i'm having trouble How To Create a .def file

[DLS]

We are trying to make a master PDF file but am unsure how to create a .def file. Can someone please explain the process?

 

We have seen that it might have something to do with a .def file in another thread.

 

So far we have imported the data, created text files with variable information and are ready to compose. At what point does the .def file get created and where can we find the save option to name it?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dan Korn]

I'm not sure in what context you're asking. You don't normally "create" a Data Definition (.def) file manually. It, along with the Layout/Format (.dif) file, is created automatically when you design the document template in Acrobat using FusionPro Desktop. And if you're composing in FP Desktop, you don't really need to worry about these files, because you can't override the settings in them anyway. You just click "Compose," and all the rules and resources you've defined in the GUI are used for composition.

 

If you're composing with FusionPro Server, then you do need to supply the files. However, all the files you need to compose are gathered together when you do a Collect in FP Desktop, including the background PDF, the input data file, the Data Definition (.def) file, the Format (.dif) file, and any resources and fonts the jobs is using, along with some other things. The usual workflow, such as in a Web to Print system, is to compose using the collected files, possibly with a new input data file. You can modify the other files for FP Server composition as well; for instance, you can use the DIF Control API to modify the format (.dif) file for variable layout. And you can modify the Data Definition (.def) file, which is an XML file, with any XML-aware tool; there's an XML schema file called FusionProDataDef.xsd installed with FusionPro to aid with this. You can even create the .dif and .def files from scratch.

 

However, even in a FP Server workflow, you almost always want to compose with the .def file which was collected up with the job, since the fields, rules, and resources are fairly tightly bound to the layout defined in the .dif file. Modifying the .def file is extremely rare. Note that, if you're in a Web-to-Print type workflow where you're passing a generated input data file to FP Server, we recommend creating a tagged markup input file and setting "InputFileFormat=Tagged" in the CFG file, which will override the input format so that you don't have to worry about what flat file delimiter was set up at design time in the .def file.

[DLS]

I don't understand you entirely but your saying that since i am using fusion pro desktop I don't need to worry about the .def file right?

 

We are using this program to merge variable information into a pdf file that is being sent to us from various reps. They send us a pdf file with the text they want to express. Then we take the excel data they sent us and turn it into a tab delimitted text file so that we can import and merge that information into that same pdf for a mailing to those individuals. We create a text box and insert the variable fields such as name, address, street, unit, state, zip and also a postnet barcode rule.

 

Is there any way that we can create a master pdf with that variable information, so that we will not have to input all the variable fields every time the rep sends in a pdf with a different text? So that all we would have to do then is import the data and drop in or merge the master pdf with the new pdf with the new text.

 

Thank you very much for your time and help.

[Dan Korn]

I don't understand you entirely but your saying that since i am using fusion pro desktop I don't need to worry about the .def file right?

Right.

We are using this program to merge variable information into a pdf file that is being sent to us from various reps. They send us a pdf file with the text they want to express. Then we take the excel data they sent us and turn it into a tab delimitted text file so that we can import and merge that information into that same pdf for a mailing to those individuals. We create a text box and insert the variable fields such as name, address, street, unit, state, zip and also a postnet barcode rule.

Yep, that sounds like a very basic mail merge-type job. It's a lot like the Cell Phone tutorial that ships with FusionPro; take a look at that.

Is there any way that we can create a master pdf with that variable information, so that we will not have to input all the variable fields every time the rep sends in a pdf with a different text? So that all we would have to do then is import the data and drop in or merge the master pdf with the new pdf with the new text.

Sure, that's pretty much what FusionPro, and variable data composition in general, is all about. The only thing is that the data fields have to have the same names, otherwise you have to change them in the text frames in the template PDF.