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Doug Pershing

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About Doug Pershing

  • Birthday 08/03/1963

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  • Location
    Phoenix, AZ

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  • Occupation
    Director of Data Services

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  • FusionPro Products
    Yes

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  • FusionPro VDP software version
    Producer (API) 8.2.5

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  • OS
    Windows Server 2008, MAC 10.7.4

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  • Acrobat Version
    Acrobat X (10)
  • Homepage
    http://businesssolutions.shutterfly.com

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  1. Is there a way to use a screened value of a color in text? For frames there is a fillColorPercent. Is there a way to do this with text? I currently have my site building dynamic colors using the cmyk hex values and passing it in the formatting as a color tag. I plan on converting the system to use the new FusionProColor function to define the name, the values, and isSpot. I am working with spot colors and I need to be able to create the spot and use various screens of the color in different text flows for two color print.
  2. Hi Dan, The issue you are having has to do with the way InDesign exports PDFs in regards to bleed settings. After exporting the PDF from InDesign check the crop settings. If bleed was set in InDesign and your PDF export is set to "Use document bleed settings" you may notice a difference in where your (X,Y) coordinates place frames in the FP template. Check the crop settings of the PDF in Acrobat after exporting. Are the art and trim boxes set to 0.125 or 0? These settings will make a big difference in setting up the frames in FP. FP uses the 'Trimbox' (Dan or Alex please correct me if I'm wrong) to set the output document size and frame settings. If you are creating an 8.5" x 11" and the art and trim boxes are set to 0.125 the (0,0) would be based on the 8.5"x11" document. To have a frame go into the bleed you would have to set the frame at (-0.125,-0.125). If you created the PDF taking the bleed into account, actually creating the document with bleed included, your PDF will be 8.75"x11.25" with the art and trim boxes set to 0. In this case (0,0) in your frame properties will actually be 0.125" offset up and to the left. In order to get each frame into its desired final position you would have to add 0.125" to both the X and the Y coordinates. The bottom line is the settings for PDF creation between your InDesign 5 and InDesign 6 could be setting bleed different. Open the two output PDFs from the different versions of InDesign and check the crop values in Acrobat. Check all values (Cropbox, Artbox, Trimbox, Bleedbox). If they are not the same check your PDF settings in the InDesign versions and set them how you want them. If 5 is how you want them make 6 the same. If you have already created the PDFs and they are different that's ok. You can change the settings in Acrobat and readjust the frame box positions in FP to compensate.
  3. Hi Debbie, Although FP can use the curly quotes if they are available in the font. There is no actual function written in to automatically take care of this for you like there is in InDesign or Word. Basically what those software packages do is find specific occurrences of the straight quotes, either single or double, and replace them with the appropriate curly character. If the text is entered directly in an FP rule or formatted text box you can enter the appropriate character directly by entering: On a Mac Option + [ and Shift + Option + [ (for the curly double quotes) Option + ] and Shift + Option +] (for curly single quotes) On a PC Alt + 0147 and Alt + 0148 (for curly double quotes) Alt + 0145 and Alt + 0146 (for curly single quotes) However since many times the quotes will be part of the data feed or from an excel document you won't have the chance to simply enter the characters you really want. What you can to is set the value to a variable and perform a few simple ReplaceSubstring lines like this: str="I'm checking to see if \"Smart Quotes\" will work for me. 'For single curly quotes.'" str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " \"" , " „"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "\"" , "”"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " '", " ‚"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "'", "’"); return str In this example I setup a variable called str with some simple text. In that string you could have some, or all of it using field values from your data. str="I'm checking to see if " + Field("Message Field") + " will work for me. 'For single curly quotes.'" str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " \"" , " „"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "\"" , "”"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " '", " ‚"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "'", "’"); return str Or simply: str=Field("Message Field") str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " \"" , " „"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "\"" , "”"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " '", " ‚"); str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "'", "’"); return str Hope this helps.
  4. Hi Bert, I have always used Mail Manager for creating my presorts. One of the biggest advantages of MM is the export formats that are available from both the presort window or the export window. MM generally calls them labels, which are fully definable. The term labels comes from the old ink jet and dot-matrix form days. Since most of what you do with MM is postal sorting there would be no real advantage to connecting directly to the dbf (Borland database format) since it would not be in presort order. I, like dreimer, prefer a delimited output. I would create a label, include a header, and choose a comma delimited format with double quote qualifiers. Do not allow fields to float. All fields should have a solid dot next to them. Make sure none of the fields have an arrow pointing up or down. (We used to use that for the old fixed head ink jets.) Make sure the width is larger than the longest field and add as many fields as you will need in the FP template. There is really no reason to include every field from the data. If you find that you didn't include a field you needed you can add the additional field later and simply rerun the FP data wizard to include the additional field. Since FP is finding the fields by header name it doesn't really matter what order the fields are in. When exporting from the presort window you are always assured that the data will be in presort order and in the stream order that is displayed. By default the non-USPS stream will be deselected and therefore not included in the output. If they are needed for a 100% mailing, like a class action lawsuit mailing, just click the button next to the stream. For audits and other non-presorted outputs all of the defined labels are available under the non-presorted labels selection from the standard grid view. By using the label output you are able to able to use all of your MM exports in the FP template since they will be consistent. The basic rule is make sure the records are in the right order, output the smallest file size possible, and use the easiest format FP can take. Mail Manager is the best tool out there for managing mail files. The flexibility for importing, managing the data, and exporting is hard to beat. Coupled with FusionPro there is not much you can't do. Hope this helps...
  5. Yes. You can change superscript settings within the same paragraph. You can use the superoffset, superratio, suboffset, or subratio commands to change the settings. return "Trademarked text<p br=false superoffset=70 superratio=20><superscript>TM</superscript> with other trademarked text<p br=false superoffset=40 superratio=40><superscript>TM</superscript> then the rest of your text." Superscript and subscript, unlike other paragraph formatting tags, can change settings within the same paragraph as many times as you need them to. You are still required to begin the tag with the '<p>' designator. Use 'br=false' to prevent beginning a new paragraph.
  6. Thanks Dan that helps. I have had trouble with the VStraddle command. Whenever I use it the contents of the cell always duplicates into the straddled cell below it. HStraddle works fine. Do you have any idea why the VStraddle would duplicate the contents? I removed all CopyCells commands to make sure it wasn't something I was doing.
  7. Top is not a function it is a parameter. Try this: text.Rows[0].Cells[0].SetBorders("Thin", "Red", "Top"); text.Rows[0].Cells[0].SetBorders("Thin", "Green", "Bottom"); text.Rows[0].Cells[0].SetBorders("Medium", "Blue", "Right"); text.Rows[0].Cells[0].SetBorders("Medium", "Black", "Left");
  8. Using the VStraddle causes the cell contents to duplicate down a cell.
  9. I don't see a way to span rows or columns. Am I missing something?
  10. When composing chunked output files FP appends a number to the end of the filename. Is there a way to pad that number with zeros?
  11. In this case a split would work nicely. The CustType would be equal to everything to the left of the colon character and CustType2 would be equal to everything on the right of the colon. Using the .split would be similar to using TextToColumns in Excel. Whatever character you enter inside the quotes becomes your delimiter. Since it is zero based the 1st value is [0], the second value is [1], and so on... CustTypeSplit=Field("Version").split(":") CustType=CustTypeSplit[0] CustType2=CustTypeSplit[1]
  12. Hi George, Since the date is not "predictable" it is difficult to create some kind of automated function. We had to deal with this same issue and through talking with the customer we were able to determine exactly why the dates were the they they were. In turn we found a way to calculate them. If there is actually no way to calculate them then somebody needs to enter them somewhere. There are a couple of options: 1. Simply open the rule editor and enter the date you want to use like this: At the top of the JavaScript Globals date = "03/15/2010" Since this is plain text you could literally enter the date exactly as you want it to appear. Now in any rule simply add this to your result. return "Static text before the date " + date + " with the rest of the text after the date." 2. Shift the burden to the customer for the date entry by formating a small Excel file containing the date. Name the Excel file DateMatrix. Give the customer the Excel file to edit. When they send you the new file save it as a csv file. For simplicities sake save this small csv file in the root directory with you FP file. StartDate EndDate January 01, 2010 February 01, 2010 Enter this in the JavaScript Globals: //Set the Date Matrix to retrieve the customer values //Since it is in the root directory no path is needed to locate the file. DateMatrix = new ExternalDataFileEx("DateMatrix.csv", ",") Enter this in the OnJobStart callback rule. This will load the value and set the variables once as the job begins. //Set the date variables StartDate = DateMatrix.GetFieldValue(1,"StartDate"); EndDate = DateMatrix.GetFieldValue(1,"EndDate"); Then create a rule called Offer Dates and enter this: //Use the date variables entered in OnJobStart return "Start Date: " + StartDate + " -- End Date: " + EndDate Then place the rule into a text box on your layout. Whatever is entered in the fields in the Date Matrix csv file will be placed in the layout. I have attached a small example file. I hope this helps. DateTest.zip
  13. Thank you. That answered my question. Will this capability be added in the future?
  14. I'm not really looking for you to find out why the JPG is not working for some of the pages. I really only wanted the config commands to try and output the files in something other than JPEG. The post says you can output in BMP, EPS, GIF, JPG, PNG, or TIF. For example to out put JPEG the command is JPEG_Output_Enabled=true How do I output PNG or GIF?
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