Templates

The Designer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) tool to create templates. This topic gets you started. It explains how to create a template, what is found in a template file, and how output can be generated.

Creating a template

In the Welcome screen that appears after startup, get off to a flying start choosing Browse Template Wizards. Scroll down to see all the Template Wizards. After deciding which output channel – print or email – will be prevalent in your template, select a template.

The Template Wizards can also be accessed from the menu: click File, click New, expand the Template folder, and then expand one of the templates folders.

There are Wizards for the three types of output channels, or contexts as they are called in the Designer; see Creating an Email template with a Wizard, Creating a Print template with a Wizard and Creating a Web template with a Wizard.

After creating a template you can add the other contexts (see Contexts), as well as extra sections (see Sections), to the template.
It is, however, not possible to use a Template Wizard when adding a context or section to an existing template.

Saving a template

A Designer template file has the extension .OL-template. It is a zip file that includes up to 3 contexts, all the related resources and scripts, and (optionally) a link to a Data Mapping Configuration.

To save a template for the first time, select File > Save as. After that you can save the template by selecting File > Save or pressing Ctrl+S.

When more than one resource (template or data mapping configuration) is open and the Designer software is closed, the Save Resources dialog appears. This dialog displays a list of all open resources with their names and file location. Selected resources will be saved, deselected resources will have all their changes since they were last saved dismissed.

Sharing a template

To share a template, you can send the template file itself, or save the template to a package file, optionally together with a Job Creation Preset and an Output Creation Preset. (See Job Creation Presets and Output Creation Settings for more details.)

To create a package file, select File > Package file, see Package files. The package file has the extension .OL-package.

Generating output from the Designer

Output can be generated directly from the Designer; see Generating Print output, Generating Email output and Generating Web output.

To test a template first, select Context > Preflight. Preflights executes the template without actually producing output and it displays any issues once it's done (see also: Testing scripts).

Package files

The Package file dialog saves templates and print presets as a package file. Print presets make it possible to do such things as filtering and sorting records, grouping documents and splitting the print jobs into smaller print jobs, as well as the more standard selection of printing options, such as binding, OMR markings and the like. See Job Creation Presets and Output Creation Settings for more details.

To save a template to a package file:

1. Select File > Package files.
2. Select the template to send. By default the currently active template is listed. Click Browse to select another template. You may select more than one template in the Browse dialog, and each of them is added to a package file. A template file has the extension .OL-template.
3. Use the drop-down to select a Job Creation Preset to send. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets. A Job Creation Preset file has the extension .OL-jobpreset.
4. Use the drop-down to select an Output Creation Preset. Click Browse to select a preset that is not in the default location for presets. An Output Creation Preset file has the extension .OL-outputpreset.
5. Click OK to save the package file.