Use Layout Conditioning

Use layout conditioning to conditionally skip certain pages of your document or to leave them blank during the printing process. The PRINT and BLANK commands will not influence the amount of pages printed.

There are three options for applying a condition to a layout:

PRINT: The layout will be printed (default).
BLANK: A BLANK page will be printed instead of the layout.
SKIP : The layout will be skipped and the next layout will take its place.

To specify layout conditioning

Select the layout for which you want to set the condition:

(Windows): It is possible to specify layout condition in three ways:
1. From the Layout menu, select Edit Condition.
2. Right click on the layout and select Edit Layout Condition.
3. In the Layouts panel, select the layout and click on Action to Edit Condition.
(Mac OS):
1. From the Windows menu, select Show Layout Conditions.
2. From the Windows menu, select Show Variables and click on Layout Conditions.

Use Case Example

You want to print a one page newsletter or promotional letter, but you want to use a different page (different colors or images, for example) for your clients depending if they are male or female. Luckily, your database contains a field that says "M" for male clients and "F" for female clients.

The following expression can be used on the layout that is meant for your male clients:

IF( [GENDER] = "M", Print, Skip)

In plain words, "If the GENDER field is equal to "M", print the page, otherwise skip it".

The expression for your female audience will be very similar:

IF( [GENDER] = "F", Print, Skip)

FreeForm and FreeForm 2 print technologies do not fully support layout conditioning and do not allow you to conditionally Skip layouts. When SKIP is used, a BLANK page will be printed instead.

Note: When you use layout condition SKIP for your PrintShop Mail documents with multiple layouts, or when you have applied variable Number of Copies, this may cause that the size of the record sets (the number of actual printed layouts per record) will be different per record set. This in turn may cause that some record sets will be split across different stacks.

When should Layout Conditions be applied?

Output of multiple versioned documents within one PrintShop Mail file.
Sending a different promotional coupon to clients that have purchased more or less than a specific amount (perhaps when sending a "thank you for your previous purchase" letter)
Inserting blank pages

Note: For more information on expressions, see Expression Overview.