Creating page groups with triggers

You can create page groups by defining one or more triggers. A trigger is a block of text that occurs in a consistent location on the first or last page of all page groups.

You define the start of each page group with a trigger. As an option, you can also define the last page of a page group with a trigger.

Look through the sample AFP file to determine what text you want to use as the trigger to define page groups. The text must be in the same location on each page that you want to identify as a boundary for the page groups. The text can also have the same value on each page. For example, you might select the customer's name, which appears in the same location on the first page of all customer statements. The name can be used as a trigger to define the boundary of the page group if the next pages of the customer statements do not contain any text in the selected text block location. Keep in mind that the boundary is defined only when the text block cannot be found in the selected location, or the exact text block string cannot be found in the selected location.

You can create one or more triggers. AFP Indexer creates a page group if it finds all the triggers.

    Note:
  1. Some AFP files might be formatted so that two pages print side-by-side on the same physical sheet and are later cut into two separate stacks. You cannot use AFP Indexer to define page groups in files such as these because a single sheet can belong to only one page group. You cannot define two triggers that cause the left and right sides of the sheet to belong to different page groups.
  2. In RICOH Visual Workbench you can display measurement units in inches or millimeters. To change the measurement unit, click View ⇒ Units.

To create page groups with triggers:
  1. In RICOH Visual Workbench, open a sample AFP file. Then click Mode ⇒ AFP Indexer.
  2. Click the text that you want to use to mark the page group boundaries in the file.
    You see a red box around the text you selected.

    The text blocks you can select are defined in the AFP file, from one character to the entire line of text. For example, the text Account Summary might be defined as two text blocks. You can click either the Account or Summary text block to create a trigger.

  3. Right-click the text and click Create Trigger.
    You might see a message that says the page groups might change or the index tags might be invalid and asks if you want to continue. Click Yes.
    You see the Create Trigger window with the selected text in the Edited trigger field.
      Note:
    • You might need to use the scroll arrows to see the text in the Edited trigger field.
  4. Decide whether you want to use the entire text value as the page-group trigger or only part of the text. You can edit the text value to reduce the number of characters you use for the trigger value. To select part of the text as the trigger:
    1. Click Edit trigger.
    2. Edit the trigger value in the Edit Value window.
      For example, if the page number is one text block, Page 1 of 4, you can create a trigger with the part of the page number that occurs on the first page of each page group, such as Page 1. You would not use of 4 because not all page groups are 4 pages long–the first page of some page groups might contain text Page 1 of 2 or Page 1 of 3.
    3. Click OK.
  5. Select a trigger type:
    Start page group
    The text block marks the start of the page group boundaries in the file. This trigger type is required.
    End page group
    The text block marks the end of the page group boundaries in the file. This trigger type is optional.

    You might see these trigger types; however, they are not used to create page groups:

    Page
    The text block marks an individual page in a page group. See Creating page-level triggers.
    Supplemental page
    The text block marks an individual page as a supplemental page. See Creating triggers for supplemental pages.
  6. Click the Advanced tab to change the text threshold, the method for matching the trigger, or both:
    • Select a range from 1/100 to 1 inch or from 1 to 25 millimeters for the text threshold. Although text might appear to be present in the same location, slight position variations can occur in the AFP file. You can change the threshold to look for trigger text that is in slightly different positions on some pages. The threshold defines how far the text can be from the original location and be considered a trigger. For example, a threshold value of 12 indicates that the trigger can be located within .12 of an inch or 12 millimeters, either vertically or horizontally. Usually the default threshold value is sufficient (10 for inches or 2 for millimeters).
    • Select the method used to match the trigger–on the trigger string value and the text block position, or on the position only:
      On string and X,Y position
      The trigger string value and horizontal and vertical position of the text block are matched. This is the default.
      On string and X position
      The trigger string value and horizontal position of the text block are matched.
      On string and Y position
      The trigger string value and vertical position of the text block are matched.
      On X,Y position only
      The horizontal and vertical position of the text block is matched.
    1. Select Trigger on string value changing to activate the trigger when the value changes from the value in the field where the trigger was first defined.
    2. After you select Trigger on string value changing, select Trigger on any change in string to activate the trigger when the value changes from any previous value in the field.
  7. Click OK.
    In the left pane and in the bottom pane, you see the page groups that have been defined based on the trigger value. You also see the pages that are included in each page group.
  8. Verify that the correct page groups have been created:
    1. Check that the number of pages is correct in each page group.
    2. Select page groups in the left pane to see the first page in a few of the page groups and verify that the correct boundaries were created.
    3. If the page groups are incorrect, click Tools ⇒ Modify Definitions to modify or delete the trigger.
      The trigger is listed as a Page Group Definition under Start Page Group Triggers or End Page Group Triggers.
  9. Optional: To create an additional trigger, repeat the steps.
    Make sure you select the text for the trigger from the same page group as the initial trigger.

Related information:

Editing text for triggers and index tags
AFP Indexer
Modifying triggers
Deleting triggers
Parent topic: Creating page groups