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Erik van den Heuvel
June 29th, 2022
In many projects the design and content of an OL Connect template starts in a third-party application. A typical starting point is Microsoft Word. An example is the content of a letter which in some scenarios includes images, local formatting, and mail merge fields.
This article explains three ways to start an OL Connect print template based on a Word document. Let’s have a closer look at these approaches.
Copying content from Word and then pasting it into a section of your OL Connect template is probably the first approach one would try. Although this is the quickest way to bring in content, it also copies over a lot of extra code which makes it harder to apply formatting and make content conditional. This code is not directly visible to the user but reveals itself when switching to the Source view.
Advantage(s)
Disadvantage(s)
Nowadays it is easy to save Word files to PDF. OL Connect Designer provides the ability to create a template from a PDF. This option automatically inserts a page for each page in the PDF and works with PDF files created from other applications too. Subsequently add absolute positioned boxes for your personalized content. These elements are placed in front of the PDF image and can also be used to mask/overlay possible mail merge fields/placeholders.
To create a print template based on a PDF file:
The Word-based Print Template wizard was introduced in OL Connect Designer 2022. It lets the user select a .docx file on disk, after which the application determines the page size and margins for the new template. The contents of the Word file are added to the first section in the document. Possible images are written to the Images folder and a base stylesheet is added to the Stylesheets panel.
The end result may not perfectly match the original Word document but it will definitely kickstart the creation of your new template. Designers familiar with Word content will be delighted with clean HTML content, which can be verified in the Source view.
In case of a Word mail merge document the placeholders are translated to their equivalent in OL Connect. The data model and scripts are automatically created based on the markers in the Word file.
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