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Citation Software News
August 10, 2005
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Welcome to the August 10, 2005 issue of
Citation Software News. In this issue we're focusing on the following topics:
- Upgrade to Quite Imposing Plus 2.0 by August 15th and save $35
- There are now TWO different kinds of PDF forms
- You've heard of "money laundering" — how about "text laundering"?
- You can lease variable-data-printing software for around $200 per month
Upgrade to Quite Imposing Plus 2.0 by August 15th and save $35
Quite Imposing Plus is a software solution that lets you manipulate PDF files to
do page imposition and related tasks. You can use Quite Imposing Plus to
make booklets, to do step-and-repeat impositions and n-up impositions,
to add page numbers, to mask out (erase) existing text & graphics,
to re-position the text & graphics on a page, and much more.
This well-known and widely used Adobe Acrobat plug-in has been around for
about seven years. The developer of Quite Imposing Plus, Quite Software Ltd.,
has just released Quite Imposing Plus 2.0, which is the first major upgrade
to the product. New features include:
- Support for Adobe Acrobat 7 on both Macintosh and Windows
- Support for Bates numbering
- You can save a sequence of commands and re-use it later (a great time-saver)
- Optionally, you can automatically center step-and-repeat and n-up layouts
- Optionally, you can preserve form fields and annotations throughout the imposition process
- Optionally, you can preserve PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 data throughout the imposition process
The suggested retail price for upgrading to Quite Imposing Plus 2.0 is $299 USD,
but if you purchase the upgrade from Citation Software before August 15, 2005,
you can get the upgrade for only $264 USD — a $35 savings.
Click the link below to get a special order form for this offer.
www.CitationSoftware.com/cam/cam-CsiNews-081005/cam-CsiNews-081005-orderForm.pdf
(You are eligible for the upgrade if you are a licensed user of any version
of Quite Imposing Plus.)
If you’d like to download a free trial version of Quite Imposing Plus 2.0,
follow these instructions.
- Go to www.CitationSoftware.com
- Click the "Downloads" link at the left side of the window
- Scroll down till you see the various versions of Quite Imposing Plus
- Click the "Download it" button for Version 2.0 (for Macintosh or Windows)
If you don’t yet own Quite Imposing Plus, follow the instructions above to
download your free trial version now! If you decide you’d like to buy
Quite Imposing Plus, you’ll want to buy it from Citation Software,
because Citation Software offers it at a competitive price:
$875 USD (compare this with the suggested retail price of $899 USD).
There are now two kinds of PDF forms
If your company uses PDF forms, or if you’re thinking of using them,
you should be aware that there are now two different kinds of PDF forms.
The two different kinds of PDF forms are:
- The "old kind." Technically, this kind of form is known
as an "AcroForm."
- The "new kind." Technically, this kind of form is known as
an "XFA-based form."
What’s the difference between the two?
AcroForm (old kind)
An AcroForm can be created with
Adobe Acrobat 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or 7.x, and a user can interact with
an AcroForm by using Adobe Acrobat 4.x, 5.x, 6.x or 7.x or by using
the free "Reader" application for one of those
Adobe Acrobat versions. In addition, there are quite a few developer’s
tools/libraries (from companies other than Adobe) that allow a
programmer to create a system that populates (fills) AcroForms automatically.
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XFA-based form (new kind)
XFA-based forms were introduced by
Adobe a few years ago. XFA is a format that is based on technology
developed by a company named "Accellio," which was acquired by
Adobe several years ago.
"XFA" stands for "XML Forms Architecture"; and
XFA-based forms are so named because the appearance and behavior of
an XFA-based form is dictated by an XML data structure inside the PDF file.
Prior to the release of Adobe Acrobat 7, you had to purchase the "Adobe Designer"
application to create an XFA-based form. However, when Adobe Systems
released Adobe Acrobat 7 a few months ago, they bundled the
Adobe Designer application (now called "Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0")
with Adobe Acrobat 7; and they also added to Adobe Acrobat 7
some menu controls that let you initiate the creation of an XFA-based form
from within Adobe Acrobat 7.
Note that XFA-based forms can’t be guaranteed to work properly with
versions of Adobe Acrobat/Adobe Reader older than Version 7.
Also, most of the non-Adobe developer’s tools and libraries that allow a
programmer to populate PDF forms automatically DO NOT work with XFA-based forms.
Are you confused yet? There’s more. . . !
There are actually two different ways to create a PDF form if you’re working
within Adobe Acrobat 7 and, depending upon which way you do it,
you’ll either get an AcroForm or an XFA-based form.* Specifically:
- If you click Tools > Advanced Editing and then use the Button Tool,
Check Box Tool, Combo Box Tool, etc. on the drop-down menu,
you’ll be creating an AcroForm.
- But if you click Advanced > Forms > Create New Form,
Adobe LiveCycle Designer 7.0 will be launched, and you’ll be creating
an XFA-based form.
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Why is all of this important? Because if you’re developing a
workflow or a document-creation system that is based on PDF forms,
you’ll want to make sure that everything is going to work properly.
For example: don’t create XFA-based forms and expect to use
non-Adobe software to populate them dynamically, because you
probably are not going to find a developer’s tool/library that can handle this.
If you are a developer that would like to gain an understanding of
Acrobat Forms vs. XFA-based forms, we recommend that you go
to www.pdfzone.com and join
the PDF-Forms discussion list.
You've heard of "money laundering" — how about "text laundering"?
How many times has this happened to you? On your Windows computer,
you copy some text from one document into another; and when the
text appears in the new document, the fonts are all wrong. Or,
you copy some information from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
into an e-mail message, and everything is enclosed in little boxes.
There’s an easy way to fix problems like these. Just paste the text
from the original document into a Notepad document; then copy the text
from Notepad into the document where you want it. It will show up as plain,
unformatted text, and you can then apply any formatting that you want.
Get started with variable-data-printing software for around $200 per month!
Variable-data-printing software lets you create highly customized
(or personalized) documents that are based on information in a database.
Variable-data-printing software can be expensive — but with
Citation Software’s "Lease-to-Own Program," you can get
easy-to-use, state-of-the-art variable-data-printing software by
paying only about $200 per month! At the end of the lease period,
you will own the software free and clear.
Click the following link to get details about our Lease-to-Own Program:
www.CitationSoftware.com/softwareFinancingProgram.htm
Click the following link to find out about the
variable-data-printing software that you can get with the Lease-to-Own Program:
www.citationsoftware.com/SolutionFinder_VarDataPandP.htm
About Citation Software
Citation Software Inc. is a provider of services and products
related to electronic-publishing technology, particularly PDF-based
workflow systems and variable-data-printing/publishing systems.
We offer consulting, development, and integration services;
we provide PDF toolkits to developers and OEMs; and we sell
"off-the-shelf" software products to end users.
If you are a software developer or an end user that needs help
creating a PDF-based workflow or a variable-data-printing/publishing system,
give us a call at 888-260-7316 — we’ll help you choose software
that is appropriate for your technical requirements and your budget.
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This newsletter has been brought to you by Citation Software Inc.,
value-added resellers of software for people involved with
printing & publishing. You can reach us by phone at
888-260-7316, and you can find us on the Web at
www.CitationSoftware.com.
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