Creating triggers for supplemental pages

You can define supplemental pages by creating one or more triggers. A trigger is a block of text that occurs in a consistent location and uniquely identifies a page.

If you create a supplemental page trigger on a page that is in a page group, the supplemental page is removed from the page groups in the control file, unless the page group is an existing page group or created as a fixed-length page group.

Look through the sample AFP file to determine what pages should be supplemental pages and not included in a page group. You select one or more triggers to define a supplemental page with a page definition name. For example, a banner page that is defined with a supplemental page trigger can have a page definition name of Banner. AFP Indexer creates a supplemental page if it finds all the triggers.

Notes:

  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 supplemental pages in files such as these because a single sheet cannot belong to a page group and a supplemental page. You cannot create two triggers that cause the left side of the sheet to belong to a page group and the right side to belong to a supplemental page.
  2. In AFP Visual Environment you can display measurement units in inches or millimeters. To change the measurement unit, click View ⇒ Units.

To create triggers that define supplemental pages:
  1. In AFP Visual Environment, open a sample AFP file. Then click Mode ⇒ AFP Indexer.
  2. Click the text that you want to use to mark the supplemental page 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 Banner Page might be defined as two text blocks. You can click either the Banner or Page 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 supplemental page 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.
    3. Click OK.
  5. Click Supplemental page for the trigger type.
    You see the Select supplemental page definition field.
  6. Type a name to identify the supplemental page or select a name from the drop-down list.
  7. 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 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 either vertically or horizontally. Usually the default threshold value of 10 is sufficient.
    • 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.
  8. Click OK.
    If you created a supplemental page trigger on a page that was in a page group (unless the page group is an existing page group or created as a fixed-length page group), the supplemental page is removed from the page group.
  9. To modify or delete the supplemental page trigger, click Tools ⇒ Modify Definitions.
    The trigger is listed as a Supplemental Page Definition under Page Triggers.
  10. Optional: To create an additional trigger for the supplemental page or to define a different supplemental page, repeat the steps.
Parent topic: Defining supplemental pages