Fusion Pro Variable Text and Image

[InvisSoul]

So we have a variable job that combines different letterheads with different cards. We are using Fusion Pro and have the multiple letters setup in one PDF using formatted text. The problem we're running into is that we have some letterheads with one signature image and other letterheads with a different signature and we want the signatures to move with the text depending on how much variable text is in the variable field.

We are having a hard time figuring out how to get this done with out splitting up the letterheads and not making the area where the signature is static. Anyone have experience with dealing with something like this?

[tommrz]

Yes but not with FusionPro. We used HPs SmartStream Designer plugin for InDesign. We basically set up each letter head style on a separate layer and then wrote a layer rule to turn on the layer we needed according to a value in the data base. This was the only way to get images/graphics to move to a different part of the page along with text. FusionPro may have that capability but I am not certain.
This may not be what you a re looking for though. We had a presorted mail list that used 7 versions with graphics and images moving based on body copy. Although the body copy was different for each version, it stayed the same other than a few words and numbers for any particular version. We couldn't break it up because it would have been to expensive to mail so we came up with the layer rule to keep the sorted mail list intact.
If your body copy is going to be drastically different for each record this may not help you...

[Hopkins Printing]

Hi InvisSoul,

Your question prompted me to email the folks at FusionPro and it seems that what you're trying to accomplish is possible:

Inline graphics are simply graphics that flow along with text in a text frame, kind of like in an HTML email where emoticons like ;^) are replaced with actual little pictures. You can search in the FusionPro Tags Reference Guide for "Graphic Tag Inside Story Tag" for details on how the tagging works. There's also a walkthrough of inline graphics in the User Guide; search for "Get the Picture".

I'm not sure which version of FP you are using but they said this functionality was introduced in version 3.

Hope this helps,
hp

[InvisSoul]

Hi InvisSoul,

Your question prompted me to email the folks at FusionPro and it seems that what you're trying to accomplish is possible:

Inline graphics are simply graphics that flow along with text in a text frame, kind of like in an HTML email where emoticons like ;^) are replaced with actual little pictures. You can search in the FusionPro Tags Reference Guide for "Graphic Tag Inside Story Tag" for details on how the tagging works. There's also a walkthrough of inline graphics in the User Guide; search for "Get the Picture".

I'm not sure which version of FP you are using but they said this functionality was introduced in version 3.

Hope this helps,
hp

Thank you for the input.

That's where we are going to look into. We found other info on the Fusion Pro forums about that. Its a time thing right now and don't have time to experiment with it, but when I get a chance that will be one thing we will be trying.

We never had any formal training on this and its slightly frustrating when we things like this and have to use a slightly more complex methods to get the job out.

[Dan Korn]

The Cellphone Tutorial which is installed with FusionPro VDP Creator has an example of exactly this - an inline graphic (a signature) flowing with the text. From the menu in Acrobat, select FusionPro -> Documentation -> Tutorials, then open the "Cell Phone" folder and cellphone.pdf in that. The "signature" rule is used in the largest frame on page 2 of the template.