OpenText™ Exstream™

Importing Designs
 

Design and Production Documentation

Release 16.6.0
Importing Designs

OpenText™ Exstream
Importing Designs
Rev.: 2019-Apr-30   
This documentation has been created for software version 16.6.0.
It is also valid for subsequent software versions as long as no new document version is shipped with the product or is 
published at https://knowledge.opentext.com.
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Importing Designs

Contents
Chapter 1: About importing designs 6
1.1   Overview of the DXF conversion process 7
1.2   Understanding the DXF format 7
1.2.1   Creating a sample DXF file 8

Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs 9
2.1   xPression document feature support 9
2.1.1   Content types 10
2.1.2   Data sources 11
2.1.3   xDesign rules 12
2.1.4   Versioning and workflow 15
2.1.5   Microsoft Word templates 17
2.2   xPression output support 19
2.2.1   AFP output 20
2.2.2   HTML output 21
2.2.3   PDF output 22
2.2.4   PostScript output 23
2.2.5   PPML output 24
2.2.6   TIFF output 24
2.3   Importing PDPX files 24
2.3.1   Best practices for creating PDPX files 25
2.3.2   Importing a PDPX file from the command prompt 27
2.3.3   Importing a PDPX file in Design Manager 28
2.4   Reviewing import information 29
2.4.1   Import log 29
2.4.2   Report file 29
2.5   Reviewing imported designs 30
2.5.1   Reviewing variable formatting in Design Manager 30
2.5.2   Modifying designs  before producing output 32
2.5.3   Reviewing output for potential design changes 35
2.6   Building output from imported designs 36
2.6.1   Specifying the data source 36
2.6.2   Creating output queues 37
2.6.3   Packaging the application 37

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Importing Designs

2.6.4   Running the engine to produce output 39
2.7   Switches for xPression imports 40
2.7.1   Import utility switches 40
2.7.2   Engine switches 41
2.8   Understanding Exstream terminology 42

Chapter 3: Importing InDesign designs 49
3.1   Supported InDesign features 50
3.2   Converting the InDesign design to a DXF File 56
3.3   Importing the generated DXF file 59

Chapter 4: Importing Metacode designs 61
4.1   Supported Metacode formats 61
4.2   Preparing Metacode files for conversion 62
4.3   Converting the Metacode design to a DXF file 63
4.3.1   Using a Configuration File to Automatically Load Metacode Conversion 
Settings 64
4.3.2   Specifying the Format of Metacode Files That Will Be Converted 64
4.3.3   Specifying the Output Directory for the DXF Files 67
4.3.4   Mapping Metacode Fonts for Conversion 67
4.3.5   Specifying Custom Variable Names for Converted Metacode Variables 70
4.3.6   Saving the Settings and Running the Metacode Converter 71
4.4   Importing the generated DXF file 72
4.5   Cleaning up the imported DXF file 74
4.5.1   Combining Individual Text Boxes into a Line 74
4.5.2   Combining Individual Text Boxes into a Paragraph 75

Chapter 5: Importing OGL designs 76
5.1   Supported OGL features 76
5.2   Converting the OGL design to a DXF file 78
5.3   Importing the generated DXF file 79

Chapter 6: Importing PDF designs 81
6.1   Licensing requirements for PDF Converter 82
6.2   Planning your PDF conversion goals 82
6.3   Optimizing fidelity during a conversion 83

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6.4   Object-specific conversion behavior 84
6.5   Converting the PDF design to a DXF file 86
6.5.1   Specifying the Conversion Settings 86
6.5.2   Saving the conversion settings 97
6.5.3   Running the PDF Converter 98
6.6   Importing the generated DXF file 98
6.7   Cleaning up the imported pages in Designer 100
6.8   Variable formatting codes 101

Chapter 7: Importing Quark designs 112
7.1   Supported Quark features 113
7.2   Converting the Quark design to a DXF File 119
7.3   Importing the generated DXF file 121

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 Chapter 1: About importing designs
If you maintain legacy applications or designs outside of Design and Production, you can use 
conversion tools to convert those designs into an Exstream Design and Production-compatible 
format. Converted designs can be stored as page objects in the design database, just like pages 
you create using Designer. For example, suppose you created and maintained legacy mailings 
using Adobe InDesign. You can use the InDesign Converter to convert those files and import 
them into the Design Manager Library. You can then interact with the designs in Design 
Manager and Designer just as you do with other types of objects.

Design and Production provides you with multiple conversion options for legacy designs:

 l If you want to import xPression designs, you can use the built-in xPression import tool in 
Design Manager to convert your xPression designs into Design and Production designs.

 l If you want to import static legacy designs, that is, designs that do not use dynamic data, 
you can use converter tools to convert your designs into the Exstream Exchange Fomat 
(DXF) and then import them into Design and Production. The following converters are 
available for importing static legacy designs into the Design and Production environment:

 l InDesign Converter

 l Metacode Converter

 l OGL Converter

 l PDF Converter

 l Quark Converter

Each converter is available as a module that can be enabled on your license key.

If you have legacy content that you do not need to edit in Designer for use in future applications, 
you might consider using another Design and Production tool to meet your needs. For example, 
you can use a third-party tool to convert content into a format that you can use with the Dynamic 
Content Import module, such as TIFF or PDF. In this scenario, you can import legacy content 
into applications at engine run time, and you do not store them in the design database.

For more information about importing external content into your applications, see Importing
External Content in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

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Importing Designs
Chapter 1: About importing designs

1.1   Overview of the DXF conversion process
The basic conversion process to convert a static design into DXF is essentially the same, 
regardless of the converter program you use.

 1.  Converters analyze the legacy design to identify the types of objects used in it, and 
whether the objects are supported by the converter. Objects not supported by the converter 
or by the Design and Production environment are converted differently, depending on the 
converter you are using.

 2.  After the file has been analyzed, the converter converts the design into an intermediate 
format called DXF. DXF is an XML-based format that is fully recognized and supported in 
the Design and Production environment. One DXF file is created per legacy file, even if the 
legacy design has multiple pages. The DXF file maintains information about each page so 
that when you import the DXF file, each page from the legacy design becomes a page 
object in the design database.

 3.  Using Design Manager, you import the DXF file into the Library. When you carry out this 
step, the new, Design and Production-compatible design is added to the design database 
as page objects, and you can interact with the page just as you can interact with pages 
designed in Designer.

Basic conversion process

Some converters handle specific objects in such a way that they do not appear exactly the 
same as the original after they have been converted and imported. You can make minor 
adjustments to these objects in Designer so that they appear as they did before the conversion. 
Information about how to clean up some types of objects is provided with the respective 
converter information.

1.2   Understanding the DXF format
The DXF format is a Design and Production file type that is used by converter tools and in other 
Design and Production design processes. DXF is an XML file type, based on the XSL 

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Importing Designs
Chapter 1: About importing designs

Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) standard. When using a converter to import designs, you do not 
need to interact with the DXF files created by the converter. However, if you want to use the 
XML representation of the design in other processes, you can learn more about the DXF format 
by referencing other Exstream Design and Production documentation. You can also create a 
sample DXF file from existing Exstream objects to help you better understand the DXF format 
and the representation of the objects you want to import.

For more information about DXF, see the DXF Reference in the Exstream Design and 
Production documentation.

1.2.1   Creating a sample DXF file
In working with DXF, it can be helpful to understand the XML structure for existing Exstream 
design objects. You can export a DXF file from the Library to see the structure for existing 
objects that are similar to objects you want to import. Because DXF is XML, you can open the 
file in any XML or text editor.

When exporting DXF, keep in mind the following considerations:

 l Although most design objects are supported in DXF, certain objects with limited support 
might not be exported fully.

 l Some objects that are not part of the physical design, such as design groups, are not 
supported in DXF and are therefore not exported.

 l If you plan to import the sample DXF back into the design environment, you should first 
make sure that the DXF contains all of the expected objects and properties before 
overwriting existing objects.

 l If the exported DXF contains attributes that reference objects in the Library, you must import 
the DXF into the same design database to keep those references intact. Keep in mind that 
DXF that contains such references cannot be imported into a different database at run time. 
Additionally, if you import DXF that contains such references into a different database at 
design time, the import process might create new objects to replace the missing referenced 
objects, and the objects that are imported from the DXF might need modification to function 
as expected. 

To create a DXF file from an existing design:

 1.  In Design Manager, in the Library, right-click the Library object that you want to export to 
DXF.

 2.  Click Export to DXF.

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Importing Designs
Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs

Chapter 2: Importing xPression 
designs
The built-in import utility in Design Manager lets you import your xPression designs and convert 
those designs into a Design and Production-compatible format. Converted designs are stored as 
objects in the design database, just like objects that are created in Design Manager and 
Designer. You can then interact with the designs in Design Manager and Designer and produce 
output using the Exstream engine.

Note: You can use the import utility to import only xDesign documents; xPresso 
documents and CompuSet applications are not supported.

The xPression import utility can convert most xPression features into equivalent Design and 
Production objects. However, some of the features used in xPression designs are not supported 
as Design and Production objects, and you might need to modify the imported design in Design 
Manager or Designer so that your output appears as expected. 

This section discusses the following topics:

 l “xPression document feature support” below

 l “xPression output support” on page 19

 l “Importing PDPX files” on page 24

 l “Reviewing import information” on page 29

 l “Reviewing imported designs” on page 30

 l “Building output from imported designs” on page 36

 l “Switches for xPression imports” on page 40

 l “Understanding Exstream terminology” on page 42

2.1   xPression document feature support
You can import an xPression document PDPX file into Design and Production to import your 
xPression designs. The import utility in Design Manager can convert most xPression document 
features into equivalent Design and Production objects. However, some features are not 
supported or might not be imported correctly. Before importing a PDPX file, OpenText 
recommends that you familiarize yourself with how objects in an xPression document will 
appear after the import. 

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Importing Designs
Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs

The following information describes the import behavior for xPression document features in 
Design and Production. For information about output profile features, see “xPression output 
support” on page 19.

2.1.1   Content types
Content type support
Feature Import behavior

Charts Charts are not supported and will not be imported.

However, you can use the traditional charts or advanced charts functionality in Design and Production to
recreate the charts in your designs.

Content groups Content groups are converted into sections in Design Manager.

l Content items that are contained in these groups are converted into paragraph objects. Each shared
content item is converted into a separate paragraph object in the Shared Contents And Rules folder
in the Library, and references to that paragraph object are added to the sections that were created
for each content group that contained that shared content item.
l Criteria on the content groups are converted into Library rules.

Images Images that are referenced in xDesign documents are imported, and retain their original dimensions
when you open your designs in Designer.

Embedded images are imported as embedded images in Design and Production. Linked images are
imported as image placeholders. You might need to validate that the correct images are referenced in
these placeholders.

Alternate text on images is also imported.

Signatures Signatures and signature placeholders are not supported.

Subdocuments xDesign subdocuments

xDesign-based subdocuments are supported. During the import process, a separate folder is created for
each category that is referenced in the PDPX file, and the subdocument is imported into the category
folder to which it belongs. Each subdocument is imported as a complete application with its own driver file.
If more than one data source exists in the imported data source group, the subdocument driver file uses
the primary data source in the group.

If your subdocument is mapped by value, any table mappings that are contained in this subdocument will
not be imported.

Additionally, nested subdocuments are not fully supported. Any structure, rules, or mapping in the
embedded subdocuments is lost during the import process.

If your subdocument uses the CompuSet publishing engine, any custom CompuSet commands that are
used in the content are ignored during the import process.

xPresso subdocuments

xPresso-based subdocuments are not supported.

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Importing Designs
Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs

Content type support, continued
Feature Import behavior

Universal content Static universal content

The following static universal content types are imported as placeholder variables in Design Manager:

l DOCX files
l GIF, JPEG, and PNG image files
l SVG image files (HTML output only)
l PDF files
l TIFF files

The following content types are not supported:

l Multi-page TIFF files

l BMP and EPS image files
l PDF and TIFF as single-page image files

Dynamic universal content

If your design uses a literal name to reference xDesign-based universal content, and if both the design
document and the referenced document are in the same PDPX file, then the referenced content is
imported as a new section into Design Manager. The reference to the subdocument is imported as a
placeholder variable.

If your design uses a field or a variable to reference universal content, the import utility cannot process
that reference, and the referenced content is not imported.

xPresso-based universal content is not supported.

Variables xDesign variables are converted into Design and Production variables.

l Data-related variables are mapped to variables in the driver file that is created by the import utility.
l User-defined variables are imported but not mapped to the driver file.
l User exits are supported.

Keep in mind that the formatting for imported variables might not exactly match the original formatting of
the variables in xDesign and your output might contain some visual differences.

2.1.2   Data sources
Data source support
Feature Import behavior

Data source references References to the data sources in your designs are retained during the import process. A separate folder
is created in the Library in Design Manager for each data source group that is contained in the PDPX file.

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Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs

Data source support, continued
Feature Import behavior

Data source formats The import utility creates an XML-formatted driver file object that points to the data source file that is
referenced in the PDPX file. During the import, if the data source file is located in the same directory as
the PDPX file, then that data source is used as the mapping and test data source in the driver file in
Design Manager.

By default, the import utility maps the customer driver file as if it were an XML data source. If you are using
a data source that is in a format other than XML, you must do one of the following:

l Before you create the PDPX file, export your data to an XML file and specify the exported XML file as
your data source; or
l After the import process is complete, change the format of the customer driver file to match your data
source. If you do this, you must re-map your data file before you can package your application. For
more information about defining the customer driver file format and mapping a data file, see Using
Data to Drive an Application in the Exstream Design and Production documentation

2.1.3   xDesign rules
Rules in the xDesign tree structure appear as sections in Design Manager. Library rules are 
assigned to these objects to provide the same behavior as the criteria in xDesign. If your design 
uses shared rules, each shared rule is converted into a section object in the Shared Contents 
And Rules folder in the Library, and references to this section object are added wherever the 
shared rule appears in the imported application. Shared criteria are also converted into Library 
rules, and these rules are then assigned to any objects that used the shared criteria.

xDesign rule support
Feature Import behavior

Chart rules Chart rules are not supported.

Content rules Content rules are converted into sections in Design Manager. Content items are converted into
paragraph objects.

If your design uses conditional rules with selection criteria, the criteria are converted into usage rules on
the sections that correspond to the content groups that are contained within a content rule.

Overriding attributes on content rules are not supported.

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Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs

xDesign rule support, continued
Feature Import behavior

GoTo rules Supported GoTo rules are converted into data sections in Design Manager. Most GoTo implementations
are supported, including nested GoTo rules such as:

Label A -> Label B -> GoTo B -> GoTo A

However, interlaced (non-nested) GoTo rules are not supported. For example, the import utility cannot
process the following GoTo implementation:

Label A -> GoTo B -> GoTo A -> Label B

Supported GoTo implementations are imported in the following manner:

l Summing rules—A rule that is used to sum up the values that are obtained from a subtable is
converted into an array variable and a sum variable that returns the sum of the array. You must map
the array variable to the array in the driver file.
l Repeating content items—A rule that is used to repeat content based on a subtable is converted
into a section that contains the repeating paragraphs, which are driven by a data section. If the rule is
used to repeat content based on a set count, or on a condition that is set in a variable rule, the import
utility will attempt to process the repeat count and insert the repeating content into a section that is set
to repeat as many times as the original content.
l Repeating tables—A rule that is used to repeat table rows based on a subtable is converted into a
table that contains a data section on the repeating row. This new table is added to the Automated
Table folder in the Design Manager library.
l Paragraph list items—A rule that is used to list items in a paragraph (for example, "KY, IN, and
OH") is converted into a paragraph object that contains an array variable. The array variable
properties depend on the merge property of the original paragraph and the presence of delimiters.
l Skip rules—A rule that is used to skip content in the xDesign tree is converted into a section with a
usage rule on it. The section is excluded if the conditions of the usage rule are met.

Read and Read Next rules Read rules are supported only if they appear in a GoTo loop. All other read rules are not supported.

When read rules are encountered during the import process, the import utility cannot process custom
WHERE clauses in specific queries. Read rules are not converted into corresponding objects; however,
the content items that are associated with the read rules are imported. This can impact variable content
and prevent business logic from being processed correctly when generating output, and you might need
to review and redesign your application to include this content.

For example, if your design contains a read rule with a secondary repeating node for transactions, that
repeating node is converted into a data section. If that rule in your design contained a WHERE clause that
selected only the transactions with a negative amount, then you can apply a usage rule on the data
section to select only those transactions that meet the condition IF TRANSACTIONS < 0 THEN
INCLUDE ENDIF.

Section rules Section rules are converted into sections in Design Manager.

Subdocument rules A subdocument rule is imported as a section, and has the same name as the subdocument rule in the
xPression master document. If your subdocument rule is mapped by value, any table mappings that are
contained in this subdocument rule will not be imported.

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Chapter 2: Importing xPression designs

xDesign rule support, continued
Feature Import behavior

Table rules When a table rule is encountered during the import process, the import utility creates a paragraph object
that contains a table with the content that is referenced by the table rule.

Table rule settings are imported in the following manner:

l Data source group and table: This setting corresponds to a data section in Design and Production.
All of the rows in the table that is created by the import utility will be set to repeat on a data section
that matches the data source table name for the table rule. Keep the following table design
considerations in mind:
l The last table in the content item that uses the specified data source group and table will be set
to repeat in the imported design. All rows from that table will also be set to repeat, even if some
of the rows do not use any data.
l If multiple tables access the same data, only the last table will be set to repeat. Tables that do
not access the data will not be set to repeat.
l If the content item does not contain any tables, then the entire imported paragraph will be set to
repeat on the data section.
l Any text content that appears before or after the table will appear as-is.

l Read criteria: Read criteria that are set on the table rule are converted into usage rules on the
appropriate rows in the table generated in Design and Production.
l Read order: This setting is not supported for automatic sorting. However, you can map your data into
arrays and then use the built-in sort function on the array before you set your table rows to repeat
based on the number of elements in the array.
l Criteria: This setting corresponds to the usage rule for the table.

Universal content definition Universal content definition rules are supported. These rules, however, are not converted into equivalent
objects in Design Manager. Instead, information from the rules is used to correctly import referenced
universal content.

Variable rules Variable rules are converted into empty sections in Design Manager, and the rule logic is converted into
usage rules on those sections.

User exits are supported; If the variable rules in your PDPX document contain user exits, those user exits
are imported into Design Manager as library functions. A separate function is created for each user exit
definition that is contained in your PDPX file. To build output from imported applications that contain user
exits, you must configure your environment to reference the correct user exit JAR files.

After the import is complete, review the timing of the variables to make sure that your output appears as
expected.

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2.1.4   Versioning and workflow
Versioning and workflow support
Feature Import behavior

Content item versions Versioning for content items is supported.

When you import a PDPX file, you have the option to import only the latest version or all versions of the
content items included in the xDesign documents. This is controlled using the options on the Content
item versions list on the Import xPression design dialog box.

l Show only the latest version in the content group—This is the default option. The import utility
creates a design object for the latest version of each content items in a content group, with the
version number appended as a suffix in the object name. To see previous versions of the object, in
the Design Manager Library, right-click the object and select History.
l Show all versions—The import utility creates a separate design object for each version of the
content items in a content group. You might need to re-order objects in the Design Manager Library
to create the correct output.

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Versioning and workflow support, continued
Feature Import behavior

Approval workflow xPression workflow states are supported. Documentum workflow states are not supported.

Before you create the PDPX file, review the approval states of content items to determine whether they
should be marked as Approved in xDesign, based on the following import behavior:

l Content items that are in an Approved state in xDesign are imported with the Approved state
applied in Design Manager.
l Content items that are in the Withdrawn state are not imported and a message is issued in the log
file.
l Content items in Pending, Submitted, Rejected, or any custom state in xDesign are imported with
the Work in Progress state applied in Design Manager..

Shared content

If your document contains shared content items, the versions that you choose to import will affect the
approval state of the design objects that are created in Design Manager.

For shared content items, the Approved state is applied only to the major version of each shared content
item in its content group (for example, version 2.0). If the latest version of the shared content item is a
minor version (for example, version 2.01), the corresponding imported design object has the Work in
Progress state applied in Design Manager.

For example, suppose that your xDesign document contains two content groups with multiple versions of
a shared content item:

l Content Group 1 has two approved major versions of the content item (1.0 and 2.0).
l Content Group 2 has two major versions that are approved and one minor version that is not
approved (1.0, 2.0, and 2.01).

When you import the PDPX file, depending on the versions that you choose to import, the following
versions of each shared content item will be imported:

l Show only the latest version in the content group—The latest version of each shared content item
is imported as a single design object in the Design Manager Library, with previous versions
available from the history.
l For Content Group 1, version 2.0 will be imported with the Approved state applied.
l For Content Group 2, version 2.01 will be imported with the Work in Progress state applied.

l Show all versions—Each version of each shared item is imported as a separate design object in
the Design Manager Library.
l For Content Group 1, versions 1.0 and 2.0 will be imported with the Approved state applied.
l For Content Group 2, versions 1.0 and 2.0 will be imported with the Approved state applied,
and version 2.01 will be imported with the Work in Progress state applied.

Jurisdictions Jurisdiction attributes are supported.

You might need to validate that the imported application has the correct jurisdiction variable mapped from
the driver file, or that the system jurisdiction variable value is set correctly.

Effective dates Effective date attributes are supported.

You might need to validate that the effective date variable is mapped correctly in the driver file, or that the
system effective date variable value is set correctly.

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2.1.5   Microsoft Word templates
Template style support
Feature Import behavior

Page setup Page, section, and column breaks

Page breaks and column breaks are supported. Section breaks are imported as page breaks, but they
might not always be imported correctly.

Columns

Multi-column content is supported. Content in this format appears in a text box in Designer.

Headers and footers

Headers and footers are not fully supported.

The import utility recognizes headers and footers in xPression designs, and imports them as separate
paragraph items into a new folder named Headers and Footers in the Design Manager Library structure
that is created for your imported designs. You can then use Designer to manually reincorporate these
paragraph items into your design.

Odd and even page settings and different first page settings for headers and footers must be
implemented manually using flow page options in Design and Production.

Page numbering

Page numbering fields are imported as system variables in Design and Production:

l The Page field is imported as the SYS_PageInDocument system variable.

l The NumPages field is imported as the SYS_PageTotalInDocument variable.

The system variables are automatically inserted in the paragraphs that contain the Page field and the
NumPages field. To implement page numbering correctly, you must also insert these variables manually
to the flow pages in your design.

Page borders

Page border settings are not supported.

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Template style support, continued
Feature Import behavior

Paragraphs Borders and shading

Border and shading settings are not fully supported.

The import utility recognizes border and shading settings; however, Design and Production does not
support left or right borders, so those settings will be ignored. In addition, top and bottom border settings
cannot be set separately in Design and Production; the last setting encountered during the import will be
used as the value for top and bottom borders.

Hyphenation

Hyphenation is not supported.

Lists

Lists are supported. However, numbered list formatting might not be imported correctly, and numbered
lists might appear as bulleted lists in your output.

Tab stops

Design and Production supports only a single tab stop setting. If your design contains multiple tab stops,
only the first tab stop value is used.

Widow and orphan settings

Design and Production does not support separately specifying the settings for widow and orphan rows. If
your design contains multiple paragraphs with different settings for widow rows and orphan rows, then the
larger value is used as the setting for both widow and orphan rows.

Fonts Font options

Fonts that are used in your xPression design are added to the design database during the import.
Character-level formatting is imported as styles in Exstream. Your output might contain some visual
differences.

Special characters

Special characters are supported. If any characters are missing in your output, you might need to adjust
your application settings to include additional character sets.

Tables Most table settings are supported and converted into equivalent Design and Production settings. Keep
the following considerations in mind:

l If split and flow settings are not explicitly specified in the xDesign template, imported tables will be
automatically set to split and flow in Design and Production.
l If several content items in the xPression design contain tables with the same number of columns and
the same column widths, the import process creates a new table in Design and Production that
contains all of these tables as they would appear in xPression output. The new table is placed in the
Automated Tables folder.
l Rowspan attributes are not supported in Design and Production. Rowspan attributes in your tables
are expanded to multiple cells in the imported design, and the content in the rowspan is placed in
the first row.

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Template style support, continued
Feature Import behavior

Special features Color

Color settings are supported.

Date/Time functionality

Date/Time functionality is supported. The Date/Time field is imported as a Design and Production
variable.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are supported.

Interactive controls

Content from Microsoft Word legacy form fields in your xPression designs is imported, but the interactive
properties are disabled in the imported designs. You can use the interactive functionality that is available
in Exstream to add interactive features to your output.

Paragraph merging

Paragraph merging is not supported. Design and Production does not retain the Mark Paragraph for
Merge setting on imported content items. If your design included paragraphs that were set to merge, they
might appear as separate paragraphs when you generate output using the Exstream engine.

Other features

The following Microsoft Word features are not supported:

l Cross-references
l Document protection
l Fields
l Frames and text boxes
l Indexes
l Tables of content

2.2   xPression output support
You can import an output profile PDPX file into Design and Production to import your xPression 
output information. The import utility  can convert most xPression output definition settings into 
equivalent Design and Production output objects. However, some output settings are not 
supported or might not be imported correctly. Before importing a PDPX file, OpenText 
recommends that you familiarize yourself with how your xPression output information appears 
after an import. 

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The following information describes the supported output definition settings and the equivalent 
Design and Production settings on the output object properties for each output format. For 
information about xPression document features, see “xPression document feature support” on 
page 9.

Note: PCL and text output format definitions are not imported into Design and Production. 

Although, the PCL output format is supported in SBCS applications in Design and 
Production, any PCL output definitions in your output profile PDPX file will not be imported 
because the import utility imports xPression documents as DBCS applications. You can 
separately create PCL output objects in Design Manager. To do so, you must set the 
application mode for your database to SBCS/DBCS on the Workflow tab in System 
Settings.

2.2.1   AFP output
AFP output settings
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Resample Images to Output Resolution This setting corresponds to Resource Management tab > Resolution method list.

If the xPression setting is selected, Resolution method is set to Printer resolution.

If the xPression setting is not selected, Resolution method is set to Automatic.

Select a printer for the output Not supported

Convert all images to black and white This setting corresponds to the following settings:

l Basic tab > Color mode list

l Resource Management tab > Image management area > Format list

If the xPression setting is not selected, the following settings are applied:

l Color mode is set to Full color

l Format is set to JPEG

If the xPression setting is selected, then for both Diffusion Dither and
50% Threshold settings, the following settings are applied:

l Color mode is set to Black and white

l Format is set to IOCA B&W uncompressed

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AFP output settings, continued
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Fonts > TrueType to AFP Outline Font Not supported

By default, on the Resource Management tab, the following settings are applied:

l Font usage is set to Reference all fonts

l Font type is set to Outline

Fonts > TrueType to AFP Subset Font For both of the Bitmap formats, the following settings are applied:

l Font usage is set to Embed all fonts

l Font type is set to Bitmap

The Outline format setting is not supported. Be default, on the Resource

Management tab, the following settings are applied:

l Font usage is set to Reference all fonts

l Font type is set to Outline

Fonts > Embedded TrueType On the Resource Management tab, the following settings are applied:

l Font usage is set to Embed all fonts

l Font type is set to Bitmap

Use Dither Pattern Shading Not supported

RGB Black&White Threshold Not supported

CMYK Black&White Threshold Not supported

Do Not Embed Font List Not supported

TLE Items Not supported

2.2.2   HTML output
HTML output settings
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Image Storage Path Not supported

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HTML output settings, continued
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Image URL Root This setting corresponds to Resource Management tab > Image management
area > Location path box.

If Image URL Root box contains any content, Image path is set to Use a static
value to define a default path, and the content in the Image URL Root box is
inserted into the Location path box.

Use Style Classes Not supported

2.2.3   PDF output
PDF output format definitions are converted into PDF or PDF/A output objects, depending on 
the PDF Type setting in xAdmin.

PDF output settings
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Resample Images to Output Resolution This setting corresponds to Resource Management tab > Resolution method list.

l If the xPression setting is selected, Resolution method is set to Printer

resolution.
l If the xPression setting is not selected, Resolution method is set to Automatic.

Select a printer for the output Not supported

PDF Type This setting corresponds to Basic tab > Driver list.

The setting in the Driver list indicates the format of the output object. For all settings
except PDF/A, the import utility creates a PDF output object in Design Manager. The
created output object uses the default PDF settings.

l For PDF/A-1a and PDF/A-1b, the import utility creates a PDF/A output object
and sets the level to Level 1a or Level 1b.
l For PDF/UA, the following additional settings are applied:
l On the Basic tab, Accessibility standard is set to PDF/UA
l On the Resource Management tab, Overlay processing is set to Do not
create overlays.

Keep in mind that PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-1b are not supported. The import utility
defaults to creating a PDF output object for PDF/X output definitions.

ICC Profile (PDF/A only) This setting corresponds to Basic tab > PDF/A controls area > Output Condition
Identifier box.

Depending on the value specified in xAdmin, Output Condition Identifier is set to

sRGB or CGATS TR 001.

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PDF output settings, continued
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Page Scaling Not supported

Compress PDF This setting corresponds to Basic tab > PDF controls area > Compress check box.

If the xPression setting is set to True, the Compression level is set to 6.

Fillable PDF Not supported

Enable Bookmark This setting corresponds to Basic tab > PDF bookmarks area.

l If the xPression setting is selected, the Documents check box and the
Customers check box are selected.
l If the xPression setting is not selected, all of the check boxes in this area are
cleared.

The following xPression bookmark settings are not supported:

l Transfer External Bookmark

l Package Name
l Document Name
l Levels in Document

Enable Digital Signature Not supported

However, Design and Production does not provide the option to disable digital
signatures for PDF output. If your design contained digital signatures, those
signatures will be included in the output.

2.2.4   PostScript output
PostScript output settings
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Resample Images to Output Resolution Resource Management tab > Resolution method list

l If the xPression setting is selected, Resolution method is set to Printer

resolution.
l If the xPression setting is not selected, Resolution method is set to Automatic.

Select a printer for the output Not supported

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2.2.5   PPML output
PPML output settings
xPression setting Design and Production setting

Resample Images to Output Resolution Resource Management tab > Resolution method list

l If the xPression setting is selected, Resolution method is set to Printer

resolution.
l If the xPression setting is not selected, Resolution method is set to Automatic.

Select a printer for the output Not supported

Page Scaling Not supported

Compress PDF Not supported

Do Not Embed Font List Not supported

2.2.6   TIFF output
TIFF output format definitions are converted into TIFF output objects. However, there are no 
equivalent Design and Production settings that correspond to the xPression settings for 
TIFF output.

2.3   Importing PDPX files
You can use xPression PDPX files to export your designs and then import it into Design and 
Production. You can import the following types of PDPX files:

 l Document PDPX files—Use xPression document PDPX files to import your xPression 
designs into Design and Production. Before you import, make sure that you have reviewed 
“xPression document feature support” on page 9.

 l Output profile PDPX files—Use output profile PDPX files to import your output information 
and convert output format definitions into equivalent output objects in Design and 
Production. You can then use the output objects in Design Manager to create output queues 
for your application. Before you import, make sure that you have reviewed “xPression output 
support” on page 19

You can import PDPX files into Design and Production from the command prompt or from within 
Design Manager. If you use a batch file to import multiple PDPX files from the command 
prompt, keep in mind that you must invoke Design Manager separately for each file that you 

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want to import. Before you begin, make sure that you have reviewed the best practices for 
creating a PDPX file.

2.3.1   Best practices for creating PDPX files
Before you begin importing your xPression designs into Design and Production, you must export 
your designs into a PDPX file using xAdmin. 

For an optimal import experience, use the following best practices when you create a PDPX file:

 l Review the approval state of your content items— When you import an xPression 
document PDPX file, the workflow state of the imported content items depends on the 
workflow state that was applied in xDesign. Before you create the PDPX file, review the 
approval states of content items to determine whether they should be marked as Approved 
in xDesign, based on the following import behavior:

 l Content items  that are in the  Approved state in xDesign are imported with the 
Approved state applied in Design Manager. 

 l Content items that are in the Withdrawn state are not imported. 

 l Content items that are in any other workflow state are imported with the Work in 
Progress state applied. 

Additionally, for shared content items, only the latest major version of the content item is 
imported with the Approved state applied in Design Manager. All minor versions of a shared 
content item are imported with the Work in Progress state applied. 

 l Determine the versions needed for your content items—When you import an xPression 
document PDPX file, the choice that you make about the versions to import affects how 
content items are created in Design Manager. You have two options on the Import 
xPression design dialog box:

 l If you select Show only latest version from the Content item versions list, Exstream 
creates a design object for the latest version of the content items in the content group. 
Previous versions are available from the object's history.

 l If you select Show all versionsfrom the Content item versions list, Exstream creates 
a separate design object for each version of the content items in the content group. You 
might need to re-order objects in the Design Manager Library to create the correct output.

 l Verify your data source format—By default, the import utility maps the customer driver file 
as if it were an XML data source. If you are using a data source that is in a format other than 
XML, you must do one of the following:

 l Before you create the xPression document PDPX file, export your data to an XML file 
and specify the exported XML file as your data source; or

 l After the import process is complete, change the format of the customer driver file to 

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match your data source. If you do this, you must re-map your data file before you can 
package your application. For more information about defining the customer driver file 
format and mapping a data file, see Using Data to Drive an Application in the Exstream 
Design and Production documentation

 l Add subdocuments and master documents to the same document PDPX file—In 
order for a subdocument to convert correctly, the master document and the subdocument 
must be in the same PDPX file. If multiple documents use the same subdocument, 
OpenText recommends that you include as many of the documents as possible in a single 
PDPX file to avoid duplication of objects. 

Keep in mind that if your PDPX file includes xDesign documents that use the CompuSet 
publishing engine, any custom CompuSet commands used in the content will be ignored 
during the import process.

 l Create a single document PDPX file to export documents that use the same 
Microsoft Word templates—During the import process, Exstream creates style sheets to 
import Microsoft Word template styles from your xDesign documents. The import utility 
reads the DocXML_STYLE file that is contained in the PDPX file and creates a style sheet that 
corresponds to the template, and the styles that are contained in the template are added to 
the style sheet. Some settings, such as page type, are imported directly as Design Manager 
settings. 

If your PDPX file contains multiple xDesign documents that use different templates, the 
import utility will create a separate style sheet for each unique template, and assign styles to 
imported design objects based on the template that was used by the xDesign document. 
Keep in mind that if you import a PDPX file that contains a particular template, and then 
import another PDPX file that contains a newer version of that template, the import utility 
does not recognize that you are importing multiple versions of the same template.

For example, if you import a PDPX file that contains template A with styles X and Y, the 
import utility creates a corresponding style sheet A and adds those styles to it. If you then 
import a different PDPX file with a newer version of template A that has updated styles X 
and Y, and a new style Z, then the import utility will not create a new style sheet or update 
the older styles, but it will add the new style to the existing style sheet A. However, if you 
import a single PDPX file with both the older and newer versions of template A, the import 
utility identifies the newest version of the template and imports the latest styles into Design 
Manager.

 l Include fonts in the document PDPX file— The import utility automatically adds the font 
family, font size, and font style to the design database for any fonts that it encounters when 
importing content items. If you select the Include fonts option in xAdmin, the import utility 
places any fonts that are not installed on your system in a fonts directory, and you receive a 
message during the import process prompting you to manually install the missing fonts. 
OpenText strongly recommends that you install these fonts before you click OK to continue 
the import. 

 l Include category information in the document PDPX file—To include the information 
necessary for a successful import, you must select the Category Info option when you 
create the PDPX file  in xAdmin.

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2.3.2   Importing a PDPX file from the command 
prompt
 1.  Open a command window in the directory where you installed Design and Production.

 2.  At the command prompt, enter DesignManager followed by a space, and then enter the 
following switches as required, adding a space after each switch:

 l -XPRESS_IMPORT=<fileName>

Specifies the file name of the PDPX file that you want to import. 

 l -EXSTREAMUSER=<userName>

Specifies a Design and Production user name. 

Important: You must specify a user with superuser privileges.

 l -EXSTREAMPASSWORD=<password>

Specifies the password for the Design and Production user.

 l -DSN=<dataSourceName>

Specifies the data source name of the design database that you want to use to store 
your design objects.

 l -XPRESS_LOGFILE=<fileName> 

(Optional) Specifies a custom file name and location for the log file that is generated 
during the import. If you do not use this switch, the system saves the log file in the 
same directory as the PDPX file that you are importing, and names it 
<importFile>.pdpx.log.txt, where importFile is the name of your PDPX file.

 l -DBUSER=<databaseUserName>

(Optional) Specifies the user name of the database user that you are using to sign in to a 
password-protected database. This switch is required only if the design database 
requires you to sign in separately.

 l -DBPASSWORD=<databasePassword>

(Optional) Specifies the password for the database user that you are using to sign in to a 
password-protected database. This switch is required only if the design database 
requires you to sign in separately.

For example:

DesignManager -XPRESS_IMPORT=C:\xPressTest\AutomaticPaymentLetter.pdpx
-XPRESS_LOGFILE=C:\xPressTest\AutopayTest.log -EXSTREAMUSER=admin

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-EXSTREAMPASSWORD=xxx -DSN=xPressTestDB

For more information about the Design and Production switches that are used with 
xPression imports, see “Switches for xPression imports” on page 40.

 3.  To run the command and begin the import process, press ENTER. 

Design Manager opens, and the xPression Import Status dialog box displays the status 
of your import. After the import is complete, review the import log and the report file for 
information about the design objects that were created during the import. 

2.3.3   Importing a PDPX file in Design Manager
 1.  Open Design Manager, and sign in as a user with superuser privileges.

 2.  In Design Manager, from the Menu bar, select Tools > Import xPression PDPX....

 3.  In the Import xPression designs dialog box, select the PDPX file that you want to import.

 4.  In the Page Type list, select one of the following options:

 l Auto-detect Paper Type—Exstream creates a paper type for the imported application 
based on the size of the first content piece that is encountered in the xPression design 
that you are importing. This option is selected by default.

 l Use specified Paper Type—Lets you specify a paper type object from the Library to 
use for the imported xPression application. In the Paper Type list, select the paper type 
that you want to use.

 5.  In the Content item versions list, select the content items versions that you want to 
import. The option that you select affects how content items are created in Design 
Manager. You can select one of the following options:

 l Show only the latest version in the content group—Exstream creates a design 
object for the latest version of each content item in a content group. Previous versions 
of each content item are available in the history for the imported object.

 l Show all versions—Exstream creates a separate design object for each version of a 
content item in a content group.

 6.  Click Open.

The xPression Import Status dialog box displays the status of your import. After the 
import is complete, review the import log and the report file for information about the design 
objects that were created during the import.

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2.4   Reviewing import information
During the import process, Design and Production generates an import log and a report file that 
contain information about your imported xPression design. OpenText recommends that you 
review these files carefully to make sure that your design behaves as expected after the import. 
After you have reviewed this information, modify your designs as required and run the engine to 
test your output.

2.4.1   Import log
The log file contains the informational and action messages that are generated during the import 
process when you import a PDPX file into Exstream Design and Production. The messages in 
the log file provide information about the Design Manager objects that are created during the 
import, and can help you identify and troubleshoot any potential design updates that you might 
need to make after the import is complete.

Messages in the log file are identified with a number and a severity level, such as EX001800I. 
You can use the message number that follows the leading EX00 prefix to search the Message 
Dictionary for more information. The alphabet character refers to the type of message. 

 l Informational messages are denoted by the letter I. These messages are typically used to 
provide information that does not require you to take any further action.

 l Action messages are denoted by the letter A. These messages include both warnings and 
error messages that were encountered during the import. Depending on the severity of the 
message, you might need to review and modify your imported design in Exstream Design 
and Production, or you might need to re-export your PDPX file in xAdmin and initiate a new 
import in Design Manager. 

2.4.2   Report file
The report file contains a mapping report for the xPression design that you imported into Design 
and Production. It provides a textual record of the one-to-one relationship between each item in 
the document tree of the xDesign document that you are importing and the corresponding Library 
object that is created in Design Manager after the import. 

For xDesign items that were converted into an equivalent Design Manager library object, the 
name of the new object is recorded in the report file. For xDesign items that do not have an 
Exstream equivalent, the report file contains information about any substitutions that were made 
to convert the xDesign item during the import. 

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The report file is a useful tool for identifying the objects that make up your new Design and 
Production application. Use the information in the report file  to understand the correlation 
between your xDesign document tree and the corresponding Design Manager library structure.

2.5   Reviewing imported designs
After the import process is complete and you have reviewed the messages that are generated 
during the import, you might need to review and modify some aspects of the imported designs. 
Some design changes are required before you can produce output; if the generated output does 
not behave as expected, additional changes might be required to adjust your design.

 l “Reviewing variable formatting in Design Manager” below

 l “Modifying designs  before producing output” on page 32

 l “Reviewing output for potential design changes” on page 35

2.5.1   Reviewing variable formatting in Design 
Manager
xDesign variables are imported from xPression designs into Design and Production during the 
import process. However, some formatting options in xDesign do not exactly match the 
formatting options in Design and Production. 

The following xDesign variable formatting options are not supported in Design and Production:

 l S (millisecond)

 l F (day of week in month)

 l W (week in month)

 l z (time zone)

 l G (era)

The following xDesign variable formatting options are supported and the import utility maps 
them to one of the corresponding options in Design and Production:

xDesign format Exstream format Visual difference

M/d/yyyy m/d/yyyy None

MM/dd/yy mm/dd/yy None

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xDesign format Exstream format Visual difference

MM/dd/yyyy mm/dd/yyyy None

MMMM d, yyyy MMM d, yyyy None

M/d/yy H:mm m/d/yy hh:nn Time format

0:00 in xDesign is represented as 12:00 in Design and Production

H:mm hh:nn Time format

0:00 in xDesign is represented as 12:00 in Design and Production

H:mm:ss hh:nn:ss Time format

0:00 in xDesign is represented as 12:00 in Design and Production

y y None

M m None

d d None

h h None

This formatting option is driven by the locale.

H h Hour format

0 to 23 in xDesign is represented as 1 to 12 in Design and Production. This

formatting option is driven by the locale.

m n None

s s None

E ddd or dddd None

D y None

W W None

a a None

k k Hour format

0 to 23 in xDesign is represented as 1 to 12 in Design and Production. This

formatting option is driven by the locale.

K K Hour format

0 to 23 in xDesign is represented as 1 to 12 in Design and Production. This

formatting option is driven by the locale.

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xDesign format Exstream format Visual difference

' (single quote) " (double quote) None

'' (two single quotes) \' None

All other options All other options Variables that use these formatting options might not appear in the output.

2.5.2   Modifying designs  before producing output
Before you run the Exstream engine to produce output from your imported designs, you might 
need to modify your designs in Design Manager or Designer so that your output behaves as 
expected. In addition to the action messages in the import log, OpenText strongly recommends 
that you review and consider at least the following potential changes to your designs:

 1.  Modify your design to include design objects that were created during the import 
process.

 l Incorporate the imported header and footer paragraph items in your design. 

 l If your design used shared content, you will need to restructure your applications in 
Design Manager to use the imported shared content. Each instance of a shared content 
item in the original design is imported as a separate object in the Library. If you want to 
reuse an imported object in multiple imported applications, you must add references to 
that object to those applications.

 l If several content items in the xPression design contain tables with the same number of 
columns and the same column widths, the import process creates a new automated 
table in Design and Production that contains all of these tables as they would appear in 
xPression output. The new table is placed in the Automated Tables folder in the 
Library; however, it is not included in the imported design by default. To streamline your 
design, you can use this optimized table and discard the individual content items. 

For more information about modifying your design, see Designing Customer
Communications in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

 2.  Review variable content and business logic in the imported application. 

 l If your design contained user exits, the import utility uses the built-in dynamic data 
access functionality in Design and Production to import those user exits and configure 
your application. The import utility creates the following items during the import 
process:

 l Separate functions for each user exit definition that is contained in your PDPX file. 
These functions are placed in the UserExits folder in the Design Manager library.

 l A connector object called UEConnector in the Design Manager library in the 
UserExits > Connectors folder for your imported application. The connector 

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object references the Java Enabler and the INI file that was created during the 
import process.

 l An INI file that contains the fully qualified path names for the user exit connector 
that is included in the Design and Production environment. This INI file is created in 
the same directory as the PDPX file that you are importing. 

 l Sample JSON-formatted auxiliary and reference data files that are used by Design 
Manager to visualize the layouts of those data files. These JSON data files are 
created in the same directory as the PDPX file that you are importing.

To build output that correctly includes information that depends on these user exits, you 
must complete the following steps:

 i.  Update the INI file to include the fully qualified path names for all of the JAR files 
that contain your user exits. By default, the INI file that is created during the 
import contains a CLASSPATH parameter that references the required 
UserExitConnector.jar file, and a sample dummy user exit JAR file. You must 
remove this sample path and replace it with the correct paths for your user exit 
JAR files. 

 ii.  Check the settings in the UEConnector object that is created in  the Connectors 
folder within your application folder in the Library. . Make sure that the Open 
parameters box in the connector properties contains the path to the INI file. 

Note: Keep the following considerations in mind: 

 l The UEConnector and the associated INI file that are created by the import 
utility are usable only in the design environment. For a production environment, 
you must create a new INI file that contains the path to the UserExitConnector 
JAR file, and create a separate connector object that references this new INI 
file.

 l If you are using the Solaris platform, you must make sure that your user exit 
JAR file is created using Java version 7 or earlier. 

 l The Java file (JVM.dll) must be present in the system path. 

For more information about configuring user-written dynamic data access routines in 
Design and Production, see Configuring Connectors in the Exstream Design and 
Production documentation.

 l If you assigned jurisdictions or effective dates to objects in your design, validate that 
the jurisdiction and effective date variables are mapped correctly in the driver file, or that 
the related system variable values ('SYS_CustomerJurisdiction' and 'SYS_
CustomerEffectiveDate') are set correctly. You must also make sure that the correct 
jurisdiction variable is selected in the Customer ID for regulatory box on the Basic 

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tab of the application properties. 

For information about using effective dates and jurisdictions, see Designing Customer
Communications in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

 l If your design contained interlaced (non-nested) GoTo rules or data read rules, you 
might need to redesign your application to replicate the expected behavior. 

For more information about  updating rules, formulas, and functions, see Using Logic to
Drive an Application in the Exstream Design and Production documentation. 

 l If the expected value of an xDesign variable is a null value or a predefined default value, 
review the corresponding variable in Design Manager to see the value that was 
assigned to that variable during the import. The import utility creates null variables to 
represent null values, and assigns an initial value to these variables. For example, null 
string variables are assigned an initial value of _NULL_. If a rule in your design contains 
a comparison to a null value, the import utility replaces the null value with the auto-
generated null variable. If required, specify new variable values to make sure that the 
assigned initial values do not appear in customer data.

For more information about assigning initial values to variables, see Using Data to Drive

an Application in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

 3.  Set up your output objects and output queues. 

The import utility creates a PDF output queue for the imported application. If you want to 
produce output in a different format, you must set up additional output objects and output 
queues in Design Manager.

For more information about setting up your output options, see Creating Output in the 
Exstream Design and Production documentation.

 4.  Add any missing functionality.

 l If your design contained charts, consider redesigning your custom charts, using the 
charts functionality that is available in Design and Production.

For more information about adding charts to your designs, see Designing Customer
Communications in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

 l If your design contained interactive controls, enable interactive capabilities for your 
application by using Exstream interactive functionality to design Exstream Live or 
Exstream Empower applications. 

For more information about creating Exstream Live applications, see Designing for
LiveEditor in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

For more information about creating Exstream Empower applications, see Designing for
Exstream Empower Editor in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

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2.5.3   Reviewing output for potential design changes
After you run the Exstream engine to produce output from your imported designs, you might 
need to make the additional changes to your designs:

 1.  Review pagination in the generated output.

 l Design and Production does not support separately specifying the settings for widow 
and orphan rows in tables or paragraphs. If your design contains multiple items with 
different settings for widow rows and orphan rows, the larger value is used as the 
setting for both widow and orphan rows. If your design contains embedded items, the 
largest widow or orphan setting is applied to the parent object. Review the output and, if 
required, modify the widow and orphan settings on your objects.

 l Design and Production does not retain the Mark Paragraph for Merge setting on 
imported content items. If your design included paragraphs that were set to merge, they 
might appear as separate paragraphs when you generate output using the Exstream 
engine. You can modify this behavior by manually merging paragraph items. 

 2.  Review the appearance of special characters in the generated output.

If your design contains any missing special characters, you might need to include 
additional character sets in your application. In Design Manager, in the application 
properties, click the Font Resources tab, and then use the Additional font character 
ranges to package selection area to add any required character sets. 

 3.  Review the appearance of tables in the generated output.

 l If your tables contained rowspan attributes, those rowspans are expanded to multiple 
cells in the imported design, and the content in the rowspan is placed in the first row. 
Review the tables in your output, and if required, consider using embedded tables in 
Designer to achieve the expected appearance. 

 l If you use the auto-generated tables that were created by the import utility in the 
Automated Tables folder, review your output to make sure that the  tables appear 
correctly in your output.

 4.  Verify that the correct version of your content items appears in the generated 
output. 

If your xPression design contained multiple versions of a content item, the import process 
creates a corresponding paragraph object for each version of the item in a section.  W hen 
you generate output, only one of the paragraph objects is included; however, the version 
that is included might not be the latest version of that paragraph.  Review the generated 
output and, if required, reorder the paragraph objects so that the first object that meets all of 
the rules and the jurisdiction conditions appears in the output.

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 5.  Verify that the correct variable values appear in the generated output. 

If your design contains variables values that are calculated and inserted in the output 
multiple times for each customer, or if your design includes subdocuments, the variable 
timing in Design and Production might not match the variable timing in xPression because 
of the way data is processed by the Exstream engine. Review your output to make sure 
that your output contains the correct variable values, and redesign your application if 
required. 

For more information about engine processing and variable timing, see Preparing
Applications for Production in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

2.6   Building output from imported designs
After you import your xPression designs into Design and Production, OpenText recommends 
that you run the Exstream design engine to review any differences in your output. 

When you run the  engine, you can use a control file to specify engine switches that define how 
the engine processes your application. To provide a convenient way to test your designs, 
Design and Production generates a sample control file during the import process. The sample 
control file is an OPT file that is always generated in the directory that contains your PDPX file, 
and that uses the same name as your PDPX file with the *.opt extension. OpenText strongly 
recommends that you use the sample control file when you run the engine for the first time. 

For more information about additional options for testing your applications, see Preparing
Applications for Production in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

To generate output, you must specify the data source for your application, package it, and then 
run the engine to produce output.

2.6.1   Specifying the data source
The import utility reads the data source mappings that exist in the PDPX file and attempts to find 
the data source in the same directory as the PDPX file, or in the original location of the data 
source as recorded in the PDPX file. Before you can package the application, you must make 
sure that the data source for your imported xPression design is present, and that it is correctly 
specified in Design Manager. 

To specify the data mapping source in Design Manager:

 1.  In the Library, expand the imported xPression design folder.

 2.  In the design folder, go to DataSources > Data Files > DBCS Data Files, and open the 
data source object for your application in the Property Panel. 

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 3.  On the Basic tab, in the Data mapping source box, enter the file path to your data source 
file.

Tip: If your PDPX file referenced a non-XML data source, you must change the format 
of the driver file in Design Manager. 

In the File format list, change the selection from XML to the format that you want to 
use. If you do this, you must re-map your data file before you can package your 
application.

For more information about defining the customer driver file format and mapping a data 
file, see Using Data to Drive an Application in the Exstream Design and Production 
documentation

 4.  On the Test Data Source tab, in the File to use in production box, enter the file path to 
your data source file. 

2.6.2   Creating output queues
Before you can package the application, you must also specify the output queue that you want 
to use for packaging. You can select an output queue using one of the following options:

 l Use the default PDF output queue—The import utility creates a default PDF output queue 
for each imported application during the import process. 

 l Create output queues based on imported output objects—You can use output profile 
PDPX files to import your output definitions from xPression and convert them into equivalent 
output objects in Design Manager. You can then use the output objects  to create output 
queues for your application. Before you import an output profile PDPX file, make sure that 
you have reviewed “xPression output support” on page 19.

For more information about creating output and output queue objects, see Creating Output in the 
Exstream Design and Production documentation.

2.6.3   Packaging the application
Before you can run the engine, you must first package the imported application. You can 
package your application from the command prompt or from within Design Manager. After 
packaging is complete, run the engine to produce output.

For more information about packaging applications, see Preparing Applications for Production in 

the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

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The following table describes the steps to package an application:

Packaging an application in Design and Production
To Do this

Package an application from the command prompt 1. Open a command window in the directory where you installed Design and
Production.
2. At the command prompt, enter the following command:
Packager -APPLICATION=<applicationName>
-EXSTREAMUSER=<userName>
-EXSTREAMPASSWORD=<password> -DSN=<database>
where <applicationName> specifies the name of the application that
you want to package, as it appears in the Design Manager Library. If the
application name has spaces, you must enclose it in double quotation marks
or the name is truncated.
You can also add optional packaging switches to this command based on
your requirements.
3. To run the command and package your application, press ENTER.

Package an application in Design Manager 1. In Design Manager, from the Menu bar, select Tools > Package....
Alternatively, you can right-click your application in the Library and select
Package....
2. On the Build Package dialog box, specify the packaging options for your
application.

Tip: If you want to package your application and then run the engine
immediately after packaging, select the Run Engine when complete
check box. You can then specify the engine run options in the Run the
Engine dialog box.

3. In the Package File box, enter the path and name of the package file that
you want to create. This must match the path and name of the package file
that is specified in the sample control file.
By default, in the sample control file, your PDPX file path and the name of
the PDPX file are used as the name of the package file. That is,
<importFilePath>/<importFile>.pkg, where
importFilePath is the file path of the PDPX file that you imported, and
importFile is the name of that PDPX file.
4. Select Create for DBCS output queue device(s) to use the output queues
that are defined in your application.
5. Click OK to begin packaging.
The progress bar on the Build Production Package File dialog box
indicates the status of your package file.

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2.6.4   Running the engine to produce output
Use the design engine to produce output from your imported application. Running the design 
engine lets you test your application in the design environment using all of the same options that 
you would use for a production engine run, with the added advantage of being able to access 
comprehensive testing tools.

You can run the design engine from the command prompt or from within Design Manager. When 
the engine run is complete, review the message file and the generated output for any design 
changes that you might need to make. 

The following table describes the steps to produce output:

Producing output in Design and Production
To Do this

Produce output from the command prompt 1. Open a command window in the directory where you installed Design and
Production.
2. At the command prompt, enter the following command:
Engine_DBCS -CONTROLFILEENCODING=UTF16LE
-CONTROLFILE=<sampleControlFile>
where <sampleControlFile> specifies the path and name of the
sample control file.
3. To run the command and generate output, press ENTER.

Produce output from Design Manager 1. In Design Manager, from the Menu bar, select Tools > Run Engine....
2. In the Run the Engine dialog box, update the following settings:

l Select the Control file check box, and then click to browse for
the sample control file that is generated during the import process.
l Select the Package file check box and enter the fully qualified file
name of the package file that you want to create. This must match the
path and name of the package file that is specified in the sample control
file.

3. Click Run to initiate an engine run.

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2.7   Switches for xPression imports
When you use Design Manager to import an xPression design, or when you run the Exstream 
engine to build output from an imported xPression application, you can use Design and 
Production switches  to specify import utility or engine processing behavior.

You must begin your switch command with the name of the program for which you want to use 
the switches. Enter the program name followed by a space, and then enter the switches as 
required, adding a space after each switch. Switches always begin with a hyphen (-) when they 
appear in a command. 

Use the following syntax for a switch command:

<programName> -<switch> -<switch> ... -<switch>

where, 

 l <programName> specifies the program that you want to use. 

 l To use the import utility switches, use DesignManager as the program name. 

 l To use engine switches when you produce output, use Engine_dbcs if you are using the 
design engine, or use ProdEngine_dbcs if you are using the production engine. 

 l <switch> indicates a switch that you are using with the program, including any applicable 
arguments

For more information about using Design and Production switches, and for a comprehensive list 
of available switches, see Switch Reference in the Exstream Design and Production 
documentation.

2.7.1   Import utility switches
When you import xPression designs from the command prompt, use the following  switches to 
provide information to the import utility in Design Manager. 

 l XPRESS_IMPORT, to specify the PDPX file that you want to import

 l XPRESS_LOGFILE, to specify the name of the import log file 

 l EXSTREAMUSER, to specify the Design and Production user

 l EXSTREAMPASSWORD, to specify the password for the Design and Production user

 l DSN, to specify the data source name for your design database

 l DBSCHEMA, to specify the schema for your design database (if the database requires a 
schema)

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 l DBUSER, to specify the user for your design database (if the database requires you to sign 
in separately)

 l DBPASSWORD, to specify the password for your database user (if the design database 
requires you to sign in separately)

2.7.2   Engine switches
Engine switches define how the engine processes your application. Depending on your 
application, you might require several engine switches to produce the desired output. When you 
run the Exstream engine to produce output from an imported xPression design, OpenText 
recommends that you use at least the following switches in your control file:

Note: The sample control file generated during the import process contains all of the 
recommended switches.

 l DO_NOT_DEFAULT_REF_VARS, to prevent variables from being reset to their default 
values before they are read from a lookup file

 l FILEMAP, to specify a valid file name for a symbolic file name that is specified in your data 
file properties, such as for a driver file or an output file

 l PRECOMPOSE_PARAS_FOR_NONDATA_DOCS, to compose any data-driven content 
that appears in documents that are not driven by data files, before composing those 
documents

 l PRESERVE_SECTION_DESIGN_ORDER, to add data-driven sections to the output in the 
same order in which they appear in the application design

 l RETAIN_VARIABLE_RESET_TIME, to change the engine timing of an array variable that is 
used in a reference data file

 l TRY_ALL_IMAGE_PLACEHOLDER_TYPES, to include a mismatched external image file 
type that is referenced by a placeholder variable

 l MESSAGEFILE, to specify the location of the message file that is generated during the 
engine run

 l MSGRESOURCE, to specify the location of the message resource file to use during the 
engine run

 l PACKAGEFILE, to specify the name of the package file to create

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2.8   Understanding Exstream terminology
As you work with your imported xPression designs in Design Manager and Designer, it can be 
useful to understand how Exstream terminology relates to the objects created by the import 
utility.

The following table describes the usage and definition of Exstream terms that are commonly 
used in an xPression import setting:

Exsteam term Usage and definition

Application A parent object for all of the design objects, logic resources, and settings that references your data
repository and delivery channels to produce personalized documents for your customers.

Each xPression document and subdocument is imported into Design Manager as a separate
application that you can see in the Library under the "Applications" heading.

Application object Library objects that can be referenced in an application.

The contents of an xPression document, such as content items and rules, are imported as
application objects, which include documents, pages, sections, paragraphs, output queues, and
variables.

Approval state User-defined steps that an object must go through before being approved.

The workflow states of imported xPression content items are mapped to equivalent workflow states
in Design Manager.

Array variable A variable that contains multiple values.

xPression array variables are converted into Design and Production array variables.

Child object A lower-level object that is placed in a higher-level (or parent) object. The child object is usually
necessary for the parent object to work correctly.

Component A design object, such as an address block or company logo, that you create in Designer and add
to the Library for reuse in multiple designs. Component objects are stored in the Library under the
"Components" heading.

Connector An object that provides information about the location and operating parameters of external user-
written routines (DLLs) for use with Dynamic Data Access (DDA). Connector objects are stored in
the Library under the "Connectors" heading.

Alternatively, a connector can also refer to a data interface that allows the engine to access
enterprise systems for real-time data access.

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Exsteam term Usage and definition

Control file A reusable format text file, created outside of the design environment, that lets you control the
behavior of the engine by specifying required and optional engine switches in a centralized
location. The format in which you write a control file varies depending on the engine platform that
you use. Any engine switch can be placed in a control file.

The import utility generates a sample control file when you import a PDPX file. A list of
recommended engine switches for use with an imported xPression application is included in that
sample control file.

Customer driver file A data file that contains customer data and is required to run an application.

By default, the import utility maps the customer driver file that it creates as if it were an XML data
source.

Data file A Library object that contains the information required for the engine to locate, read, write, and
use data from an external source within an application. There are multiple types of data files. At
least one customer driver file (a specific type of data file) is required for each application to provide
information about the recipients of the application. Data files are stored in the Library under the
"Data Files" heading.

When you import an xPression document, Design and Production creates an XML-formatted
driver file object that points to the data source file that is referenced in the PDPX file.

Data mapping The process of assigning areas of a data file to one or more variables. When the engine runs, it
reads, writes, or updates data in data areas according to the properties of the variables.

If your PDPX file includes an XML data source, that data source is used as the mapping and test
data source in the driver file in Design Manager.

Design database The database that stores all design information. This includes the data for all the objects in the
Library as well as System Settings for user access, display preferences, and feature settings.

Design environment A local workstation where application development and testing occurs. The design environment
can also mean the collection of programs that you use to design and test applications.

The Exstream design environment consists of a design interface and design database. The
design interface allows users to create design components and add personalization to customer
communications. Exstream can also be configured so that different users can manage different
aspects of the design process (for example, formatting, versioning, or workflow controls). The
design database allows users to store the design objects and their settings.

Design object An object that is used to customize a design. Examples of a design object include barcodes,
buttons, charts, check boxes, images, message frames, radio buttons, shapes, signature buttons
and fields, tables, and text boxes.

Design time The period of time when a user is actively creating customer content in Exstream. If you are going
to be importing external content, doing so at design time can be useful for content that rarely
changes or needs to be formatted after it's been imported.

Document A Library object that contains all the objects and settings required for the design of a personalized
customer communication. A document must contain at least one page. An application must
contain at least one document object. Document objects are stored in the Library under the
"Documents" heading.

Dynamic Indicates that an object can be changed or personalized for each customer. Dynamic content is
updated at engine run time.

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Exsteam term Usage and definition

Effectivity A feature that lets you control the content that is included or excluded from documents based on a
range of dates. For example, you can use effectivity in a customer account statement to include
content based on federal regulations that take effect on a specific date.

This feature is analogous to the Effective Date feature in xPression.

Embedded object An object that has been inserted in a table cell or text box. You can specify that embedded objects
be inline with, or linked to, text. These objects can grow and move dynamically with the anchoring
text.

Engine The Exstream program that produces customer documents from the application package file.
There are two engines—the design engine, which produces sample output from the design
environment, and the production engine, which produces production-ready output from the
production environment.

Engine switch An instruction that is used to control engine processing from the command prompt or included
within a control file.

Flow The process in which an object continues onto a previously specified overflow area, usually a flow
frame.

Formula Logic that you can create in a formula variable to calculate new values based on available
customer data.

Formula variable A type of variable that holds the place for dynamic content when the value of the variable is based
on logic using customer data.

Function An object with logic you create that manipulates data and returns a value. Function objects are
stored in the Library under the "Functions" heading.

Java enabler A program that enables the engine to execute user-written Java code for custom data pre-
processing, post-processing, and retrieval.

The Java enabler is required to process xPression user exits.

Jurisdiction A feature that lets you control the content that is included or excluded from documents based on
customer locations. For example, you can use jurisdictions in a customer account statement to
include legal notices that apply only to certain areas in which the business operates.

This feature is analogous to the Jurisdiction feature in xPression.

Key A file that contains an alphanumeric string that enables Exstream features based on the modules
purchased.

Key variables One or more variables in the customer driver file that notify the engine to read a reference data
file.

Language An environment object in Design Manager that lets you define dictionaries and formatting for
numbers, months of the year, and days of the week for each language. You set up a language
object for each language that you support, and link each one to a locale. Languages are stored in
the Library under Environment > System > Languages.

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Exsteam term Usage and definition

Language layer A virtual layer that lets you create content for multiple languages within a single message, page, or
paragraph object. The engine determines which layer to include in the output for each customer
based on customer variable data and logic.

Library A panel of the Design Manager interface that is used to organize and list objects in the design
database.

Library function Special pieces of code that you can create to cause specific actions based on customer data (for
example, including an object based on a customer location) or to analyze data and return findings
(for example, calculating the total of the values of a series of variables). Library functions can be
applied to any design object in an application on which you can place rules or formula variables.

Library rule A logic rule (or usage rule) that is saved in the Library for reuse. Rules that are placed only on a
specific object are called unnamed rules.

Local engine The Exstream Design and Production program that produces sample output, which lets you verify
your design on a Windows workstation. This engine is also called the design engine.

Locale An environment object that contains the language dictionary and data and currency formats for a
geographic location. Locales are used for formatting localized content when designs include
content for multiple languages. Locales are stored in the Library under Environment > System >
Locales.

Mapping The act of assigning a variable to specific types of information contained in the customer data.

Marketing message A communication that can be placed in a frame according to available space. Marketing
messages are often date-sensitive, locale-sensitive, or cost-contained.

Message A Library object that contains all the design, setup, and targeting controls for an informational or
marketing message intended for placement in a larger customer communication. It can also
represent pre-printed materials inserted at print time. Message objects are stored in the Library
under the "Messages" heading.

Metadata Data [information] that provides information about other data. Metadata consists of user-defined
tags that you can add to an object to enable more efficient searches in the design database. You
can also add metadata to your content to facilitate communications with downstream business
processes in your organization.

Module An optional component of Exstream Design and Production that enables additional function in the
software.

Object Any item that you create in Exstream.

Object status An object’s current status (such as “Work in Progress” or “Approved”), which is automatically
assigned to each object as it advances through the various stages of the design workflow. The
object’s status is indicated by an icon to the left of the object in the Library.

For design objects created by the import utility, the status depends on the approval state of the
object before import, whether it is a shared object or not, ,and whether you selected to import all
version of the object or the latest version only.

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Exsteam term Usage and definition

Output An environment object that you use to set up the format of the final output, which can be print or
electronic. The output object settings control the print stream that is sent to a device for printed
output or the viewing software for electronic output. For example, you can configure resolution,
simplex or duplex options, paper selection, color settings, printable areas for page margins, and
so on. Outputs are stored in the Library under Environment > Delivery > Outputs.

Additionally, output can also refer to electronic, print, or multi-channel results of an engine run that
represent a preview of the customer communication in the design environment or produce the
actual customer communication in the production environment.

The import utility can convert most xPression output definition settings into equivalent Design and
Production output objects.

Output file A file that is created when the engine runs in production mode.

Output queue A Library object that contains the objects and settings used for high-volume document production.
The most common type of object included is the output driver (for example, PDF or HTML), but it
can also include inserters, multiple-ups, and output breaks. Output queues are stored in the
Library under Environment > Delivery > Output Queues.

Package The action a user performs to gather all objects needed for an Exstream application in one file.
This is the preliminary step to running the engine for design testing or production.

Package file An Exstream file (*.pub) that contains all of the design and environment objects necessary for the
engine to produce output.

Packaging switch An instruction used from the command prompt or included within a control file to control
application packaging.

Page A Library object that generally corresponds to a sheet of paper. Pages contain design objects
such as text and images, and can contain static content and dynamic content that can change
based on customer data. One or more page objects make up a document. Page objects are
stored in the Library under the "Pages" heading.

Page template An environment object that defines a paper type and controls what type of page can be used. It
also provides control over the page so that designers cannot change or delete specific content.
Page templates are stored in the Library under Environment > Design > Page Templates.

Paper type An environment object that defines the size, weight, and color of paper stock for printed output, or
that defines the screen properties for electronic output. Paper types are stored in the Library
under Environment > Design > Paper Types.

Paragraph A Library object that contains a block of communication. A paragraph object might contain one or
more text paragraphs. Paragraph objects are stored in the Library under the "Paragraphs"
heading.

Content items in xPression documents are imported as paragraph objects.

Parent object A Library object that is built using subordinate objects, such as documents, which can contain
pages, sections and paragraphs, and message objects.

Placeholder An object used to reserve an area where external content will be imported at run time.

Placeholder variable A variable that reserves a place for external content the engine imports during an engine run.

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Exsteam term Usage and definition

Production environment A mainframe or production server where actual customer data is provided and distribution-ready
output is produced. The production environment processes the documents for delivery after the
application has been developed, tested, and approved in the design environment.

Production key An alphanumeric string that enables access to both the design and production environments of
Exstream.

Rule A set of conditions that are used to control the inclusion or exclusion of a design object in the
output in order to personalize documents for each customer. Rule objects are stored in the Library
under the "Rules" heading.

Rules in Exstream are analogous to Criteria in xPression.

Run time The point when an engine run is initiated. Any referenced content designated for run-time import
is placed into the output at this time.

Section A Library object that contains paragraphs and, optionally, other section objects. It is used to create
a hierarchy of content similar to headings and subheadings in a book. Section objects are stored
in the Library under the "Sections" heading.

Rules in xPression documents are imported as sections in Design Manager.

Style A Library object that represents a specific character or paragraph format in a style sheet. Styles
are stored in the Library under Environment > Design > Styles.

Microsoft Word template styles in xPression documents are imported as style objects in Design
Manager.

Style sheet A Library object that contains a collection of styles and defines the character or paragraph
formatting, such as font, size, color, indentation, or spacing. You can use style sheets to enforce
font usage for branding purposes or to set paragraph spacing for optimal appearance of text in a
design. Style sheets are stored in the Library under Environment > Design > Style Sheets.

Switch Switches are instructions that can be used to run the production engine, customize database
administration, or specify packaging options. Switches can be used within a control file or from the
command prompt.

System variable A pre-defined variable that is standard with Exstream software and is identified by the prefix
SYS_.

Table A design object that lets you present data in rows and columns. Exstream lets you create multiple
types of tables.

Targeted flow The placement of overflow into specific flow frames. It uses flow targets, which are stored in the
Library under Environment > Design > Flow Targets.

Template A page or message object that can be preset and used as a model for others to copy. Defining
characteristics and setting objects within a template lets you create consistent pages and enforce
style sheets. Templates are stored in the Library under Environment > Design > Templates.

Text message A message object that typically contains only text, but other design objects such as tables,
variables, and even graphics can still be added using Designer. Though you can use one, you are
not required to use a template or a planned layout to create text messages. This versatility allows
text messages to fill excess space on a page.

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Exsteam term Usage and definition

User-defined variable A variable created by an Exstream user as needed. Unlike system variables, they do not come
with the software and they can be moved, deleted, and renamed.

Variable A Library object that represents data that changes at engine run time from sources such as
customer data, current date and time, pages in a document, or a calculated value. Variables can
make communication personalized for each customer. Variables are stored in the Library under
the "Data Dictionary" heading.

xPression variables are converted into equivalent Design and Production variables.

Workflow A collaborative development process wherein objects progress through different stages of
development.

The workflow states of imported xPression content items are mapped to equivalent workflow states
in Design Manager.

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 Chapter 3: Importing InDesign designs
The InDesign Converter lets you import InDesign files into the Design and Production 
environment. The InDesign Converter analyzes a specified InDesign file and creates a DXF file, 
which you can then import into Design and Production. 

This section discusses the InDesign Converter version 1.0. 

Most InDesign design objects are supported in the Exstream Design and Production 
environment, and when they are converted, become editable objects. For example, text 
alignment settings on a page in InDesign are supported fully. Therefore, when a page is 
converted and imported into Exstream Design and Production, you can see the alignment of text 
and change it just as you would for pages created in Exstream Design and Production.

Some features used in InDesign files are not supported as Design and Production objects. 
Designs that use unsupported features can be converted as view-only bitmaps. For example, 
polygon frames are not supported by the InDesign Converter. Therefore, during the conversion, 
you can select to convert the frame as a bitmap. When the converted page is imported into the 
design environment, the polygon frame will be visible, but you will be able to interact with it only 
as an image. For example, you can change its location, but not its appearance. If you choose 
not to convert unsupported objects to bitmap format, those objects do not appear on the 
converted page. You can also choose to convert entire pages to bitmap format. Features that 
cannot be converted to bitmap do not appear on the converted page.

Before using the InDesign Converter, make sure your system meets the following requirements:

 l Windows 7 or later

 l InDesign CS2 version 4.02 or later

If you install the InDesign Converter on a Mac, it must use OS X 10.3 or later.

This section discusses the following topics:

 l “Supported InDesign features” on the next page

 l Converting the InDesign design to a DXF File

 l Importing the generated DXF file

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3.1   Supported InDesign features
This section describes the InDesign features supported by the Exstream Design and Production 
environment. If your design uses a feature not listed here, you can use one of the following 
solutions to make the conversion process simpler:

 l Adjust the design so it uses only supported features.

 l Convert the object or page as a bitmap. The object or feature will not be editable in the 
Design and Production environment.

Before converting an InDesign file, make sure you familiarize yourself with the following 
information about how objects in the InDesign file will appear after conversion. The following 
tables list InDesign features and objects that are supported by the converter. The tables are 
organized by the following functions:

 l Color types

 l Frame features

 l Line features

 l Shape features

 l Text features

 l Miscellaneous objects

Features that are identified as "fully supported" are imported as editable objects in the Design 
and Production environment.

Supported color types
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

ANPA colors Converted to RGB colors

DIC colors Converted to RGB colors

Focoltone colors Converted to RGB colors

Gradients Appear on the page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

KHS colors Converted to RGB colors

Lab colors Converted to RGB colors

Mixed-Ink colors Converted to RGB colors

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Supported color types, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

"None" color Appears on the page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Pantone colors Converted to CMYK colors

System colors Converted to RGB colors

(Macintosh and Windows)

TOYO colors Converted to RGB colors

TRUMATCH colors Converted to RGB colors

Unnamed colors Appear on the page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Web colors Converted to RGB colors

Supported frame features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Anchored frame Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Anchored frames check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Angle (Rotation) Converted as bitmap

Bevel join Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Compound path Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Ellipse frames Fully supported

Fill Fully supported

Fill tint Fully supported

Miter join Fully supported

Polygon frames Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Polygon check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Rectangle frames Fully supported

Round join Appears on the page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Sheared frames Appears on the page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Stroke Fully supported

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Supported frame features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Stroke gap colors Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Stroke gap color check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Stroke style Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Stroke style check box on
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Stroke tint Fully supported

Stroke weight Fully supported

Supported line features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Begin and end styles The InDesign Converter converts line begin and end styles into the closest matching begin and end
styles. The converter creates the begin and end styles from the interior of the length of the line, but
Designer creates begin and end styles from the exterior length of a line. Therefore, you might notice
some differences in the sizes of lines that use begin and end styles.

Line tool Fully supported

Pencil tool Fully supported

Pen tool lines Converted as bitmap

Stroke Fully supported

Stroke tint Fully supported

Stroke type Converted as bitmap

Stroke weight Fully supported

Supported shape features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Ellipses (circles) Fully supported

Pen tool shapes This object can be converted as a bitmap, or you can apply an open path to the object in InDesign so
the object's shape and fill can be edited in Designer. If you apply an open path to it, the object might
not be visible when you open the imported page in Designer. You can select the object in the Outline
Viewer to locate it and restore its shape and fill.

Pathfinder shapes The object will appear on the converted page if you convert the entire page as bitmap, or you can
apply an open path in InDesign to retain the object's shape and fill during conversion. When you
open the imported page in Designer, the object might not be visible. You can select the object in the
Outline Viewer to locate it and restore its shape and fill.

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Supported shape features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Polygons This object can be converted as a bitmap, or you can apply an open path to the object in InDesign so
the object's shape and fill can be edited in Designer. If you apply an open path to it, the object might
not be visible when you open the imported page in Designer. You can select the object in the Outline
Viewer to locate it and restore its shape and fill.

Rectangles Fully supported

Shape Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Shear Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Transparency Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Supported text features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

All caps Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the All caps check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Baseline shift Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Baseline shift check box on
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Double-byte characters Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special characters check
box in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Discretionary hyphens Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Dashes check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Drop caps Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Drop caps check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Em dashes Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Dashes check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Em spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

En dashes Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Dashes check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

En spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Figure spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Flowing text Each flowing text box is converted into an individual, non-flowing text box. Each text box contains only
the text that appeared in that text box before conversion. You can recreate text flow in Designer using
flow frames.

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Supported text features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Flush spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Hair spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Indents Converted as bitmap

Kerning Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Kerning check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Non-breaking hyphens Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Dashes check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Non-breaking spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Outline Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Outline check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Paragraph rules Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Paragraph rules check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Punctuation spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Scaling Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Scale check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Skew Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Text skew check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Small caps Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Small caps check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Space after Converted as bitmap

Space before Converted as bitmap

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Supported text features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Tab settings The following tab alignment settings are supported:

l Center-justified tab
l Left-justified tab
l Right-justified tab

The following features are supported if you select to convert them as bitmap. Otherwise, they are
ignored:

l Align on tabs
l Tab leaders

Text alignment The following text alignment settings are supported:

l Bottom alignment (vertical)

l Center alignment (horizontal and vertical)
l Justified alignment (horizontal)
l Left alignment (horizontal)
l Right alignment (horizontal)
l Top alignment (vertical)

Full justify is supported if you select to convert it as bitmap (by using the Convert to Bitmap if
checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored, unless you convert the entire page as
bitmap.

The following text alignment settings are supported if you convert the entire page as a bitmap:

l Forced justify
l Justified alignment (vertical)
l Justified with last line aligned center
l Justified with last line aligned left
l Justified with last line aligned right
l Justify all

Text box Each InDesign text box is converted as one Designer text box (with the exception of flowing text). If a
text box contains unsupported characters or features and you select to convert these features to
bitmap during the conversion, the entire text box is converted to bitmap format.

Before the conversion, change the size of text boxes so they closely fit the text they contain. If the text
boxes are significantly larger than the text, they can cause issues during the conversion.

Text skew Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Text skew check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Text slant (with object) Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Text wrapping Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

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Supported text features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Thin spaces Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
in the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Type on a path Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Variables Fully supported. To include variables in a converted document, surround the variable name in
InDesign with brackets (for example, <CustomerName>).

Miscellaneous features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Embedded objects These types of objects might not convert correctly and are often separated during conversion.

Grouped objects These types of objects might not convert correctly and are often separated during conversion.

Images with overlapping text After the conversion, the overlapping text is treated as an uneditable part of the image.

Layers All visible layers are converted into a single design layer in Designer. Hidden layers do not convert.

Objects that extend past the design These types of objects might not convert correctly.
area

Tables Designer and InDesign draw tables differently. In InDesign, you embed tables in a text box, which lets
you create additional text to surround the table. The InDesign Converter converts this object as two
separate design objects: a text box and a table. The table is no longer embedded in the text box. After
you have imported the document into Design and Production, you can apply dynamic table settings.

Note: If you choose to convert unsupported characters or features to bitmap and these 
features are located in a text box, the entire text box is converted to bitmap.

3.2   Converting the InDesign design to a DXF 
File
You use the InDesign Converter to convert files from InDesign format into DXF format. Before 
you run the InDesign Converter, you must resolve any issues that appear with a Missing or 
Modified status on the Preflight dialog box in InDesign. Objects with either a Missing or 
Modified status can cause errors in the conversion and will not appear when the DXF file is 
imported into Exstream Design and Production. In addition, you must install any fonts used in 
the InDesign file on the computer where the DXF file will be imported.

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There are three ways you can convert files from InDesign format. The method you choose to 
use depends on how you want to use the design.

 l Convert the entire file into a bitmap—The entire InDesign page is converted into a TIFF 
image, which you can then import into Designer. All InDesign objects appear in the TIFF; 
however, you cannot make any changes to the converted file. You might choose to use this 
method if you do not need to make any changes to the design after it is imported and if you 
want the converted file to appear exactly the same as the InDesign file.

 l Convert specific features to bitmap—You specify which features are converted to bitmap. 
This method gives you the most control over the conversion process, and allows you to 
make changes to most design objects in Designer. You might choose to use this method if 
you want to retain as much of the original appearance of the design as possible, while still 
having the ability to make changes to the design in Designer. If you choose to use this 
method, make sure you are familiar with the supported objects and how they are treated by 
the InDesign converter.

 l Convert all supported features and ignore unsupported features—The converter 
converts all supported features. Any features that are not natively supported in the Design 
and Production format, or that must be converted to bitmap format in order to appear in the 
converted file, are ignored. You might choose to use this method if your InDesign design 
does not contain many unsupported objects, if it will be easy to recreate the ignored objects 
in Designer, or if you must make extensive changes to the page in Designer in the future.

To convert the file from InDesign format:

 1.  In InDesign, from the File menu, select Export to Exstream.

The  Export to Exstream dialog box opens.

Tip: If you use a configuration file to automatically load pre-defined conversion 
settings, click Load, select the configuration file, and skip to step 3.

 2.  In the Convert to Bitmap Settings area, specify how you want the InDesign Converter to 
treat objects that are not natively supported by Design and Production

To Do this

Convert the entire file into a bitmap a. Select All.

b. In the Convert to Bitmap Device area, select the settings for the TIFF that will be
created.

Tip: Generally, the resolution you select should match the dots per inch (dpi) of the
target output device. Also, keep in mind that high dpi resolution can result in very large
image file sizes.

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To Do this

Convert specific features to bitmap a. Select Some.

format
b. In the Convert to Bitmap if checked area, select the objects that you want the
converter to convert to bitmap format.
c. At the bottom of the Convert to Bitmap if checked area, select the Embed Images in
DXF check box if you want images in the InDesign page to be embedded in the
converted file. You must select this check box if you run InDesign and the design
environment on different computers. However, if InDesign and Design and Production
are located on the same computer, you can clear this check box to improve the speed
of the conversion process. After the conversion, the converted file must be used on the
computer that contains InDesign and the image files in order for the images to appear.

Convert all supported features and a. Select None.

ignore unsupported features
b. At the bottom of the Convert to Bitmap if checked area, select the Embed Images in
DXF check box if you want images in the InDesign page to be embedded in the
converted file. You must select this check box if you run InDesign and the design
environment on different computers. However, if InDesign and Design and Production
are located on the same computer, you can clear this check box to improve the speed
of the conversion process. After the conversion, the converted file must be used on the
computer that contains InDesign and the image files in order for the images to appear.

Tip: If you want to save the conversion settings you just defined, click Save in the 
Convert to Bitmap Settings area. The conversion settings are saved as an INI file 
that you can use in future conversions to automatically load settings for the converter. 
This feature allows you to quickly load pre-defined settings for each conversion you 
must complete.

 3.  In the File name box, click   to specify the location and file name of the DXF file the 

InDesign Converter will create. If you use a Macintosh, you cannot enter a name manually 
in the File name box; you must click   to specify the location and file name. You will 
select this file when you import the DXF into Design and Production.

 4.  Click Export.

The conversion process begins. The Log dialog box opens and provides details about the 
conversion. You can use the information it provides for troubleshooting.

When the conversion is complete, one DXF file for each InDesign file will be located in the 
directory you specified. You can then import the DXF file or files into Exstream Design and 
Production.

For more information about DXF files, see “Understanding the DXF format” on page 7.

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3.3   Importing the generated DXF file
After you run the InDesign Converter, import the DXF file into Design and Production.

To import the DXF file:

 1.  In Design Manager, right-click the Pages heading and select Import from DXF.

The Import DXF dialog box opens.

 2.  Navigate to the DXF file you want to import. You can select multiple files to import by 
holding down CTRL and selecting the files.

 3.  In the Import box, specify the Library folder into which you want to import the pages.

 a.  Click  .

The Folders dialog box opens.

 b.  Select the folder and click OK.

The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the Import box.

 4.  In the Page Type list, select the Exstream Design and Production page settings you want 
to apply to the imported page. You can change this setting later, but you must specify a 
setting option for the initial import.

 a.  Depending on the way your design standards are enforced, select either Use 
specified Paper Type or Use specified Page Template.

 b.  In the list below the Page Type list, select either the paper type or page template you 
want to apply to the imported pages.

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 5.  In the Variable Import list, select how variables in the converted document are handled.

To Do this

Ignore any variables in the original Select Ignore variables.

document

Honor only original variables in the a. Select Map to existing variables only.
file that exist in the Exstream Design
and Production Library
b. In the Variable Folder box, specify the Design Manager folder that contains the
variables.

i. Click .

The Folders dialog box opens.

ii. Select the folder and click OK.
The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the
Variable Folder box.

Honor all variables from the original a. Select Create missing variables.
file and create new Exstream Design
and Production variables for those
b. In the Variable Folder box, specify the Design Manager folder that contains the
variables.
that do not currently exist in the
Library
i. Click .

The Folders dialog box opens.

ii. Select the folder and click OK.
The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the
Variable Folder box.

 6.  Click Open.

The Log dialog box displays informational messages about the import process. The files then 
appear in the Design Manager Library. If the DXF file contains multiple pages, Exstream Design 
and Production names the imported pages according to their order in the DXF file. For example, 
if you import a DXF file named Test that contains three pages, the file names are 
TEST.DXF.page.1, TEST.DXF.page.2, and TEST.DXF.page.3. You can rename the pages in 
Design Manager after they have been imported.

After you import the files, make sure to visually check the pages and make adjustments to 
objects as needed.

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 Chapter 4: Importing Metacode 
designs
The Metacode Converter lets you import normalized Metacode files into the Exstream Design 
and Production environment. The Metacode Converter analyzes a specified Metacode file and 
creates a DXF file, which you can then import into Exstream Design and Production. 

This section discusses the Metacode Converter version 1.2. 

Most Metacode design objects are supported in the Exstream Design and Production 
environment, and when they are converted, the objects become editable. For example, when a 
page is converted and imported into Design and Production, you can see the text and change it 
just as you would for pages created in Exstream Design and Production.

The Metacode Converter supports most binary integer byte order types, block sizes, and 
highlight colors. The converter retrieves the font metrics, variables, and other data for the 
converted files so that after the conversion, the imported file appears as similar as possible to 
the original file.

This section discusses the following topics:

 l “Supported Metacode formats” below

 l “Converting the Metacode design to a DXF file” on page 63

 l “Importing the generated DXF file” on page 72

 l “Cleaning up the imported DXF file” on page 74

4.1   Supported Metacode formats
The following table describes the Metacode formats that are supported by the Metacode 
Converter.

Supported Metacode Formats
File type Description

4 byte, big endian, inclusive Record length indicator is 4 bytes long; the most significant bytes first; length includes the record
length

4 byte, big endian, exclusive Record length indicator is 4 bytes long; the most significant bytes first; length does not include the
record length

4 byte, little endian, inclusive Record length indicator is 4 bytes long; the least significant bytes first; length does not include the
record length

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Supported Metacode Formats, continued
File type Description

4 byte, little endian, inclusive Record length indicator is 4 bytes long; the least significant bytes first; length does not include the
record length

2 byte, big endian, inclusive Record length indicator is 2 bytes long; the most significant bytes first; length includes the record
length

2 byte, big endian exclusive Record length indicator is 2 bytes long; the most significant bytes first; length does not include the
record length

2 byte, little endian, inclusive Record length indicator is 2 bytes long; the least significant bytes first; length includes the record
length

2 byte, little endian, exclusive Record length indicator is 2 bytes long; the least significant bytes first; length does not indicate the
record length

MVS FTP records Record length indicator starts with 80, followed by a 2-byte length count (exclusive); can be
successfully uploaded to mainframe without unblocking, or downloaded to a personal computer with
no blocking required

Blocked MVS FTP records Supports z/OS File Transfer Protocol (FTP) records that are blocked

CR/LF delimited records Records are separated by 0D0A (carriage return/line feed)

LF delimited records Records are separated by line feed

Fixed-length records Records are padded as necessary to force them to an equal size

Variable-length records Two-byte block length is followed by a 2-byte pad; the most significant bytes first; length does not
include the record length

Barr short format Spooling format of fixed record length (255 bytes) with 4-byte header; the least significant bytes first;
1-byte start length (does not include the byte itself); and 1- byte end length (does not include the byte
itself)

Barr long format Spooling format of fixed record length (64K bytes) with 2-byte start length; the least significant bytes
first; and 2-byte end length (does not include the bytes)

If your files are in a different format, you can specify a custom format.

For information on specifying a custom format, see “Defining a Custom Blocking Format” on 
page 66.

4.2   Preparing Metacode files for conversion
Metacode files must reside on Windows in order to convert them using the Metacode Converter. 
The files can have any filename extension, such as .met or .nor, but they must be normalized.

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If the Metacode files you want to convert are stored in an Electronic Data Library (EDL) on the 
mainframe, you must copy the files from the EDL to a Windows file system. The quickest way 
to copy files to a Windows system is to extract the Metacode documents individually from the 
EDL using the VLAM Commander. However, you can also extract individual forms to either a 
fixed length or variable length dataset. This method is less efficient since it pads the ends of 
records, but it is easier to manipulate. If you want to write to a variable length dataset, use the 
following sample JCL to add length fields to the record:

//EXGENR JOB 'UE',(00000),CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=X

/*
/*
//STEP1 EXEC PGM=IEBGENER,REGION=4M
//SYSIN DD DUMMY
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//*
//*NOTE: THE REAL DCB OF SYSUI1 is VB 300 3120. USE THE FOLLOWING
//* TO GET IEBGENER TO PROVIDE FOUR BYTE RDW AND BDW IN THE OUTPUT
//SYSUT1 DD DSN=EXSTREAM.METAIN(SAMPLE),DISP=SHR,
// DCB=(LRECL=3120,RECFM=U)
//*
//*NOTE: THE DCB FOR SYSUT2 WILL BE COPIED FROM SYSUT1 BY IEBGENER
//SYSUT2 DD DSN=EXSTREAM.OUTLOD1(NEWMETA),DISP=(NEW,CATLG),
// SPACE=(TRK,(15,15,3)),UNIT=SYSDA
//*
//*THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLE IS FOR AN EXISTING DATASET
//*SYSUT2 DSN=EXSTREAM.OUTLOD1(NEWMETA),DISP=SHR

Complete a binary download to copy these files to a Windows directory.

4.3   Converting the Metacode design to a DXF 
file
Because the Metacode format is complex, you must provide information about the file format 
and contents before running the converter.

To convert designs from Metacode format, complete the following tasks as needed:

 l “Using a Configuration File to Automatically Load Metacode Conversion Settings” on the 
next page

 l “Specifying the Format of Metacode Files That Will Be Converted” on the next page

 l “Specifying the Output Directory for the DXF Files” on page 67

 l “Mapping Metacode Fonts for Conversion” on page 67

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 l “Specifying Custom Variable Names for Converted Metacode Variables” on page 70

 l “Saving the Settings and Running the Metacode Converter” on page 71

Note: The Metacode Converter provides an Images tab. You do not need to interact with 
this tab because its functionality is not supported in this release.

If you use configuration files to automatically load converter settings, you can specify the format 
of files and then run the converter. You do not need to complete the other steps. Configuration 
files are saved settings, usually from previous conversions.

For information on using a configuration file, see “Using a Configuration File to Automatically 
Load Metacode Conversion Settings” below.

4.3.1   Using a Configuration File to Automatically 
Load Metacode Conversion Settings
 1.  Open the Metacode Converter. By default, this program is installed in the Exstream 
directory.

 2.  Click File > Open Configuration.

The Open dialog box opens.

 3.  Select the configuration file and click Open.

The Open dialog box closes and the saved configuration settings populate the fields in the 
Metacode Converter.

 4.  Check the Fonts tab and verify that all the entries appear in black text. You must remap 
entries that appear in red.

Tip: If previously mapped fonts appear to be unmapped when you open a configuration file, 
the internal font name differs from the font's file name. Rename the font file name to match 
the internal name or use a hex editor to change the font's internal name.

For information on mapping fonts, see “Mapping Metacode Fonts for Conversion” on page 67.

If you make changes to the converter settings and then save the configuration file, the new 
settings are appended to the original configuration file.

For information on saving the converter settings in the configuration file, see “Saving the 
Settings and Running the Metacode Converter” on page 71.

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4.3.2   Specifying the Format of Metacode Files That 
Will Be Converted
 1.  Open the Metacode Converter. By default, this program is installed in the Exstream 
directory.

 2.  On the Inputs tab, select the file you want to convert. You can use one or both of the 
methods described in the table as many times as needed to specify as many files as you 
want to convert in one batch process. If you want to convert all the files in a folder, the files 
must all have the same properties, such as binary integer byte order and highlight color.

To Do this

Manually select one or more Metacode files to a. Click Add Files.

convert
The Open dialog box opens.
b. Locate the file, select it, and click Open. You can select multiple files by
holding down the CTRL key and selecting the files.
The Open dialog box closes and the MetaCode Input Format dialog box
opens.

Convert all of the Metacode files in a specified a. Click Add Folder.

folder (and all of its subfolders)
The Browse for Folder dialog box opens.
b. Locate the folder that contains the PDF, select it, and click OK.
The Browse for Folder dialog box closes and the MetaCode Input
Format dialog box opens.

 3.  From the box at the top of the MetaCode Input Format dialog box, select the binary 
integer byte order in the file(s). The option you select specifies the byte order implicit in the 
character set.

For information on the formats supported by the Metacode Converter, see “Supported 
Metacode formats” on page 61.

 4.  If the option you selected requires you to specify the block size, enter it in the Block size 
box.

 5.  In the DJDE Iden box, enter a Metacode string identity to include in the DXF file. Normally, 
this string contains two literal characters followed by the Dynamic Job Description Entry 
(DJDE). If the corresponding Xerox JSL file is available for the file you are converting, you 
can find the mandatory DJDE Iden value in that file.

 6.  In the Offset box, enter the number of characters in the Metacode string the converter must 
skip before reading actual data. If the corresponding Xerox JSL file is available for the file 
you are converting, you can find the mandatory Offset value in that file.

 7.  In the Skip box, enter the starting position of the IDEN string. The initial position is zero. If 

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the corresponding Xerox JSL file is available for the file you are converting, you can find the 
mandatory Skip value in that file.

 8.  From the DJDE drop-down list, select the character set used by the file.

 9.  The Highlight color box displays the highlight color. If the displayed color is incorrect or 
missing, click Set color to select the correct highlight color.

 10.  From the Carriage control drop-down list, select the code type used for carriage return 
controls.

 11.  Click OK.

The MetaCode Input Format dialog box closes and the file(s) you selected appear on the 
Inputs tab.

Defining a Custom Blocking Format
If the formats the Metacode Converter provides do not offer the blocking format you need, you 
can define a custom format for the converter to use during the conversion.

Tip: If you create a custom format that you must use for future conversions, consider 
saving the converter settings before running the converter. Saving the custom format 
needed for your organization's file specifications lets you avoid re-creating the custom 
format each time you run the converter.

For information on saving the converter settings, see “Saving the Settings and Running the 
Metacode Converter” on page 71.

To define a custom format:

 1.  On the MetaCode Input Format dialog box, double-click the Custom format option in the 
box at the top of the dialog box.

The Custom Record Format dialog box opens.

 2.  If records place the most significant bytes first, select the Big Endian check box. Clear 
the check box if records place the least significant bytes first.

 3.  If the length does not include the record length indicator, select the Exclusive check box. 
Clear the check box if the length includes the record length indicator.

 4.  In the Initial Record Skip Bytes box, enter the number of bytes that must be skipped 
before the first record begins.

 5.  Use the remaining properties to identify whether the file uses indicator bytes to indicate 
record lengths and how these bytes should be handled:

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If Do this

The file uses indicator a. Select the Indicator Bytes check box.
bytes
b. From the adjacent drop-down list, select the number of bytes used to indicate the record length.
c. If records are blocked in the file, select the Blocked check box in the Blocking area.
d. If the records are a fixed length, select the Fixed Length check box in the Blocking area and enter
the size of the records in the adjacent size box.

The file does not use In the Carriage Controls area, select the method used to indicate the end of a record. You can select either
indicator bytes the LF radio button or the CRLF radio button.

 6.  Click OK.

The Custom Record Format dialog box closes.

4.3.3   Specifying the Output Directory for the DXF 
Files
By default, the Metacode converter gives the DXF file it creates the same name as the original 
Metacode file (for example, Sample.met becomes Sample.dxf) and places it in the same 
directory as the original. To change the location where Metacode files are placed, or to change 
the name given to DXF files, use the options on the Outputs tab.

To Do this

Specify a unique directory and file name for individual 1. Select the Metacode file for which you want to specify a directory.
DXF files that will be created
2. Click Set File.
The Save As dialog box opens.
3. Locate the directory where you want the DXF file to be located, and specify a
name for the file.
4. Click Save.
The Save As dialog box closes and the name and directory you specified
for the file appear in the Outputs box.

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To Do this

Specify a unique directory for all the DXF files that will 1. Click Select All.
be created
The Metacode files in the Outputs box are selected for you.
2. Click Set Folder.
The Browse for Folder dialog box opens.
3. Locate the folder where you want the DXF files to be placed, select it, and
click OK.
The Browse for Folder dialog box closes and the location you specified
appears in the Location column of the Outputs box.

Tip: To override this setting for specific file, follow the steps above to specify
a unique directory and file name for specific files.

4.3.4   Mapping Metacode Fonts for Conversion
Because the fonts used in Metacode files are not Windows fonts, you must provide the True 
Type equivalents of the fonts used in the Metacode design. After you have specified the 
Metacode files you want to convert, the Fonts tab of the Metacode Converter is populated with 
all the fonts found in the files. You can use this tab to open a .fnt file for each Metacode font. The 
converter analyzes the .fnt files to gather specific metrics for each font. Then you specify the 
Windows font you want to use for each Metacode font.

The Fonts tab uses the following color legend to identify whether the fonts have been mapped:

 l Red—Font has been read from the Metacode file, but you have not provided its metrics or 
specified its Windows equivalent

 l Orange—Font has been read from the Metacode file, you have provided its metrics, but you 
have not specified its Windows equivalent

 l Black—All the necessary font information has been provided and the font is ready for the 
conversion process

Before mapping the fonts, make sure all the .fnt files used in the Metacode files are available on 
the computer where you will run the converter.

To map the Metacode fonts:

 1.  Click the Fonts tab.

 2.  Open the font information for one or all of the unmapped fonts.

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To Do this

Open font information for a specific font a. Select a font whose information has not been provided to the converter. These
fonts appear in red.
b. Click Load Font.
The Open dialog box opens.
c. Select the .fnt file associated with the Metacode font and click Open.
The Open dialog box closes and the Type column is updated to indicate whether
the font is a text (character-based) or logo (image-based) type font. The font entry
also changes to orange to indicate that you must specify its Windows equivalent.
d. Repeat step a through step c for all the files in the Fonts box, until all the font
entries are orange.

Open font information for all the fonts and a. Click Select all.
allow the converter to automatically
associated the information with each font
b. Click Load Font.
The Open dialog box opens.
Note: The .fnt files must all be c. Select the folder that contains all of the font information and click Open.
located in the same folder to use
this method. The Open dialog box closes and Type column is updated to indicate whether the
font is a text (character-based) or logo (image-based) type font. The font entries
also change to orange to indicate that you must specify their Windows
equivalents.

 3.  Select a font for which you must identify a Windows equivalent. These fonts appear in 
orange.

 4.  Click Set Substitute.

The Font dialog box opens.

 5.  Use the Font dialog box to select the Windows equivalent font and font style.

 a.  In the Font box, select the equivalent font. If the font is a logo font, it is recommended 
that you select a unique Windows font that will make it easy to find the font in 
Designer. After the page is converted and imported into Designer, you can replace 
each instance of this unique font with an image.

 b.  In the Font style box, select the style.

 c.  If you know the equivalent font size, enter it in the Size box. If you are not sure of the 
size, you do not have to specify it, and the converter will determine it automatically.

 d.  Click OK.

The Font dialog box closes and a message opens.

 6.  Click Yes if you want the converter to determine the font size. If you want the converter to 
use the font size you specified, click No.

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The message closes and the Substitute column is updated to reflect the substitution font 
you specified. The font entry also changes to black to indicate that the font is ready for the 
conversion process.

 7.  Repeat step 3 through step 6 for every font in the Fonts box. If you do not provide a 
Windows equivalent for all fonts, the conversion will fail.

For information on the extra steps you must carry out to map fonts with character mapping 
variations, see “Mapping Metacode Fonts with Character Set Variations” below.

Mapping Metacode Fonts with Character Set Variations
If the character set of a Metacode font varies from the True Type equivalent, you must provide 
additional information so the converter handles the font correctly. Before mapping these types of 
fonts, make sure you know the ASCII equivalents for the characters that vary.

To map fonts with character set variations:

 1.  In the Fonts box, select the font.

 2.  Click Set Characters.

The Character Mapping dialog box opens.

 3.  Click Add.

A second Character Mapping dialog box opens.

 4.  In the MetaCode box, enter the hexadecimal notation for the Metacode character. You 
must precede the value with 0x to indicate that the value is hexadecimal.

Tip: You can use the Xerox SAM command to help you identify Metacode character 
values.

 5.  In the DXF box, enter the Unicode code point of the ASCII equivalent. You do not have to 
include the U+ prefix with the value you enter.

Tip: You can find the Unicode code point value by using the Windows character map 
program.

 6.  Click OK.

The Character Mapping dialog box closes and the character mapping you entered appears 
in the Character Mapping dialog box.

 7.  Click OK.

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The Character Mapping dialog box closes.

 8.  Repeat step 1 through step 7 to provide the ASCII equivalent for as many fonts as needed.

4.3.5   Specifying Custom Variable Names for 
Converted Metacode Variables
When you import a DXF file into Design and Production, Exstream Design and Production can 
automatically create variables in the design database for all of the variables contained in the 
DXF. When Design and Production creates variables automatically, it names each variable 
based on the corresponding Metacode variable name and replaces unsupported characters, 
such as spaces and periods, with underscores. However, you can override the default naming 
with custom names. You define the custom variable names in the Metacode Converter, and 
when the DXF file is imported, Design and Production will name the variables according to the 
instructions provided in the DXF file.

To specify custom variable names, complete the following tasks as needed:

 l “Specifying a Prefix for All Variables” below (for example, all variables in the converted 
document have the prefix Meta_)

 l “Providing a Unique Name for a Specific Variable” on the next page

Specifying a Prefix for All Variables
 1.  Click the Variables tab.

A list of all the variables found in the input files appears in the box.

 2.  Click Set Prefix.

The Set Variable Prefix dialog box opens.

 3.  In the Variable Prefix box, enter the prefix you want to apply to the variable. Follow the 
Exstream Design and Production rules for variable naming.

The variables in the Sample variables box change to demonstrate how variables will 
appear with the prefix.

 4.  Click OK.

The Set Prefix dialog box closes and the variable names in the Substitute column are 
updated to reflect how the variables will appear after the DXF is imported into Design and 
Production.

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Providing a Unique Name for a Specific Variable
 1.  Click the Variables tab.

A list of all the variables found in the input files appears in the box.

 2.  Select the variable whose name you want to change.

 3.  Click Set Substitute.

The Set Variable Mapping dialog box opens.

 4.  In the DXF variable box, enter the new name for the variable. Follow the Design and 
Production rules for variable naming.

 5.  If you know the variable's type, you can optionally select it from the Variable type drop-
down list. By default, all variables are imported as string type variables. If you do not know 
the variable type or you do not want to set it before the conversion, you can change the 
variable type in Design Manager after you import the DXF file.

 6.  Click OK.

The Set Variable Mapping dialog box closes and the new variable name appears in the 
Substitute column.

4.3.6   Saving the Settings and Running the 
Metacode Converter
Before running the converter, you can save the configuration settings you have defined in the 
converter. This optional step can save you time if you will convert similar files in the future.

To save the conversion settings:

 1.  Click File > Save Configuration As.

The Save As dialog box opens.

 2.  Specify the file name and the location.

 3.  Click Save.

The Save As dialog box closes. The conversion settings are saved as a .conf file that you 
can use in future conversions to automatically load settings for the conversion.

 4.  When you are ready to run the conversion, click Convert.

The Converting Metacode to DXF dialog box opens and displays information about the 
conversion process. When the conversion is complete, one DXF file for each Metacode file 
will be located in the directory you specified. You can then import the DXF file or files into 
Exstream Design and Production.

For more information on DXF files, see “Understanding the DXF format” on page 7.

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4.4   Importing the generated DXF file
After you run the Metacode Converter, import the DXF file into Design and Production.

To import the DXF file:

 1.  In Design Manager, right-click the Pages heading and select Import from DXF.

The Import DXF dialog box opens.

 2.  Navigate to the DXF file you want to import. You can select multiple files to import by 
holding down CTRL and selecting the files.

 3.  In the Import box, specify the Library folder into which you want to import the pages.

 a.  Click  .

The Folders dialog box opens.

 b.  Select the folder and click OK.

The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the Import box.

 4.  In the Page Type list, select the Exstream Design and Production page settings you want 
to apply to the imported page. You can change this setting later, but you must specify a 
setting option for the initial import.

 a.  Depending on the way your design standards are enforced, select either Use 
specified Paper Type or Use specified Page Template.

 b.  In the list below the Page Type list, select either the paper type or page template you 
want to apply to the imported pages.

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 5.  In the Variable Import list, select how variables in the converted document are handled.

To Do this

Ignore any variables in the original Select Ignore variables.

document

Honor only original variables in the a. Select Map to existing variables only.
file that exist in the Exstream Design
and Production Library
b. In the Variable Folder box, specify the Design Manager folder that contains the
variables.

i. Click .

The Folders dialog box opens.

ii. Select the folder and click OK.
The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the
Variable Folder box.

Honor all variables from the original a. Select Create missing variables.
file and create new Exstream Design
and Production variables for those
b. In the Variable Folder box, specify the Design Manager folder that contains the
variables.
that do not currently exist in the
Library
i. Click .

The Folders dialog box opens.

ii. Select the folder and click OK.
The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the
Variable Folder box.

 6.  Click Open.

The Log dialog box displays informational messages about the import process. The files then 
appear in the Design Manager Library. If the DXF file contains multiple pages, Exstream Design 
and Production names the imported pages according to their order in the DXF file. For example, 
if you import a DXF file named Test that contains three pages, the file names are 
TEST.DXF.page.1, TEST.DXF.page.2, and TEST.DXF.page.3. You can rename the pages in 
Design Manager after they have been imported.

After you import the files, check make sure to visually check the pages and make adjustments 
to objects as needed.

4.5   Cleaning up the imported DXF file
Although many objects in a Metacode file are converted cleanly and appear exactly the same in 
the Design and Production environment as they did previously, some objects might need to be 

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adjusted. In particular, logo (image) fonts often do not appear the same after the conversion. You 
can replace these fonts with Exstream Design and Production-supported graphics after the 
conversion.

Text is also often placed into multiple text boxes. Designer provides tools you can use to easily 
clean up these types of text boxes so that the text is located in only one text box. Combining 
text into one text box makes it easier to change the text properties and to reuse the content in 
future applications.

You can use Designer's tools to combine multiple text boxes into one of the following types of 
objects:

 l A single line of text—Allows you to retain the absolute positioning of the text

 l A single paragraph—Provides more control over the text flow and positioning

4.5.1   Combining Individual Text Boxes into a Line
In order to use this method, the text boxes you want to combine must be located on the same 
horizontal line. After text has been combined into a line, Designer removes the absolute 
positioning data to make it easier to edit the text.

To combine text into a line:

 1.  Press and hold CTRL and then select the text boxes you want to combine. You can select 
the text boxes on the design page or in the Outline Viewer.

 2.  From the Tools menu, select Import Cleanup > Combine Text into Line.

The text boxes you selected are combined into a single line in a single text box.

Tip: If you receive a message stating that the text boxes cannot be combined into a line, 
the selected objects might not be aligned horizontally. Use the method for combining text 
into a paragraph instead.

4.5.2   Combining Individual Text Boxes into a 
Paragraph
 1.  Press and hold CTRL and then select the text boxes you want to combine. You can select 
the text boxes on the design page or in the Outline Viewer.

 2.  From the Tools menu, select Import Cleanup > Combine Text into Paragraph.

The Import Cleanup dialog box opens.

 3.  Make selections on the Import Cleanup dialog box to specify the way you want the 
cleanup to be handled.

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To Do this

Insert a soft-return line break at the end of each line of text Select the Add line breaks between lines check box.

Force lines to wrap with the natural flow of text Clear the Add line breaks between lines check box.

Preserve the position of text as it appears in the original document Select the Preserve absolute positions check box.

Force paragraphs to merge with a regular flow of text Clear the Preserve absolute positions check box

Tip: Use this setting if you plan to edit the text.

 4.  Click OK.

The Import Cleanup dialog box close and the text is combined in a single text box 
according to the settings you specified.

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 Chapter 5: Importing OGL designs
The OGL Converter lets you import IBM OGL/370 overlays into the Exstream Design and 
Production environment. The OGL Converter analyzes a specified OGL file and creates a DXF 
file, which you can then import into Design and Production. 

This section discusses the OGL Converter version 1.0. 

Most OGL design parameters are supported in the Design and Production environment, and 
when they are converted, become editable objects. For example, OGL box and circle 
parameters are supported fully. Therefore, when a page is converted and imported into Design 
and Production, you can see the properties of these objects and change them just as you would 
for pages created in Design and Production.

Some features used in OGL files are not supported as Design and Production objects. The OGL 
converter ignores these features. You can recreate them after you import the converted file to 
Design and Production.

In addition, the OGL overlays must be in ASCII format for the OGL Converter. The OGL 
Converter operates on source overlays, not compiled overlays.

Before using the OGL Converter, make sure your system meets the following requirements:

 l Operating system Windows 7 or later

 l Apache Xerces

This section discusses the following topics:

 l “Supported OGL features” below

 l “Converting the OGL design to a DXF file” on page 78

 l “Importing the generated DXF file” on page 79

5.1   Supported OGL features
The following table describes the overlay features the OGL Converter supports:

Supported overlay features
Parameter type Supported parameters

Control NOSOI

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Supported overlay features, continued
Parameter type Supported parameters

Drawbox Diagonal

Height

Rounded

Drawcircle Portion (half, quarter, radius, whole)

Drawgraphic Box

Circle

Ellipse

Fillets

Marker

Path

Drawpath Connection

Miter

To

Drawrule Direction

Length

Place Group

Segment

Position Coordinate

Origin

Segment

Settext

Setunits Corner length

Line space

Units

Shade Area

Border thickness (bold, light, medium, n (pels))

Border type

Bow width

Type

Type Font

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5.2   Converting the OGL design to a DXF file
You use the OGL Converter to convert designs from OGL format to DXF format. Before running 
the converter, make sure the following prerequisite tasks are completed:

 l The OGL Converter supports only black and white conversion. If an overlay contains color 
definitions, it can cause errors in the conversion process. Before running the converter, 
make sure that all color definitions are set to black-and-white color values.

 l You must have a completed ScanFonts form available locally out before running the 
converted. A ScanFonts form contains information about the fonts used in an OGL overlay. 
A complete list of font forms is provided in the ImportOGL.zip file in the installation 
directory. If fonts are missing from the ScanFonts form, the log file the OGL Converter 
creates reports the missing fonts.

To convert a design from OGL format:

 1.  Open the OGL Converter. By default, this program is installed in the Exstream directory.

The Convert OGL/370 dialog box opens.

 2.  In the file browser box, select the OGL file you want to convert.

The file name appears in the File name box.

 3.  In the Output folder box, specify the directory where the DXF file will be placed. If you do 
not specify an output directory, the DXF file is created in the folder where the converted 
overlay is located.

 a.  Click  .

The Open dialog box opens.

 b.  Select the directory and click Open.

The Open dialog box closes and the directory name appears in the Output folder box.

 4.  In the Font form box, select the ScanFonts form that contains the font information for the 
selected OGL overlay.

 5.  In the Image folder box, select the PSEG images associated with the overlay.

 6.  Using the Log file box and check boxes, set up the options for the log file.

 a.  In the Log file box, specify the name of the log file that is generated by OGL 
Converter and the directory where it will be placed. If you do not specify a directory, 
the log file is created in the folder where the DXF file is placed.

 b.  If you specified an existing log file in the Log file box and you want the new log 

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information to be added to the end of the file, select the Append to log check box. If 
you clear the Append to log check box, the OGL Converter overwrites the existing 
log information with the new log information.

 c.  If you want the log file to open automatically after the conversion is complete, select 
the Show log check box.

 7.  Click Convert.

When the conversion is complete, one DXF file for each OGL overlay will be located in the 
directory you specified. You can then import the DXF file or files into Exstream Design and 
Production.

For more information on DXF files, see “Understanding the DXF format” on page 7.

5.3   Importing the generated DXF file
After you run the OGL Converter, import the DXF file into Design and Production.

To import a DXF file into the Design and Production environment:

 1.  In Design Manager, right-click the Pages heading, and select Import from DXF.

 2.  In the Import DXF dialog box, navigate to the DXF file that you want to import. You can 
select multiple files to import by holding down CTRL and selecting them.

 3.  In the Import box, specify the Library folder into which you want to import the pages.

 a.  Click  .

The Folders dialog box opens.

 b.  Select the folder and click OK.

The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the Import box.

 4.  In the Page Type list, select the Design and Production page settings you want to apply to 
the imported page. You can change this setting later, but you must specify a setting option 
for the initial import.

 a.  Depending on the way your design standards are enforced, select either Use 
specified Paper Type or Use specified Page Template.

 b.  In the list below the Page Type list, select either the paper type or page template you 
want to apply to the imported pages.

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Note: Do not make any selections in the Variable Import list. Variables are not 
converted from OGL format.

 5.  Click Open.

The Log dialog box displays informational messages about the import process. The imported 
objects then appear in the Design Manager Library. If the DXF file contains multiple pages, 
Design and Production names the imported pages according to their order in the DXF file. For 
example, if you import a DXF file named Test that contains three pages, the file names are 
TEST.DXF.page.1, TEST.DXF.page.2, and TEST.DXF.page.3. You can rename the pages in 
Design Manager after they have been imported.

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 Chapter 6: Importing PDF designs
The PDF Converter lets you import and use PDF files in the Exstream Design and Production 
design environment. This method of using PDF designs in Exstream Design and Production 
applications is different from using other Design and Production features, such as dynamically 
importing PDF files, because it converts a PDF into documents, pages, and components that 
can be added to the Design and Production design database and reused in future applications.

The PDF Converter analyzes the PDF and creates a DXF file, which you can then import into 
Design and Production. You can specify how the converter handles some objects in the PDF, 
such as fonts and form fields, when the conversion occurs. Many PDF objects can be converted 
in such a way that they seamlessly integrate into the Design and Production environment. For 
example, if you convert a PDF that contains form fields, the converter can create variables for 
the form fields so that the PDF design can be integrated into an interactive application.

Most of the objects used in PDF format are supported in the Exstream Design and Production 
environment, and when they are converted and imported, the objects become editable Design 
and Production objects. However, since PDF files can originate from a variety of software, the 
PDF Converter might not be able to reproduce advanced design objects identically in the Design 
and Production environment.

This section discusses the PDF Converter version 3.0. For information on previous versions of 
the PDF Converter, see the PDF Converter guide that corresponds to the version you are using.

Before using the PDF Converter, make sure your system meets the following requirements:

 l Exstream Design and Production, version 8.0.301 or later

 l Windows 7 or later

The PDF Converter supports PDFs at version 1.6 or earlier.

This section discusses the following topics:

 l “Licensing requirements for PDF Converter” on the next page

 l “Planning your PDF conversion goals” on the next page

 l “Optimizing fidelity during a conversion” on page 83

 l “Object-specific conversion behavior” on page 84

 l “Converting the PDF design to a DXF file” on page 86

 l “Importing the generated DXF file” on page 98

 l “Cleaning up the imported pages in Designer” on page 100

 l “Variable formatting codes” on page 101

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6.1   Licensing requirements for 
PDF Converter
When you first run PDF Converter, you are prompted to select a valid key for Design and 
Production. If you want to change your key after you have logged in to PDF Converter, select 
Tools > Change Key.

After you have selected a key, you might also be prompted for a license file, depending on 
whether you are using node-locked or floating licensing.

If you are using floating licensing and you have not previously opened Design and Production, 
PDF Converter will prompt you to open Design Manager at least once. If the workstation license 
file is not in the license folder, PDF Converter will also prompt you to select the workstation 
license file to copy to the license folder. If you want to use the borrow and return functionality for 
a floating PDF Converter license, you can borrow and return PDF Converter licenses by opening 
Design Manager  and selecting Tools > Licensing > Borrow floating licenses or Tools > 
Licensing > Return floating licenses.

If you are using node-locked licensing, you must obtain a PDF Converter license in Design 
Manager by selecting Tools > Licensing > License node-locked features. Similarly, you can 
unlicense PDF Converter in Design Manager by selecting Tools > Licensing > Unlicense 
node-locked features.

Note: You must have Design Manager version 8.0.301 or later to manage some PDF 
Converter licensing activity. If you want to continue production work in a version of 
Exstream earlier than Exstream version 8.0.301, you can install a newer version of 
Exstream to manage licenses without affecting prior existing installations.

6.2   Planning your PDF conversion goals
The PDF Converter supports a variety of different conversion goals. For example, if your goal is 
to convert a PDF and achieve an exact replica of the original PDF in the Design and Production 
library, you can do that. On the other hand, if the appearance of text is flexible but you want to 
retain as much editing ability as possible, you can do that too. The PDF Converter supports 
each approach to conversion and gives you control over how different parts of the design are 
converted.

The following list describes the various conversion goals the converter can help you achieve and 
how the converter works in order to accomplish each goal:

 l I want an exact conversion—The PDF Converter converts the entire PDF file as a bitmap 
image (the file is rasterized). There is no deviation in the placement of text, images, or other 

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objects in the converted file. In this scenario, the PDF Converter rasterizes the entire PDF 
file and each page is imported into Design and Production as a noneditable image. When you 
set up the converter to convert a file this way, you do not need to specify any other 
conversion settings, such as how fonts or text are handled during the conversion.

 l I want a conversion in which most text is editable—The PDF Converter converts 
objects not supported in Design and Production to a bitmap image. The bitmap image 
appears in the background of the converted file so that other objects can be edited in the 
design environment. For example, if a paragraph contains fonts that are slanted 20 degrees, 
the slanted text is rasterized. All other text in the PDF (text supported in the design 
environment) is converted as editable text. When the DXF file is imported into Designer, the 
text is fully editable and you can apply any of the Designer formatting properties to it.

If font metrics on the system used to create the PDF vary from those on the system where 
your design environment resides, the text placement might vary slightly within a paragraph. 
For example, the word that appears at the end of the line in the PDF file might appear at the 
beginning of the following line after the conversion.

 l I want a conversion in which all text is editable—The PDF Converter converts all text in 
the PDF as editable text. When it encounters text in a format that is not supported in Design 
and Production, it converts the text into the closest possible supported match. For example, 
if a paragraph contains fonts that are slanted 20 degrees, the converter changes the slanted 
to text to appear at a supported angle. With this method, fonts with formatting that Exstream 
Design and Production does not support will appear differently after the conversion and the 
text placement might be slightly different than the placement in the original PDF. In addition, 
if font metrics on the system used to create the PDF vary from those on the system where 
your design environment resides, the text placement might vary slightly within a paragraph. 
For example, the word that appears at the end of the line in the PDF file might appear at the 
beginning of the following line after the conversion.

For information about ways you can help retain the original text placement during the 
conversion, see “Specifying How PDF Content is Converted” on page 89.

6.3   Optimizing fidelity during a conversion
Each time the converter must make a font substitution or font adjustment during the conversion, 
fidelity is lost. The converter lets you manually control font substitutions for individual fonts, or 
you can set up the converter to make adjustments for any unsupported text features (such as 
condensed fonts) automatically so that your text will remain editable after the conversion. Even 
slight differences in the font metrics of the original PDF fonts and the substituted fonts can 
affect the way text is justified and spaced on the page.

You can also optimize conversion fidelity by making sure that the fonts used in the original PDF 
are available on the computer where the converted file will be used. If the original fonts are not 
available, Designer will use its default substitute font, which might cause the converted file to 
appear differently. If the computer where you use the converted file has all of the original fonts 
available but you still see slight differences in the appearance of text, keep in mind that the font 

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metrics might be different in the system that created the original PDF and your original system. 
For example, the metrics for a font might vary greatly between operating systems, such as 
Windows and Macintosh. They might also vary between different versions of the same 
operating system. The easiest way to ensure that the font metrics are the same is to use the 
converted file on the same system on which the PDF was created. However, if you do not use 
the converted file on the same system, you can substitute fonts and use tools in Designer to 
adjust the appearance of text if needed. Another way to help protect fidelity during conversion is 
to make sure that the 14 standard PDF fonts are installed on the system where the DXF files will 
be used.

6.4   Object-specific conversion behavior
The PDF Converter treats some features used in PDF files uniquely. Other objects are not 
supported by the converter or as Design and Production objects. Before running the converter, 
make sure you are familiar with how the converter handles specific objects found in your PDF. 

The following objects have unique conversion behaviors and might appear differently after the 
conversion:

 l Lines in the same object with different weights—These objects have the same weight 
after the conversion. For example, suppose a table border uses a .5 line at the top of the 
table frame and a 1.0 line at the bottom of the table frame. After the conversion, all of the 
lines in the frame have a consistent weight of 1.0.

 l Text slanted more than 20 degrees or text that is compressed—You can allow the 
converter to modify text in these formats so they can be converted as editable text by 
selecting the Normalize all unsupported text features check box on the Outputs tab of 
the converter. Text slanted less than 20 degrees is treated as italic.

 l Single phrases of rotated text—This type of text is supported if the phrase is made up of a 
group of words with the same font, and it does not extend past one line. If the PDF contains 
multiple lines of rotated text, each line or phrase within the line is placed in its own text box.

 l Table cells not surrounded by a frame line (border) on all sides of the cell—If a cell is 
not surrounded with a border, the table is drawn as separate objects, such as text boxes and 
lines.

 l Justified paragraphs that use soft returns—Paragraphs using this type of alignment 
appear as left aligned in Designer after the conversion.

 l Images referenced as PDF form objects—These types of images are not placed in the 
background bitmap image. Instead, each image is placed in the converted file as a JPEG 
with a quality setting of 100 and is stretched to fit the appropriate rectangle in Designer. Form 
images that are located on more than one page are automatically converted to Library 
components. The converter adds references to the image on each page where the image is 
used.

 l Hyperlinks—The text that appears in a hyperlink on a page is converted, but the link is not 

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active. Use the design tools in Designer to re-create the hyperlink in the imported document. 
For more information on adding hyperlinks to a design, see Designing Customer
Communications in the Exstream Design and Production documentation.

 l Hierarchical numbering—Numbered lists with multiple levels, such as 1.1.2, are 
converted as text with hanging indents.

 l Subset fonts—These types of fonts can produce unpredictable characters, depending on 
the way the font was set up in the original PDF. If you find that the subset fonts do not 
convert well, you can choose to rasterize those fonts using the Fonts to be imaged area on 
the Fonts tab of the PDF Converter.

 l Text with emulated bold formatting—Bold text that is produced by offsetting the same 
character several times is converted as a single character with a bold style. Bold text that is 
converted this way is identified in the log file with a bold(generated) tag. If the font does 
not support a bold style, the text will appear as normal (not bold) text.

 l Ligatures—Ligatures are a group of two or more characters that have been combined into a 
single character by the maker of a font. The PDF Converter automatically converts the 
following ligature characters into their individual component characters, allowing Designer to 
recognize words containing ligature characters during functions such as spell check, text 
search, and text rule comparisons.
Ligature conversion
Unicode Characters

0132 IJ

0133 ij

FB00 ff

FB01 fi

FB02 fl

FB03 ffi

FB04 ffl

FB05 ft

FB06 st

The following objects and features are automatically rasterized if you select Use or  All objects 
from the Background image use drop-down list and appear in the background image in the 
converted file:

 l Compressed fonts

 l Text in a bezier clipping path

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 l Text slanted more than 15 degrees

6.5   Converting the PDF design to a DXF file
To process a PDF design so it can be used in a Design and Production application and stored in 
the design environment, you must complete the following tasks:

 1.  “Specifying the Conversion Settings” below

 2.  “Saving the conversion settings” on page 97

 3.  “Running the PDF Converter” on page 98

 4.  “Importing the generated DXF file” on page 98

You can also complete the following optional task as needed:

 l “Cleaning up the imported pages in Designer” on page 100

After importing the DXF file, you should check the file and make any adjustments to the design 
as needed.

6.5.1   Specifying the Conversion Settings
Because PDF is a complex file format and PDFs can contain many types of objects, you must 
first provide information about the file and its content before running the converter. Next, the 
information you provide allows the converter to recreate the original design as closely as 
possible and gives you more control over the way specific types of objects appear after the 
conversion.

To convert designs from PDF format, complete the following tasks as needed:

 l “Specifying the Files You Want to Convert” on the next page

 l “Using a Configuration File to Automatically Load Conversion Settings” on page 88

 l “Specifying the Directory Where the DXF File is Created” on page 88

 l “Specifying How PDF Content is Converted” on page 89

 l “Specifying How Fonts are Converted” on page 92

 l “Specifying How PDF Fields are Converted” on page 94

 l “Specifying How Variables are Created” on page 96

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Specifying the Files You Want to Convert
The PDF Converter lets you convert PDF files one at a time so you can specify the settings 
needed for unique files. If you are converting several files that use the same conversion 
settings, you can also convert PDF files in batch mode.

Tip: If many files use the same conversion settings, consider creating and using a 
configuration file to help save time during the conversion process.

For information about configuration files, see “Using a Configuration File to Automatically Load 
Conversion Settings” on the next page.

To specify the files you want to convert:

 1.  Open the PDF Converter. By default, this program is installed in your Exstream directory.

 2.  Click the Inputs tab.

 3.  Using the buttons below the box, specify whether you want to convert one file or many 
files.

To Do this

Convert one file a. Click Add Files.

The Open dialog box opens.
b. Select the file you want to convert and click Open.
The Open dialog box closes and the file you selected appears in the box
on the Input tab.

Convert several files that are located in different a. Click Add Files.
folders
The Open dialog box opens.
b. Press and hold CTRL and select the files you want to convert.
c. Click Open.
The Open dialog box closes and the files you selected appear in the box
on the Input tab.

Convert all the files that are located in a specific a. Click Add Folder.
folder
The Browse for Folder dialog box opens.
b. Select the folder that contains the files you want to convert and click OK.
c. The converter analyzes the folder and adds all the PDF files within the
folder to the Input tab.

 4.  If you are converting a large PDF file or if you want to convert only a subset of a PDF, enter 
a range or a comma delimited series of pages to convert in the Page numbers to convert 
box. For example, to convert pages 1 through 4, page 7, and pages 12 through 15, enter 1-

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4, 7, 12–15 in the Page numbers to convert box. If you specified multiple PDF files to 
convert, the subset numbers you specify apply to all of the files listed in the Inputs box.

Using a Configuration File to Automatically Load 
Conversion Settings
If you are converting many legacy files that are similar and you can use the same conversion 
settings for all the files, you might choose to create and use a configuration file that provides the 
conversion settings automatically. A configuration file is created by saving the conversion 
settings you specified for a particular file.

For information about creating a configuration file, see “Saving the conversion settings” on 
page 97.

To use a configuration file to automatically load conversion settings:

 1.  At the bottom of the converter window, click Configuration.

The Open dialog box opens.

 2.  Select the configuration file and click Open.

The Open dialog box closes and the conversion settings saved in the configuration file are 
applied to the converter.

If you do not need to make adjustments to the settings, you can run the converter. However, 
if you need to make slight adjustments to accommodate the specific files you are 
converting, you can use the rest of the information in this section to set up the converter.

Specifying the Directory Where the DXF File is Created
When the PDF Converter runs, it creates a DXF file (or multiple files if you convert multiple 
PDFs). You must specify the directory in which you want the DXF file to be created. If you do 
not specify a directory, the DXF file is automatically placed in the same directory as the source 
PDF file.

To specify where the DXF file is created:

 1.  Click the Outputs tab.

 2.  Next to the DXF output folder box, click Browse.

The Browse for Folder dialog box opens.

 3.  Select the folder where you want the DXF file to be placed.

 4.  Click OK.

The Browse for Folder dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the DXF 
output folder box.

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Specifying How PDF Content is Converted
The first step in specifying how PDF content is converted is to decide how you want the 
converted file to appear and behave when it is imported into Exstream Design and Production. 
For example, suppose your goal is simply to retain the PDF design and use it in applications 
without making any changes to its content. The choices you make when specifying how the 
content will be converted will be different in this case than if your goal is to edit and update the 
PDF design in Exstream Design and Production.

For information about the conversion methods and the conversion goals they can help you meet, 
see “Planning your PDF conversion goals” on page 82.

After deciding on your goals for the conversion, you can specify how the converter handles 
specific types of objects in the file. For example, you can specify languages based on the text 
direction, such as Arabic, which is a right-to-left text. When you select a language from the 
Alphabet script drop-down list, the DXF file specifies the direction of the text so that Design 
Manager can apply the text to the appropriate language layer. If the a language layer is not 
available for the specified language, Design Manager creates a new language object and new 
language layer. The DXF is then imported into the new language layer. Because PDF files can 
be created from a variety of different PDF generation software programs and each program 
creates PDFs differently, you can dictate the way the converter handles many of these objects 
to ensure the post-conversion design has the appearance and flexibility you require.

To specify how PDF content is converted:

 1.  Click the Outputs tab.

 2.  From the Alphabet script drop-down list, select one of the following options, depending on 
the type of text you want to convert:

 l Latin—Select Latin when the PDF you want to convert contains any type of left-to-right 
text. Latin is the default.

 l Arabic—Select Arabic when the PDF you want to convert contains Arabic (right-to-left 
text).

 l Hebrew—Select Hebrew when the PDF you want to convert contains Hebrew (right-to-
left text).

 3.  To add an optional prefix to the document and page names, enter the prefix to be used for 
document and page names in the Container page/document prefix box. This prefix will 
appear in the objects's names in the Exstream Design and Production environment. For 
example, if you use an internal naming scheme for pages and documents, you can add a 
prefix so the converted files will match this scheme.

 4.  From the Output encoding drop-down list, select the type of encoding the PDF file uses:

 l Windows-1252—The file is single-byte.

 l UTF-8—The file is double-byte or you are converting a mix of double-byte and single-
byte files. If you select to use UTF-8 encoding during the conversion, you might not be 

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able to see all of the double-byte characters.

 l UTF-16—The file is double-byte or you are converting a mix of double-byte and single-
byte files. If you select to use UTF-16 encoding during the conversion, the produced 
DXF file will be larger but you will be able to view and edit all of the double-byte 
characters (if they are not rasterized). If you selected Arabic or Hebrew from the 
Alphabet script drop-down list, select the UTF-16 encoding option.

 5.  From the Background image use drop-down list, select one of the following options to 
control the fidelity of the conversion and how the text in the PDF is converted:

 l All objects—The entire PDF is rasterized. The DXF that is imported into Designer 
appears identical to the original PDF, but no text is editable.

 l Use—Parts of the PDF are rasterized. If you clear the Normalize all unsupported 
text features check box, text in unsupported formats, such as compressed text, is 
rasterized and appears on the background image. If you select the Normalize all 
unsupported text features check box, the converter modifies text in unsupported 
formats so it is converted as editable text.

 l Ignore—Text in unsupported formats is ignored and does not appear in the converted 
file. This option might be the best solution for your conversion if the PDF contains a 
watermark or other background text that you do not want to appear in the converted file.

 6.  If you selected Use or Ignore from the Background image use drop-down list, use the 
other options on the Outputs tab to control how specific objects in the file are converted.

To Do this

Control when line drawings or In the Minimum lines/polys to draw as image box, enter the fewest number of line objects in
shapes are rasterized a localized area that the converter rasterizes. When the converter finds the specified number
of lines in a localized area, it converts the lines to a single image. For example, if the original
PDF creation software created a logo using line objects, you might choose to enter 100 so
that all of the lines that make up the logo are rasterized into a single image. If you do not want
the converter to rasterize any lines or polygons, regardless of how many exist, enter 0. If the
lines are dispersed throughout the page, however, they are not converted to an image, even if
they exceed the number in the Minimum lines/polys to draw as image box.

Tip: If you are not sure of the best value to enter for this option, try starting with a value
of 100. If you find that the converter still creates many line and polygon objects and the
imported file is slow or cumbersome to work with in Designer, enter a lower value. The
best value depends on your unique PDF file and your conversion goals.

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To Do this

Control how bullets in the PDF are If you selected Windows-1252 from the Output encoding drop-down, select one of the
converted (in single-byte files only) following options from the Bullets drop-down list to specify how the converter treats bullets in
the PDF file:

l Standard circles—The converter converts bullets to the standard bullet for the PDF
encoding (that is, Hex 95 for Windows-1252 encoding or Hex 2022 for UTF-8 or UTF-16
encoding). When the converter analyzes the PDF, any object that it recognizes as a bullet
character is converted to the Windows standard. However, if the bullet character font is
Symbol or Zapf Dingbat, then the converter uses the character as-is.
l As is—The converter uses the bullet character exactly as it occurs in the PDF file. If the
character used as the bullet is in a subsetted font and was mapped differently in the code
page used to create the PDF, the bullet might appear differently after the conversion
because the converter uses the standard code page during the conversion. If you
selected Arabic or Hebrew from the Alphabet script drop-down list, you must select the
As-is option.

Tip: If a unique or unavailable font is used to create the original bullet, you can choose
to rasterize that font to preserve the bullet's appearance. However, the paragraph will
not be imported as a bulleted paragraph. Instead, the bullet characters will appear as
part of the background image. If you make additional changes to the text, keep in mind
that as text moves on the page, the bullets might be misaligned.

Control how numbered lists in the From the Numbering drop-down list, select from the following options whether numbered lists
PDF are converted in the PDF appear when imported into a document that contains other numbered lists:

l User set—The converter honors the numbering found in the PDF. For example, if the
DXF file is imported into a document where another numbered list exists previously, the
converted numbered list retains its numbering, even if it conflicts with the existing
numbering.
l Automatic—The converter allows the numbered list to be merged when the DXF file is
imported. For example, a numbered list that appears as 1-6 is updated to appear as
12-17 when the DXF file is imported and a previous numbered list in the document
ends at 11.

Specify how text formatting not If you want the converter to modify unsupported text to appear like the surrounded text (for
supported by the converter is example, slanted text adjacent to non-slanted text is not slanted after the conversion), select
handled during the conversion the Normalize all unsupported text features check box. You can use the editing tools in
Designer to apply formatting to this text after you import the DXF file into Design and
Production.

If you do not want the appearance of the text to change, clear the Normalize all unsupported
text features check box. In this case, depending on your selection from the Background
image use drop-down list, unsupported text is either ignored or rasterized and becomes part
of the non-editable background image.

 7.  Use the Honor line breaks option to control how the converter handles line breaks in the 
PDF:

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To Do this

Allow different words to wrap at the Clear the Honor line breaks check box. If the PDF you are converting is comprised mainly of
end of lines and text spacing to vary flowing paragraphs and your primary goal of the conversion is to leverage the content (rather
slightly within a paragraph than recreating the exact appearance of the original file), you should clear the Honor line
breaks check box.

If you clear the Honor line breaks check box, the same content will appear in the paragraphs,
but the text spacing might not appear exactly the same and the words that wrap at the end of
lines might be different. The converter will always insert margins on the right and/or left sides of
the paragraph and/or text box or table cell to keep the text spacing as close to the original as
possible. However, if the font metrics are inaccurate, you might need to make minor
adjustments to the text box size, the text box margins, the paragraph margins, or the font size in
Designer in order to recreate the original appearance.

Tip: If you are converting a PDF with double-byte characters that do not have spaces
between words, you should select the Honor line breaks check box.

Recreate the line breaks and text Select the Honor line breaks check box.
spacing exactly
If you select the Honor line breaks check box, the converter inserts a soft return at the end of
every line and can add left or right margins as needed to recreate the exact spacing of the text
within the line. In most cases, you should select Honor line breaks because fewer margins
make it easier to interact with the text in Designer.

Note: The converter always inserts soft returns at the end of lines in centered
paragraphs, regardless of your selection in the Honor line breaks check box.

Specifying How Fonts are Converted
Because PDF files can contain fonts that you might not use in the design environment, you can 
specify font substitutions for the converter to use during the conversion. For example, suppose 
most of the text in the original PDF was created using a font your organization does not use. You 
can substitute your corporate font for the unavailable font. Then, after the DXF file is imported, 
the text in the file appears in your corporate font.

In addition, if you want specific fonts to be rasterized, you can specify the fonts you want to be 
converted to an image automatically. For example, if a font your organization does not own was 
used to create an object (such as a logo or bullet), you can set up the converter to always 
rasterize that font when it is encountered in the file. That way, other text in the file can still be 
editable after the conversion, but you can retain the appearance of the unique objects. You might 
also choose to rasterize barcode fonts so the barcode's accuracy is maintained during the 
conversion.

To specify how fonts are converted:

 1.  Click the Fonts tab.

 2.  Use the properties on the Fonts tab to specify how fonts are converted. You can perform 
one or more of the following tasks to achieve the appearance you want:

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To Do this

Substitute fonts in a specified font a. Below the Font substitutions box, click .
family for fonts in a specified family
The Font Mapping dialog box opens.

Tip: You can use a PDF b. In the PDF font box, enter the name of the PDF font used in the PDF for which you want
to substitute a font.
viewing program to see a list
of all of the fonts used within a c. In the DXF font box, enter the name of the font you want to substitute for the font used in
PDF file. the PDF. The DXF font should match the name of the font on the system that will be
used to import the DXF into Design and Production.
d. Click OK.
The Font Mapping dialog box closes and the substitution information you provided
appears in the Font substitutions box.
e. Repeat step a through step d to add as many substitutions as needed.

f. Use the and buttons to adjust the order of the font substitutions. Place
more specific PDF font names, such as Arial Narrow Bold, before generic PDF
font names, such as Arial. When the converter runs, it substitutes fonts in the order
specified in the Fonts substitutions box.

When the converter runs, it substitutes the font name you specified for the existing font name.
For example, suppose the PDF uses the Arial font family (including Arial Black and Arial
Narrow). If you specify Times New Roman as the substitution family, the converter will replace
all instances of "Arial" with "Times New Roman." If the substitution creates an invalid font name
(for example, Times New Roman Narrow), the default substitution font is used when the DXF
file is imported into Exstream Design and Production. The log file displays information on each
font substitution the converter makes.

Specify fonts you want to be a. Below the Font to be imaged box, click .
rasterized
The Font to Image dialog box opens.
b. In the PDF font (substring match) box, enter the name of the font you want to be
rasterized automatically. This name is compared to the names of the fonts found in the
PDF file by substring matching. If the text is found anywhere in a font name, then the
name is considered to be a match.
c. Click OK.
The Font to Image dialog box closes and the font information you provided appears in
the Fonts to be imaged box.

When the converter runs, it will rasterize the font you specified.

 3.  By default, the PDF Converter rounds some font sizes to make the placement of converted 
text match the appearance of the original PDF. However, you can control how the font 
sizes are rounded during the conversion by selecting the size rounding you want to be used 
from the Font size rounding drop-down list. If you select Dynamic, the converter rounds 
fonts under 10.75 point size by tenths of a point. If the font is over 10.75 point size, the 
converter rounds by half of a point.

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Specifying How PDF Fields are Converted
If the PDF file you are converting contains AcroForm fields, the form fields can be converted to 
Design and Production objects and used in Exstream Design and Production applications, 
particularly interactive applications. The PDF Converter supports the following types of 
AcroForm fields:

 l Text

 l Drop-down

 l Signature

 l Push button

 l Radio button

 l Check box

If the field objects in a PDF are interactive, the converter can automatically create variables for 
them. When the DXF file is imported into Design and Production, the variable created for the 
form field is automatically associated with the appropriate field object. If the field is read-only, 
the converter creates the variable only.

To specify how PDF fields are converted:

 1.  Click the Fields tab.

 2.  From the Push buttons style drop-down list, select from the following options how the 
converter handles buttons:

To Do this

Allow the converter to draw the button using individual objects, such as lines and text Select Drawn.

(The button might appear slightly differently than the button in the PDF. However, you can use the
editing tools in Designerto adjust it.)

Allow the converter to copy the images for the button from the PDF Select Images.

(If the converter cannot access the associated images from the PDF or if they do not exist in the PDF,
the converter defaults to the behavior of the Drawn setting.)

 3.  From the Radio button style drop-down list, select from the following options how the 
converter handles radio buttons:

To Example Do this

Allow the converter to substitute a three-dimensional radio button Select Drawn (3d radio).

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To Example Do this

Allow the converter to substitute a two-dimensional radio button Select Drawn (flat radio).

Allow the converter to substitute the standard radio button used by Select Standard images.
Designer

Allow the converter to copy the images for the radio button from the PDF n/a Select Images.

(If the converter cannot access the associated images from the PDF or if
they do not exist in the PDF, the converter defaults to the behavior of the
Standard images setting.)

 4.  From the Checkbox style drop-down list, select from the following options how the 
converter handles check boxes:

To Example Do this

Allow the converter to substitute a two-dimensional check box Select Drawn (2d checkbox).

Allow the converter to substitute a three-dimensional check box Select Drawn (3d checkbox).

Allow the converter to substitute a check box that uses a thin "X" when Select Drawn (X check).
selected

Allow the converter to substitute a check box that uses a thick "X" when Select Drawn (wide X check).
selected

Allow the converter to substitute a check box that becomes filled when Select Drawn (filled check).
selected

Allow the converter to substitute the standard check box used by Select Standard images.
Designer

Allow the converter to copy the images for the check boxes from the PDF n/a Select Images.

(If the converter cannot access the associated images from the PDF or if
they do not exist in the PDF, the converter defaults to the behavior of the
Standard images setting.)

Tip: If the check boxes in the PDF are very small, selecting one of
the drawn options typically produces better results than selecting
Standard images.

 5.  If you want the converter to create a variable for each field, select the Generate variables 
for fields check box. When you select this check box, the converter automatically 
generates a string variable for all the fields (except for push buttons). If the field is named in 
the PDF, this name is used for the variable. If the field is not named in the PDF, the 

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converter generates a name automatically. By default, the variables for all fields are 
created as string variables. The converter gives them names in the following structure: _
[FieldType]# (for example, _Field4 or _Choice7). If you want more control over the way 
variables are created, use the Variables tab to customize their data type and format.

For information about customizing the data type and format of variables, see “Specifying 
How Variables are Created” below.

 6.  If you selected the Generate variables for fields check box, select the Use field values 
as initial variable values check box if you want the converter to use the field value as the 
initial value for the variable it creates for each field. For example, if a value was already 
specified for a radio button, select this check box to make the existing value the default 
value in the generated variable. If you clear the check box, the variables are not given initial 
values.

 7.  If you selected the Generate variables for fields check box, select the  Variables for 
check boxes are boolean check box if you want the converter to use a Boolean variable 
for each check box field. If you clear the check box and do not provide data type information 
on the Variables tab, the converter creates all variables as string variables.

Specifying How Variables are Created
If the PDF you are converting contains form fields, the PDF Converter can automatically 
generate variables for each field. By default, these variables are string variables and take on the 
name of the field as specified in the PDF. You can override this default behavior by specifying 
search strings that, when encountered in the field names, indicate the variable should be given a 
data type and format that you specify.

You can also completely rename variables. For example, you might want to rename variables if 
fields in the PDF have the same name as built-in functions in Exstream Design and Production.

When you import the DXF file into Design and Production, the variables are added to the Design 
and Production variable library (the Data Dictionary) and you can use them in applications, just 
as you would use other variables.

To specify how variables are created:

 1.  Click the Variables tab.

 2.  In the appropriate variable type box, enter the search string the converter uses to identify a 
class of variables. For example, if a field is named Invoice Total, you can enter Total in 
the Currency box. When the converter runs, it analyzes the fields in the PDF. When it 
finds a field containing the text Total, the converter creates a currency variable.

You can separate multiple search strings of the same type with a comma. The longest 
search strings you specify are searched first so that if the same text is used in a shorter 
search string, the most specific instance of the string is matched. For example, if you have 
entered the following strings: Date12, Date1234, Date123, and Date1, then the search 
strings are matched in the following order: Date1234, Date123, Date12, and finally 
Date1.

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 3.  If you want the search string you entered to be used only when it appears at the end of the 
field name, select the Ending only? check box. For example, if you supply the word Date 
as the search string and the PDF contains both InvoiceDate and DateOfBirth fields, you 
can select the Ending only? check box to match only the InvoiceDate field name. 
Otherwise, the converter searches all the text in the field name for the search string.

 4.  In the Default format box, enter the digits that specify the default format of the variable. 
Depending on the data type of the variable, different digit options are valid.

For information on the digits you can use to specify the formatting, see “Variable formatting 
codes” on page 101.

 5.  If you specified variables in the Currency or Floating boxes, enter in the Default digits 
box the number of digits to the right of the decimal place that are generated.

 6.  If you want to provide a prefix to be added to all the created variables, enter the prefix in the 
Variable prefix box. This prefix will appear in the variable's name in the Exstream Design 
and Production environment. For example, if you use an internal naming scheme for 
variables, you can add a prefix so the created variables will match this scheme.

 7.  If any of the names of the variables that will be created are the same as other objects in the 
Design and Production environment (particularly built-in function names), use the Variable 
overrides properties to provide an alternate name for the variable.

 a.  Below the Variable overrides box, click  .

The Set Variable Mapping dialog box opens.

 b.  In the PDF variable box, enter the name of the field found in the PDF file.

 c.  In the DXF variable box, enter the alternate name to be used in the DXF file.

 d.  From the Variable type drop-down list, select the variable type.

 e.  In the Format box, enter the digits that specify the default format of the variable. 
Depending on the data type of the variable, different digit options are valid.

 f.  If you selected Currency or Floating from the Variable type drop-down list, you must 
specify the number of digits that are generated to the right of the decimal point. In the 
Digits box, enter this number.

 g.  Click OK.

 8.  The Set Variable Mapping dialog box closes and the name substitution information you 
provided appears in the Variable overrides box.

6.5.2   Saving the conversion settings
Before running the converter, you can save the conversion settings you have defined. This 
optional step can save you time if you will convert similar files in the future.

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To save the conversion settings:

 1.  Click File > Save Configuration As.

The Save As dialog box opens.

 2.  Specify the file name and location.

 3.  Click Save.

The Save As dialog box closes. The conversion settings are saved as a . p2d file that you 
can use in future conversions to automatically load settings for the conversion.

6.5.3   Running the PDF Converter
When you are ready to run the conversion, click Convert. The Converting PDF to DXF dialog 
box opens and displays information about the conversion process. Information about font 
substitution also appears here. When the conversion is complete, one DXF file for each PDF file 
will be located in the directory you specified, or in the directory where the source PDF is located 
if you did not specify a directory. You can then import the DXF file(s) into Design and 
Production. If you are converting multiple PDFs and one fails, the conversion ends and the 
remaining PDFs in the list are not converted. If this circumstance occurs, you can use the log 
file to identify the issue that caused the converter to fail and to identify which PDFs were 
converted before the conversion process stopped.

Tip: If you encounter performance issues during the conversion, or if you receive "Out of 
memory" errors in the conversion log, enter a subset of pages in the Page numbers to 
convert box on the Inputs tab to break the PDF into smaller, separate files.

6.6   Importing the generated DXF file
After you run the PDF Converter, you can import the generated DXF file into the Exstream 
Design and Production environment. 

Before importing the DXF file, however, make sure that the fonts used in the DXF file are 
available in the Design and Production database. You can add fonts to Design and Production 
by completing one of the following actions:

 l Manually add the fonts  in Design Manager.

 l On the Design Manager tab of the System Configuration dialog box, select the Allow 
user fonts check box. This option allows Design and Production to add the fonts found in 
the DXF file to the Fonts heading in the Library automatically. If you use this method to add 
fonts to the database, make sure that the user importing the DXF file into Design and 
Production has permissions to create fonts.

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If you do not make accommodations for fonts to be added to Design Manager, the appearance of 
the imported file might be affected because of fonts substituted by Design and Production.

To import the DXF file into Design and Production:

 1.  In Design Manager, right-click the Pages heading and select Import from DXF.

The Import DXF dialog box opens.

 2.  Navigate to the DXF file you want to import. You can select multiple files to import by 
holding down CTRL and selecting the files.

 3.  In the Import box, specify the Library folder into which you want to import the pages. If you 
will import multiple DXF files in which variables were created, choose a separate folder for 
each DXF file to avoid overwriting the variables.

 a.  Click  .

The Folders dialog box opens.

 b.  Select the folder and click OK.

The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the Import box.

 4.  In the Page Type list, select the Design and Production page settings you want to apply to 
the imported page. You can change this setting later, but you must specify a setting for the 
initial import. If the DXF file contains data on the paper size to use, this setting takes 
precedence over your selection on the Page Type drop-down list.

 a.  Depending on the way your design standards are enforced, select either Use 
specified Paper Type or Use specified Page Template.

 b.  In the list below the Page Type list, select either the paper type or page template you 
want to apply to the imported pages.

 5.  In the Variable Import list, select Create missing variables. This option lets Design and 
Production create variables as needed to maintain the appearance of the original design 
and make use of the variables created during the conversion. For example, if the PDF you 
converted contained blank spaces in it (for example, the phrase an interest rate of _
_%), the Create missing variables option lets Design and Production use a variable to 
reserve the space for the blank area. Otherwise, an improperly formatted paragraph 
containing tabs to create the spaces might be created in the file.

 6.  Click Open.

The Log dialog box opens and you receive informational messages about the import process. 
The files then appear in the Design Manager Library. If the DXF file contains multiple pages, 
Design and Production names the imported pages according to their order in the DXF file. For 
example, if you import a DXF file named Test that contains three pages, the file names are 
TEST, TEST p2, and TEST p3. You can rename the pages in Design Manager after they have 
been imported.

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After you import the files, make sure to visually check the pages and make adjustments to 
objects as needed. If the converter created variables, you might need to refresh Designer to see 
the new variables.

6.7   Cleaning up the imported pages in 
Designer
If you focus your conversion choices to maintain text editability, you might need to make minor 
adjustments to the converted file after you import it. If adjustments are required, most of them 
will be small adjustments to text box sizes. In particular, if you cleared the Honor line breaks 
check box, the same content will appear in the paragraphs, but the text spacing might not 
appear exactly the same and the words that wrap at the end of lines might be different. If the font 
metrics differ between the font used to create the PDF and the font on the computer running 
Design and Production, you might need to make minor adjustments to the text box size, the text 
box margins, the paragraph margins, or the font size in Designer in order to recreate the original 
appearance.

The following list provides some tips for carrying out other clean-up tasks that might 
occasionally be necessary for some types of PDF files:

 l If you find during the cleanup that objects appear to be missing from your design, they might 
be present but behind another object. To adjust the design so the objects are visible, right-
click the object where the missing object should be and select Order > Move to Back.

 l Since compressed fonts are not supported in Design and Production, PDF files that use 
compressed fonts might appear differently after conversion. One way to help recreate the 
original appearance is to use the tracking feature in Designer to adjust the character spacing. 
To use tracking to clean up previously-compressed fonts:

 a.  In Designer, select the text that was compressed in the original PDF.

 b.  Right-click the selected text and select Font.

The Select Font dialog box opens.

 c.  From the Tracking drop-down list, select Condensed.

 d.  In the adjacent box, enter the point amount of the space you want to be reduced 
between characters. For example, to reduce the space between characters by one 
point, enter 1 in the box.

 e.  Click OK.

The Select Font dialog box closes and the character spacing is adjusted.

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6.8   Variable formatting codes
The following table lists the formatting codes you can use to specify a default format for the 
created variables.

Formatting codes
Code Abbreviation Format

0 Custom Do not use.

1 Keep blanks Leaves spaces the way they appear in the string

2 Trim blanks Includes only the characters and removes spaces found at the beginning
and end of the string

3 Trim leading blanks Removes all spaces found at the beginning of the string before the first
character

4 Trim trailing blanks Removes all spaces found after the string of characters

5 General number Formats the number in Arabic numerals

6 Fixed decimal Forces zeros to pad the value up to the number specified in the Default
digits box

7 T or F Returns T when the condition is true and F when the condition is false

8 Y or N Returns Y when the conditions is true and N when the condition is false

9 1 or 0 Returns 1 when the condition is true and 0 when the condition is false

10 True or False Returns True when the condition is true and False when the condition
is false

11 Yes or No Returns Yes when the condition is true and No when the condition is false

12 Locale Formats the variable based on the chosen locale for the customer

13 Packed (left to right) Reads from the left nibble of the first byte to the right nibble of the last byte

14 Packed (right to left) Reads from the right nibble of the first byte to the right nibble of the last byte

15 Binint Provides support for a number in binary format

16 Binfloat Provides support for floating data in binary format

17 Bindouble Provides support for a eight-byte binary data

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

18 Currency Uses the currency specified by the locale

19 Significant decimal Inserts the least number of decimal values possible after the whole
number, up to the decimal places specified in the Default digits box. Digits
exceeding the specified value are rounded up and any zeros at the end of
the decimal value are removed. For example, if you specify 2 in the
Default digits box and the value of the variable is 5.303, it appears as
5.3. In the same scenario, if the value of the variable is 5.003, it
appears as 5.

20 Intdecimal Inserts a whole number, if the number does not have a fraction, and inserts
the proper currency symbol for the locale. If the number has a fraction, it is
formatted as a floating number. Zeros are kept, up to the number specified
in the Default digits box.

21 (Lower, keep blanks) Uses lowercase letters for text and leaves spaces the way they appear in
the string

22 (Lower, keep trim blanks) Uses lowercase letters for text and removes any leading and trailing
spaces in the string

23 (Lower, trim leading) Uses lowercase letters for text and removes any leading spaces found in
the string

24 (Lower, trim trailing) Uses lowercase letters for text and removes any trailing spaces found in
the string

25 MixNoTrim Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Spaces are kept the way they appear in the string.

26 MixTrimBoth Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Any leading and trailing spaces in the string are removed.

27 MixTrimLead Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Any leading spaces found in the string are removed.

28 MixTrimTrail Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Any trailing spaces found in the string are removed.

29 Packed (left to left) Reads from the left nibble of the first byte to the left nibble of the last byte

30 Packed (right to right) Reads from the right nibble of the first byte to the right nibble of the last byte

31 Zoned Supports decimal and currency formatted fields on a mainframe system

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

32 Alpha Upper Includes integer values as alpha characters. Each integer is associated
with an uppercase letter of the alphabet. If a number greater than 26 is
encountered, the alphabet starts over. For example, if 1 is encountered in
the data file, it appears in the output as A. If 27 is encountered in the data
file, it appears in the output as AA. (The first letter represents that the entire
alphabet has been used. The second letter represents the remainder of
the integer, minus 26).

33 Alpha Lower Includes integer values as alpha characters. Each integer is associated
with a lowercase letter of the alphabet. If a number greater than 26 is
encountered, the alphabet starts over. For example, if 1 is encountered in
the data file, it appears in the output as a. If 27 is encountered in the data
file, it appears in the output as aa. (The first letter represents that the entire
alphabet has been used. The second letter represents the remainder of
the integer, minus 26).

34 Roman Upper Includes integer values as uppercase Roman numerals

35 Roman Lower Includes integer values as lowercase Roman numerals

36 Text Upper Includes integer values as uppercase words. For example, if 1 is

encountered, it appears in the output as ONE.

37 Text Mixed Includes integer values as mixed case words. For example, if 1 is
encountered in the data file, it appears in the output as One.

38 Text Lower Includes integer values as lowercase words. For example, if 1 is

encountered in the data file, it appears in the output as one.

39 Hex Supports integer data written in hexadecimal format

40 COBOL Signed (trailing) Supports EBCDIC formatted COBOL integer data with a plus character at
the end

41 Binary unsigned byte Provides support for a binary value stored in two bytes with no sign
characters

42 Binary short Provides support for a numeric value stored in two bytes where the first bit
is a sign character

43 Percentage Adds a percent (%) sign at the end of the number

44 Percentage x 100 Adds a percent (%) sign at the end of the number and multiplies by 100

45 Fixed decimal with currency Inserts a fixed decimal point and the proper currency symbol for the locale.
The locale does not have to be set (it can be left at the default).

46 Upper, keep blanks Uses uppercase letters and leaves spaces the way they appear in the
string

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

47 Upper, trim blanks Uses uppercase letters and removes any leading and trailing spaces
found in the string

48 Upper, trim leading Uses uppercase letters and removes any leading spaces found in the
string

49 Upper, trim trailing Uses uppercase letters for text and removes any trailing spaces found in
the string

50 COBOL Signed (Leading) Supports COBOL integer data with a plus character at the beginning

51 COBOL Sep-Leading Sign Sets the data negative from the minus character at the beginning

52 COBOL Separate Sign Sets the data negative from the minus character at the end

53 COBOL PHASE3 Signed Provides COBOL support for a proprietary format

54 COBOL PHASE3 Signed Trailing Provides COBOL support for a proprietary format

55 Unknown Do not use.

56 Mix Ex NO Trim Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Spaces are kept the way they appear in the string, and any words
found in an exceptions file are exempted.

57 Mix Ex Trim Both Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Any leading and trailing spaces in the string are removed, and any
words found in an exceptions file are exempted.

58 Mix Ex Trim Lead Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Any leading spaces found in the string are removed, and any words
found in an exceptions file are exempted.

59 Mix Ex Trim Trail Uses uppercase letters for the first letter and lowercase for the rest of the
letters. Any trailing spaces found in the string are removed, and any words
found in an exceptions file are excluded.

60 Binary byte Provides support for a numeric value stores in a single byte where the first
bit is treated as a sign (value range is -127 to +127)

61 Binary unsigned byte Provides support for numeric value stored in a single byte with no sign in
the first bit

62 Absolute value Includes the absolute value of numbers (to produce a negative number
without a negative sign). For example, if you use this formatting option, -1
appears as 1.

63 PhoneParenDash The data is a phone number with the area code in parentheses and a
hyphen between the first three and last four digits of the number (for
example, (999) 999-9999).

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

64 PhoneParen The data is a phone number with the area code in parentheses and a
space between the first three and last four digits of the number (for
example, (999) 999 9999).

65 PhoneDash The data is a phone number with the area code without parentheses and a
hyphen between the first three and last four digits of the number (for
example, 999 999-9999).

66 Phone The data is a phone number with the area code without parentheses and a
space between the first three and last four digits of the number (for
example, 999 999 9999).

67 Exceptions only, keep blanks Exempts any words that are found in an exceptions file and leaves spaces
the way they appear in the string

68 Exceptions only, trim blanks Exempts any words that are found in an exceptions file and removes any
leading and trailing spaces found in the string

69 Exceptions only, trim leading Exempts any words that are found in an exceptions file and removes any
leading spaces found in the string

70 Exceptions only, trim trailing Exempts any words that are found in an exceptions file and removes any
trailing spaces found in the string

71 Lower + exceptions, keep blanks Uses lowercase letters, except those words found in an exceptions file, and
leaves spaces the way they appear in the string

72 Lower + exceptions, trim blanks Uses lowercase letters, except those words found in an exceptions file, and
removes any leading and trailing spaces found in the string

73 Lower + Exceptions, trim leading Uses lowercase letters, except those words found in an exceptions file, and
removes any leading spaces found in the string

74 Lower + Exceptions, trim trailing Uses lowercase letters, except those words found in an exceptions file, and
removes any trailing spaces found in the string

75 Upper + exceptions, keep blanks Uses uppercase letters, except for those found in an exceptions file, and
leaves spaces the way they appear in the string

76 Upper + exceptions, trim blanks Uses uppercase letters, except for those found in an exceptions file, and
removes any leading and trailing spaces found in the string

77 Upper + exceptions, trim leading Uses uppercase letters, except for those words found in an exceptions file,
and removes any leading blanks found in the string

78 Upper + exceptions, trim trailing Uses uppercase letters, except for those words found in the exceptions file,
and removes any trailing spaces found in the string

79 Sentence, keep blanks Capitalizes the first word of each sentence and leaves spaces the way they
appear in the string

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

80 Sentence, trim blanks Capitalizes the first word of each sentence and removes any leading and
trailing spaces found in the string

81 Sentence, trim leading Capitalizes the first word of each sentence and removes any leading
spaces found in the string

82 Sentence, trim trailing Capitalizes the first word of each sentence and removes any trailing
spaces found in the string

83 Sentence + exceptions, keep blanks Capitalizes the first word of each sentence, except for those words found in
an exceptions file, and leaves spaces the way they appear in the string

84 Sentence + exceptions, trim blanks Capitalizes the first word of each sentence, except for those words found in
an exceptions file, and removes any leading and trailing spaces found in
the string

85 Sentence + exceptions, trim leading Capitalizes the first word of each sentence, except for those words found in
an exceptions file, and removes any leading spaces found in the string

86 Sentence + exceptions, trim trailing Capitalizes the first word of each sentence, except for those words found in
an exceptions file, and removes any trailing spaces found in the string

87 COBOL Signed (Trailing ASCII) Supports ASCII formatted COBOL integer data with a plus (+) character at
the end

88 Bin Quad Word Binary 64-bit integer

89 Reverse, keep blanks Reverses the data and leaves spaces the way they appear in the string

90 Reverse, trim blanks Reverses the data and removes any leading and trailing spaces found in
the string

91 Reverse, trim leading Reverses the data and removes any leading spaces found in the string

92 Reverse, trim trailing Reverses the data and removes any trailing spaces found in the string

193 RawContent Do not use.

194 Base 64 Encoded Do not use.

195 ASCII 8 5 Coded Uses ASCII 85 encoded content

196 INT Decimal with currency Inserts a whole number, if the number does not have a fraction, and inserts
the proper currency symbol for the locale. If the number has a fraction, it is
formatted as a floating number. Zeros are retained, up to the number
specified in the Default digits box.

197 RTFContent Do not use.

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

198 PlainTextContent Do not use.

100 MONTHDYYYY Date appears as MonthDYYYY

101 MODYYYY Date appears as MODYYYY (for example, Apr 6 2001)

102 MsDsYY Date appears as m/d/yy (for example, 4/6/01)

103 MMsDDsYY Date appears as mm/dd/yy (for example, 04/06/01)

104 MMsDD Date appears as mm/dd (for example, 04/06)

105 MMdDDdyy Date appears as mm-dd-yy (for example, 04-06-01)

106 MMDDYY Date appears as mmddyy (for example, 040601)

107 MMDDYYYY Date appear as mmddyyyy (for example, 04062001)

108 DMONTHYYYY Date appears as DMONTHYYYY (for example, 6 April 2001)

109 DDMONTHYYYY Date appears as DDMONTHYYYY (for example, 06 April 2001)

110 DMOYYYY Date appears as DMOYYYY (for example, 6 Apr 2001)

111 DDMOYYYY Date appears as DDMOYYYY (for example, 04 Apr 2001)

112 DDsMMsYY Date appears as dd/mm/yy (for example, 06/04/01)

113 DDsMM Date appears as dd/mm (for example, 06/04)

114 DDdMMdYY Date appears as dd-mm-yy (for example, 06-04-01)

115 DDMMYY Date appears as ddmmyy (for example, 060401)

116 DDMMYYYY Date appears as ddmmyyyy (for example, 06042001)

117 Julian Date appears as the Julian date

118 MsDsYYbHHcMM Date appears as m/d/yy hh:nn (for example, 4/6/01 12:00)

119 MsDsYYYY Date appears as m/d/yyyy (for example, 4/6/2001)

120 DsMsYYYY Date appears as d/m/yyyy (for example, 6/4/2001)

121 YYYYDDMM Date appears as yyyyddmm (for example, 20010604)

122 YYYYMMDD Date appears as yyyymmdd (for example, 20010406)

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

123 MMDDYYYYHHMM Date appears as mmddyyyyhhnn (for example, 040620011200)

124 HHMM Date appears as hhnn ( 1200)

125 HHcMM Date appears as hh:nn ( 12:00)

126 DDMMYYYYHHM Date appears as ddmmyyyyhhnn (for example, 060420011200)

127 MONTHDDYYYY Date appears as month/dd/yyyy (for example, April 6, 2001)

128 MMYY Date appears as mmyy (for example, 0401)

129 MMsDDsYYYY Date appears as mm/dd/yyyy (for example, 04/06/2001)

130 MMdDDdYYYY Date appears as mm-dd-yyyy (for example, 04-06-2001)

131 PKMMDDYYYY Date appears as packed MMDDYYYY

132 PKDDMMYYYY Date appears as packed DDMMYYYY

133 PKYYYYMMDD Date appears as packed YYYYMMDD

134 HHMMSSSS Date appears as hhnnssss (for example, ss + ss/100)

135 HHMMSS Date appears as hhnnss (for example, 123201)

136 HHcMMcSS Date appears as hh:nnsss (for example, 12:32:01)

137 MOD Date appears as MOD (for example, Apr 6)

138 MODD Date appears as MODD (for example, Apr 06)

139 DMO Date appears as DMO (for example, 6 Apr)

140 DDMO Date appears as DDMO (for example, 06 Apr)

141 HHMMa Date appears as hhnna or hhnnp for am/pm, respectively (for example,
1201a)

142 CSMMDDYYYY Date appears as signed COBOL in the format MMDDYYYY

143 CSDDMMYYYYY Date appears as signed COBOL in the format DDMMYYYY

144 CSYYYYMMDD Date appears as signed COBOL in the format YYYYMMDD

145 MsYY Date appears as m/yy (for example, 4/01)

146 MMsYY Date appears as mm/yy (for example, 04/01)

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

147 MsYYYY Date appears as m/yyyy (for example, 4/2001)

148 MMsYYY Date appears as mm/yyyy (for example, 04/2001)

149 DDsMMsYYYY Date appears as dd/mm/yyyy (for example, 06/04/2001)

150 PKMMDDYYYYR Date appears in packed right to left format as MMDDYYYY

151 PKDDMMYYYYR Date appears in packed right to left format as DDMMYYYY

152 PKYYYYMMDDR Date appears in packed right to left format as YYYYMMDD

153 System Default Date appears in the default format

154 YYYYsMsD Date appears as yyyy/m/d (for example, 2001/4/6)

155 YYYYsMMsDD Date appears as yyyy/mm/dd (for example, 2001/04/06)

156 YYYYdMdD Date appears as yyyy-m-d (for example, 2001-4-6)

157 YYYYdMMdDD Date appears as yyyy-mm-dd (for example, 2001-04-06)

158 ODBC Date Date appears as ODBC date in yyyy-mm-dd format

159 ODBC Time Date appears as ODBC time in hh:nn:ss format

160 ODBC Timestamp Date appears as ODBC timestamp in yyyy-mm-dd hh:nn:ss format

161 ODBC Date Binary Date appears as ODBC date in binary format

162 ODBC Time Binary Date appears as ODBC time in binary format

163 ODBC Timestamp Binary Date appears as ODBC timestamp in binary format

164 DDpMONTHYYYY Date appears as DD.monthYYYY (for example, 06.April 2001)

165 DpMONTHYYYY Date appears as dpMONTHYYYY (for example, 6.April 2001)

166 DDpMMpYYYY Date appears as dd.mm.yyyy (for example, 06.04.2001)

167 DpMpYYYY Date appears as d.m.yyyy (for example, 6.4.2001)

168 MpDpYYYY Date appears as m.d.yyyy (for example, 4.6.2001)

169 MMpDDpYYYY Date appears as mm.dd.yyyy (for example, 04.06.2001)

170 MpDpYY Date appears as m.d.yy (for example, 4.6.01)

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Formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

171 DpMpYY Date appears as d.m.yy (for example, 6.4.01)

199 SOAPDate Date appears as SOAP date in yyyy-mm-dd format

200 SOAPTime Date appears as SOAP time in hh:nn:ss format

201 SOAPTimestamp Date appears as SOAP Timestamp in yyyy-mm-dd hh:nn:ss format

202 YYYYpMMpDD Date appears as YYYY.MM.DD (for example, 2001.04.06)

203 YYYYpMpD Date appears as YYYY.M.D (for example, 2001.4.6).

204 YYYYpMONTHDD Date appears as YYYY.MonthDD (for example, 2001.April 06)

Unicode formatting codes
Code Abbreviation Format

172 GengoYYsMMsDD Date appears in Unicode format as Hyy/mm/dd

173 GengoYYdMMdDD Date appears in Unicode format as Hyy-dd-dd

174 GengoYsMsD Date appears in Unicode format as Hy/m/d

175 GegnoYdMdD Date appears in Unicode format as Hy-m-d

176 GengoxxYYxMMxDDx
Date appears as yy mm dd

177 GengoxxYxMxD
Date appears as y m d

178 GengoWidexxYYxMMxDDx Do not use.

179 GengoWidexxYxMxD Do not use.

180 GengoSimplexxYxMxD
Date appears as

181 GengoCommonxxYxMxD
Date appears as

186 LastGengo = GengoCommonxxYxMxD + 5 Do not use.

187 JapYYYYxMMxDDx
Date appears as yyyy mm dd

188 JapYYYYxMxDx
Date appears as yyyy m d

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Unicode formatting codes, continued
Code Abbreviation Format

189 JapMMxDDx
Date appears as mm dd

190 JapMxDx
Date appears as m d

191 JapWideYYYYxMMxDDx Do not use.

192 JapWideYYYYxMxDx Do not use.

193 JapWideMMxDDx Do not use.

194 JapWideMxDx Do not use.

195 ChineseYsYsYsYxMxsDx
Date appears as

196 ChineseYsYsYsYxcMxcDx
Date appears as

197 ChineseMxsDx
Date appears as

198 ChineseMxcDx
Date appears as

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 Chapter 7: Importing Quark designs
The Quark Converter lets you import QuarkXPress files into the Exstream Design and 
Production environment. The Quark Converter analyzes a specified Quark file and creates a 
DXF file, which you can then import into Design and Production. 

This section discusses the Quark Converter version 1.1. 

Most Quark design objects are supported in the Design and Production environment, and when 
they are converted, become editable objects. For example, Quark line styles, colors, and 
shades are supported fully. Therefore, when a page is converted and imported into Design and 
Production, you can see the properties of these lines and change them just as you would for 
pages created in Design and Production.

Some features used in Quark files are not supported as Design and Production objects. Designs 
that use unsupported features can be converted as view-only bitmaps. For example, bezier lines 
are not supported by the Quark Converter format. Therefore, during the conversion, you can 
select to convert the lines as a bitmap. When the converted page is imported into the design 
environment, the bezier line will be visible, but you can interact with it only as an image (you can 
change its location, etc. but not its appearance). If you choose not to convert unsupported 
objects to bitmap format, those objects do not appear on the converted page. You can also 
choose to convert entire pages to bitmap format. 

Before using the Quark Converter, make sure your system meets the following requirements:

System Requirements 

Windows l Windows 7
l QuarkXPress 6.1, 6.5, or 7.2
l Ghostscript 9.0 or later

Note: You must install Ghostscript separately from Exstream or the Quark Converter and then add
the location of the Ghostscript executable file to your system path in Windows.

Ghostscript is a commercially available PostScript and PDF conversion and rendering tool. For
information about installing Ghostscript, see Installation and Upgrade Information in the Exstream
Design and Production documentation.

l Apache Xerces 2.7.0

Macintosh l Mac OS X 10.3 or later

l QuarkXPress 6.1, 6.5, or 7.0-7.2
l Ghostscript 9.0 or later (included in the Macintosh installer)
l Apache Xerces 2.7.0 (included in the Macintosh installer)

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This section discusses the following topics:

 l “Supported Quark features” below

 l “Converting the Quark design to a DXF File” on page 119

 l “Importing the generated DXF file” on page 121

7.1   Supported Quark features
This section describes the Quark features supported by the Design and Production 
environment. If your design uses a feature not listed here, you can use one of the following 
solutions to make the conversion process simpler:

 l Adjust the design so it uses only supported features.

 l Convert the area or page as a bitmap. The object or feature will then not be editable in the 
Design and Production environment.

Any features that are not supported and cannot be converted to bitmap do not appear on the 
converted page.

Before converting a Quark file, make sure you familiarize yourself with the following information 
about how objects in the Quark file will appear after conversion. The following tables list Quark 
features and objects that are supported by the converter. The tables are organized by the 
following functions:

 l Box features

 l Color types

 l Justification settings

 l Line features

 l Shape features

 l Text features

 l Miscellaneous features

Features that are identified as "fully supported" are imported as editable objects in the Design 
and Production environment.

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Supported box features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Anchored boxes Design and Production does not support anchored boxes. However, the Quark Converter can convert
them to bitmaps (if you select the Anchored Boxes check box on the Convert to Bitmap if checked
area during the conversion).

Angle Fully supported

Background color Fully supported

Background shade Fully supported

Bezier picture boxes Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Border gap color Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Border gap color check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Border style Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Border style check box on
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Frame back color Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Frame back shade Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Frame color Fully supported

Frame shade Fully supported

Frame style Fully supported

Frame width Fully supported

Shape Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Shape check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Text angle Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Text Angle check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Text skew Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Text skew check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Supported color types
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

DIC Converted to RGB colors

Focoltone Converted to RGB colors

Hexachrome Converted to RGB colors

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Supported color types, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

HSB Converted to RGB colors

LAB Converted to RGB colors

Multi-Ink Converted to RGB colors

PANTONE Converted to CMYK colors

TOYO Converted to RGB colors

TRUMATCH Converted to RGB colors

Supported justification settings
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Bottom Fully supported

Centered Fully supported

Justified Fully supported

Top Fully supported

Supported line features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Arrowheads Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Bezier lines Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Clipping Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Freehand Fully supported

Line Fully supported

Line back color Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Line back shade Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Line color Fully supported

Line shade Fully supported

Line style Fully supported

Line width Fully supported

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Supported line features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Orthogonal Fully supported

Supported shape features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Beveled rectangle Fully supported

Concave rectangle Fully supported

Convex rectangle Fully supported

Corner radius or rectangle Fully supported

Oval Fully supported

Rectangle Fully supported

Runaround both sides Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Shape Fully supported

Skew Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Spline Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Text slant (with object) Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Text wrap Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Transparency Appears on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

You can convert shapes not listed here to bitmap format by selecting the Shapes check box on 
the Export to OpenText Exstream dialog box.

Supported text features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

All caps Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the All Caps check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Baseline shift Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Baseline shift check box on
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Drop caps Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Drop Caps check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

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Supported text features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Em dash (breaking and Fully supported

nonbreaking dash)

En dash Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Dashes check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion).

Hyphen Fully supported

Indent here Honored on the converted page only if you convert the entire page as bitmap

Kerning Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Kerning check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Outline Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Outline check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Paragraph alignment settings The following paragraph alignment settings are supported:

l Baseline shifts
l Centered
l Indents
l Justified
l Keep lines together
l Keep with next paragraph
l Leading (line spacing)
l Left
l Right

The forced justify paragraph alignment setting is supported if you select to convert it as a bitmap.

Paragraph lines Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Paragraph Lines check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Paragraph rules Converted to bitmap

Scale Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Scale check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Shadow Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Shadow check box on the
Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Small caps Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Small Caps check box on
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Soft hyphen Fully supported

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Supported text features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Spaces (em) Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion).

Spaces (en) Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Special Spaces check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion).

Spaces (punctuation) Fully supported

Special characters Supported if you select to convert them as bitmap (by selecting the Special Characters check box in
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, they are ignored.

Tab setting The following tab alignment settings are supported:

l Align on
l Center
l Comma
l Decimal
l Fill character
l Left
l Position (from left)
l Right

Note: Designer supports a single tab fill character while Quark supports up to two tab fill
characters. Therefore, the Quark Converter can support the conversion of a single table fill
character only. If you want to convert a design with two tab fill characters, select the Tab Fill
check box on the Export to OpenText Exstream dialog box

The following features are supported if you select to convert them as bitmap:

l Align on tabs
l Tab fill

Unicode characters Supported if you select to convert them as bitmap (by selecting the Special Characters check box in
the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, they are ignored.

Variables Fully supported. To include variables in a converted document, surround the variable name in Quark
with brackets (for example, <CustomerName>).

Word underline Supported if you select to convert the feature as bitmap (by selecting the Word underline check box
on the Convert to Bitmap if checked area during the conversion). Otherwise, it is ignored.

Miscellaneous features
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

Embedded objects These types of objects might not convert correctly and are often separated during conversion.

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Miscellaneous features, continued
Feature Notes about conversion behavior

EPS Images with overlapping text After the conversion, the overlapping text is treated as an uneditable part of the image.

Grouped objects Objects grouped in Quark convert to individual ungrouped objects. Each object from the original
grouped design is subject to individual conversion support and feature restrictions. However, you
might choose to convert all the objects in the group to bitmap format, if some of the grouped objects
will not convert correctly. To convert all the objects to a single bitmap image, select the Grouped check
box on the Export to OpenText Exstream dialog box.

Objects that extend past the design These types of objects might not convert correctly.
area

7.2   Converting the Quark design to a DXF 
File
You use the Quark Converter to convert files from Quark format into DXF format. Before you run 
the Quark Converter, you must resolve any issues that appear with a Missing or Modified status 
on the Usage dialog box in Quark. Objects with either a Missing or Modified status can cause 
errors in the conversion and will not appear when the DXF file is imported into Design and 
Production. In addition, you must install any fonts used in the Quark file on the computer where 
the DXF file will be imported.

There are three ways you can convert files from Quark format. The method you choose to use 
depends on how you want to use the design.

 l Convert the entire file into a bitmap—The entire Quark page is converted into a TIFF 
image, which you can then import into Designer. All Quark objects appear in the TIFF; 
however, you cannot make any changes to the converted file. You might choose to use this 
method if you do not need to make any changes to the design after it is imported and if you 
want the converted file to appear exactly the same as the Quark file.

 l Convert specific features to bitmap—You specify which features are converted to bitmap. 
This method gives you the most control over the conversion process, and will allow you to 
make changes to most design objects in Designer. You might choose to use this method if 
you want to retain as much of the original appearance of the design as possible, while still 
having the ability to make changes to the design in Designer. If you choose to use this 
method, make sure you are familiar with the supported objects and how they are treated by 
the Quark converter.

 l Convert all supported features and ignore unsupported features—The converter 
converts all supported features. Any features that are not natively supported in the Design 
and Production format or that must be converted to bitmap format in order to appear in the 
converted file are ignored. You might choose to use this method if your Quark design does 

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Chapter 7: Importing Quark designs

not contain many unsupported objects, if it will be easy to recreate the ignored objects in 
Designer, or if you need to make extensive changes to the page in Designer in the future.

To convert the file from Quark Format:

 1.  In Quark, from the File menu, select Export to Exstream.

The Export to OpenText Exstream dialog box opens.

Tip: If you use a configuration file to automatically load pre-defined conversion 
settings, click Load, select the configuration file, and skip to step 3.

 2.  In the Convert to Bitmap Settings area, specify how you want the Quark Converter to 
treat objects that are not natively supported by Design and Production.

To Do this

Convert the entire file into a bitmap a. Select All.

b. In the Convert to Bitmap Device area, select the settings for the TIFF that will be
created.

Tip: Generally, the resolution you select should match the dots per inch (dpi) of the
target output device. Also, keep in mind that high dpi resolution can result in very large
image file sizes.

Convert specific features to bitmap a. Select Some.

format
b. In the Convert to Bitmap if checked area, select the objects that you want the
converter to convert to bitmap format.
c. At the bottom of the Convert to Bitmap if checked area, select the Embed Images in
DXF check box if you want images in the InDesign page to be embedded in the
converted file. You must select this check box if you run Quark and the design
environment on different computers. However, if Quark and Design and Production are
located on the same computer, you can clear this check box to improve the speed of the
conversion process. After the conversion, the converted file must be used on the
computer that contains Quark and the image files in order for the images to appear.

Convert all supported features and a. Select None.

ignore unsupported features
b. At the bottom of the Convert to Bitmap if checked area, select the Embed Images in
DXF check box if you want images in the Quark page to be embedded in the converted
file. You must select this check box if you run InDesign and the design environment on
different computers. However, if Quark and Design and Production are located on the
same computer, you can clear this check box to improve the speed of the conversion
process. After the conversion, the converted file must be used on the computer that
contains Quark and the image files in order for the images to appear.

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Tip: If you want to save the conversion settings you just defined, click Save in the 
Convert to Bitmap Settings area. The conversion settings are saved as an INI file 
that you can use in future conversions to automatically load settings for the converter. 
This feature allows you to quickly load pre-defined settings for each conversion you 
must complete.

 3.  In the File name box, click   to specify the location and file name of the DXF file the 

InDesign Converter will create. If you use a Macintosh, you cannot enter a name manually 
in the File name box; you must click   to specify the location and file name. You will 
select this file when you import the DXF into Design and Production.

 4.  Click Export.

The conversion process begins. The Log dialog box opens and provides details about the 
conversion. You can use the information it provides for troubleshooting.

When the conversion is complete, one DXF file for each Quark file will be located in the directory 
you specified. You can then import the DXF file or files into Exstream Design and Production.

For more information on DXF files, see “Understanding the DXF format” on page 7.

7.3   Importing the generated DXF file
After you run the Quark Converter, import the DXF file into Design and Production.

To import the DXF file:

 1.  In Design Manager, right-click the Pages heading and select Import from DXF.

The Import DXF dialog box opens.

 2.  Navigate to the DXF file you want to import. You can select multiple files to import by 
holding down CTRL and selecting the files.

 3.  In the Import box, specify the Library folder into which you want to import the pages.

 a.  Click  .

The Folders dialog box opens.

 b.  Select the folder and click OK.

The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the Import box.

 4.  In the Page Type list, select the Exstream Design and Production page settings you want 
to apply to the imported page. You can change this setting later, but you must specify a 

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Chapter 7: Importing Quark designs

setting option for the initial import.

 a.  Depending on the way your design standards are enforced, select either Use 
specified Paper Type or Use specified Page Template.

 b.  In the list below the Page Type list, select either the paper type or page template you 
want to apply to the imported pages.

 5.  In the Variable Import list, select how variables in the converted document are handled.

To Do this

Ignore any variables in the original Select Ignore variables.

document

Honor only original variables in the a. Select Map to existing variables only.
file that exist in the Exstream Design
and Production Library
b. In the Variable Folder box, specify the Design Manager folder that contains the
variables.

i. Click .

The Folders dialog box opens.

ii. Select the folder and click OK.
The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the
Variable Folder box.

Honor all variables from the original a. Select Create missing variables.
file and create new Exstream Design
and Production variables for those
b. In the Variable Folder box, specify the Design Manager folder that contains the
variables.
that do not currently exist in the
Library
i. Click .

The Folders dialog box opens.

ii. Select the folder and click OK.
The Folders dialog box closes and the folder you selected appears in the
Variable Folder box.

 6.  Click Open.

The Log dialog box displays informational messages about the import process. The files then 
appear in the Design Manager Library. If the DXF file contains multiple pages, Exstream Design 
and Production names the imported pages according to their order in the DXF file. For example, 
if you import a DXF file named Test that contains three pages, the file names are 
TEST.DXF.page.1, TEST.DXF.page.2, and TEST.DXF.page.3. You can rename the pages in 
Design Manager after they have been imported.

After you import the files, make sure to visually check the pages and make adjustments to 
objects as needed.

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