Document Design Manager - Inserting New Items

To insert a new item position the mouse where you wish to insert the item and press the right-button on the mouse (hereafter described as right-click). A menu appears for you to select the type of item you wish to add.

You can select to insert a text prompt, a data item, a line drawing, box drawing, or insert a bmp image.

You can also elect to insert a blank line on the document at the current position or to delete a line.The ‘Paste Object’ option (greyed out in the picture on the left) is active if you have used the ‘Cut’ or ‘Copy’ option from the edit menu previously.

Adding a Text Item

If you select to insert a Text Prompt a pop-up form allows you enter the text label to be displayed.

You type the text you require (up to 128 characters). If you click the APPLY button the text is updated onto the document design in the default font/size for the area of the document. If you wish to change the font select the FONT button and the font dialog is shown as discussed earlier (you are setting the font for this item alone).

To change the colour of the background to the text select the COLOUR button and a colour dialog will be displayed allowing you to select from a pre-defined colour set or allow you to create 16 custom colours of your choosing.

To define a custom colour click with the mouse on the colour panel display and then move the scroll panel on the right to control the luminescence. Once your happy with the colour select the ‘Add to Custom Colours’ button and the colour will be added to the custom colours on the left for selection.

The ‘SNAP’ button is used to position the text item at the centre of a row and at the start of a column – snapping the text to the grid. The ‘DELETE’ button removes the text and returns you to the document mask.

Once you are happy with the changes select the CLOSE option to update the text label and return to the document mask. If you wish to abandon click the X button in the corner of the Text Properties window.

This isn’t all the options available though – if you select the ACTION pull-down menu, in addition to the button prompts (with a bit more description) are further options to reset the font and colour to default settings, save the font and colour to and set from the palette – this is useful if making the same changes to several items. You also have the option to add a border around the text label, and to right align the text within the label. Finally you can choose to abandon changes or accept and update the changes.

Adding a Data Item

If you select to insert a new Data Item then a pop-up form allows you to select the data item to be displayed.

To select an item you need to select the category of item and then the print item itself. Drop down lists are available for each – use the mouse to activate first the category list (note the categories vary depending on the document selected).

Once the category is selected choosing the print item drop-down list shows the items available for selection in this category.

Items with a V after them are already used within the document so you cannot select these again. Some categories allow you to choose direct from the database the items to print. For these items the ‘–‘ character as the print item represents a free item available for you to define. If you select this then the appropriate database is displayed for you to select a data item from.

Once you have selected the item then the options are available, as with text, to change the font, background colour or delete. ‘Snap to Grid’ is not available on data items as data items are automatically ‘snapped to the grid’.

Adding a Line

If you select to insert a new Line – either horizontal or vertical - then a short line is drawn on the page. This can then be extended by moving the mouse to the end of the line (until the cursor changes to an arrow) and then clicking with the mouse and dragging it for the length required.

Adding a Box

If you select to insert a Box then a small box is drawn on the page. This can be extended by moving the box to a corner (until the cursor changes to an arrow) and then clicking with the mouse and dragging it for the size required.

Adding an Image

If you select to insert a new Image then a pop-up form allows you to select the image to be displayed.

You are asked to enter the image filename (BMP or JPG files only). You can browse for the file by clicking the ‘?’ icon or pressing <F4-Select>. Images are held in folder ‘DocImage’ created automatically off the DFCOMP location (usually \DFWIN\DATA).

Although you can browse to other folders from here you can only select to apply images from the ‘DocImage’ folder – if necessary you can copy from another location and paste here via the file selection browser.

Once you select the image file its filename is returned to the document to be applied. Note that the image is sized as per the file and cannot be resized within Datafile – you must use an external package if you need to do this.