I am sorry, I can’t put it into a short question, but what I’d like to get is an overview on how “Media-Type”, “Master-Pages” and “Sections” are working together.
Lets say, we need to create a document that consist of the following parts:
Page 1: Letter - the typical first page with a logo, an address-field maybe a footer (Masterpage: Top-Margin=10cm, Bottom-Margin=4cm)
Pages 2-n: Pages created by the overflow of the first page; smaller logo, no footer (Masterpage: Top-Margin=2cm, Bottom-Margin=2cm)
Page n+1: Optional: some kind of a certificate or whatever (Masterpage: Top-Margin=1cm, Bottom-Margin=1cm)
Page n+2:Optional: a paymant transfer media
What I mean is a document that uses more that SinglePage or First/Middle/LastPage and needs to insert pages dynamically on demand.
How, for example can I insert a fixed page-break or how do I mimic/control these different “parts” (sections?).
Optional pages with different margins will require conditional sections, however, which is something we have not covered in the basic course as it requires scripting (which is new to 1.1, so fairly recent). While we don’t have any training material for this, the documentation does contain some information. Unfortunately it has not yet been properly “formatted” and the examples are perhaps lacking, but maybe it’s enough for you to figure it out: http://help.objectiflune.com/EN/pres_connect_designer/1.1/Control_Script_API.htm
I’ve watched the videos already before - of course
But they do not give the overview I am looking for.
Your hints regarding the “Control_Script_API” seem to be more a technical description about how to work with optional pages etc.
As we plan to offer trainings for customers, we need to understand the concept of “Media-Types”, “Master-Pages” and “Sections” before and then see how customers can migrate their PReS-Projects (PrintSoft PReS) or even create new more complex documents.
But the 2 videos are explanations of those concepts. Furthermore, conditional sections are currently the only way to conditionally display pages with different media types or master pages (which is what’s required if you want different margins). More complex documents will require scripting.
What other kind of information were you expecting?
to be honest, I’d prefer one of these old-fashioned manuals, where you can read a sentence or paragraph as many times as you need to understand. That is not so easy with a video - especially for non-native speakers
The manual should cover and describe the idea behind all these types of objects, how they rely on each other or how they interact. It should give some visualization about types of documents (Simple Letter, Transactional documents, Documents with differents types of pages etc.) - the video only shows how to create one of these types; not why you have to do it like is shown.
When it comes to scripting, it should give examples for the above mentioned types and explain the API.
Maybe the problem is that we used PReS for the last ~14 years to create simple mailings as well as really complex documents or even complete “document creation systems”, that use hundreds of pre-formatted text-blocks (similar to snippets) that are located in a central repository, maintained by several users etc.
With PReS, we were able to do it. It was not always easy, but we knew how to do it.
Now, as “PReSConnect” was announced as the successor of “PrintSoft PReS”, we need to check if it is possible either to migrate or rebuild all these projects.
From my point of view, the current version of “PReSConnect” lacks a real good documentation, that helps to understand the concepts of “PReSConnect”.
Neither can you learn driving a car by viewing videos where someone else is driving nor will learn the traffic rules etc.
A good made video might assist, but I bet that most people prefer a written manual
You’re perfectly right that we’re missing a lot of detailed technical information, especially about Control Scripts. We’re slowly getting there, and I personally apologize (as the technical writer) for the lack of documentation.
We are working very hard to provide demos and documentation as soon as possible.
As most - if not all - issues apply also to “PlanetPress Connect” Designer, which has been released a couple of months ago, I’d assume customers ask for documentation there, too.
Unfortunately, it is a strange situation now: we’ve told customers for a long time that there will be something new to replace “PrintSoft PReS” and now it is there, but we can not tell them how to use it or how to recreate existinig projects.
