................................... 81 Picture Content.................................................................... 81 How Document Formatting Is Preserved....................................... 82 Updating the from the Document......................................... 83 All......................................................................................... 83 Selection.............................................................................. 83 With Document Selection.................................................... 83 Updating Page Numbers................................................................ 84 Updating Data with Page Positions............................................... 86 Updating the Data Source.............................................................. 87

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 8 PAGINATION BASICS...................................... 89 Introduction.................................................................................... 89 Single Field Insertion...................................................................... 89 Inserting text........................................................................ 89 Working with Field Markers................................ 90 Inserting Pictures................................................................. 91 Missing Images................................................... 91 Showing and Hiding Field Markers................................................ 92 Linking a Document to a new Data-source (Field Adoption).......... 93 Replacing Field Content................................................................. 94 Removing Field Markers................................................................. 94 All......................................................................................... 94 From Selection........................................................... 94 From Document Selection................................................... 94 Markup Field................................................................................... 95

CHAPTER 9 TEMPLATES AND LIBRARIES......................... 97 Introduction.................................................................................... 97 Data Placeholders (Field Specifiers)............................................... 97 Inserting Field Specifiers................................................................ 98 Converting Field Markers to Field Specifiers............................... 101 Text Field Markers.............................................................. 101 Picture Field Markers......................................................... 101 Deg a Template................................................................... 102 Populating a Template.................................................................. 103 EasyCatalog Libraries.................................................................. 104 Creating an EasyCatalog Library....................................... 104 Working With EasyCatalog Libraries............................................ 105 Deg Your Product Style............................................ 105 Paginating the Style........................................................... 106 Associating Product Styles with Records.................................... 107 Pagination Attributes.................................................................... 108 Automatically Adjusting the Size of Boxes ....................... 108 Deleting boxes .................................................................. 108 Bringing Boxes to the Front .............................................. 108

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 10 TABLES.......................................................... 109 Introduction.................................................................................. 109 Simple Tables............................................................................... 109 Inserting a new table.......................................................... 109 Inserting into an existing table........................................... 110 EasyCatalog Tables...................................................................... 111 Deg the Table............................................................ 111 Populating the Table........................................................... 113 Tables within Templates..................................................... 113 Advanced Table Options.................................................... 114 Tables within EasyCatalog Libraries................................... 114 Group Header and Footer Rows....................... 115 Removing Empty Rows.................................... 117 Automatically Merging cells.............................. 117 Ignoring Empty Cells.......................................................... 117 Removing Empty Columns............................... 119 Automatically Resizing Columns...................... 121 Automatically applying Cell Styles..................................... 122

CHAPTER 11 AUTOMATIC PAGINATION............................. 123 Introduction.................................................................................. 123 Pagination Stages........................................................................ 123 Types of Pagination...................................................................... 124 Into Text Flow..................................................................... 124 ‘At Positions Specified in the Data’.................................... 124 ‘At Page Guide Positions’.................................................. 124 ‘Using Master Pages’......................................................... 124 ➀ Configure the .................................................................. 125 Acquire or import source data........................................... 126 Filter your data................................................................... 126 Group your Data................................................................. 126 Sort your Data.................................................................... 127 ➁ Create your Product Styles...................................................... 127 Creating a Library for Automatic Pagination...................... 127 Inserting one Product Style per record............. 128 Group Product Styles / Group Headers............ 128 ➂ Paginate.................................................................................... 129 Text Flow Pagination.......................................................... 129 Configuring Your Pagination Document........... 130 Positional Pagination.......................................................... 132 Configuring Your Pagination Document........... 133 Guide-Based Pagination.................................................... 133 Configuring Your Pagination Document........... 136

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 11 (CONTINUED)

Choosing Product Styles based on Field Content............. 137 Using the Asset Name field on the Pagination Dialog.............................................. 137 Using the ‘Ignore’ Pagination Rule................... 137 ‘Using Master Pages’ Pagination....................................... 138 Configuring Your Pagination Document........... 141 Creating an Index......................................................................... 142

CHAPTER 12 PAGINATION ATTRIBUTE REFERENCE........ 143 Introduction.................................................................................. 143 Showing the Pagination Rules ........................................... 143 Using the Pagination Rules ................................................ 143 Attributes............................................................................ 143 Actions............................................................................... 143 Editing Attributes.......................................................................... 144 Applying Pagination Rules........................................................... 144 Attribute Reference...................................................................... 145 Paginate............................................................................. 145 Group Name....................................................................... 146 Insert.................................................................................. 146 Paragraph Style.................................................................. 147 Append Return................................................................... 147 Force Break........................................................................ 148 Prevent Break..................................................................... 149 Fitting................................................................................. 149 Fit Content to Frame......................................... 150 ‘Grow and Flow’................................................ 151 Release Anchored Objects................................................. 152 Ungroup............................................................................. 152 Usage................................................................................. 153 Position Index.................................................................... 154 Continuation....................................................................... 155 Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields............................... 155 Strip White Space.............................................................. 155 Apply Object Style From Field........................................... 156 Apply Swatch From Field................................................... 156 When Frame Is Empty........................................................ 156 Page Orientation................................................................ 156 Populate Tables.................................................................. 157 Keep With Next.................................................................. 157 Repeat................................................................................ 157

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 12 (CONTINUED)

Actions......................................................................................... 158 Creating and Editing Actions............................................. 158 Bring to Front.................................................... 159 Delete................................................................ 159 Show/Hide........................................................ 159 Ignore................................................................ 160 Special Field Names.......................................................... 160

CHAPTER 13 CUSTOM FIELDS REFERENCE..................... 161 Introduction.................................................................................. 161 Creating a New Custom Field...................................................... 161 Types of Functions....................................................................... 162 Combining Functions................................................................... 163 Types of Parameter...................................................................... 163 What is the difference between FIELDSTR and FIELDVAL?........ 163 String Functions........................................................................... 164 SUBSTR............................................................................. 164 LEFTSTR............................................................................ 164 RIGHTSTR.......................................................................... 164 PARTSTR............................................................................ 165 EAN13................................................................................ 165 EAN8.................................................................................. 165 LOWER............................................................................... 166 UPPER............................................................................... 166 CONCAT............................................................................. 166 REGEX................................................................................ 167 STRIPWHITESPACE........................................................... 167 TITLECASE......................................................................... 167 SENTENCECASE............................................................... 168 LENGTH............................................................................. 168 INDEXOF............................................................................ 169 LASTINDEXOF................................................................... 170 COUNTOF.......................................................................... 170 CONTAINSANY.................................................................. 171 CONTAINSALL................................................................... 171 CHAR................................................................................. 172 URLENCODE/URLDECODE.............................................. 172 DISTINCTLIST.................................................................... 173 REMOVEBLANKLINES....................................................... 173 FIELDSTR........................................................................... 174 FIELDVAL........................................................................... 174 LITERAL............................................................................. 174 I2OF5.................................................................................. 174

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 13 (CONTINUED)

Math Functions............................................................................. 175 CODE128........................................................................... 175 MUL.................................................................................... 175 DIV...................................................................................... 175 MOD................................................................................... 176 SUM................................................................................... 176 SUB.................................................................................... 177 MIN..................................................................................... 177 MAX.................................................................................... 178 AVG.................................................................................... 178 Logic Functions............................................................................ 179 DECTOFRAC...................................................................... 179 COMPARESTR................................................................... 179 IF........................................................................................ 180 AND.................................................................................... 181 OR...................................................................................... 181 Group Functions........................................................................... 182 NOT.................................................................................... 182 GROUPLIST....................................................................... 182 GROUPSUM...................................................................... 183 GROUPRTOTAL................................................................. 183 GROUPAVG........................................................................ 184 GROUPMAX....................................................................... 184 GROUPMIN........................................................................ 185 GROUPFIRST..................................................................... 185 GROUPLAST...................................................................... 186 GROUPSEQUENCE........................................................... 186 GROUPCOUNTUNIQUE.................................................... 187 GROUPCOUNT.................................................................. 187 GROUPSERIES.................................................................. 188 GROUPONCHANGE.......................................................... 188 GROUPISFIRST................................................................. 189 GROUPISLAST.................................................................. 189 GROUPSERIESONFIELDCHANGE.................................... 190 GROUPNUMBERSEQUENCE............................................ 190 GROUPXREFFIELD............................................................ 191 Utility Functions............................................................................ 194 SNIPPETDEPTH/SNIPPETWIDTH..................................... 194 GROUPSNIPPETDEPTH.................................................... 194 GOOGLEQRCODEURL...................................................... 195 CALLSCRIPT...................................................................... 195 DOESIMAGEEXIST............................................................ 195 GETNTHPOPULATEDPARAM............................................ 196 XREFFIELD......................................................................... 196

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 14 CONDITIONAL PROCESSING....................... 197 Introduction.................................................................................. 197 The ‘IF’ Command........................................................................ 197 Alphanumeric Fields........................................................... 198 Numeric Fields................................................................... 198 The ‘ELSE’ Command.................................................................. 199 Nesting ‘IF’ Commands..................................................... 199 Special Field Names..................................................................... 199 Valid Operators................................................................... 199 Error Messages............................................................................ 200 Type Mismatch Error.......................................................... 200 @@if without matching @@endif........................................ 201 Too many ‘@@else’s........................................................... 201 Illegal number of tokens..................................................... 201

CHAPTER 15 PAGE HEADERS............................................ 203 Introduction.................................................................................. 203 Defining Furniture......................................................................... 203 Populating Furniture..................................................................... 204

CHAPTER 16 THE RECORD VIEWER ...................... 205 Introduction.................................................................................. 205 The Record Viewer Overview............................................. 205 Finding Records........................................................................... 206 Moving Sequentially through the records.......................... 206 By Index number................................................................ 206 Filtering Records................................................................ 207 ➀ Key Fields..................................................... 207 ➁ Text............................................................... 207 ➂ Expression.................................................... 207 ➃ Selection....................................................... 208 ➄ Range........................................................... 208 Interaction with EasyCatalog s............................................ 208 Inserting Fields............................................................................. 208 Text Selection..................................................................... 209 Picture-box Selection......................................................... 209 Inserting Multiple Records........................................................... 210 Automatically Inserting Text............................................... 210 Automatically Inserting Table Rows................................... 211

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CONTENTS The Record Viewer Menu................................................... 212 Insert Field.......................................................................... 212 Show/Hide Field Markers................................................... 212 Synchronize with Data Source........................................... 212 Data Source Info................................................................ 212 Update Document.............................................................. 212 All...................................................................... 213 Selection........................................................... 213 Copy and Repeat............................................................... 213 Field Options...................................................................... 213 About.................................................................................. 213

CHAPTER 17 TEMPLATE DATA SOURCES......................... 215 Introduction.................................................................................. 215 Creating a Data Source Template................................................ 215 Opening A New Data Source From a Template........................... 217 File-based Data Sources.................................................... 217 ODBC Data Sources.......................................................... 217 Modifying A Data Source Template.............................................. 217 Deleting A Data Source Template................................................ 217

CHAPTER 18 REPORTS....................................................... 219 Introduction.................................................................................. 219 Report Types................................................................................ 219 Data Source Report........................................................... 219 Report...................................................................... 219 Document Report............................................................... 219 XML Reports................................................................................ 220

CHAPTER 19 APPLICATION PREFERENCES...................... 221 Introduction.................................................................................. 221 The Workspace Folder................................................................. 221 Content Tracking.......................................................................... 222 Enable Content Tracking.................................................... 222 Dynamically Update ................................................. 222 Synchronize After Update........................................ 223 Allow Pagination to be undoable................................................. 223 Data Source Defaults................................................................... 223 HTTP Authentication.................................................................... 224 HTTP Proxy.................................................................................. 224 Keyboard Shortcuts..................................................................... 224

CHAPTER 20

MENU REFERENCE...................................... 225

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GETTING STARTED

CHAPTER 1

GETTING STARTED WELCOME

WHAT IS EASYCATALOG?

Thank you for evaluating EasyCatalog for Adobe InDesign. 65bit Software are committed to providing high quality software for Adobe InDesign, and appreciate the time you have taken to evaluate our product. All is welcome, good or bad. Please email any comments to [email protected]. We promise to respond to every one! EasyCatalog is a complete database publishing solution, and provides a bi-drectional link between data from a variety of sources to content in an InDesign document. Any changes made in the document may be reflected back to the original source of the data. Document content is constantly tracked, enabling you to determine which records and fields are placed. Document tracking offers a number of benefits: •

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

Increased productivity: •

Data can be acquired from a variety of data sources quickly and efficiently. Time is not spent re-keying or importing data.

•

Errors are reduced, as data on the page is coming directly from the data source without being rekeyed.

•

Errors are detected. EasyCatalog can highlight all fields that differ to the original data, and either automatically correct them or highlight them for manual correction in the document.

•

Data can be filtered and grouped to only show data relevant to a particular section of the publication, for instance. Filtering your data reduces the amount of time spent searching through data that is not relevant to the task you’re currently performing.

•

Data that has been changed on the database can be updated in the document instantly – ideal for deadline-critical publications.

•

Records can be dragged and dropped to the page using pre-defined templates stored in libraries. Placeholders in the templates show EasyCatalog where and how each field should appear, and

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GETTING STARTED

WHAT IS EASYCATALOG? (CONTINUED)

complex page layouts containing live linked data can be constructed in seconds. •

•

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

Powerful pagination facilities EasyCatalog contains of wealth of facilities for both data driven and design driven publications. •

Formatting may be applied to fields, ensuring that all prices, for instance, appear in a consistent format throughout the publication. Any prices that do not obey these formatting rules will be highlighted as part of the error-checking procedure.

•

Library styles may be defined for records, ensuring records appear in a consistent manner. See ‘Templates and Libraries’

•

EasyCatalog offers powerful tabular data functionality, allowing tables to be created from your data at the click of a button.

•

Using the optional pagination module, EasyCatalog can automatically create a flow of several hundred pages.

•

EasyCatalog leverages the typographical and layout features of InDesign, so the layout and style of your publication doesn’t have to suffer.

Reduced cost of ownership •

EasyCatalog is a front-end for existing databases – you purchase the plug-in and we, or a systems integrator, provide Data Provider plug-ins to access your data. Data can be imported from a delimited file (such as a comma or tab-delimited file), ODBC database or an XML file.

•

As there is no new ‘production’ database to integrate with, there will be no integration issues, or unwanted database licenses.

•

As EasyCatalog is tightly integrated with Adobe InDesign, there is no new application environment to learn.

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GETTING STARTED

DEMO VERSION

Your EasyCatalog plug-in will run in demo mode until a valid registration code is entered. The EasyCatalog trial is valid for thirty days from the date it is first run. Thank you for taking time to evaluate EasyCatalog – if you have any questions or would like further information, please visit our web site at www.65bit.com. We are here to help you with during your evaluation so if you have any questions whatsoever, please us using the form at our website: http://www.65bit.com//.shtm We aim to respond to all enquiries within one working day of receiving them. Whilst you are evaluating EasyCatalog, the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog will appear each time you launch InDesign showing the number of days remaining in your trial period.

PURCHASING EASYCATALOG

If you’ve purchased or ed EasyCatalog from one of our partners, please obtain your serial number through them. Alternatively if you ed from the 65bit web site, serial numbers can be purchased through our web-store: http://www.65bit.com/purchase/purchase.shtm Serial numbers purchased via our web-store will be issued on completion of the credit card transaction, and will activate in around 5 - 10 minutes.

The number of days remaining in your trial period are shown in the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog. Once you have purchased a serial number, use the ‘Activate’ button to activate your copy of EasyCatalog.

ACTIVATING EASYCATALOG

Following purchase, you will be supplied with a serial number for each of the modules that you have purchased. EasyCatalog uses internet activation to validate your license codes, which typically takes a few seconds to process. Once ed, all limitations of the demo version will be lifted. Internet activation offers many advantages, including the ability to purchase additional licenses at a later date whilst retaining the same

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

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GETTING STARTED

ACTIVATING EASYCATALOG (CONTINUED)

serial number. Internet activation also helps to ensure that you do not unintentionally violate your EasyCatalog license agreement. To activate, select ‘About EasyCatalog’ from the InDesign application menu (on the Macintosh), or from ‘Help’ menu (on Windows). When the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog appears, press the ‘Activate’ button to enter the serial numbers you have been issued. The serial number should be entered exactly as it appears in your order confirmation email, including the hyphens. If you have an active internet connection, your serial number will be validated on our servers and your software will activate after a few seconds. Activating without an Internet Connection If you do not have an active internet connection, alternative options will be offered after you have entered your serial number: • Activation using a web-browser on your InDesign machine • Activation using a web-browser on another machine (with a valid internet connection). On-screen instructions will step you through the above processes: the website you are sent to will issue you with an Activation Code, which should be entered into the Manual Activation wizard that appears.

COMMON ACTIVATION ERRORS

An attempt was made to activate an unknown serial number. If you have recently purchased this serial number, please wait around 15 minutes before trying again. If the problem persists, please your vendor. The most common cause of this error is entering the serial number incorrectly. Please ensure that you enter the complete serial number (including all dashes). EasyCatalog serial numbers do not contain the letters ‘I’, ‘O’, ‘U’ or ‘Z’ as these can be confused for other characters. Try copying and pasting the serial number from your order confirmation email into the activation dialog. Sometimes, if you’ve recently purchased the serial number through our web store, you may need to wait 10 - 15 minutes before the serial number will activate. An attempt was made to activate a blacklisted serial number. The serial number you have entered has been blacklisted and cannot be used to activate EasyCatalog. Please the vendor who sold the license for further information.

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GETTING STARTED

COMMON ACTIVATION ERRORS (CONTINUED)

An activation attempt failed due to the maximum number of allowable activations being met. The number of allowable activations for this serial numbers has now been reached and this EasyCatalog serial number cannot be activated. If you are installing onto a new machine, please ensure that you de-activate your serial number and wait 10 - 15 minutes before attempting to activate on your new machine. If you need further assistance please us using the form: http://www.65bit.com//.shtm An error occurred trying to install the eSellerate engine. Please purchase via the Web store or [email protected] for more information. The e-commerce component of EasyCatalog (eSellerate) could not be installed. The most common cause of this issue is insufficient privileges. Please try temporarily logging in as an on the machine to activate EasyCatalog. On Windows Vista and WIndows 7 machines, right click on the InDesign application icon and select ‘Run as ’. Once ed, InDesign can be started without privileges. In the event of this error persisting, please and install the ‘eSellerate Engine’ from: http://shopper.esellerate.net/ics//default.asp?deptID=5620

TRANSFERRING AN ACTIVATION

!

Activations cannot be transferred in the CS2 version of EasyCatalog. An active internet connection is required to transfer an activation.

To transfer an activation for all ed modules, press the ‘Deactivate’ button on the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog. To transfer an activation for an individual module, highlight the serial number that you would like to transfer in the list of active modules and press the ‘Deactivate’ button.

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GETTING STARTED

TRANSFERRING AN ACTIVATION

Transfer an activation using the ‘Deactivate’ button. This button will only be available when all modules shown in the list are activated.

(CONTINUED)

To deactivate a specific serial number, select it in the list and then press the ‘Deactivate’ button.

After a few seconds your serial number will deactivate and you should be able to activate the serial number on another machine in around 5 - 10 minutes. If you have any problems with activation, please us using the form at our website: http://www.65bit.com//

KEEPING UP TO DATE

Periodically, bug fixes and enhancements are released on our website. Please use the ‘Check for Updates’ button on the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog to ensure that you are always running the latest version of EasyCatalog.

QUESTIONS

All issues should, in the first instance, be directed to your system integrator or local reseller. Alternatively, visit us at www.65bit.com, or us using the form at our website: http://www.65bit.com//.shtm

INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES

EasyCatalog has been designed for easy integration into third- party database and asset management systems. Systems integrators who are interested in integration opportunities should us at [email protected].

RESELLERS

Please [email protected] if you are interested in reselling EasyCatalog, or are considering including EasyCatalog as part of your solution.

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GETTING STARTED

PACKAGE CONTENTS

The complete suite of EasyCatalog plug-ins consists of: Plug-In EasyCatalog EasyCatalog UI

Availability

Purpose

CS2 - CS6

The main Adobe InDesign plug-in. This plugin is responsible for much of the functionality outlined in this manual.

EasyCatalog Pagination CS2 - CS6 EasyCatalog Pagination UI

This plug-in provides more advanced, automated, pagination functionality and allows multiple products to be placed in the document automatically. This plug-in is optional, and must be purchased separately. The power of EasyCatalog is now scriptable via JavaScript, AppleScript (on the Macintosh platform) and VBScript (on the

EasyCatalog Scripting

CS2 - CS6

Windows platform).

This plug-in is optional, and must be purchased separately. Documentation for the scripting module is available separately.

Data Providers Plug-In EasyCatalog File Data Provider EasyCatalog File Data Provider UI

Availability

Purpose

CS2 - CS6

The default data-import provider, this plug-in is responsible for loading and parsing your data files. Plug-in responsible for connecting directly to an ODBC data source, such as an SQL database.

EasyCatalog ODBC Data Provider CS2 - CS6 EasyCatalog ODBC Data Provider UI

EasyCatalog XML Data Provider CS3 - CS6 EasyCatalog XML Data Provider UI

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

This plug-in is optional, and must be purchased separately. Documentation for the ODBC Data Provider is also available separately. The XML Data Provider provides the ability to import XML files. The XML Data Provider uses XPath to define where each record and field can be extracted from the XML. This plug-in is optional, and must be purchased separately. Documentation for the XML Data Provider is also available separately.

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GETTING STARTED

PACKAGE CONTENTS

Plug-In

(CONTINUED)

Availability

EasyCatalog Relational CS3 - CS6 EasyCatalog Relational UI

EDITING DOCUMENTS WITHOUT EASYCATALOG LOADED

Purpose The Relational Module enables EasyCatalog to work with complex, relational, data structures. Multiple data sources can also be combined into a single . The Relational Module also allows SQLite database files to be used as a data source. This plug-in is optional, and must be purchased separately. Documentation for the XML Data Provider is also available separately.

Documents created with EasyCatalog can be opened and edited in a copy of InDesign that does not have the EasyCatalog plug-ins loaded. However, any changes made to the content of the document may cause problems if the document is subsequently re-opened in EasyCatalog.

!

Failure to follow these guidelines may result in broken links in your document. If you have any questions please us using the form on the website.

If you have s that need to edit the content of EasyCatalogcreated documents that must later be used in EasyCatalog - either: • Install the demo version of EasyCatalog on the editing machine. This will ensure that all EasyCatalog links and data are preserved. • Use the form to request the EasyCatalog ‘Reader’ plugin. This plug-in is available free of charge and will ensure that all links are visible in the document and remain intact.

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

CHAPTER 2

IMPORTING YOUR DATA INTRODUCTION

The first stage in the process, importing your data is the most critical and key area when using EasyCatalog. The quality of your source data has a direct impact on the quality of the results that can be achieved using EasyCatalog. By directly importing your data into InDesign, you eliminate rekeying errors and significantly reduce the amount of time required to produce your publication. Once your data has been imported, it is shown in a spreadsheetstyle that sits alongside your other InDesign s. Multiple EasyCatalog s can be open at any time, allowing you to work on publications that use data from multiple sources.

DATA PROVIDER MODULES

EasyCatalog uses Data Providers - other InDesign plug-ins written to interface with EasyCatalog - to import your data. Examples of data sources are CSV (comma separated) files or any ODBC-compliant database. Data Providers are provided as separate plug-ins that must be installed alongside EasyCatalog. All of the Data Provider plug-ins are available for installation during the EasyCatastallation process. Currently, there are three Data Provider plug-ins available: Data Provider File Data Provider

ODBC Data Provider

Imports ASCII files, UTF-8, UTF-16 files Data from an ODBC-compliant database, such as MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, FileMaker. An additional driver may be required to connect to your database. The ODBC Data Provider is an optional module that must be purchased separately. XML Data can be imported using the optional XML Data Provider module.

XML Data Provider

By specifying record and field XPaths, complex XML structures can be loaded into EasyCatalog. The XML Data Provider is an optional module that must be purchased separately.

Additionally, the optional Relational Module can be used to multiple EasyCatalog data sources together in a single . It also has the ability to import data from an SQLite database. Custom Data Providers can be written and tailored to your requirements - please us for further information.

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

IMPORTING YOUR DATA

Import new data - available data providers are listed here Existing data snapshots are listed here

Each of the available Data Providers are shown on the File→New menu. This menu is split into two sections: the top half allows you to import data from a new source; the bottom allows you to create a new from an existing data snapshot. Your configuration may differ from the one shown here - if you are not acquiring data from a file, please consult the documentation that accompanies your Data Provider plug-in. Depending on the Data Provider being used, configuration may not even be necessary.

IMPORTING FROM A FILE

➀ The process begins by selecting ‘New File Data Source’ from the File→New→New EasyCatalog menu option. ➁ Select your data file using the standard file selection dialog. EasyCatalog will now examine the file to determine the best settings for importing your data - these will be presented in the configuration dialog. Don’t panic! This is by far the most complex stage in configuring EasyCatalog - for the majority of s, the settings determined by EasyCatalog will suffice.

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

IMPORTING FROM A FILE

The name which will be used to identify this data source - this name will appear in the ‘New EasyCatalog ’ menu

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➂

➀➁

➃

➀ Location Shows the path to the selected file, and allows a new file to be chosen. Use the ‘Reveal’ button to go to the file in Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Macintosh). ➁ Content The menus in this area allow you to specify how the file is structured. When importing a file for the first time, EasyCatalog will attempt to automatically determine the correct settings for each of these popups by inspecting a sample of the file. Setting

Description Specify the type of file being used - either ASCII or Unicode.

File Encoding

Field Delimiter

EasyCatalog provides full for importing unicode files. EasyCatalog can import UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded Unicode files. Specify the character that’s used to separate each field in the file continued...

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

IMPORTING FROM A FILE

Setting Record Delimiter

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Description Specify the character that’s used to separate each record in the file Typically, most data files contain the names of the columns in the first row/record.

First record contains field names

Automatically Detect Type of New Fields

If your data file does not contain this information, un-check this box. Default field names will be assigned to each column when the data is imported. It is strongly recommended that field names are included in your data file to ensure the links to fields in the document are not broken if extra columns are added to your data at a later date. When this option is set, EasyCatalog will attempt to determine the type (whether the field is alphanumeric, numeric, etc) of each field. Turn this option off to default all fields to alphanumeric. Example File

The first row in this file contains the names of each of the columns, so the ‘First Record contains field names’ check-box should be set.

The Field Delimiter: the character used to separate each field in the file (in this example, a comma)

The Record Delimiter: the character used to separate each record in the file (in example, a carriage-return)

➂ Sample Each time any of the ‘Content’ settings are changed, the ‘Sample’ pane will change to show how the file will be imported using the current configuration. If you are unsure of the settings to specify, you can experiment until the desired results are shown in the ‘Sample’ frame. The Sample pane is also used to allow columns to be selected to specify column data type/content information. Select a column in the table to activate the settings in the ‘Field Information’ pane. Note that clicking anywhere in the column will highlight the entire column. ➃ Field Information Select a column in the Sample pane to enable the Field Information options. Key Each record from your data source should contain a unique identifier - this ‘key’ field is used to link document content to the source data. Typical examples of key fields include SKUs and product codes. Where there is no single field that identifies a record, multiple fields may be specified to form a compound key.

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IMPORTING FROM A FILE

Configuration of the ‘key’ attribute is critical to ensuring that record updates and synchronisation of data work reliably.

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!

The choice of key field is critical to the operation of EasyCatalog. The key field is used to uniquely identify each record from the data source and must never change.

The first time a file is loaded, EasyCatalog will attempt to determine which column is the key field by looking for columns that contain unique values. As a record must have some data that changes, you must have one field that is not a key. Formatting Fields EasyCatalog offers a number of configuration options that determine how fields are formatted in the document. For example, currency symbols, number of digits both before and after the decimal place can be specified. Hit the ‘Options’ button to open the ‘Field Options’ dialog. It isn’t necessary to fully configure each field at this time, since the Field Options dialog is available at any time. See the ‘Field Options’ chapter for more information on the settings available in the Field Options dialog.

IMPORTING THE DATA

Once you are happy with the configuration options, press the OK button to import the file. If the configuration is correct, a new EasyCatalog will open showing a spreadsheet-style view of your data. Further information on working with the EasyCatalog data s can be found in the ‘s’ chapter.

COMMON ERRORS AND WARNINGS

Common import problems, along with possible resolutions are shown below: A data source of this name already exists in your workspace folder. Do you want to overwrite it? You are attempting to open a data source with the name of a data source that already exists. You may continue by answering ‘yes’ to this dialog, but the previous version of the data source will be deleted.

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

COMMON ERRORS AND WARNINGS (CONTINUED)

A data source of the same name is already open. Please use another name or close all related s and try again. You are attempting to open a new data source using the name of a data source that already exists. Although similar to the above error message, you cannot continue as s for the old data source are still open. To overwrite the old data source, close its data s using the ‘Close ’ menu option - you may need to show hidden data s using the ‘EasyCatalog s’ menu on the Window menu. A duplicate key was detected (value). Please check your data provider configuration and try again. EasyCatalog idenitifes each field in the document using a combination of the data source name, field name and key field value. Therefore, each of these elements must be unique in order to indentify every placed field. In the column(s) you have nominated as the key field(s), you have duplicate values (the value that is duplicated is shown in the error). To overcome this, remove duplicate keys from the source data or check that your key field configuration is correct. Field names must be unique - ‘(field name)’ appears more than once EasyCatalog idenitifes each field in the document using a combination of the data source name, field name and key field value. Therefore, each of these elements must be unique in order to indentify every placed field. In your configuration you have selected ‘First record contains field names’, but the first record contains multiple fields with the same name (shown in the error). To remedy this you must change your source data so that it does not include duplicate field names. Field names must be unique - ‘’ appears more than once Where no field name is shown in the above error, this usually indicates that your records contain more fields than there are field names. This error will only occur when ‘First record contains field names’ is selected. To rectify this problem, ensure that each record in the file contains the same number of fields, and that the number of fields matches the number of field names supplied in the first row/record of the file.

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

COMMON ERRORS AND WARNINGS (CONTINUED)

Duplicate records were found and have been removed Records that contain exactly the same content cannot be imported, as each would have the same key field values. This error is informative, and the duplicate records will be removed and the file imported. You should check to see whether you need to import these missing records and, if so, include exta information in the source data to differentiate between each record. Data cannot be loaded because blank field names were found All fields imported must have a name, and this error is indicating that one or more have empty names. This error will only occur when ‘First record contains field names’ is selected. Check the source data to ensure that each field has a name, and that the number of fields in each record does not exceed to number of field names specified in the first record/row of the file.

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IMPORTING YOUR DATA

DATA CACHING AND THE WORKSPACE FOLDER

EasyCatalog does not require a permanent connection to your data - by caching your data in a local ‘workspace’ folder, you are able to continue working with EasyCatalog even when your data source is unavailable. Your workspace folder also contains all of the settings for each data source you create, allowing you to close and re-open data sources without having to re-configure them each time. Caching the data locally also offers other benefits, including highlighting differences in the data when new data is retrieved. By default, your workspace folder will be configured to be: Macintosh: Windows:

Documents:EasyCatalog Workspace My Documents/EasyCatalog Workspace

Specifying a Workspace Folder The location of your workspace folder can also be changed - this can be anywhere on your local machine, provided that EasyCatalog always has access to it. See the ‘Application Preferences’ chapter for further information on how to specify the EasyCatalog workspace folder.

DELETING A DATA SOURCE

Once you have finished with a data source, it can be deleted using the ‘Delete’ button from the Information dialog. To access the ‘Information’ dialog, hit the ‘info’ button at the bottom of one of the data s.

Use the Delete button on the Information dialog to permanently delete a data source from your workspace folder.

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FIELD OPTIONS

CHAPTER 3

FIELD OPTIONS INTRODUCTION

EasyCatalog provides facilities for fields to be formatted prior to placement in a document. By setting Field Options you can, for instance, ensure that your price fields are formatted to use the correct currency symbol and number of decimal places. In addition to text fields, EasyCatalog can also import pictures. Using the Field Options dialog you can specify whether a picture should be scaled, aligned, etc. when imported. Once you are happy with your configuration, these options can be exported to file so you can store a copy of your setup and share this with other EasyCatalog s.

EDITING FIELD OPTIONS

The Field Options dialog can be accessed in a number of ways: Whilst configuring a new data source From the data source configuration dialog, select a column in the ‘Sample’ by clicking in it. Hit the ‘Options’ button From an EasyCatalog data Alt + Double Click in the header area of a column to display the Field Options dialog

Import and Export the Field Options configuration to a file

Display the Field Options dialog for the a field by selecting it from the list

Fields can be configured at any time by either using the ‘Field Options’ menu or holding the Alt key while double clicking on the header of the field you want to modify.

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FIELD OPTIONS

THE FIELD OPTIONS DIALOG

This dialog is divided into two panes – the left-hand list shows the predefined options available. Selecting any one of these will change the right-hand pane to show further configuration options.

The ‘Field Format’ pane is used to identify the field’s type and format

FIELD FORMAT

Alphanumeric Fields that are defined as being ‘Alphanumeric’ will be output to the document unchanged - use this option if your field is being formatted correctly by the original source of the data, such as a database.

Fields that are defined as ‘Alphanumeric’ will appear in exactly the same format as the original data

Strip White space Select this option to strip ‘white space’ - tabs, spaces, etc. - that appears at the start or end of the field’s content.

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FIELD FORMAT

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Formatted

!

The ‘Formatted’ and ‘HTML’ options currently only affect data on import. Updating your data source with new document content will not create tagged content.

Where field content also contains formatting information, this option instructs EasyCatalog to apply the formatting tags defined in the ‘Field Formatting Tags’ dialog. See ‘Field Formatting Tags’. Formatted Fields Example of formatted content: Field content: Here is some bold text.

After applying the ‘Formatting Tags’: Here is some bold text.

HTML EasyCatalog also provides basic for simple HTML tags. When the ‘HTML’ check-box is set: • Character entities, such as ‘¨’ in text content will be converted to an appropriate glyph. Numeric entities such as 算 are also ed. • A numbered list will be inserted when

tags are encountered in the text. • A bulletted list will be inserted when

and

tags will be processed and the appropriate font applied. • Unrecognized tags will be stripped from the source text prior to placement in the document. Tags other than the defaults shown here should be configured using the Field Formatting Tags dialog. Note that HTML formatting is applied when the field is placed in the document, and the original source content will be shown in the .

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By default, tags such as , , <sub>, etc are always configured for HTML fields. Ensure additional tags used in your fields are configured in the ‘Field Formatting Tags’ dialog.

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FIELD FORMAT

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Updates Preserve Local Formatting Once a formatted field has been inserted into the document, with this option checked any subsequent use of the “Update Document” menu option will not apply the formatting specified by the tags in the field content. Instead, EasyCatalog will attempt to preserve any local formatting that has been applied to the field wherever possible. Ignore White Space Changes Selecting this option allows minor modifications to be made to the field in the document without it being shown as ‘in error’ in the . When checked, this option allows white space to be inserted into the field in the document, such as additional carriage-returns, tabs, etc. Additionally, ‘Update ’ will only update the field in the when non-white-space characters have been modified. Number The simplest of the available options, use this pane to format the field as a whole or fractional number. Select one of the formats from the popup menu; the Example will update to show how an example value will appear.

The ‘Field Format’ pane is used to identify a field’s type and format

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FIELD FORMAT

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Currency This pane has a number of predefined currency formats. Again, select one of the formats from the popup menu.

The offers pre-set options for formatting numeric fields as currency. Select the format pop-up to preview the format in the ‘Example’ pane.

Custom Formats

The ‘Custom’ option allows -defined numeric formats to be specified.

Where your needs are not met by any of the available options, the ‘Custom’ option allows a number format to be specified either through the use of a formatting string or using special keywords.

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FIELD OPTIONS

FIELD FORMAT

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Formatting String The following characters have special meaning in format strings, all other characters will appear untranslated when output. Character

Meaning

#

The most used character, the ‘#’ indicates where digits from the source field should appear.

.

Decimal point. Specifies where the decimal point should appear and, by the use of the ‘#’ character after the point, how many decimal places the number should be formatted to. No rounding will be performed on the value.

,

May or may not be present as a divider between groups of digits, such as thousands, millions, etc.

*

Used after the decimal point, this character indicates the minimum number of characters that must appear. For example, you can specify that a field must appear with at least two decimal places, but more will be output if required.

Formatting String Samples The use of the formatting string is best explained by the use of examples: Format String $#.##

Your data source contains... 123456.123456

Field will be formatted in the document as... $123456.12

Only two positions are available after the decimal point. $###,###

123456.123456

$123,456

The comma may be used to separate groups of digits. No decimal point is provided in the format string, therefore the value will appear as a whole number. $#.####

123456.123456

$123456.1234

Four places are available after the decimal point – the output value is truncated, not rounded. # USD

123456.123456

123456 USD

As the characters ‘USD’ do not have any special meaning, they appear untranslated in the output. ###.##*

123456.1

123456.10

123456.1234

123456.1234

Here, the position of the ‘*’ character specifies that a minimum of two decimal places are required.

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FIELD FORMAT

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Custom Formatting Keywords Instead of the custom formatting string, keywords can also be specified to control characteristics such as the character(s) used as a decimal point. Keyword

Description

Example

PREFIX

Specifies the characters to be [PREFIX=€] inserted before the numeric content The field will be prefixed of the field. with the euro symbol

SUFFIX

Specifies the characters to be [SUFFIX=¢] appending to the numeric content The field will have a ¢ suffix of the field. [DECIMAL=,]

DECIMAL

Specifies the decimal separator The decimal separator will (radix point) character(s) to use. be the comma - e.g. 199,99

PRECISION

THOUSANDS

REMOVE

[PRECISION=2] Specifies the number of digits that will appear after the decimal point. Values will be formatted to two decimal places Specifies a character or characters to use to as the thousands separator. The thousands separator is used to divide the value into groups of three, right-toleft from the decimal point.

[THOUSANDS=.] Values greater than a thousand will use a comma as a thousands separator e.g.: 1.234.567

Characters can be optionally [REMOVE=0.(<1)] removed when the content of For values less than 1, the field matches the specified remove “0.” criteria.

Example Custom Formatting Keywords A popular continental Europe configuration would be:

The ‘Example’ at the bottom of the dialog updates to show how the field will appear when placed in the document.

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FIELD FORMAT

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Hyperlink InDesign hyperlinks can be inserted into the document using the ‘Hyperlink’ field type.

The ‘Hyperlink’ field format allows InDesign hyperlinks to be inserted into the document.

The contents of the ‘Text’ field appears in the document; the ‘URL’ field is used as the hyperlink destination URL. To include the content of other fields, enclose the field name within { brackets }. Imported Text EasyCatalog can also import formatted text such as RTF or InDesign Tagged Text from a file or from the content of a field by setting the field type to ‘Imported Text’. EasyCatalog s all of the text import types provided by InDesign.

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FIELD OPTIONS

FIELD FORMAT

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If the field contains the formatted text, select ‘Field Content’; if the field contains a filename or path to a file containing the content select ‘Externally Referenced’.

If the field contains a full path to the file to import, the ‘Folder’ and ‘Extension’ options can remain empty. If the field contains only a filename specify the folder containing the file and (optionally) the file extension used (if this information is not included in the filename).

!

Fields of type ‘Imported Text’ will not be updated as part of the ‘Update ’ operation.

GENERAL FORMATTING OPTIONS

The ‘General’ pane allows a character style sheet to be applied to this field when placed in the document

Style The character style sheet specified in this pop-up is applied to the field when it is inserted into the document. The Character Styles for

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FIELD OPTIONS

GENERAL FORMATTING OPTIONS (CONTINUED)

the current document, or the default character style sheets if there is no document open, will be listed in this popup. When inserting the field into the document, you must ensure that the character style sheet is available. A warning will be displayed if it is not, and the field will be inserted without applying the style sheet. Prefix Any characters that should always be prefixed to the content of this field should be specified here. Suffix Any characters that should always appear after the content of this field should be specified here. InDesign Meta-characters/Special Characters can be included as part of the Prefix and Suffix value (see below). Note that both the prefix and suffix are not applied to empty fields. Cleansing Options EasyCatalog allows the content of each field to be ‘cleansed’ before it is used in the document. ‘Data Cleansing’ is a simple search-andreplace that is applied to the data during import and before any formatting options are applied. The cleansing options are specified by way of a string in the following format: {replace this}={with this}; #=£; All of the ‘#’ characters will be replaced with ‘£’ Multiple cleansing options may be also specified: #=£;*=•; Multiple cleansing options are separated by a semi-colon Characters may also be stripped by not specifying a replace-with character: #=; Specify nothing on the right-hand side of the cleansing option to strip the character on the left. Character strings can also be cleansed : ESY=EasyCatalog; All occurrences of ‘ESY’ will be replaced with ‘EasyCatalog’

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FIELD OPTIONS

GENERAL FORMATTING OPTIONS

Regular Expressions For advanced s, regular expressions can be specified in the Cleansing Options window:

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REGEX:^p$=; All ‘new paragraph’ characters at the end of the field will be stripped (replaced with nothing). Note that the ^ character is interpreted as an InDesign meta-character, so ^^ should be used for the regular expression ^ character: REGEX:^^a=b; Replace ‘a’ at the start of the string with ‘b’. Further information on regular expressions can be found on the internet, using a reference such as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression Importing Cleansing Options Commonly-used cleansing options can be stored in a plain text file and imported using the ‘Import’ button above the cleansing text area. InDesign Metacharacters/Special Characters InDesign metacharacters, such as those used in the Find/Change dialog, can also be used as part of the cleansing statement and within the prefix and suffix fields. Metacharacters begin with a caret (^) and represent special characters in InDesign, such as a bullet point. *=^8; All instances of the asterisk (*) will be replaced with the InDesign bullet character. A full list of metacharacters ed by EasyCatalog is shown on the in the table below. Code

Description

^#

Auto Page Numbering

^x

Section Marker

^8

Bullet

•

^^

Caret

^

^2

Copyright Symbol

©

^p

End of Paragraph continued....

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GENERAL FORMATTING OPTIONS

Code

(CONTINUED)

Description

^n

Forced Line Break

^7

Paragraph Symbol

¶

^r

ed Trademark Symbol

®

^6

Section Symbol

§

^t

Tab

^\

End Nested Style

^y

Right Indent Tab

^i

Indent to Here

^_

Em Dash

^m

Em Space

^=

En Dash

^>

En Space

^f

Flush Space

^|

Hair Space

^s

Nonbreaking Space

^<

Thin Space

^-

Discretionary Hyphen

^~

Nonbreaking Hyphen

‑

^{

Double Left Quotation Mark

“

^}

Double Right Quotation Mark

”

^[

Single Left Quotation Mark

‘

^]

Single Right Quotation Mark

’

^k

Discretionary line break

— –

Sorting non-English data Where your data contains non-English data, select the language in the ‘Sorting’ pop-up. This will force EasyCatalog to use a linguistic sort, but should only be used when absolutely necessary as it has a significant impact on performance.

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FIELD OPTIONS

PICTURE IMPORT OPTIONS

In addition to inserting textual field content into an InDesign text flow, EasyCatalog can also be configured to import images into picture boxes. The picture to import is specified by the content of each field. The ‘Picture Content’ dialog is split into two main sections Attributes that define how the image should appear when it’s imported

Where the image file can be located

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PICTURE IMPORT OPTIONS

Picture Import Attributes

➀➁➂➃

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➄➅➆ Attribute

Description This option determines how the image will be scaled to fit into its containing box.

➀ Scaling

Scaling

Description

None

The picture will not be scaled when it is imported

Proportionally Fit

The picture will be proportionally scaled to fit its containing picture box. There may be white space around the image if the image frame has a different aspect ratio to the image.

Fill Frame

The picture will be scaled to fit the picture box but, unlike ‘Proportionally Fit’, it will completely fill the box ensuring there is no white space around the image. The aspect ratio of the original image will not be maintained when using this option.

Fill Proportionally

The picture will be proportionally scaled to fill the picture box but, unlike ‘Proportionally Fit’, it will completely fill the box ensuring there is no white space around the image. Some of the image may be outside of the box.

Fixed Scale

Pictures will always be imported and scaled to the percentage specified by the ‘Scale’ popup.

Field Specified

If your data also contains picture scaling information, this option can be used to nominate the field containing this value.

➁ Scale/Field

When the ‘Scaling’ option is set to ‘Fixed Scale’, this pop-up should be used to specify the scale to import the image at. If ‘Field Specified’ is set as the ‘Scaling’ option this menu should be used to select the field containing the scaling information.

➂ Alignment

After the image has been imported into the frame, it can be aligned to any of its containing frame’s corners or edges. continued....

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PICTURE IMPORT OPTIONS (CONTINUED)

Attribute

Description

➃ X Offset ➄ Y Offset

These options are used to offset the image within its containing frame. Specify the name of a field containing the X and/or Y offset that must be applied to the image.

➅ Insert as Inline ➆ Y Offset

When checked, this option will force the field to be inserted as an anchored item when there is a text insertion point (instead of the text content of the field being inserted). An offset from the baseline can also be specified by choosing the name of the field containing this information in the pop-up menu.

Image File Location Attributes Images can be imported from a folder or a web server via a URL specify the location of the images using the ‘Location’ pop-up: Importing Images from a File System If the field contains a full path to the image, the folder location does not need to be specified. If the field contains only the filename of the image to import, the folder location should be specified: For example, if the field contains the ‘AA1234’, EasyCatalog will attempt to import an image from the ‘Content Location’ folder with the name ‘AA1234’. Note that all images must be in the Content Location folder - not sub-folders within it. To choose the image file folder location, press the ‘Choose’ button. The Content Location field can also be built dynamically using the contents - or parts of - other fields: e.g.: Macintosh HD:Images:SUBSTR(code, 4,2):

In this example, the Content Location folder path will be built using the fourth and fifth characters of the ‘code’ field. All of the ‘String’ functions shown in the Custom Fields Reference chapter can be used in the Content Location field to build a path to the image. Extension If the field contains a full path to an image - including the file extension - the ‘Extension’ field should remain empty. If the field contains a filename - including the file extension (such as ‘.tiff’) - the ‘Extension’ field should remain empty. If the field contains a filename without the file extension, the extension should be specified in the ‘Extension’ field. To specify that all image files have a ‘.jpg’ file extension, for example, specify ‘.jpg’ in this field.

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PICTURE IMPORT OPTIONS

Multiple file extensions can be specified by separating them with a semi-colon: e.g.

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jpg;gif;tiff

In this case, EasyCatalog will attempt to import a file with a ‘.jpg’ extension. If the file cannot be found, EasyCatalog will try a ‘.gif’ extension, followed by a ‘.tiff’ extension. URL The Image URL field can also be built dynamically from the contents of the record’s other fields. For example: http://www.65bit.com/images/FIELDSTR(key).jpg

‘FIELDSTR(key)’ will be replaced with the contents of the ‘key’ field. Images retrieved from a URL are cached locally in your EasyCatalog workspace folder. Images will be automatically ed as required, so an attempt to insert a picture that has not previously been cached will result in the image being ed. If you’re using the optional Pagination Module, images required for the pagination will be ed before pagination commences. A menu option is available - ‘Images’ - when any of the fields in the are configured to retrieve from a URL

All and cache all images referenced in the . Missing images referenced in the that have not previously been ed. Always Latest Once an image has been ed and cached in your workspace folder, it will never be ed again unless this menu item is checked. It is advisable to enable this option prior to running the ‘Update Document’ operations to ensure the images you have cached locally are the latest available from the server.

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PICTURE IMPORT OPTIONS (CONTINUED)

Replacement Image Where the image for this field can not be found, the image specified by the ‘Replacement Image’ setting will be imported. For example, an ‘Awaiting Photo’ image could be specified here for use when the correct image is missing. If the replacement image is used, the field will still be shown as being in error during a ‘Synchronise with Document’ operation.

DATABASE UPDATE

The options shown here are used in conjunction with the ODBC Data Provider, and are covered separately in the ODBC Data Provider manual.

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ADVANCED OPTIONS

The “Advanced Options” pane contains settings that ordinarily will not require any adjustment.

Source Data Number Format This option allows you to specify the thousands and decimal separators used in your source data. For example, if your source data outputs numeric data using a ‘.’ as a thousands separator and a ‘,’ as the decimal separator, these should be specified on the ‘Advanced’ pane. When first configured, fields will default to the settings specified in the ‘Regional and Language Options’ control on Windows, or the ‘International’ System Preference on Macintosh. Field Group The ‘Field Group’ parameters are used to group common fields together so that some operations can operate on all fields in a group. For example, if you have sets of fields for English, French and German text, three groups could be created that contain the relevant fields for each language. ‘Replace Fields’, for example, can use these Field Groups to replace all fields in a group with fields from another group. ‘Group Name’ is the name of the group (e.g. ‘English); ‘Identifier’ is used to specify part of a field name that all fields in the group have in common. For example, if all English fields begin with ‘en_’, enter ‘en_’ as the Identifier. When replacing field content, this identifier will be used to determine which fields relate to one another (e.g.. EasyCatalog will need to identify that en_Description equates to de_ Description).

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Language The ‘Language’ option is used to identify the language of the field content and will affect how this field is sorted. This option should be set only when necessary as it greatly affects sorting performance. Exclude from ‘Update ’ This field will not be updated in the when using the ‘Update ’ function from the data ’s pop-out menu. Exclude from ‘Update Document’ This field will not be updated in the document when using the ‘Update Document’ functionality. Fill Down On Synchronize This option will populate any empty fields in the column with data from the first non-empty field above it in the data. This option is commonly used when only the first record in a group contains the grouping information:

These two columns only contain grouping data for the first record in each group.

The ‘Fill Down’ option has populated all empty fields with data from the first populated field above in the column. These columns can now be used as part of the grouping configuration.

This option takes effect from the next time the data is retrieved using the ‘Synchronize with Data Source’ option.

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

PAGE 51

FIELD OPTIONS

ADVANCED OPTIONS (CONTINUED)

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING FIELD OPTIONS

Flag Empty Pictures as Errors In some situations, it is valid to have a record in the data that does not have a picture (in which case the field is empty). The field will normally be shown as ‘in error’ as the (empty) picture could not be imported. When this check box is set, the field will not be shown as ‘in error’.

Export... When you are happy with your Field Options configuration, you can export these settings to a file - this file can either be imported on a different machine (reducing configuration time on each workstation), or can be imported in the event of you having to recreate your data source. Import... Select the Field Options file to import - fields are matched by name, and fields that are missing from your current data will be ignored. You must therefore also ensure that field names do not change between exporting your Field Options and re-importing them.

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

PAGE 52

FIELD FORMATTING TAGS

CHAPTER 4

FIELD FORMATTING TAGS INTRODUCTION

Where your data contains formatted text content, EasyCatalog can automatically translate the mark-up within the text into InDesign Character and Paragraph style sheets. This allows rich, formatted content to be inserted into the document with minimum need for reformatting. For example, if your data contains HTML-style mark-up, such as , , etc EasyCatalog can automatically apply bold or italic styles to the text. For an additional level of control, style sheets - or just the properties of the style sheets - can be applied to the text, allowing the full range of InDesign text formatting options to be applied. Formatting Tags Example A typical useage of Formatting Tags is to translate from HTML-style mark-up into style changes within InDesign. In this example, we want the word ‘bold’ to appear in bold in the document: This text should be in bold. To do this using Formatting Tags, a style-sheet should be created that defines how the bold text should appear. We can then configure EasyCatalog to apply these attributes when the is found in the text, and to remove these attributes when is found: This text should be in bold.

When placed in the document, the formatting tags will be removed and the appropriate attributes will be applied. This text should be in bold.

EASYCATALOG GUIDE

!

Field formatting is currently a one-way process: formatting is applied to fields when they are placed in the document. When updating the with document contents tags will not be inserted based on document styles.

i

Formatting tags apply to all fields in the datasource that have the ‘Formatted’ Alphanumeric Field Option set (see ‘Field Options’).

PAGE 53

FIELD FORMATTING TAGS

DEFAULT FORMATTING TAGS

!

The following default tags are only defined for fields configured as ‘HTML’ in Field Options.

By default, the following tags are defined and require no further configuration. These tags can be overridden by defining alternatives in the ‘Field Formatting Tags’ dialog. Tag Close

A bold font-style will be applied to the text within the tags.

An italic font-style will be applied to the text within the tags.

An underline font-style will be applied to the text within the tags.

<sup>

Superscript will be applied to the text within the tags.

<sub>

Subscript will be applied to the text within the tags.

<strike>

Strike-through will be applied to the text within the tags.

The text within the tags will be placed in its own paragraph.

tags will be imported in the same way as the

tag.

The

tags.
The
- tags.

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