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E
AppBuilder
for AFP
™
User Guide
June 1999
Version 4.00
Elixir Technologies Corporation
P.O. Box 1559
Ojai, CA 93024
Copyright 1999 by Elixir Technologies Corporation.
All rights reserved.
June 1999
Version 4.00
Printed in the United States of America
Trademarks and Service Marks/Company:
DocuMerge/Image Sciences Corporation
Elixir/Elixir Technologies Corporation
HP, LaserJet/Hewlett Packard Company
IBM, Personal Computer AT, PS/2, and all IBM prod-
ucts mentioned in this publication are trademarks of
International Business Machines
MS-DOS, Windows, Microsoft Mouse/Microsoft
Corporation
All other product names and trade names used herein
are trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright protection claimed includes all forms and
matters of copyrightable material and information now
allowed by statutory or judicial law or hereinafter
granted, including without limitation, material gener-
ated from the software programs which are displayed
on the screen such as icons, screen display looks,
etc.
Changes are periodically made to this document.
Changes, technical inaccuracies, and typographic er-
rors will be corrected in subsequent editions.
Notes and cautions
The following notes and cautions apply to Elixir
AppBuilder for AFP version 4.00.
Using AppBuilder with Elixir Desktop and Con-
verters for AFP
The following changes affect the noted AppBuilder
versions.
AppBuilder version 3.11
Due to a database structure change, versions of
AppBuilder prior to 3.11 are no longer supported in the
Elixir Desktop.
If you are using an older AppBuilder version, you must
start the product from the Program Manager icon or
Windows 95 shortcut and perform conversions to and
from Elixir format from there.
AppBuilder version 3.20
Beginning with the 3.20 release, AppBuilder and the
Elixir Desktop share the same formdef/pagedef de-
sign database, so you must install the same version of
each product. The database format differs from that
of previous releases. Using a pre-3.20 AppBuilder
version with a 3.20 Desktop version changes the data-
base format such that your pagedefs/formdefs are no
longer accessible in AppBuilder.
AppBuilder version 4.00
The version 4.00 design database differs from the ver-
sion 3.20 database. When you launch AppBuilder
4.00 for the first time the following message may
display:
"Design Database Backed up! New version re-
quires update of database format. Do you want
to convert existing designs into new database?"
Click on <Yes> to back up your existing AppBuilder
jobs database in the
\ELIXIR\JOBS\ELIXIR\D9601SAV directory. All of
your pagedefs/formdefs are loaded into the new data-
base for use and the back-up directory remains until
you delete it.
Table of contents
Notes and cautions
1. Introduction 1-1
AppBuilder overview 1-1
Customer support 1-3
Elixir Web site support 1-4
Elixir training 1-4
Who should use this guide 1-4
Hardware and software requirements 1-5
Hardware 1-5
Software requirements 1-5
Conventions 1-6
Display conventions 1-6
Typographical conventions 1-6
Mouse operations 1-7
On-line Help 1-9
Using Online documentation 1-10
Accessing online guides 1-11
Navigating in online guides 1-12
Word find 1-12
Page scrolling 1-12
Zoom in/out 1-13
Printing online guides 1-13
Organization of this guide 1-14
Before installing 1-15
ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE v
Product Registration 1-15
Elixir Product Registration screen 1-16
Using the internet 1-17
Registering as a new customer via
the internet 1-17
Downloading via the internet to a
non-Elixir PC 1-18
Contacting Elixir (no internet
connection) 1-20
Soft key customers running Win-
dows for Workgroups 3.1 or 3.11 1-20
Installation 1-21
Installing Elixir applications 1-21
Full installation 1-22
Custom installation 1-23
Adding applications 1-24
Adding newly licensed applications 1-25
Starting AppBuilder 1-25
Exiting AppBuilder 1-26
2. AppBuilder basics 2-1
AFP overview 2-1
AppBuilder overview 2-2
ElixirForm overview 2-3
AppBuilder window 2-4
Creating a form 2-4
Designing a new form 2-4
Reproducing an existing form 2-5
Designing a form to fit in a window
envelope 2-5
Loading a form 2-5
Loading a new form <F9 > 2-5
Loading a saved form <F8 > 2-6
Loading GEM forms 2-6
Merging a form group 2-7
Loading a form template 2-7
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vi ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Selecting template defaults 2-8
Adding form elements 2-9
Using color 2-9
Saving a form 2-10
Modifying a form 2-11
Editing elements 2-11
Shifting elements 2-11
Grouping elements 2-12
Defining a group 2-12
Saving a form group 2-13
Deleting a form 2-14
Renaming or moving a form 2-14
Proof printing a form 2-15
Printing a disk print file 2-17
Using the Elixir HP print driver 2-18
Creating PageDefs 2-20
Creating FormDefs 2-21
3. Toolbar and Toolbox 3-1
Toolbar 3-1
Digital ruler 3-1
Current object - Shape 3-1
Current object - Start Coordinates 3-1
Current object - Dimensions 3-2
Graphic ruler <F3> 3-2
Grid <F4> 3-3
Snap to Grid <F5> 3-5
Long Crosshair <F6> 3-5
Zoom in/out 3-6
Undo/redo (Ctrl + Z/Shift + Ctrl + Z) 3-6
Spell Check 3-6
Show/hide Toolbox 3-6
Show/hide PageFormat 3-7
Show/hide CopyGroup 3-7
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ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE vii
Edit PageFormat 3-7
Edit CopyGroup 3-7
Toolbox 3-7
Select tool 3-8
Copy 3-8
Delete 3-9
Group Filter options 3-9
Copy Count 3-9
Movement Selection 3-9
Copy Distance 3-10
Sticky Lines 3-10
Line tool 3-10
Line Direction 3-10
Line Width 3-10
Line Style 3-11
Line Color 3-11
Path tool 3-11
Path Shape 3-11
Path Direction 3-11
Path Beginning and End
Styles 3-11
Border Width 3-11
Border Style 3-12
Draw/Done Mode 3-12
Path Color 3-12
Path Fill Color 3-12
Path Pattern/Shading 3-12
Path Connection Radius 3-13
Box tool 3-13
Box Corner Style 3-13
Box Positioning 3-13
Box Shape 3-13
Box Diagonals 3-13
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viii ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Box Line Width 3-14
Box Line Style 3-14
Box Lines 3-14
Box Splits -
Horizontal/Vertical 3-14
Box Color 3-15
Box Fill Color 3-15
Box Pattern/Shading 3-15
Box Corner Radius 3-15
Circle tool 3-15
Circle Radius 3-16
Circle Drawing Method 3-16
Circle Diagonals 3-16
Circle Border Width 3-16
Circle Border Style 3-16
Circle Start and Finish
Angle 3-17
Circle Color 3-17
Circle Fill Color 3-17
Circle Pattern/Shading 3-17
Circle Axis 3-17
Text tool 3-17
Text Direction 3-18
Inter-character/Inter-word
Spacing 3-18
Wrap Text 3-18
Remove Redundant
Spaces 3-19
Split Text 3-19
Text Justification 3-19
Text Positioning 3-19
Vertical Text Spacing 3-19
Text Color 3-20
Data Tags 3-20
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ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE ix
Column Width and Height 3-20
Draw Text Box 3-21
Box Text 3-21
Font Type 3-21
Load Font List/Merge Font
List/Save Font List 3-22
Soft Keyboard 3-22
Font Preview Panel 3-22
Image tool 3-22
Image Name 3-23
Image Size
Horizontal/Vertical 3-23
Image Color 3-23
Image Fill Color 3-23
Load image 3-23
PageFormat tool 3-23
PageFormat Properties 3-24
PageFormat Direction 3-31
PageFormat Horizontal Line
one Position 3-31
PageFormat Vertical Line
one Position 3-31
Record tool 3-32
Record Properties 3-32
Text Direction 3-37
Character Rotation 3-38
Repeat 3-38
Channel Number 3-38
Linespacing 3-38
Field/Line 3-39
Font 3-39
Record Color 3-39
Field tool 3-39
Field Properties 3-39
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x ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Direction 3-43
Character Rotation 3-43
Start 3-44
Length 3-44
Variable data/Fixed text 3-44
Suppression 3-44
Font 3-44
Field Color 3-44
4. Menu bars 4-1
AppBuilder menu bar 4-1
File menu 4-1
Form 4-1
Form Group 4-2
PageDef 4-3
FormDef 4-3
Convert 4-4
Databasing 4-4
Import Text 4-5
Print 4-5
Exit 4-6
System menu 4-6
Usage Switches 4-6
Filing Options 4-7
Reset to Defaults 4-9
Save Configuration 4-9
Window menu 4-10
Tile 4-10
Form 4-10
PageDef 4-10
FormDef 4-10
Toolbox <F10> 4-10
Help menu 4-10
Work area menu bar 4-11
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ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE xi
Pgfmt menu 4-11
PageFormat 4-11
New Subpage 4-12
Record 4-12
Condition 4-13
New Field 4-13
Font List 4-14
CopyGroup menu 4-14
CopyGroup 4-14
SubGroup 4-15
New Overlay 4-15
Suppression 4-15
Edit menu 4-16
Undo <Ctrl> + <Z> 4-16
Redo <Shift> + <Ctrl> +
<Z> 4-16
Cut <Ctrl> + <X> 4-16
Copy <Ctrl> + <C> 4-16
Paste <Ctrl> + <V> 4-16
Select All <Ctrl> + <A> 4-17
Deselect All <Ctrl> + <A> 4-17
Delete <Del> 4-17
Delete All <Ctrl> + <Del> 4-17
Find <Alt> + <F3> 4-17
Find Next <F3> 4-17
Find Previous <Shift> +
<F3> 4-17
Replace 4-18
Tools menu 4-18
Spell Check 4-18
View menu 4-18
Options menu 4-18
Snap to Grid <F5> 4-19
PageDef Properties 4-19
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xii ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
FormDef Properties 4-21
Proofing Properties 4-28
AppBuilder Preferences 4-29
GEM Forms Load Defaults 4-31
Form Properties 4-33
Form Databasing 4-35
Text/Font Options 4-37
Character Mapping Options 4-40
Spell Check Options 4-43
Template Options 4-45
5. Lines 5-1
Line display 5-1
Setting the screen display 5-1
Screen refresh 5-1
Drawing lines 5-2
Applying color to a line 5-2
Editing lines 5-3
Changing line length 5-3
Changing dimension
coordinates 5-4
Stretching a line 5-4
Sticky lines <Ctrl> + <L> 5-4
Changing line attributes 5-5
Copying lines 5-6
Specifying a fixed distance between
multiple copies 5-6
Moving lines 5-7
Changing coordinates manually 5-7
Changing position coordinates 5-8
Deleting lines <Del> 5-8
6. Shapes 6-1
Drawing shapes 6-1
Drawing paths 6-1
Drawing boxes 6-2
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ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE xiii
Drawing circles 6-2
Editing shapes 6-3
Changing shape size 6-3
Changing dimension
coordinates 6-3
Stretching a shape 6-4
Changing shape attributes 6-4
Copying shapes 6-5
Specifying a fixed distance between
multiple copies 6-5
Moving shapes 6-6
Manually 6-6
Changing dimension coordinates 6-6
Deleting shapes <Del> 6-7
7. Text operations 7-1
Creating text 7-1
Entering text from the keyboard 7-1
Moving a block before fin-
ished entering text 7-2
Importing text 7-2
Importing text blocks 7-3
Importing text into a box 7-4
Specifying column boundaries 7-4
Entering coordinates 7-5
Drawing a text box 7-5
Entering free text 7-5
Selecting a font 7-6
Selecting a font from the current
Font List 7-6
Loading a new Font List 7-7
Merging font lists 7-7
Adding fonts to the Font List 7-7
Removing fonts from the Font List 7-8
Saving custom Font Lists 7-8
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xiv ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Soft keyboard 7-9
Typing extended characters 7-9
Inserting data tags 7-10
Editing text 7-10
Changing text attributes 7-10
Applying color to text 7-10
New text 7-11
Existing text 7-11
Changing the font in an entire text
block 7-11
Changing the font within a text block
7-12
Multiple fonts in a text block
7-12
Changing the font from a
specific location forward 7-12
Replacing fonts in a text block 7-13
Joining text 7-14
Splitting text 7-14
Moving existing text 7-15
Moving text manually 7-15
Moving text by changing
position coordinates 7-15
Copying text 7-16
Specifying a fixed distance between
multiple copies 7-17
Deleting text 7-17
Finding/replacing text 7-18
Finding text 7-18
Replacing text 7-19
Spell checking 7-20
Setting defaults 7-20
Using the Spell Checker 7-23
Keyboard shortcuts 7-24
8. Images 8-1
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ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE xv
Loading an image 8-1
Editing images 8-2
Moving an image 8-2
Moving an image manually 8-2
Moving an image by changing posi-
tion coordinates 8-3
Copying an image 8-3
Specifying a fixed distance between
multiple copies 8-4
Deleting an image 8-4
9. PageDef window 9-1
PageDef window 9-1
Overview of the features 9-2
Menu bar 9-2
Toolbar 9-2
PageDef tree 9-2
PageDef menu bar 9-2
Pgfmt 9-2
Edit 9-3
View 9-3
PageFormats 9-3
Records 9-3
Fields 9-3
None 9-3
Expand All <Shift> + <*> 9-3
Collapse All <Shift> + </> 9-3
Window on Top 9-4
PageDef Toolbar 9-4
+P 9-4
+S 9-4
+R 9-4
+F 9-5
Conditional Logic 9-5
Floating Page Segment 9-5
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xvi ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Floating Overlay 9-6
Properties 9-6
PageDef 9-7
Font List 9-7
PageFormat 9-7
Segment List 9-7
Overlay List 9-7
Record 9-8
Conditional Logic 9-8
Field 9-13
Delete 9-13
Adding objects to the PageDef tree 9-13
PageFormats 9-14
Record 9-15
Field 9-15
Viewing element properties 9-16
Locating selected Records or Fields 9-16
10. FormDef window 10-1
FormDef window 10-1
Overview of the features 10-2
Menu bar 10-2
Toolbar 10-2
FormDef tree 10-2
FormDef menu bar 10-3
CopyGroup 10-3
Edit 10-3
View 10-3
CopyGroups 10-3
SubGroups 10-3
Overlays 10-3
None 10-4
Expand All <Shift> + <*> 10-4
Collapse All <Shift> + </> 10-4
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ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE xvii
Window on Top 10-4
FormDef Toolbar 10-4
+C 10-4
+S 10-5
Overlay 10-5
Properties 10-6
FormDef 10-6
CopyGroup 10-6
SubGroup 10-12
Overlay 10-13
Delete 10-14
Adding objects to the FormDef tree 10-14
CopyGroup 10-15
SubGroup 10-15
Overlay 10-15
Creating new overlays 10-16
Viewing element properties 10-17
11. Importing and Exporting 11-1
Overview 11-1
Importing PPFA 11-1
Saving converted resources 11-2
Exporting PPFA and PageDef/FormDef
objects 11-3
Import Options dialog box 11-3
Export Options dialog box 11-6
Databasing 11-12
Importing a PageDef/FormDef 11-12
Exporting a PageDef/FormDef 11-13
Index INDEX-1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
xviii ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
1. Introduction
This chapter provides an introduction to the Elixir
AppBuilder, describes the contents of this user guide
and explains the installation process, as well as how
to start and exit AppBuilder.
This version of AppBuilder incorporates Elixir's Elixir-
Form for AFP and provides form editing and applica-
tion building capabilities. Both ElixirForm for AFP and
AppBuilder functionality are covered in this manual.
AppBuilder overview
In this guide, a job is defined as a print operation that
merges variable data from a host data file with fixed
resources (such as overlays and page segments) to
produce a print run.
One of the most common methods of producing a
print job is to use AFP printers running the Print Serv-
ices Facility (PSF) subsystem. With this configuration,
you can specify a print job as follows:
Use the Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA) lan-
guage to create source form definitions
(FORMDEFs) that specify how to control the
physical sheets of paper.
Use PPFA to create source page definitions
(PAGEDEFs) that specify the printing characteris-
tics (such as print direction or line spacing) in the
print area of a sheet.
Compile the above on a host computer to create
FORMDEF and PAGEDEF object files.
ELIXIR APPBUILDER FOR AFP USER GUIDE 1-1
Run the print job, in which you specify the data
file you want printed, and the resources required
for the print job (such as fonts, page segments, or
overlays).
Typically, generating source PAGEDEF and
FORMDEF statements is a task performed by skilled
data processing personnel or systems programmers.
This procedure is costly and time consuming
because:
detailed knowledge of print data streams and
PPFA is required
a trial and error method is normally used to calcu-
late data positions on forms to be printed
generating or modifying host-resident fonts, over-
lays, and page segments requires complex
procedures.
With AppBuilder, instead of manually creating
PAGEDEFs and FORMDEFs, you can define a job
that includes all formatting and data extraction infor-
mation (required for printing in an AFP environment)
on your PC screen using simple point-and-click
mouse operations in a WYSIWYG environment.
After you define a job, AppBuilder automates the gen-
eration of PAGEDEF and FORMDEF PPFA for use on
a variety of printing and PSF host environments.
INTRODUCTION
1-2 ELIXIR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
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