There are media entries in both the template, and the Output Creation settings. How do they interact? Which are used during PostScript production? What happens if a template’s media entry isn’t in the Output Preset? What happens if the Characteristics differ between the template and the Output preset for the same media name?
- How do they interact?
- The media entries you select within the Template tell Connect which ones to use in the Output Preset.
- Which are used during PostScript production?
- Effectively both. The entries in the Output Preset are the ones that link directly to the Postscript in your PDC, however you have to have actually selected them in your template for use.
- What happens if a template’s media entry isn’t in the Output Preset?
- When you open an Output Creation Preset in Designer, it will automatically add all Medias from the currently open template to the list. You’ll just need to save it again to keep that addition. If, however, you do happen to run a template through the Workflo using an Output preset that weren’t designed for each other (leading to mismatched Media names as described), then it will go to the printer’s default tray/media.
- What happens if the Characteristics differ between the template and the Output preset for the same media name?
- This largely refers back to question 3. The printer will fall back to it’s defaults.
What’s important to understand here is that the selections in Connect Designer are effectively meaningless outside of the context of the Output and PDC. They are nothing more than selectors that choose the options.
In Design you’re setting variables.
var Media = White
var Weight = 80
var PaperSize = Letter
In the Output preset you’re defining what happens…
IF(Media = White AND Weight = 80 AND PaperSize = Letter) {
do something (where something is the PostScript Code embedded in the PDC for these options)
}
If your template doesn’t meet all of the conditions to apply a particular output, nothing gets applied and you send it over to let the printer decide based on it’s defaults.
This being the case, I would think loading/selecting/building an Output Creating Settings file would be required before setting any Media up within Connect Design. It is similar to the “Designed For” setting in the Document object in PlanetPress Design 7.
The user shouldn’t be able to make Media settings in Connect Design that are not explicitly setup in an Output Settings file, since this can lead to situations were both the Template settings and the Output settings are effectively ignored.
Also, I couldn’t find your description of the relationship in the documentation. Should the documentation be updated?
This being the case, I would think loading/selecting/building an Output Creating Settings file would be required before setting any Media up within Connect Design. It is similar to the “Designed For” setting in the Document object in PlanetPress Design 7.
You can’t really draw comparisons between Connect and Suite, they work in fundamentally different ways.
Think about it from a programming stand point. You’re going to create your variables before you set up the conditions that they’re used in. That’s what you’re doing in the template, creating variables.
Once you’re in the Output settings, you’re setting up the conditions that use those variables. Of course, I could have defined any number of variables that I don’t actually need. I may also find I need a new variable that I hadn’t previously thought of… and therefore need to go back and set up.
I’m dealing with real-world consequences of the “disconnect” between Media Settings in the Template and Media Settings in the Output Settings. Users are creating whatever Media names they want in the templates, whether or not they are in an Output Settings file. When I tell them that’s incorrect, the question is, “then why does Connect allow us to create/use names that aren’t valid?”
Whether or not the pp7 or Connect methodologies are the same or different or what programming theory is being used, the actual user experience is: create Templates, use any Media Name, maybe create a new Output Settings file, or package up the same one you used last time, maybe forget to save it because the media names are “imported” from the Template so it all “looks” ok, and PostScript that causes paper/media mismatch errors.