Xerox Elixir Forms Development Software User guide

E

AppBuilder

for AFP

™

User Guide

June 1999

Version 4.00

Elixir Technologies Corporation

P.O. Box 1559

Ojai, CA 93024

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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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