EasyCatalog Manual

EASYCATALOG
FOR ADOBE® INDESIGN®
USER GUIDE
65bit Software Ltd
Revision History
Version Date Remarks

2.0.0 13 July 2005 First draft for InDesign CS2 modifications.
2.0.1 8 Nov. 2005 Synchronised English and French versions of manual
2.1.0 13 March 2006 Modifications for the release of EasyCatalog 2.1
2.1.1 25 May 2006 Addition of chapter for the EasyCatalog Record Panel
3.0.0 6 July 2007 Added functionality from Release Notes, new CS3 release.
3.0.1 12 October 2007 Added missing ‘Fill Proportionally’ picture import option
3.0.2 18 March 2008 Modifications to fix grammatical problems, clarification on some points.
3.0.3 16 January 2009 Added new features added since 18 March
5.0.0 1 October 2010 Modifications for CS5 version, addition of Custom Fields reference
© Copyright 2005 - 2010 65bit Software Limited. All Rights reserved. Reproduction or copying prohibited.
Adobe and InDesign are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States
and/or other countries.
All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED.......................................... 17
Welcome......................................................................................... 17
What is EasyCatalog?.................................................................... 17
Demo Version................................................................................. 19
Purchasing EasyCatalog................................................................ 19
Activating EasyCatalog.................................................................. 19
Common Activation Errors............................................................. 20
Transferring an Activation............................................................... 21
Keeping Up To Date....................................................................... 22
Support Questions......................................................................... 22
Integration opportunities................................................................ 22
Resellers......................................................................................... 22
Package Contents.......................................................................... 23
Editing Documents Without EasyCatalog Loaded......................... 24
CHAPTER 2 IMPORTING YOUR DATA................................. 25

Introduction.................................................................................... 25
Data Provider Modules................................................................... 25
Importing Your Data....................................................................... 26
Importing From a File..................................................................... 26
Formatting Fields................................................................. 29
Importing the Data.......................................................................... 29
Common Errors and Warnings....................................................... 29
Data Caching And The Workspace Folder..................................... 32
Specifying a Workspace Folder........................................... 32
Deleting a Data Source.................................................................. 32
EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 5

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 3 FIELD OPTIONS............................................... 33

Introduction.................................................................................... 33
Editing Field Options...................................................................... 33
The Field Options Dialog................................................................ 34
Field Format................................................................................... 34
Alphanumeric....................................................................... 34
Formatted........................................................... 35
HTML.................................................................. 35
Ignore White Space Changes............................. 36
Number................................................................................ 36
General options.............................................................................. 37
Currency............................................................................... 37
Custom Formats.................................................................. 37
Formatting String................................................................. 38
Formatting String Samples................................. 38
Hyperlink.............................................................................. 40
Imported Text....................................................................... 40
General Formatting Options........................................................... 41
Style..................................................................................... 41
Prefix.................................................................................... 42
Suffix.................................................................................... 42
Cleansing Options................................................................ 42
Regular Expressions........................................... 43
Importing Cleansing Options............................................... 43
InDesign Metacharacters/Special Characters..................... 43
Picture Import Options................................................................... 45
Image File Location Attributes............................................. 47
Importing Images from a File System.................................. 47
Extension.............................................................................. 47
Replacement Image............................................................. 48
Database Update........................................................................... 49
Advanced Options.......................................................................... 50
Source Data Number Format............................................... 50
Field Group........................................................................... 50
Language............................................................................. 51
Exclude from ‘Update Panel’............................................... 51
Exclude from ‘Update Document’........................................ 51
Fill Down On Synchronize.................................................... 51
Flag Empty Pictures as Errors.............................................. 52
Importing and Exporting Field Options.......................................... 52
Export................................................................................... 52
Import................................................................................... 52

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 4 FIELD FORMATTING TAGS.............................. 53

Introduction.................................................................................... 53
Default Formatting Tags................................................................. 54
Defining Formatting Tags............................................................... 55
Status Column..................................................................... 55
Tag........................................................................................ 55
Action................................................................................... 55
Creating a new Tag......................................................................... 56
Editing a tag................................................................................... 57
Deleting a tag................................................................................. 57
Exporting Tag Definitions............................................................... 57
Importing Tag Definitions................................................................ 57
CHAPTER 5 EASYCATALOG PANELS.................................. 59

Introduction.................................................................................... 59
Opening a new EasyCatalog Data Panel....................................... 59
Panel Overview............................................................................... 60
The InDesign ‘Window’ menu........................................................ 61
Table Rows..................................................................................... 61
The Status Column.............................................................. 61
Status Colours..................................................................... 62
Finding Fields in the Document...................................................... 62
Placed Fields........................................................................ 62
Error...................................................................................... 62
Selecting Rows and Fields............................................................. 63
Field Selection...................................................................... 63
Row Selection...................................................................... 63
Marquee Selection............................................................... 63
Editing Data In The Panel............................................................... 64
Reordering Rows............................................................................ 64
Sorting.................................................................................. 64
Sub-sorting.......................................................................... 64
Manually re-ordering rows................................................... 64
Reordering Columns...................................................................... 65
Showing and Hiding Columns........................................................ 65
Fixing the Position of Columns...................................................... 65
Grouping Data................................................................................ 66
Creating Groups............................................................................. 66
Grouping Configuration Dialog....................................................... 66
Adding a field to the grouping.............................................. 66
Removing a field from the grouping..................................... 67
Display alternative field as header’...................................... 67
Grouped Panels.............................................................................. 68
How Sorting and Reordering Can Help With Pagination............... 68
Locking a Panel.............................................................................. 69

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 5 Loading and Saving Panel Configurations..................................... 69

(CONTINUED) Saving a panel configuration................................................ 69
Loading a panel configuration.............................................. 70
Exporting and importing panel configurations..................... 70
Defining a Default Panel Configuration.......................................... 70
Closing a Panel.............................................................................. 71
Hiding a panel...................................................................... 71
Closing a Panel.................................................................... 71
Creating a New View of the Data................................................... 71
CHAPTER 6 FILTERING DATA.............................................. 73

Introduction.................................................................................... 73
Filtering on field content................................................................. 73
Search Entire Data............................................................... 74
Search Currently Shown Items............................................ 74
Save As................................................................................ 74
Match All (logical ‘and’)........................................................ 74
Match Any One (logical ‘or’)................................................. 74
Show Entire Group............................................................... 74
Advanced Subsets......................................................................... 75
Show Items That Are Flagged As......................................... 75
Show Items That.................................................................. 76
Saved Subsets............................................................................... 76
Applying a saved filter.......................................................... 76
Deleting filter definitions....................................................... 76
Automatically Creating Queries...................................................... 77
Removing a Filter From a Panel..................................................... 77

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 7 SYNCHRONIZING............................................ 79
Introduction.................................................................................... 79
Getting the Latest Data.................................................................. 79
Synchronizing With a Different File................................................. 80
Updating the Document................................................................. 80
Updating a Book............................................................................ 81
Checking For Errors....................................................................... 81
Text Content......................................................................... 81
Picture Content.................................................................... 81
How Document Formatting Is Preserved....................................... 82
Updating the Panel from the Document......................................... 83
All......................................................................................... 83
Selection.............................................................................. 83
With Document Selection.................................................... 83
Updating Page Numbers................................................................ 84
Updating Data with Page Positions............................................... 86
Updating the Data Source.............................................................. 87
CHAPTER 8 PAGINATION BASICS...................................... 89

Introduction.................................................................................... 89
Single Field Insertion...................................................................... 89
Inserting text........................................................................ 89
Working with Field Markers................................ 90
Inserting Pictures................................................................. 91
Missing Images................................................... 91
Showing and Hiding Field Markers................................................ 92
Linking a Document to a new Data-source (Field Adoption).......... 93
Replacing Field Content................................................................. 94
Removing Field Markers................................................................. 94
All......................................................................................... 94
From Panel Selection........................................................... 94
From Document Selection................................................... 94
Markup Field................................................................................... 95

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 9 TEMPLATES AND LIBRARIES......................... 97

Introduction.................................................................................... 97
Data Placeholders (Field Specifiers)............................................... 97
Inserting Field Specifiers................................................................ 98
Converting Field Markers to Field Specifiers............................... 101
Text Field Markers.............................................................. 101
Picture Field Markers......................................................... 101
Designing a Template................................................................... 102
Populating a Template.................................................................. 103
EasyCatalog Libraries.................................................................. 104
Creating an EasyCatalog Library....................................... 104
Working With EasyCatalog Libraries............................................ 105
Designing Your Product Style............................................ 105
Paginating the Style........................................................... 106
Associating Product Styles with Records.................................... 107
Pagination Attributes.................................................................... 108
Automatically Adjusting the Size of Boxes ....................... 108
Deleting boxes .................................................................. 108
Bringing Boxes to the Front .............................................. 108
CHAPTER 10 TABLES.......................................................... 109

Introduction.................................................................................. 109
Simple Tables............................................................................... 109
Inserting a new table.......................................................... 109
Inserting into an existing table........................................... 110
EasyCatalog Tables...................................................................... 111
Designing the Table............................................................ 111
Populating the Table........................................................... 113
Tables within Templates..................................................... 113
Advanced Table Options.................................................... 114
Tables within EasyCatalog Libraries................................... 114
Group Header and Footer Rows....................... 115
Removing Empty Rows.................................... 117
Automatically Merging cells.............................. 117
Removing Empty Columns............................... 119
Automatically Resizing Columns...................... 121
Automatically applying Cell Styles..................................... 122

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 11 AUTOMATIC PAGINATION............................. 123

Introduction.................................................................................. 123
Pagination Stages........................................................................ 123
Types of Pagination...................................................................... 124
Into Text Flow..................................................................... 124
‘At Positions Specified in the Data’.................................... 124
‘At Page Guide Positions’.................................................. 124
‘Using Master Pages’......................................................... 124
➀ Configure the Panel.................................................................. 125
Acquire or import source data........................................... 126
Filter your data................................................................... 126
Group your Data................................................................. 126
Sort your Data.................................................................... 127
➁ Create your Product Styles...................................................... 127
Creating a Library for Automatic Pagination...................... 127
Inserting one Product Style per record............. 128
Group Product Styles / Group Headers............ 128
➂ Paginate.................................................................................... 129
Text Flow Pagination.......................................................... 129
Configuring Your Pagination Document........... 130
Positional Pagination.......................................................... 131
Guide-Based Pagination.................................................... 132
Choosing Product Styles based on Field Content............. 135
Using the Asset Name field on the
Pagination Dialog.............................................. 135
Using the ‘Ignore’ Pagination Rule................... 135
‘Using Master Pages’ Pagination....................................... 136
Creating an Index......................................................................... 140

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 12 PAGINATION ATTRIBUTE REFERENCE........ 141

Introduction.................................................................................. 141
Showing the Pagination Rules Panel........................................... 141
Using the Pagination Rules Panel................................................ 141
Attributes............................................................................ 141
Actions............................................................................... 141
Editing Attributes.......................................................................... 142
Applying Pagination Rules........................................................... 142
Attribute Reference...................................................................... 143
Paginate............................................................................. 143
Group Name....................................................................... 144
Insert.................................................................................. 144
Paragraph Style.................................................................. 145
Append Return................................................................... 145
Force Break........................................................................ 146
Prevent Break..................................................................... 147
Fitting................................................................................. 147
Fit Content to Frame......................................... 148
‘Grow and Flow’................................................ 149
Release Anchored Objects................................................. 150
Ungroup............................................................................. 150
Usage................................................................................. 150
Position Index.................................................................... 151
Continuation....................................................................... 152
Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields............................... 152
Strip White Space.............................................................. 152
Apply Object Style From Field........................................... 153
Apply Swatch From Field................................................... 153
When Frame Is Empty........................................................ 153
Actions......................................................................................... 154
Creating and Editing Actions............................................. 154
Bring to Front.................................................... 155
Delete................................................................ 155
Hide................................................................... 155
Ignore................................................................ 156
Special Field Names.......................................................... 156

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 13 CUSTOM FIELDS REFERENCE..................... 157

Introduction.................................................................................. 157
Creating a New Custom Field...................................................... 157
Types of Functions....................................................................... 158
Combining Functions in a Single Custom Field........................... 159
Types of Parameter...................................................................... 159
What is the difference between FIELDSTR and FIELDVAL?........ 159
String Functions........................................................................... 160
SUBSTR............................................................................. 160
LEFTSTR............................................................................ 160
RIGHTSTR.......................................................................... 160
PARTSTR............................................................................ 161
EAN13................................................................................ 161
EAN8.................................................................................. 161
LOWER............................................................................... 162
UPPER............................................................................... 162
CONCAT............................................................................. 162
REGEX................................................................................ 163
STRIPWHITESPACE........................................................... 163
TITLECASE......................................................................... 163
SENTENCECASE............................................................... 164
LENGTH............................................................................. 164
INDEXOF............................................................................ 165
LASTINDEXOF................................................................... 165
COUNTOF.......................................................................... 166
CONTAINSANY.................................................................. 166
CONTAINSALL................................................................... 167
Math Functions............................................................................. 168
MUL.................................................................................... 168
DIV...................................................................................... 168
MOD................................................................................... 168
SUM................................................................................... 169
MIN..................................................................................... 169
MAX.................................................................................... 170
AVG.................................................................................... 170
Logic Functions............................................................................ 171
COMPARESTR................................................................... 171
IF........................................................................................ 172
AND.................................................................................... 173
OR...................................................................................... 173
XREFFIELD......................................................................... 174
Group Functions........................................................................... 175
GROUPLIST....................................................................... 175
GROUPSUM...................................................................... 175
GROUPAVG........................................................................ 176
GROUPMAX....................................................................... 176

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 13 GROUPMIN........................................................................ 177

(CONTINUED) GROUPFIRST..................................................................... 177
GROUPLAST...................................................................... 178
GROUPRTOTAL................................................................. 178
GROUPSEQUENCE........................................................... 179
GROUPCOUNTUNIQUE.................................................... 179
GROUPCOUNT.................................................................. 180
GROUPSERIES.................................................................. 180
GROUPONCHANGE.......................................................... 181
GROUPISFIRST................................................................. 181
GROUPSERIESONFIELDCHANGE.................................... 182
GROUPISLAST.................................................................. 182
GROUPCROSSTABLEHEAD /
GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE............................................ 183
CHAPTER 14 CONDITIONAL PROCESSING....................... 187

Introduction.................................................................................. 187
The ‘IF’ Command........................................................................ 187
Alphanumeric Fields........................................................... 188
Numeric Fields................................................................... 188
The ‘ELSE’ Command.................................................................. 189
Nesting ‘IF’ Commands..................................................... 189
Special Field Names..................................................................... 189
Valid Operators................................................................... 189
Error Messages............................................................................ 190
Type Mismatch Error.......................................................... 190
@@if without matching @@endif........................................ 191
Too many ‘@@else’s........................................................... 191
Illegal number of tokens..................................................... 191
CHAPTER 15 PAGE HEADERS............................................ 193

Introduction.................................................................................. 193
Defining Furniture......................................................................... 193
Populating Furniture..................................................................... 194

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 16 THE RECORD VIEWER PANEL...................... 195

Introduction.................................................................................. 195
The Record Viewer Panel Overview............................................. 195
Finding Records........................................................................... 196
Moving Sequentially through the records.......................... 196
By Index number................................................................ 196
Filtering Records................................................................ 197
➀ Key Fields..................................................... 197
➁ Text............................................................... 197
➂ Expression.................................................... 197
➃ Selection....................................................... 198
➄ Range........................................................... 198
Interaction with EasyCatalog Panels............................................ 198
Inserting Fields............................................................................. 198
Text Selection..................................................................... 199
Picture-box Selection......................................................... 199
Inserting Multiple Records........................................................... 200
Automatically Inserting Text............................................... 200
Automatically Inserting Table Rows................................... 201
The Record Viewer Panel Menu................................................... 202
Insert Field.......................................................................... 202
Show/Hide Field Markers................................................... 202
Synchronize with Data Source........................................... 202
Data Source Info................................................................ 202
Update Document.............................................................. 202
All...................................................................... 203
Selection........................................................... 203
Copy and Repeat............................................................... 203
Field Options...................................................................... 203
About.................................................................................. 203
CHAPTER 17 TEMPLATE DATA SOURCES......................... 205

Introduction.................................................................................. 205
Creating a Data Source Template................................................ 205
Opening A New Data Source From a Template........................... 207
File-based Data Sources.................................................... 207
ODBC Data Sources.......................................................... 207
Modifying A Data Source Template.............................................. 207
Deleting A Data Source Template................................................ 207

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 18 REPORTS....................................................... 209

Introduction.................................................................................. 209
Report Types................................................................................ 209
Data Source Report........................................................... 209
Panel Report...................................................................... 209
Document Report............................................................... 209
XML Reports................................................................................ 210
CHAPTER 19 APPLICATION PREFERENCES...................... 211

Introduction.................................................................................. 211
The Workspace Folder................................................................. 211
Content Tracking.......................................................................... 212
Enable Content Tracking.................................................... 212
Dynamically Update Panel................................................. 212
Synchronize Panel After Update........................................ 213
Allow Pagination to be undoable................................................. 213
Data Source Defaults................................................................... 213
HTTP Authentication.................................................................... 214
HTTP Proxy.................................................................................. 214
Keyboard Shortcuts..................................................................... 214
CHAPTER 20 MENU REFERENCE....................................... 215

GETTING STARTED
CHAPTER 1
GETTING STARTED
WELCOME Thank you for evaluating EasyCatalog for Adobe InDesign.
65bit Software are committed to providing high quality software for

Adobe InDesign, and appreciate the time you have taken to evaluate
our product. All feedback is welcome, good or bad. Please email
any comments to support@65bit.com. We promise to respond to
every one!
WHAT IS EasyCatalog is a complete database publishing solution, and provides

a bi-drectional link between data from a variety of sources to content
EASYCATALOG? in an InDesign document. Any changes made in the document may
be reflected back to the original source of the data.
Document content is constantly tracked, enabling you to determine

which records and fields are placed. Document tracking offers a
number of benefits:
• Increased productivity:
• Data can be acquired from a variety of data sources

quickly and efficiently. Time is not spent re-keying or
importing data.
• Errors are reduced, as data on the page is coming

directly from the data source without being re-
keyed.
• Errors are detected. EasyCatalog can highlight

all fields that differ to the original data, and either
automatically correct them or highlight them for
manual correction in the document.
• Data can be filtered and grouped to only show data

relevant to a particular section of the publication, for
instance. Filtering your data reduces the amount of
time spent searching through data that is not relevant
to the task you’re currently performing.
• Data that has been changed on the database can

be updated in the document instantly – ideal for
deadline-critical publications.
• Records can be dragged and dropped to the page

using pre-defined templates stored in libraries.
Placeholders in the templates show EasyCatalog
where and how each field should appear, and

GETTING STARTED
WHAT IS complex page layouts containing live linked data

can be constructed in seconds.
EASYCATALOG?
(CONTINUED) • Powerful pagination facilities
EasyCatalog contains of wealth of facilities for both data
driven and design driven publications.
• Formatting may be applied to fields, ensuring that

all prices, for instance, appear in a consistent format
throughout the publication. Any prices that do not
obey these formatting rules will be highlighted as
part of the error-checking procedure.
• Library styles may be defined for records, ensuring

records appear in a consistent manner. See
‘Templates and Libraries’
• EasyCatalog offers powerful tabular data functionality,

allowing tables to be created from your data at the
click of a button.
• Using the optional pagination module, EasyCatalog

can automatically create a flow of several hundred
pages.
• EasyCatalog leverages the typographical and layout

features of InDesign, so the layout and style of your
publication doesn’t have to suffer.
• Reduced cost of ownership
• EasyCatalog is a front-end for existing databases

– you purchase the plug-in and we, or a systems
integrator, provide Data Provider plug-ins to access
your data. Data can be imported from a delimited
file (such as a comma or tab-delimited file), ODBC
database or an XML file.
• As there is no new ‘production’ database to integrate

with, there will be no integration issues, or unwanted
database licenses.
• As EasyCatalog is tightly integrated with Adobe

InDesign, there is no new application environment
to learn.

GETTING STARTED
DEMO VERSION Your EasyCatalog plug-in will run in demo mode until a valid
registration code is entered. The EasyCatalog trial is valid for thirty
days from the date it is first run.
Thank you for taking time to evaluate EasyCatalog – if you have any
questions or would like further information, please visit our web site
at www.65bit.com.
We are here to help you with during your evaluation so if you have
any questions whatsoever, please contact us using the support form
at our website:
http://www.65bit.com/support/support.shtm
We aim to respond to all enquiries within one working day of receiving

them.
Whilst you are evaluating EasyCatalog, the ‘About EasyCatalog’

dialog will appear each time you launch InDesign showing the
number of days remaining in your trial period.
PURCHASING If you’ve purchased or downloaded EasyCatalog from one of our

partners, please obtain your serial number through them. Alternatively
EASYCATALOG if you downloaded from the 65bit web site, serial numbers can be
purchased through our web-store:
http://www.65bit.com/purchase/purchase.shtm
Serial numbers purchased via our web-store will be issued on

completion of the credit card transaction, and will activate in around
5 - 10 minutes.
The number of days remaining

in your trial period are shown in
the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog.
Once you have purchased

a serial number, use the
‘Activate’ button to activate
your copy of EasyCatalog.
ACTIVATING Following purchase, you will be supplied with a serial number for
each of the modules that you have purchased.
EASYCATALOG
EasyCatalog uses internet activation to validate your license codes,
which typically takes a few seconds to process. Once registered, all
limitations of the demo version will be lifted.
Internet activation offers many advantages, including the ability to

purchase additional licenses at a later date whilst retaining the same

GETTING STARTED
ACTIVATING serial number. Internet activation also helps to ensure that you do
not unintentionally violate your EasyCatalog license agreement.
EASYCATALOG
(CONTINUED) To activate, select ‘About EasyCatalog’ from the InDesign application
menu (on the Macintosh), or from ‘Help’ menu (on Windows).
When the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog appears, press the ‘Activate’

button to enter the serial numbers you have been issued. The
serial number should be entered exactly as it appears in your order
confirmation email, including the hyphens.
If you have an active internet connection, your serial number will be

validated on our servers and your software will activate after a few
seconds.
Activating without an Internet Connection
If you do not have an active internet connection, alternative options

will be offered after you have entered your serial number:
• Activation using a web-browser on your InDesign machine
• Activation using a web-browser on another machine (with a valid

internet connection).
On-screen instructions will step you through the above processes:

the website you are sent to will issue you with an Activation Code,
which should be entered into the Manual Activation wizard that
appears.
COMMON An attempt was made to activate an unknown serial number.

If you have recently purchased this serial number, please wait
ACTIVATION ERRORS
around 15 minutes before trying again. If the problem persists,
please contact your vendor.
The most common cause of this error is entering the serial number
incorrectly. Please ensure that you enter the complete serial number
(including all dashes). EasyCatalog serial numbers do not contain
the letters ‘I’, ‘O’, ‘U’ or ‘Z’ as these can be confused for other
characters. Try copying and pasting the serial number from your
order confirmation email into the activation dialog.
Sometimes, if you’ve recently purchased the serial number through

our web store, you may need to wait 10 - 15 minutes before the serial
number will activate.
An attempt was made to activate a blacklisted serial number.
The serial number you have entered has been blacklisted and cannot
be used to activate EasyCatalog. Please contact the vendor who
sold the license for further information.

GETTING STARTED
COMMON An activation attempt failed due to the maximum number of al-

lowable activations being met.
ACTIVATION ERRORS
(CONTINUED) The number of allowable activations for this serial numbers has
now been reached and this EasyCatalog serial number cannot be
activated. If you are installing onto a new machine, please ensure
that you de-activate your serial number and wait 10 - 15 minutes
before attempting to activate on your new machine. If you need
further assistance please contact us using the support form:
An error occurred trying to install the eSellerate engine. Please

purchase via the Web store or contact support@65bit.com for
more information.
The e-commerce component of EasyCatalog (eSellerate) could not

be installed. The most common cause of this issue is insufficient user
privileges. Please try temporarily logging in as an Administrator on
the machine to activate EasyCatalog.
On Windows Vista and WIndows 7 machines, right click on the

InDesign application icon and select ‘Run as Administrator’. Once
registered, InDesign can be started without Administrator privileges.
In the event of this error persisting, please download and install the
‘eSellerate Engine’ from:
http://shopper.esellerate.net/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=5620
TRANSFERRING AN
Activations cannot be transferred in the CS2
ACTIVATION version of EasyCatalog.
! An active internet connection is required to

transfer an activation.
To transfer an activation for all registered modules, press the

‘Deactivate’ button on the ‘About EasyCatalog’ dialog.
To transfer an activation for an individual module, highlight the serial

number that you would like to transfer in the list of active modules
and press the ‘Deactivate’ button.

GETTING STARTED
TRANSFERRING AN
ACTIVATION Transfer an activation using
(CONTINUED) the ‘Deactivate’ button. This
button will only be available
when all modules shown in the
list are activated.
To deactivate a specific serial

number, select it in the list and
then press the ‘Deactivate’
button.
After a few seconds your serial number will deactivate and you should
be able to activate the serial number on another machine in around 5
- 10 minutes.
If you have any problems with activation, please contact us using the
support form at our website:
http://www.65bit.com/support/support
KEEPING UP TO DATE Periodically, bug fixes and enhancements are released on our
website. Please use the ‘Check for Updates’ button on the ‘About
EasyCatalog’ dialog to ensure that you are always running the latest
version of EasyCatalog.
SUPPORT All support issues should, in the first instance, be directed to

your system integrator or local reseller. Alternatively, visit us at
QUESTIONS www.65bit.com, or contact us using the support form at our
website:
INTEGRATION EasyCatalog has been designed for easy integration into third- party
database and asset management systems. Systems integrators
OPPORTUNITIES who are interested in integration opportunities should contact us at
sales@65bit.com.
RESELLERS Please contact sales@65bit.com if you are interested in reselling

EasyCatalog, or are considering including EasyCatalog as part of
your solution.

GETTING STARTED
PACKAGE CONTENTS The complete suite of EasyCatalog plug-ins consists of:
Plug-In Availability Purpose
EasyCatalog CS1
CS2 The main Adobe InDesign plug-in. This plug-
CS3 in is responsible for much of the functionality
EasyCatalog UI CS4 outlined in this manual.
CS5
This plug-in provides more advanced,

EasyCatalog CS1 automated, pagination functionality and
Pagination CS2 allows multiple products to be placed in the
CS3 document automatically.
EasyCatalog CS4
CS5 This plug-in is optional, and must be
Pagination UI
purchased separately.
The power of EasyCatalog is now scriptable

via JavaScript, AppleScript (on the
CS1 Macintosh platform) and VBScript (on the
CS2 Windows platform).
EasyCatalog
CS3
Scripting This plug-in is optional, and must be
CS4
CS5
Documentation for the scripting module is
available separately.
Data Providers
Plug-In Availability Purpose
EasyCatalog File CS1

Data Provider CS2 The default data-import provider, this plug-in
CS3 is responsible for loading and parsing your
EasyCatalog File CS4 data files.
Data Provider UI CS5
Plug-in responsible for connecting directly

EasyCatalog ODBC
CS1 to an ODBC data source, such as an SQL
Data Provider
CS2 database.
EasyCatalog ODBC CS4 purchased separately. Documentation for
Data Provider UI CS5 the ODBC Data Provider is also available
separately.
The XML Data Provider provides the ability

EasyCatalog XML
to import XML files. The XML Data Provider
Data Provider
uses XPath to define where each record and
CS3 field can be extracted from the XML.
CS4
purchased separately. Documentation for
EasyCatalog XML
the XML Data Provider is also available
Data Provider UI
separately.

GETTING STARTED
PACKAGE CONTENTS Plug-In Availability Purpose

(CONTINUED) The Relational Module enables EasyCatalog
to work with complex, relational, data
EasyCatalog
structures. Multiple data sources can also
Relational
be combined into a single panel.
CS3
The Relational Module also allows SQLite
CS4
database files to be used as a data source.
CS5
EasyCatalog This plug-in is optional, and must be
Relational UI purchased separately. Documentation for
the XML Data Provider is also available
separately.
EDITING DOCUMENTS Documents created with EasyCatalog can be opened and edited
in a copy of InDesign that does not have the EasyCatalog plug-ins
WITHOUT loaded. However, any changes made to the content of the document
EASYCATALOG may cause problems if the document is subsequently re-opened in
LOADED EasyCatalog.
Failure to follow these guidelines may result in
!
broken links in your document. If you have any
questions please contact us using the support
form on the website.
If you have users that need to edit the content of EasyCatalog-

created documents that must later be used in EasyCatalog - either:
• Install the demo version of EasyCatalog on the editing machine.

This will ensure that all EasyCatalog links and data are preserved.
• Use the support form to request the EasyCatalog ‘Reader’ plug-

in. This plug-in is available free of charge and will ensure that all
links are visible in the document and remain intact.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
CHAPTER 2
IMPORTING YOUR DATA

INTRODUCTION The first stage in the process, importing your data is the most critical
and key area when using EasyCatalog. The quality of your source
data has a direct impact on the quality of the results that can be
achieved using EasyCatalog.
By directly importing your data into InDesign, you eliminate re-

keying errors and significantly reduce the amount of time required to
produce your publication.
Once your data has been imported, it is shown in a spreadsheet-

style panel that sits alongside your other InDesign panels. Multiple
EasyCatalog panels can be open at any time, allowing you to work
on publications that use data from multiple sources.
DATA PROVIDER EasyCatalog uses Data Providers - other InDesign plug-ins written to
interface with EasyCatalog - to import your data. Examples of data
MODULES
sources are CSV (comma separated) files or any ODBC-compliant
database.
Data Providers are provided as separate plug-ins that must be

installed alongside EasyCatalog. All of the Data Provider plug-ins are
available for installation during the EasyCatalog installation process.
Currently, there are three Data Provider plug-ins available:

Data Provider Imports
ASCII files, UTF-8, UTF-16 files
File Data Provider This data provider is free of charge and included with all
standard EasyCatalog installations.
Data from an ODBC-compliant database, such as MySQL,
SQL Server, Oracle, FileMaker. An additional driver may be
ODBC Data required to connect to your database.
Provider
The ODBC Data Provider is an optional module that must
be purchased separately.
XML Data can be imported using the optional XML Data
Provider module. By specifying record and field XPaths,
XML Data Provider complex XML structures can be loaded into EasyCatalog.
The XML Data Provider is an optional module that must be
Additionally, the optional Relational Module can be used to join

multiple EasyCatalog data sources together in a single panel. It also
has the ability to import data from an SQLite database.
Custom Data Providers can be written and tailored to your

requirements - please contact us for further information.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
IMPORTING YOUR Import new data

DATA - available data
providers are listed
here
Existing data
snapshots are listed
here
Each of the available Data Providers are shown on the File→New

menu. This menu is split into two sections: the top half allows you
to import data from a new source; the bottom allows you to create a
new panel from an existing data snapshot.
Your configuration may differ from the one shown here - if you are
not acquiring data from a file, please consult the documentation that
accompanies your Data Provider plug-in. Depending on the Data
Provider being used, configuration may not even be necessary.
IMPORTING FROM A ➀ The process begins by selecting ‘New File Data Source’ from the
File→New→New EasyCatalog Panel menu option.
FILE
➁ Select your data file using the standard file selection dialog.
EasyCatalog will now examine the file to determine the best settings
for importing your data - these will be presented in the configuration
dialog. Don’t panic! This is by far the most complex stage in
configuring EasyCatalog - for the majority of users, the settings
determined by EasyCatalog will suffice.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
IMPORTING FROM A The name which will be used to identify

FILE
(CONTINUED)
this data source - this name will appear in
the ‘New EasyCatalog Panel’ menu ➀➁
➂ ➃
➀ Location
Shows the path to the selected file, and allows a new file to be
chosen. Use the ‘Reveal’ button to go to the file in Windows Explorer
(Windows) or the Finder (Macintosh).
➁ Content
The menus in this area allow you to specify how the file is structured.
When importing a file for the first time, EasyCatalog will attempt to
automatically determine the correct settings for each of these pop-
ups by inspecting a sample of the file.
Setting Description
Specify the type of file being used - either ASCII or
Unicode.
File Encoding EasyCatalog provides full support for importing unicode
files. EasyCatalog can import UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded
Unicode files.
Specify the character that’s used to separate each field in
Field Delimiter
the file
continued...

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
IMPORTING FROM A Setting Description
FILE Record Delimiter

Specify the character that’s used to separate each record
(CONTINUED) in the file
Typically, most data files contain the names of the columns
in the first row/record.
If your data file does not contain this information, un-check

First record contains this box. Default field names will be assigned to each column
field names when the data is imported. It is strongly recommended that
field names are included in your data file to ensure the links
to fields in the document are not broken if extra columns are
added to your data at a later date.
When this option is set, EasyCatalog will attempt to
Automatically Detect determine the type (whether the field is alphanumeric,
Type of New Fields numeric, etc) of each field. Turn this option off to default all
fields to alphanumeric.
Example File
The first row in this file contains the names of each of the columns, so the ‘First
Record contains field names’ check-box should be set.
The Field Delimiter: the character The Record Delimiter: the character
used to separate each field in the file used to separate each record in the
(in this example, a comma) file (in this example, a carriage-return)
➂ Sample
Each time any of the ‘Content’ settings are changed, the ‘Sample’
pane will change to show how the file will be imported using the
current configuration. If you are unsure of the settings to specify, you
can experiment until the desired results are shown in the ‘Sample’
frame.
The Sample pane is also used to allow columns to be selected to

specify column data type/content information. Select a column in the
table to activate the settings in the ‘Field Information’ pane. Note that
clicking anywhere in the column will highlight the entire column.
➃ Field Information
Select a column in the Sample pane to enable the Field Information

options.
Key
Each record from your data source should contain a unique identifier
- this ‘key’ field is used to link document content to the source data.
Typical examples of key fields include SKUs and product codes.
Where there is no single field that identifies a record, multiple fields
may be specified to form a compound key.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
IMPORTING FROM A Configuration of the ‘key’ attribute is critical to ensuring that record
updates and synchronisation of data work reliably.
FILE
(CONTINUED)
The choice of key field is critical to the operation
!
of EasyCatalog. The key field is used to uniquely
identify each record from the data source and
must never change.
The first time a file is loaded, EasyCatalog will attempt to determine

which column is the key field by looking for columns that contain
unique values.
As a record must have some data that changes, you must have one
field that is not a key.
Formatting Fields
EasyCatalog offers a number of configuration options that determine

how fields are formatted in the document. For example, currency
symbols, number of digits both before and after the decimal place
can be specified.
Hit the ‘Options’ button to open the ‘Field Options’ dialog. It isn’t
necessary to fully configure each field at this time, since the Field
Options dialog is available at any time.
See the ‘Field Options’ chapter for more information on the settings
available in the Field Options dialog.
IMPORTING THE DATA Once you are happy with the configuration options, press the OK
button to import the file. If the configuration is correct, a new
EasyCatalog panel will open showing a spreadsheet-style view of
your data. Further information on working with the EasyCatalog data
panels can be found in the ‘Panels’ chapter.
COMMON ERRORS Common import problems, along with possible resolutions are shown
below:
AND WARNINGS
A data source of this name already exists in your workspace
folder. Do you want to overwrite it?
You are attempting to open a data source with the name of a data
source that already exists. You may continue by answering ‘yes’
to this dialog, but the previous version of the data source will be
deleted.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
COMMON ERRORS A data source of the same name is already open. Please use
another name or close all related panels and try again.
AND WARNINGS
(CONTINUED) You are attempting to open a new data source using the name of a
data source that already exists. Although similar to the above error
message, you cannot continue as panels for the old data source are
still open. To overwrite the old data source, close its data panels
using the ‘Close Panel’ menu option - you may need to show hidden
data panels using the ‘EasyCatalog Panels’ menu on the Window
menu.
A duplicate key was detected (value). Please check your data

provider configuration and try again.
EasyCatalog idenitifes each field in the document using a combination

of the data source name, field name and key field value. Therefore,
each of these elements must be unique in order to indentify every
placed field.
In the column(s) you have nominated as the key field(s), you have
duplicate values (the value that is duplicated is shown in the error).
To overcome this, remove duplicate keys from the source data or
check that your key field configuration is correct.
Field names must be unique - ‘(field name)’ appears more than

once
EasyCatalog idenitifes each field in the document using a combination

of the data source name, field name and key field value. Therefore,
each of these elements must be unique in order to indentify every
placed field.
In your configuration you have selected ‘First record contains field

names’, but the first record contains multiple fields with the same
name (shown in the error). To remedy this you must change your
source data so that it does not include duplicate field names.
Field names must be unique - ‘’ appears more than once
Where no field name is shown in the above error, this usually

indicates that your records contain more fields than there are field
names. This error will only occur when ‘First record contains field
names’ is selected.
To rectify this problem, ensure that each record in the file contains
the same number of fields, and that the number of fields matches the
number of field names supplied in the first row/record of the file.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
COMMON ERRORS Duplicate records were found and have been removed
AND WARNINGS Records that contain exactly the same content cannot be imported,
(CONTINUED) as each would have the same key field values. This message is
informative, and the duplicate records will be removed and the file
imported. You should check to see whether you need to import these
missing records and, if so, include exta information in the source
data to differentiate between each record.
Data cannot be loaded because blank field names were found
All fields imported must have a name, and this error is indicating that
one or more have empty names. This error will only occur when ‘First
record contains field names’ is selected. Check the source data to
ensure that each field has a name, and that the number of fields in
each record does not exceed to number of field names specified in
the first record/row of the file.

IMPORTING YOUR DATA
DATA CACHING AND EasyCatalog does not require a permanent connection to your data
- by caching your data in a local ‘workspace’ folder, you are able to
THE WORKSPACE
continue working with EasyCatalog even when your data source is
FOLDER unavailable.
Your workspace folder also contains all of the settings for each data
source you create, allowing you to close and re-open data sources
without having to re-configure them each time.
Caching the data locally also offers other benefits, including

highlighting differences in the data when new data is retrieved.
By default, your workspace folder will be configured to be:
Macintosh: Documents:EasyCatalog Workspace

Windows: My Documents/EasyCatalog Workspace
Specifying a Workspace Folder
The location of your workspace folder can also be changed - this

can be anywhere on your local machine, provided that EasyCatalog
always has access to it.
See the ‘Application Preferences’ chapter for further information on

how to specify the EasyCatalog workspace folder.
DELETING A DATA Once you have finished with a data source, it can be deleted using
the ‘Delete’ button from the Information dialog. To
SOURCE
access the ‘Information’ dialog, hit the ‘info’ button at
the bottom of one of the data panels.
Use the Delete button on the Information dialog to permanently delete a data
source from your workspace folder.

FIELD OPTIONS
CHAPTER 3
FIELD OPTIONS
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog provides facilities for fields to be formatted prior to
placement in a document. By setting Field Options you can, for
instance, ensure that your price fields are formatted to use the
correct currency symbol and number of decimal places.
In addition to text fields, EasyCatalog can also import pictures. Using

the Field Options dialog you can specify whether a picture should be
scaled, aligned, etc. when imported.
Once you are happy with your configuration, these options can be
exported to file so you can store a copy of your setup and share this
with other EasyCatalog users.
EDITING FIELD The Field Options dialog can be accessed in a number of ways:
OPTIONS Whilst configuring a new data source
From the data source configuration dialog, select a column in the

‘Sample’ by clicking in it.
Hit the ‘Options’ button
From an EasyCatalog data panel
Alt + Double Click in the header area of a Import and Export the Field
column to display the Field Options dialog Options configuration to a file
Display the Field Options dialog for the a field by selecting it from the list
Fields can be configured at any time by either using the ‘Field

Options’ menu or holding the Alt key while double clicking on the
header of the field you want to modify.

FIELD OPTIONS
THE FIELD OPTIONS This dialog is divided into two panes – the left-hand list shows the
predefined options available. Selecting any one of these will change
DIALOG
the right-hand pane to show further configuration options.
The ‘Field Format’ pane is used to identify the field’s type and format
FIELD FORMAT Alphanumeric
Fields that are defined as being ‘Alphanumeric’ will be output to the

document unchanged - use this option if your field is being formatted
correctly by the original source of the data, such as a database.
Fields that are defined as ‘Alphanumeric’ will appear in exactly the same format
as the original data
Strip White space
Select this option to strip ‘white space’ - tabs, spaces, etc. - that
appears at the start or end of the field’s content.

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT Formatted

(CONTINUED)
The ‘Formatted’ and ‘HTML’ options currently
!
only affect data on import. Updating your data
source with new document content will not
create tagged content.
Where field content also contains formatting information, this option

instructs EasyCatalog to apply the formatting tags defined in the
‘Field Formatting Tags’ dialog. See ‘Field Formatting Tags’.
Formatted Fields
Example of formatted content:
Field content: After applying the ‘Formatting Tags’:

Here is some bold text. Here is some bold text.
HTML
EasyCatalog also provides basic support for simple HTML tags.
When the ‘HTML’ check-box is set:
• Character entities, such as ‘¨’ in text content will be converted
to an appropriate glyph. Numeric entities such as 算 are
also supported.
• A numbered list will be inserted when <OL> tags are encountered
in the text.
• A bulletted list will be inserted when <UL> is used within the
text.
• tags will be replaced with a carriage-return.
• Text between and tags will be inserted into its own
paragraph.
• tags will be processed and the appropriate font
applied.
• Unrecognized tags will be stripped from the source text prior to
placement in the document. Tags other than the defaults shown
here should be configured using the Field Formatting Tags dialog.
Note that HTML formatting is applied when the field is placed in

the document, and the original source content will be shown in the
panel.
By default, tags such as , , , etc
i are always configured for HTML fields. Ensure

additional tags used in your fields are configured
in the ‘Field Formatting Tags’ dialog.

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT Updates Preserve Local Formatting

(CONTINUED) Once a formatted field has been inserted into the document, with
this option checked any subsequent use of the “Update Document”
menu option will not apply the formatting specified by the tags in
the field content. Instead, EasyCatalog will attempt to preserve
any formatting that has been applied to the field in the document
wherever possible.
Ignore White Space Changes
Selecting this option allows minor modifications to be made to

the field in the document without it being shown as ‘in error’ in the
panel.
When checked, this option allows white space to be inserted into the
field in the document, such as additional carriage-returns, tabs, etc.
Additionally, ‘Update Panel’ will only update the field in the panel
when non-white-space characters have been modified.
Number
The simplest of the available numeric options, use this pane to

format the field as a whole or fractional number. Select one of the
formats from the popup menu; the Example will update to show how
an example value will appear.
The ‘Field Format’ pane is used to identify a field’s type and format

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT Currency

(CONTINUED) This pane has a number of predefined currency formats. Again, select
one of the formats from the popup menu.
The panel offers pre-set options for formatting numeric fields as currency. Select
the format pop-up to preview the format in the ‘Example’ pane.
Custom Formats
The ‘Custom’ option allows user-defined numeric formats to be specified.
Where your needs are not met by any of the available options,
the ‘Custom’ option allows a number format to be specified either
through the use of a formatting string or using special keywords.

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT Formatting String

(CONTINUED) The following characters have special meaning in format strings, all
other characters will appear untranslated when output.
Character Meaning
The most used character, the ‘#’ indicates where digits from
#
the source field should appear.
Decimal point. Specifies where the decimal point should
appear and, by the use of the ‘#’ character after the point,
.
how many decimal places the number should be formatted to.
No rounding will be performed on the value.
May or may not be present as a divider between groups of
,
digits, such as thousands, millions, etc.
Used after the decimal point, this character indicates the
minimum number of characters that must appear. For
*
example, you can specify that a field must appear with at least
two decimal places, but more will be output if required.
Formatting String Samples
The use of the formatting string is best explained by the use of

examples:
Format String Your data source Field will be formatted in

contains... the document as...
$#.## 123456.123456 $123456.12

Only two positions are available after the decimal point.
$###,### 123456.123456 $123,456
The comma may be used to separate groups of digits. No decimal point is provided
in the format string, therefore the value will appear as a whole number.
$#.#### 123456.123456 $123456.1234
Four places are available after the decimal point – the output value is truncated,
not rounded.
# USD 123456.123456 123456 USD
As the characters ‘USD’ do not have any special meaning, they appear untranslated
in the output.
###.##* 123456.1 123456.10
123456.1234 123456.1234
Here, the position of the ‘*’ character specifies that a minimum of

two decimal places are required.

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT Custom Formatting Keywords

(CONTINUED) Instead of the custom formatting string, keywords can also be
specified to control characteristics such as the character(s) used as
a decimal point.
Keyword Description Example
Specifies the characters to be [PREFIX=€]

PREFIX inserted before the numeric content The field will be prefixed
of the field. with the euro symbol
Specifies the characters to be [SUFFIX=¢]
SUFFIX appending to the numeric content
The field will have a ¢ suffix
of the field.
[DECIMAL=,]
Specifies the decimal separator The decimal separator will

DECIMAL
(radix point) character(s) to use. be the comma - e.g.
199,99
[PRECISION=2]
Specifies the number of digits that
PRECISION Values will be formatted to
will appear after the decimal point.
two decimal places
[THOUSANDS=.]
Specifier a character or characters
to use to as the thousands Values greater than a
separator. The thousands thousand will use a comma
THOUSANDS
separator is used to divide the as a thousands separator -
value into groups of three, right-to- e.g.:
left from the decimal point.
1.234.567
Characters can be optionally [REMOVE=0.(<1)]
removed when the content of
REMOVE For values less than 1,
the field matches the specified
remove “0.”
criteria.
Example Custom Formatting Keywords
A popular continental Europe configuration would be:
The ‘Example’ at the bottom

of the dialog updates to
show how the field will
appear when placed in the
document.

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT Hyperlink

(CONTINUED) InDesign hyperlinks can be inserted into the document using the
‘Hyperlink’ field type.
The ‘Hyperlink’ field format allows InDesign hyperlinks to be inserted into the document.
The contents of the ‘Text’ field appears in the document; the ‘URL’
field is used as the hyperlink destination URL. To include the content
of other fields, enclose the field name within { brackets }.
Imported Text
EasyCatalog can also import formatted text such as RTF or InDesign

Tagged Text from a file or from the content of a field by setting the
field type to ‘Imported Text’.
EasyCatalog supports all of the text import types provided by

InDesign.

FIELD OPTIONS
FIELD FORMAT
(CONTINUED)
If the field contains the formatted

text, select ‘Field Content’; if the
field contains a filename or path to
a file containing the content select
‘Externally Referenced’.
If the field contains a full path to the file to import, the ‘Folder’ and ‘Extension’
options can remain empty. If the field contains only a filename specify the folder
containing the file and (optionally) the file extension used (if this information is
not included in the filename).
!
Fields of type ‘Imported Text’ will not be updated
as part of the ‘Update Panel’ operation.
GENERAL
FORMATTING
OPTIONS
The ‘General’ pane allows a character style sheet to be applied to this field when
placed in the document
Style
The character style sheet specified in this pop-up is applied to the

field when it is inserted into the document. The Character Styles for

FIELD OPTIONS
GENERAL the current document, or the default character style sheets if there is
no document open, will be listed in this popup.
FORMATTING
OPTIONS When inserting the field into the document, you must ensure that the
(CONTINUED) character style sheet is available. A warning will be displayed if it is
not, and the field will be inserted without applying the style sheet.
Prefix
Any characters that should always be prefixed to the content of this

field should be specified here.
Suffix
Any characters that should always appear after the content of this
field should be specified here.
InDesign Meta-characters/Special Characters can be included as

part of the Prefix and Suffix value (see below).
Note that both the prefix and suffix are not applied to empty fields.
Cleansing Options
EasyCatalog allows the content of each field to be ‘cleansed’ before
it is used in the document. ‘Data Cleansing’ is a simple search-and-
replace that is applied to the data during import and before any
formatting options are applied.
The cleansing options are specified by way of a string in the following

format:
{replace this}={with this};
#=£;
All of the ‘#’ characters will be replaced with ‘£’
Multiple cleansing options may be also specified:

#=£;*=•;
Multiple cleansing options are separated by a semi-colon
Characters may also be stripped by not specifying a replace-with

character:
#=;
Specify nothing on the right-hand side of the cleansing option to

strip the character on the left.
Character strings can also be cleansed :
ESY=EasyCatalog;
All occurrences of ‘ESY’ will be replaced with ‘EasyCatalog’

FIELD OPTIONS
GENERAL Regular Expressions
FORMATTING For advanced users, regular expressions can be specified in the

Cleansing Options window:
OPTIONS
(CONTINUED)
REGEX:^p$=;
All ‘new paragraph’ characters at the end of the field will be

stripped (replaced with nothing).
Note that the ^ character is interpreted as an InDesign meta-character,

so ^^ should be used for the regular expression ^ character:
REGEX:^^a=b;
Replace ‘a’ at the start of the string with ‘b’.
Further information on regular expressions can be found on the

internet, using a reference such as:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
Importing Cleansing Options
Commonly-used cleansing options can be stored in a plain text file

and imported using the ‘Import’ button above the cleansing text area.
InDesign Metacharacters/Special Characters
InDesign metacharacters, such as those used in the InDesign Find/

Change dialog, can also be used as part of the cleansing statement
and within the prefix and suffix fields. Metacharacters begin with
a caret (^) and represent special characters in InDesign, such as a
bullet point.
*=^8;
All instances of the asterisk (*) will be replaced with the InDesign
bullet character.
A full list of metacharacters supported by EasyCatalog is shown in

the table below.
Code Description
^# Auto Page Numbering
^x Section Marker
^8 Bullet •
^^ Caret ^
^2 Copyright Symbol ©
^p End of Paragraph
continued....

FIELD OPTIONS
GENERAL Code Description
FORMATTING ^n Forced Line Break
OPTIONS ^7 Paragraph Symbol ¶

(CONTINUED) ^r Registered Trademark Symbol ®
^6 Section Symbol §
^t Tab
^\ End Nested Style
^y Right Indent Tab
^i Indent to Here
^_ Em Dash —
^m Em Space
^= En Dash –
^> En Space
^f Flush Space
^| Hair Space
^s Nonbreaking Space
^< Thin Space
^- Discretionary Hyphen
^~ Nonbreaking Hyphen ‑
^{ Double Left Quotation Mark “
^} Double Right Quotation Mark ”
^[ Single Left Quotation Mark ‘
^] Single Right Quotation Mark ’
^k Discretionary line break
Sorting non-English data
Where your data contains non-English data, select the language in

the ‘Sorting’ pop-up. This will force EasyCatalog to use a linguistic
sort, but should only be used when absolutely necessary as it has a
significant impact on sorting performance.

FIELD OPTIONS
PICTURE IMPORT In addition to inserting textual field content into an InDesign text flow,
EasyCatalog can also be configured to import images into picture
OPTIONS
boxes. The picture to import is specified by the content of each field.
The ‘Picture Content’ dialog is split into two main sections

Attributes that define how the image should appear when it’s imported
Where the image file can be located

FIELD OPTIONS
PICTURE IMPORT Picture Import Attributes
OPTIONS ➀➁➂➃
(CONTINUED)
➄➅➆
Attribute Description
This option determines how the image will be scaled to fit into
its containing box.
Scaling Description
The picture will not be scaled when it is
None
imported
The picture will be proportionally scaled to fit
Proportionally its containing picture box. There may be white
Fit space around the image if the image frame has
a different aspect ratio to the image.
The picture will be scaled to fit the picture box but,
unlike ‘Proportionally Fit’, it will completely fill the
Fill Frame box ensuring there is no white space around the
➀ Scaling image. The aspect ratio of the original image
will not be maintained when using this option.
The picture will be proportionally scaled to fill
the picture box but, unlike ‘Proportionally Fit’,
Fill
it will completely fill the box ensuring there is
Proportionally
no white space around the image. Some of the
image may be outside of the box.
Pictures will always be imported and scaled to
Fixed Scale the percentage specified by the ‘Scale’ pop-
up.
If your data also contains picture scaling
Field
information, this option can be used to
Specified
nominate the field containing this value.
When the ‘Scaling’ option is set to ‘Fixed Scale’, this pop-up
should be used to specify the scale to import the image at. If
➁ Scale/Field
‘Field Specified’ is set as the ‘Scaling’ option this menu should
be used to select the field containing the scaling information.
After the image has been imported into the frame, it can be
➂ Alignment
aligned to any of its containing frame’s corners or edges.
continued....

FIELD OPTIONS
PICTURE IMPORT Attribute Description
OPTIONS ➃ X Offset
These options are used to offset the image within its containing
(CONTINUED) frame. Specify the name of a field containing the X and/or Y
➄ Y Offset
offset that must be applied to the image.
When checked, this option will force the field to be inserted as
an anchored item when there is a text insertion point (instead of
➅ Insert as Inline
the text content of the field being inserted). An offset from the
➆ Y Offset
baseline can also be specified by choosing the name of the field
containing this information in the pop-up menu.
Image File Location Attributes
Images can be imported from a folder or a web server via a URL -

specify the location of the images using the ‘Location’ pop-up:
Importing Images from a File System
If the field contains a full path to the image, the folder location does
not need to be specified.
If the field contains only the filename of the image to import, the
folder location should be specified:
For example, if the field contains the ‘AA1234’, EasyCatalog will

attempt to import an image from the ‘Content Location’ folder with
the name ‘AA1234’. Note that all images must be in the Content
Location folder - not sub-folders within it.
To choose the image file folder location, press the ‘Choose’ button.
The Content Location field can also be built dynamically using the
contents - or parts of - other fields: e.g.:
Macintosh HD:Images:SUBSTR(code, 4,2):
In this example, the Content Location folder path will be built using
the fourth and fifth characters of the ‘code’ field. All of the ‘String’
functions shown in the Custom Fields Reference chapter can be
used in the Content Location field to build a path to the image.
Extension
If the field contains a full path to an image - including the file extension
- the ‘Extension’ field should remain empty.
If the field contains a filename - including the file extension (such as

‘.tiff’) - the ‘Extension’ field should remain empty.
If the field contains a filename without the file extension, the extension
should be specified in the ‘Extension’ field. To specify that all image
files have a ‘.jpg’ file extension, for example, specify ‘.jpg’ in this
field.

FIELD OPTIONS
PICTURE IMPORT Multiple file extensions can be specified by separating them with a
semi-colon: e.g.
OPTIONS
(CONTINUED) jpg;gif;tiff
In this case, EasyCatalog will attempt to import a file with a ‘.jpg’

extension. If the file cannot be found, EasyCatalog will try a ‘.gif’
extension, followed by a ‘.tiff’ extension.
URL
The Image URL field can also be built dynamically from the contents
of the record’s other fields. For example:
http://www.65bit.com/images/FIELDSTR(key).jpg
‘FIELDSTR(key)’ will be replaced with the contents of the ‘key’ field.
Images retrieved from a URL are cached locally in your EasyCatalog

workspace folder. Images will be automatically downloaded as
required, so an attempt to insert a picture that has not previously been
cached will result in the image being downloaded. If you’re using the
optional Pagination Module, images required for the pagination will
be downloaded before pagination commences.
A new menu option is available - ‘Images’ - when any of the fields in the
panel are configured to retrieve from a URL
Download All
Download and cache all images referenced in the panel.
Download Missing
Download images referenced in the panel that have not previously been downloaded.
Always Download Latest

Once an image has been downloaded and cached in your workspace folder, it will
never be downloaded again unless this menu item is checked. It is advisable to
enable this option prior to running the ‘Update Document’ operations to ensure
the images you have cached locally are the latest available from the server.
Replacement Image
Where the image for this field can not be found, the image specified
by the ‘Replacement Image’ setting will be imported. For example,
an ‘Awaiting Photo’ image could be specified here for use when the
correct image is missing.
If the replacement image is used, the field will still be shown as being
in error during a ‘Synchronise with Document’ operation.

FIELD OPTIONS
DATABASE UPDATE The options shown here are used in conjunction with the ODBC Data
Provider, and are covered separately in the ODBC Data Provider
manual.

FIELD OPTIONS
ADVANCED OPTIONS The “Advanced Options” pane contains settings that ordinarily will
not require any adjustment.
Source Data Number Format
This option allows you to specify the thousands and decimal

separators used in your source data. For example, if your data
source outputs numeric data using a ‘.’ as a thousands separator
and a ‘,’ as the decimal separator, these should be specified on the
‘Advanced’ pane.
When first configured, fields will default to the settings specified in

the ‘Regional and Language Options’ control panel on Windows, or
the ‘International’ System Preference on Macintosh.
Field Group
The ‘Field Group’ parameters are used to group common fields

together so that some operations can operate on all fields in a group.
For example, if you have sets of fields for English, French and German
text, three groups could be created that contain the relevant fields
for each language. ‘Replace Fields’, for example, can use these Field
Groups to replace all fields in a group with fields from another group.
‘Group Name’ is the name of the group (e.g. ‘English); ‘Identifier’ is

used to specify part of a field name that all fields in the group have
in common. For example, if all English fields begin with ‘en_’, enter
‘en_’ as the Identifier. When replacing field content, this identifier
will be used to determine which fields relate to one another (e.g..
EasyCatalog will need to identify that en_Description equates to de_
Description).

FIELD OPTIONS
ADVANCED OPTIONS Language

(CONTINUED) The ‘Language’ option is used to identify the language of the field
content and will affect how this field is sorted. This option should
be set only when necessary as it greatly affects sorting performance.
Exclude from ‘Update Panel’
This field will not be updated in the panel when using the ‘Update
Panel’ function from the data panel’s pop-out menu.
Exclude from ‘Update Document’
This field will not be updated in the document when using the ‘Update
Panel’ functionality.
Fill Down On Synchronize
This option will populate any empty fields in the column with data
from the first non-empty field above it in the data. This option is
commonly used when only the first record in a group contains the
grouping information:
These two columns only contain grouping data for the first record in each group.
The ‘Fill Down’ option has populated all empty fields with data from the first
populated field above in the column. These columns can now be used as part
of the grouping configuration.
This option takes effect from the next time the data is retrieved using
the ‘Synchronize with Data Source’ option.

FIELD OPTIONS
ADVANCED OPTIONS Flag Empty Pictures as Errors

(CONTINUED) In some situations, it is valid to have a record in the data that does
not have a picture (in which case the field is empty). The field will
normally be shown as ‘in error’ as the (empty) picture could not be
imported. When this check box is set, the field will not be shown as
‘in error’.
IMPORTING AND
EXPORTING FIELD
OPTIONS
Export...
When you are happy with your Field Options configuration, you can
export these settings to a file - this file can either be imported on a
different machine (reducing configuration time on each workstation),
or can be imported in the event of you having to recreate your data
source.
Import...
Select the Field Options file to import - fields are matched by name,
and fields that are missing from your current data will be ignored. You
must therefore also ensure that field names do not change between
exporting your Field Options and re-importing them.

FIELD FORMATTING TAGS
CHAPTER 4

INTRODUCTION Where your data contains formatted text content, EasyCatalog can
automatically translate the mark-up within the text into InDesign
Character and Paragraph style sheets. This allows rich, formatted
content to be inserted into the document with minimum need for
reformatting.
For example, if your data contains HTML-style mark-up, such as ,

, etc EasyCatalog can automatically apply bold or italic styles to
the text. For an additional level of control, style sheets - or just the
properties of the style sheets - can be applied to the text, allowing
the full range of InDesign text formatting options to be applied.
Formatting Tags Example

A typical usage of Formatting Tags is to translate from HTML-style mark-up
into style changes within InDesign. In this example, we want the word ‘bold’ to
appear in bold in the document:
This text should be in bold.
To do this using Formatting Tags, a style-sheet should be created that defines

how the bold text should appear. We can then configure EasyCatalog to
apply these attributes when the is found in the text, and to remove these
attributes when is found:
This text should be in bold.
When placed in the document, the formatting tags will be removed and the
appropriate attributes will be applied.
This text should be in bold.
Field formatting is currently a one-way process:

formatting is applied to fields when they are
! placed in the document. When updating the

panel with document contents tags will not be
inserted based on document styles.
i
Formatting tags apply to all fields in the data-
source that have the ‘Formatted’ Alphanumeric
Field Option set (see ‘Field Options’).

DEFAULT
FORMATTING TAGS
!
The following default tags are only defined for
fields configured as ‘HTML’ in Field Options.
By default, the following tags are defined and require no further

configuration. These tags can be overridden by defining alternatives
in the ‘Field Formatting Tags’ dialog.
Tag
Default Configuration
Open Close
A bold font-style will be applied to the text
 
within the tags.
An italic font-style will be applied to the text
 
within the tags.
An underline font-style will be applied to the
 
text within the tags.
Superscript will be applied to the text within
 
the tags.
Subscript will be applied to the text within the
 
tags.
Strike-through will be applied to the text within
<strike> </strike>
the tags.
The text within the tags will be placed in its
 
own paragraph.
<div> tags will be imported in the same way
<div> </div>
as the tag.
The <ol> tag defines an ordered (numbered)
<ol> </ol> list. Items within the list should be inside of
<li> tags.
The <ul> tag defines an unordered (bullet) list.
<ul> </ul> Items within the list should be inside of <li>
tags.
Define an item within an ordered or unordered
<li> </li>
list.
The tag is imported in the same way as
 
the tag.
The tag is imported in the same way
 
as the tag.
 
Inserts a carriage-return character
 
i
Any other tags not shown above or defined in the
Formatting Tags dialog will be stripped from fields
defined as ‘HTML’ in Field Options.

DEFINING To override the behaviour of the default tags defined above, or to

FORMATTING TAGS define additional tags that may appear
in your data, select the ‘Field
Formatting Tags’ menu option from
your EasyCatalog data panel menu.
The ‘Formatting Tags’ Dialog

Status Tag Action
The style sheet required for

The style sheet is not available
this tag is available in the
in the current document
current document
Status Column
The status column shows whether the style-sheet used by the tag is
available for use in the current (front-most) document.
If the status column is red, the required style sheet is not available.
When placed in the document, the tag will be removed from the field
content and formatting will not be applied.
Tag
The tag shown here will be stripped from the field content when
placed in the document, and the action shown will be applied to all
text following the tag.
Action
The action shows the attributes that will be applied to the text when
the tag is encountered in the field content. Stylesheets, or just the
attributes of them, can be applied or removed from the text that
follows the tag.

CREATING A NEW TAG To create a new tag, click the ‘Add’ button on the ‘Field Formatting
Tags’ dialog.
Tag Configuration Dialog
➄ ➃ ➂➁
➀ Name
The name of this tag as it appears in the field content.
➁ Affects
Tags can either affect attributes applied to the paragraph, or the
characters within the paragraph.
➂ Action
Action Description
When this tag is encountered in the text, the stylesheet defined
Apply Stylesheet
below will be applied to the text.
When this tag is encountered, only the overrides defined by
this stylesheet (as shown in ➄ below) will be applied to the
Apply Overrides text. The actual stylesheet is not applied to the text, therefore
later modifications to the stylesheet will not affect the text in
the document.
The overrides (shown in ➄ below) will be removed from the
Remove Overrides
text.
➃ Stylesheet
This style-sheet defines the text attributes to apply to the text. Where
‘Affects’ is set to ‘Paragraph Attributes’, a list of paragraph style
sheets will be shown here; where ‘Affects’ is ‘Character Attributes’, a
list of character style sheets will be shown.

CREATING A NEW TAG ➄ Overrides

(CONTINUED) The panel shows the overrides defined by the selected stylesheet in
the current, front-most, document. Note that the actual overrides
applied to the field content is determined by the stylesheet defined
in the document being placed into.
EDITING A TAG To edit a tag, either double click the entry in the
Field Format Tags dialog, or select the tag and
hit the ‘Edit’ button.
DELETING A TAG To delete a tag, select it in the list and hit the
‘Delete’ button.
EXPORTING TAG The tag configuration can be exported to an

XML file for importing on a different EasyCatalog
DEFINITIONS
workstation. Hit the ‘Export’ button to export the settings shown in
the dialog.
IMPORTING TAG Use the ‘Import’ button to import tag definitions previously exported
with the ‘Export’ button. Exisiting tag definitions shown in the dialog
DEFINITIONS
will be replaced with those in the file.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
CHAPTER 5
EASYCATALOG PANELS
INTRODUCTION The EasyCatalog panel is your view on the snapshot of data acquired
by a Data Provider. Using a spreadsheet-style appearance, the data
in the panel can be sorted, grouped and filtered to make working
with large volumes of data easy.
Multiple panels can be open for the same data source, each with
different filters, columns, sort orders and groups applied to the same
source data.
Multiple data sources can also be open at once, allowing you to work
on publications that require data from a number of sources.
Each EasyCatalog data panel sits alongside your other InDesign

panels and may be docked, resized and hidden in the same way.
OPENING A NEW
➀ A new panel will be
EASYCATALOG DATA created after creating a
PANEL new data source
➁ Select an existing
data source to create a
new panel
EasyCatalog panels may be created in one of three ways:

➀ After configuring a new data source, a new panel will automatically
be created showing all of the data.
➁ From the InDesign File→New→EasyCatalog Panel menu, select
an existing data source name.
➂ New panels can be created

by selecting ‘New Panel’ from
the panel pop-up menu
➂ A new view of the data can be created by using the ‘New Panel’
menu option on existing EasyCatalog panels.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
PANEL OVERVIEW The EasyCatalog panel shows a wealth of information and offers a
variety of ways to manipulate your data. In addition to showing your
data, each EasyCatalog panel shows status information for each
field and offers sorting, filtering and grouping options.
Sort columns by clicking in the

Multiple data sources can be table header, sub-sort by shift-
worked with simultaneously clicking in the header
Individual columns can be
shown or hidden
The status column shows

products that have been
inserted, updated and deleted
since data was last retrieved
from the data source
The status of each field and

record is indicated by it’s colour
in the panel: green fields are
placed in the document; red
fields are placed in the document
but their contents do not match
the data source
Query, or filter, the Check the document to ensure

Insert the selected
data displayed in the the contents are the same as
field in the document
panel the data source
Data can be grouped in the panel - show or hide the contents of each group by
clicking the disclosure triangle
All fields within this group are placed in the document and their content match the
data source
One of the fields in this group is placed in the document, but its content does not
match the data source
The number of sub-groups or items contained within this group

EASYCATALOG PANELS
THE INDESIGN All currently-active EasyCatalog panels are
‘WINDOW’ MENU shown on a new sub-menu on the InDesign ➁➂

‘Window→EasyCatalog Panel’ menu. To show a
hidden panel, select it from the menu.
TABLE ROWS Each row in the table shows the current status of
each record and field.
THE STATUS COLUMN ➀ The Status Column
The status column always appears at the far-left

of the row, and does not scroll with the rest of the
table. This column is always visible, and cannot
be moved. It’s colour is also used to indicate the
document state of the record (see below).
The status column is further subdivided into two

columns:
➁ Status after Synchronisation ➀

The column shows the changes made to each
record as a result of the last ‘Synchronize with Data Source’ operation.
More information can be found in the ‘Synchronizing’ chapter.
This record has been inserted.
This record has been removed from the source data, and
has effectively been deleted. This record should be removed
from the document.
This record was updated in the source data. The fields that
have changed will be shown in the red dotted outline.
➂ Associated Product Style
If this column has the geometry icon, the record has a Product
Style associated with it. See ‘Templates and Libraries’ for further
information.
This record has a Product Style associated with it. To

paginate this Product Style, drag this icon to the document.
This icon will only appear when the panel is grouped and
indicates that this record is inheriting its Product Style from
the parent group.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
STATUS COLOURS The background colour of each row indicates the current status of
each record and field.
Placed fields are shown in dark If one of the record’s fields is placed,
green the entire row will be shown in light
green
A blue dotted outline indicates that the field has been updated from the
document and requires updating in the data source.
One of the fields for this record is placed. The field that is
placed will be shown in dark green or red.
The field is placed in the document and its content matches

the source data.
The field is placed in the document but its content differs

to the source panel.
This field was updated when the data was last retrieved
from the data source.
The field in the panel has been updated from the document
and needs updating in the data source.
FINDING FIELDS IN Double-click on a placed field to find it in the document. Only fields
on visible, unlocked, layers will be shown.
THE DOCUMENT
Placed Fields
If the field is shown as placed and not in error (indicated by a green

colour in the panel), double-clicking will locate the first occurrence of
the field in the document.
Error
If the field is placed, but shown as being in error (indicated by a red

colour in the panel), double-clicking will locate the first erroneous
occurrence of the field in the document.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
SELECTING ROWS Entire rows or individual table cells can be selected in the table. The
panel selection affects the behaviour of some of the menu options
AND FIELDS
and buttons on the panel, such as the ‘insert’ button.
Selected cells are shown with a light-blue outline; selected rows

have a light-blue highlight across the entire row, including the status
column.
Select the entire row by clicking in the status column on the left
Field Selection
Click in a table cell to select an individual table cell. ‘Modifier’ keys,

such as control and shift, will be determines whether the selection
will be extended:
Shift Key
The cell clicked in will be added to the current selection.
Alt
The selection will be extended to include the field clicked in - all

fields between the current selection and the field clicked in will be
included in the new selection range.
Select a single field by clicking with the left mouse button
Row Selection
Entire rows can be selected by clicking in the status column at the

left of each row. The Shift and Alt keys can be used in the same way
as field selection above.
Marquee Selection
Click in the table and drag a selection marquee to highlight cells.

Dragging past the edges of the panel will cause the table to scroll
– the scrolling speed is determined by the distance of the mouse
pointer from the edge of the panel.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
EDITING DATA IN THE The contents of individual fields

PANEL can be edited by selecting the
field in the panel, right (or Ctrl)
clicking and selecting the ‘Edit
Field Content’ menu option.
REORDERING ROWS Sorting
To sort the data in a column, left click in the

➀
header area of the column you want to sort ➀.
By default, the sorting will be ascending – click
in the same column header again to reverse the
sort (descending), and click a third time to revert
to the order that the data was retrieved from the
data source.
Whether a column is sorted, and the direction of

the sort (ascending ➁ or descending ➂), is shown
by an icon in the header.
The data in the column will be sorted according
!
to its type - therefore, it is important to correctly
configure the field’s type using the Field Options
dialog.
Sub-sorting
Once a column is sorted, it may also ➁ ➂

be sub-sorted by data in another
column. For instance, you may want
to sort data by ‘Ex VAT Price’ within
‘Child Category’.
To sub-sort by another column, hold

the shift key whilst left clicking in the
column header. A number underneath
each sort icon shows the sort-order.
Manually re-ordering rows
Rows in the table may be reordered by dragging them into position.

Table rows may also be dragged between panels – this is useful after
creating a new, empty, panel.
Note that the automatic filtering will be removed from a panel once
a row has been dragged – the filter is removed, although only the
records that were visible when the filter was applied will remain.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
REORDERING The positions, or order, of columns may be changed for each panel.
COLUMNS To reorder columns, simply drag them into position: click and hold
the mouse button in the header area of the column you want to move.
Drag the column into it’s new position – the position of the drop will
be shown whilst dragging.
Reordering Columns Alphabetically
To sort the columns into order alphabetically, right (or Ctrl) click in the
panel data area and select ‘Reorder Columns Alphabetically’ from
the contextual menu that appears.
SHOWING AND By default, the data for every field is shown in each panel.
HIDING COLUMNS Each column may also be hidden - the only column that must always
remain visible is the status
column on the left.
Show and hide columns

using the ‘Show/Hide Fields’
menu item. Changing the
visibility of a column, or
reordering the columns, only affects individual panels.
Alternatively, hold Shift and Alt whilst clicking on a column header to

hide a column.
FIXING THE POSITION Columns at the left of the panel can be prevented from scrolling
horizontally allowing, for example, your key fields to be permanently
OF COLUMNS
visible in the panel.
Fixed position columns
Hold the shift key down to drag the divider bar from the left-hand column
Columns that have been fixed will not scroll horizontally with the rest of the
data in the panel.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
GROUPING DATA Grouping allows you to group related items of data within the panel
and define complex group and sub-group relationships which can
either be used to make your data more manageable, or represent the
physical layout of your publication. Groups are a powerful feature of
EasyCatalog and are used extensively during advanced pagination.
CREATING GROUPS To group data within EasyCatalog, first make sure the panel contains
the data you wish to group. If the panel data has been previously
filtered, then only items that are visible will be grouped. If you wish
to group all items from the data source, select the ‘Show All’ menu
option to ensure nothing is missed out. Once the data shown is
correct, select the ‘Group...’ menu option. This presents the
‘Grouping Configuration’ dialog.
GROUPING The dialog is split into two sections. The left shows a list of all fields
from the current data source; the right shows the current grouping
CONFIGURATION
configuration.
DIALOG
The ‘Grouping Configuration’ dialog is used to define the hierarchy of your data,
and the sort-order that should be used.
Adding a field to the grouping
To group by a field, either double click on it in the ‘Available Fields’ list

or select the field and press the ‘Add’ button. The selected field will be
added as a sub-group of any groups you currently have configured.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
GROUPING Removing a field from the grouping
CONFIGURATION To remove a field from the current grouping, either double click
DIALOG on it in the ‘Grouping Configuration’ list or select it and press the
(CONTINUED) ‘Remove’ button.
Changing the order of the groups
By default, the groups shown in the panel will be ordered in ascending

alphabetical order. The order of the groups can be determined by
selecting the field in the ‘Grouping Configuration’ list and using:
The Ascending/Descending Radio Buttons
The groups will be ordered in ascending or descending alphabetical

order.
The Override Default Sorting Prior To Grouping Menu
The contents of another field in your data can be used to determine

to the order. For example, you may want to group by the
‘Manufacturer’ field in your data, but want the groups to be ordered
by a ‘Manufacturer Order’ field. If this is the case, select the name of
the field that should be used to order the data in the ‘Override Default
Sorting Prior To Grouping Menu’ pop-up menu.
The order of the groups as they are presented in the source data
can be preserved by selecting the ‘Data Source Order’ option in the
‘Override Default Sorting Prior To Grouping Menu’.
‘Display alternative field as header’
Use this option when you are grouping by a field, such as a group
code or a sort-order, but require a more meaningful field to be
displayed in the panel. For example, you may want to group the data
using a group code field but need a more meaningful ‘group name’
field to be displayed in the panel.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
GROUPED PANELS Once a panel has been grouped, any sort options applied to the
panel will work on a group-by-group basis. For example, if the
panel is grouped by ‘Manufacturer’, then sorting by ‘Price’ would
sort by ‘Price’ within ‘Manufacturer’, thereby obeying the defined
groupings.
Data is shown in the panel in a hierarchical form. Click the disclosure triangle to
show and hide sub-groups and records.
Status indicator shows if any or the sub-groups or records are placed
and/or in error
The number of sub-groups or records immediately beneath in the hierarchy is

shown here
Each group row shows the number of sub-groups or records

immediately below. The status of the records within the group is
also shown by the coloured indicator next to the group name, and
the status column will show whether any of the records have been
inserted, updated or deleted.
Subsets can also be applied to grouped panels - the subset filter will
behave in the same way as an ungrouped panel, although the results
will appear hierarchically.
HOW SORTING The records, and the order in which they are sorted, can lead to
much greater efficiency when working with document tables.
AND REORDERING
CAN HELP WITH An InDesign table can be created containing the records and fields in
the order they are shown in the panel – therefore, you should reorder
PAGINATION
the records and fields to appear as you want them to look in the
document - see ‘Tables’.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
LOCKING A PANEL Individual panels can be locked to prevent any records being added
or removed. Locking a panel does not affect your ability to sort or re-
order the records. Advanced Filters are also removed from the panel
to prevent the content of the panel being affected by a field’s status
changing.
To lock a panel, select ‘Lock Panel’ from the panel’s pop-out menu.
A locked panel can be unlocked simply by selecting ‘Unlock Panel’
from the pop-out menu. Note that filters will need to be reapplied to
the panel after unlocking.
LOADING AND Saving a panel configuration

SAVING PANEL The configuration of your panel, such as the way it is grouped,
CONFIGURATIONS sorted, etc can be stored. Panel configurations stored in this way
can only be applied to the data source for which the panel belongs -
to apply the configuration to a different data source use the ‘Export’
and ‘Import’ menu options.
Storing panel configurations
Give your panel configuration a name: this name will appear on the
‘Configurations’ menu
Select the elements of the configuration you would like to store

EASYCATALOG PANELS
LOADING AND Option Configuration options stored:

SAVING PANEL The options specified in the ‘Grouping Configuration’
Grouping
CONFIGURATIONS dialog.
(CONTINUED) Sorting Column sorting options.
Column Sizes, Positions The position, size and visibility of the columns in the
and Visibility table.
Subset Any filter/subset currently applied to the panel.
The list of filters/subsets shown in the ‘Saved
Subset List
Subsets’ menu.
The Advanced Subset options currently applied to
Advanced Subset
the panel.
Loading a panel configuration
Loading panel configurations
Saved panel configurations are shown at the bottom of the Configuration

menu. To apply a configuration, select it from the menu.
Exporting and importing panel configurations
The configuration of a panel can also be exported and imported from

a file. This allows you to store the configuration of a panel and apply
it later to a different data source.
DEFINING A The panel configuration can also be stored so that each time a new
panel is opened via the File→New→EasyCatalog Panel
DEFAULT PANEL
menu, it will have the current configuration options
CONFIGURATION applied.
Use the ‘Info’ button at the bottom of the panel to

display the ‘Information’ Dialog.
Use the ‘Save As Default’ button to store the panel’s current configuration as the
default settings for all new panels created for this data source.

EASYCATALOG PANELS
CLOSING A PANEL Hiding a panel
Use the close button in the top-left corner (Macintosh) or top-right

corner (Windows) of the panel to hide the panel from view. The panel is
only hidden, and can be shown again using the ‘Window→EasyCatalog
Panels’ menu option. The panel configuration, such as sorting,
grouping, etc, is retained while the panel is hidden.
Closing a Panel
When you have permanently finished with a panel, use the ‘Close
Panel’ pop-out menu option. Once closed, the panel’s configuration
(such as sorting, grouping, etc) will be lost unless you have saved
it as the default configuration for the data source, or as a named
configuration (see above).
CREATING A NEW EasyCatalog allows multiple views of the same data source, each
with different subset filters, grouping and sorting configurations.
VIEW OF THE DATA
A new panel can be created using the ‘New Panel…’ panel menu
option. Give the panel a name, and use one of the four options to
specify its content. The name of a panel need not be the same as
the name of the data source.
Create a new panel using the ‘New Panel...’ menu option. Give the new panel a
name and specify which records should be copied to it.
Option Description
A new panel will be created containing the same records
Exactly the Same
and grouping as the existing panel.
Only the records selected in the panel will be present in the
Panel Selection
new panel.
The new panel will contain all of the records for this data
All Items
source.
A new, empty, panel is created. To populate this panel, drag
Empty records from an existing panel to it or use the subset options
to specify the data that should be used to populate it.

FILTERING DATA
CHAPTER 6
FILTERING DATA
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog makes working with large volumes of data easy - using
a simple query builder from within EasyCatalog, your data can be
filtered to show only the records you need to use.
Filters, or 'Subsets', are applied to each EasyCatalog panel, so you

can have multiple panels open for the same data source each with
their own filter applied.
In addition to filtering on field content, Advanced Subsets can also be

configured to show records and fields based on their current status
(such as whether the record is placed, in error, etc).
Subset definitions can also be saved and re-applied as required.
Filtering options are

available from each of the
EasyCatalog panels.
FILTERING ON FIELD Subsets are defined by a simple field, operator, value configuration
dialog - to apply a simple filter to a dialog, select ‘Show Subset...’
CONTENT
from the panel menu.
The use of subsets is essential when dealing with large numbers of

records, or when creating tables in InDesign (as the records, columns
and ordering affect the way in which tables are populated or created
on the page).

FILTERING DATA
FILTERING ON FIELD The Subset Dialog

CONTENT ➀➁ ➂ ➃
(CONTINUED)
➄ ➅ ➆
➀ Search Entire Data
All of the data from the data source will be searched.
➀ Search Currently Shown Items
Only the data currently visible in the panel will be filtered. Filter
definitions created using this option can not be saved.
➁ Field Popup
A list of all fields for the data source will be shown in this pop-up.
➂ Operator Popup
The operators ('Less than', 'Greater than', etc) shown in this pop-up
menu are determined by the field type (as defined in Field Options)
for the field selected in the field pop-up.
➃ Save As...
Save this filter definition. You will be prompted for a name, which will
appear in the ‘Saved Subsets’ menu on the EasyCatalog panel.
➄ Match All (logical ‘and’)
All of the search criteria must be satisfied to allow the record to pass
through the filter. In the example above, ‘Parent Category’ must be
equal to ‘Electrical’ and ‘Inc VAT Price’ must be less than 500.
➄ Match Any One (logical ‘or’)
Any of the search criteria must be satisfied to allow the record
through. In the above example, ‘Parent Category’ must be equal to
‘Electrical’ or ‘Inc VAT Price’ must be less than 500.
➅ More Choices / Fewer Choices
Query criteria can be added or removed using these buttons. Up to
a maximum of five criteria can be defined for a single subset.
➆ Show Entire Group
This option is only available for grouped panels. When checked, the
entire group will be displayed if any of the records within the group
match the criteria specified.

FILTERING DATA
ADVANCED SUBSETS In addition to simply filtering by the value of field from the data source,
‘Advanced Subsets’ can be defined which include information about
each record’s status, and are applied in addition to any other filters
already applied to the panel.
The top area of the dialog allows the data to be filtered based
on each record’s status after a ‘Synchronize with Data Source’
operation.
The bottom area allows records to be filtered based on whether

they are placed in the document and, if they are, that the content in
the document matches the content from the data source
Show Items That Are Flagged As
All of these options refer to what happened to the data the last time
it was synchronized with the data source, via the ‘Synchronize with
Datasource’ menu option.
Option Description
Unchanged Show records that were not modified
Show the records that were created as a result of the
New synchronisation process - i.e. they were not present in the
data snapshot before synchronisation, but are now.
Show the records that were removed during the synchronisation
- i.e. records that were present in the data snapshot, but are
Deleted not now. Note that records are not removed from the snapshot
during synchronisation - they are marked for deletion until
purged by the user.
Updated Show the records that changed during synchronisation.

FILTERING DATA
ADVANCED SUBSETS Show Items That

(CONTINUED)
Option Description
Show the records that have geometry associated with them -
Have Geometry
see ‘Templates and Libraries’.
Have No Show the records that do not have geometry associated with
Geometry them - see ‘Templates and Libraries’.
Have Document Show the records that are placed in the current, front-most,
Content document.
Have No
Document Show the records that are not placed in the current document.
Content
Show the records that are placed in the document, and whose
Have Errors
content is different in the document to the data source.
Show the records whose content is the same in the document
Have No Errors
and in the data source.
SAVED SUBSETS The ‘Saved Subsets’ menu option shows all previously saved filter
definitions.
Applying a saved subset
To apply one of the subsets, select it from the menu. Note that any
existing filter will be replaced with the saved definition.
Deleting subset definitions
All saved subset definitions can be removed by selecting the ‘Remove

All’ menu option from the ‘Saved Subsets’ menu.

FILTERING DATA
AUTOMATICALLY In addition to listing the saved subsets, this menu also allows you to
automatically create subset definitions based on the content of one
CREATING QUERIES
of the data source fields.
To automatically create these filter definitions, select ‘Create...’ from

the ‘Saved Subsets’ menu.
Select the field that you would like to automatically create filters for. A filter will
be created for each unique value in the selected field - each individual filter will
only show records for a particular department, for example.
A filter has been created for each unique 'Dept' name - equivalent to creating a
filter definition of ‘Department is ...’ for each department value.
REMOVING A FILTER A subset can be removed from a panel by selecting the ‘Show All’
menu option. Note that the subset definition will be lost, so be sure
FROM A PANEL
to save it before selecting ‘Show All’.

SYNCHRONIZING
CHAPTER 7
SYNCHRONIZING
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog offers bidirectional linking of data to the InDesign
document - any changes made to the source data can be reflected
to the document, and any changes made to the document can be
sent back to the source of the data.
GETTING THE LATEST EasyCatalog works with snapshots of data - an internal picture of the
data that was taken at a moment in time. When data changes at its
DATA
source the snapshot needs updating.
By storing a snapshot of data, EasyCatalog can identify those

records and fields that have changed through successive updates
of the data. This information is shown in the EasyCatalog panel to
assist the user in making decisions on how to update the document.
To update the data snapshot, choose ‘Synchronize with Data Source’

from the EasyCatalog panel menu.
The data will be retrieved from its original source and compared
against the existing snapshot. All changes will be shown in the data
source’s panels, and will remain until the next ‘Synchronize with Data
Source’ operation.
Any new records are shown with the new icon in the status column.
Any records that are have been removed from the data source are marked as
deleted. All records that have been marked as deleted can later be removed
once deleted from the document.
Where fields have been updated, the record is shown as updated in the status
column, and each field that changed is highlighted with a red broken outline.
The ‘updated’ icon The fields that have

appears in the status been updated are also
column highlighted

SYNCHRONIZING
SYNCHRONIZING File-based Data-sources only

If the location of your data-file has changed, or you would like to
WITH A DIFFERENT
select a new file, hold the shift key while selecting ‘Synchronize with
FILE Data Source’. A file chooser dialog will appear which will allow you
to re-specify the location of your data file.
UPDATING THE The document can be updated with a single click - each EasyCatalog
panel offers various options for updating the entire document, or
DOCUMENT
parts of the document.
Three options are available that determine the scope of the document updates
Each of these options will only update fields on current, front-most,

document that differ to the data in the panel.
Any fields that are updated will have their field markers changed
back to green to indicate that the field is no longer in error.
Note that only fields on unlocked layers will be updated.
All
Update the entire document
Selection
Update those fields that are selected in the document.
With Panel Selection

Only update the fields in the document that are selected in the
panel.
Re-applying Pagination Rules
Hold down the shift key whilst selecting any of the above menu
options to re-apply pagination rules such as 'Fit Box to Text'. This
option is only available when the Pagination Module is loaded.
Updating a single column
Right click (or Ctrl-click on Macintosh) in the column you would like
to update in the document and select the 'Update All (field name)
Fields In The Document' menu option.

SYNCHRONIZING
UPDATING A BOOK EasyCatalog also supports updating all of the documents in an

InDesign book.
A new menu option is provided on each ‘Book’ panel - ‘Update

EasyCatalog fields’. This option behaves in the same was as other
book operations - any open documents will be updated but not
saved; any unopen documents will be opened, updated, saved and
closed.
CHECKING FOR The content of the document can be checked to ensure that its
content matches the data from the data source.
ERRORS
Any discrepancies found will be highlighted in the document with
red Field Markers, and the field will also be shown in the red in the
EasyCatalog panel.
Hit the ‘Synchronize with

Document’ button on the
EasyCatalog panel, or the
Synchronize with Document menu
to check for errors
Text Content
Text content must match exactly the content from the data source -
numeric fields must also be in the correct format.
Minor modifications, such as the insertion of additional carriage

returns, tabs, etc, are allowed if the 'Ignore White Space Changes'
alphanumeric field option is enabled for the field.
Note: A field is not reported as being in error if the incorrect character

style sheet is applied.
Field markers, which are normally shown in green, will be changed to red for all
fields which are in error.
Field Markers will be changed to red to enable erroneous fields to

be identified in the document. The Field Markers are changed back
to green when the document is updated via the ‘Update Document’
menu, or when manually corrected and a 'Synchronize with
Document' performed.
Picture Content
Pictures will be shown as being in error in a number of situations:

• No image is in the box
• An incorrect image is imported into the box
• If the image has changed (the link needs updating)

SYNCHRONIZING
CHECKING FOR • If the ‘missing image’ has been used, as the correct image for
a field was missing.
ERRORS
(CONTINUED) Picture frame labels are also shown in red if the picture in the box is in error.
HOW DOCUMENT When fields have changed on the database, EasyCatalog intelligently
applies the changes to the document - rather than replacing each
FORMATTING IS
field in the document in its entirety, new content is merged into the
PRESERVED existing document content. This helps to preserve any formatting
that may have been applied to any of the characters in the field.
If the document needs updating, the updates are merged into the document to
help preserve any formatting that may have been applied. Here, the ‘.99’ is in
superscript. The field should read ‘£24.00’ - EasyCatalog will merge the changes
and only replace the last two characters.
Only the last two characters have been changed - rather than replacing the
entire contents of the field which would have resulted in all characters being
formatted the same.
This is how the field would have looked if all characters had been replaced, and
illustrates the importance of only applying the differences to the document.
Formatting applied to fields in the document
!
will only be preserved for Formatted or HTML-
encoded fields when the 'Updates Preserve Local
Formatting' option is enabled in Field Options.

SYNCHRONIZING
UPDATING THE The link between document and data is bidirectional - therefore, any
changes made to the document can be reflected back to the panel
PANEL FROM THE
(and the original source of the data, such as the database).
DOCUMENT
Note that if a field is placed in the document twice, the last occurrence
of the field will be used as the content for the field. Also, only the
front-most, current, document will be used to update the panel.
As with updating the document, updating the panel offers three

options that determine the scope of the changes.
The panel can be updated to reflect the content of the document
All
Update all of the fields in the panel.
Selection
Only update the fields that are selected in the panel.
With Document Selection
Update the fields in the panel that are selected in the document.
Updating a single column
Right click (or Ctrl-click on Macintosh) in the column you would like
to update in the panel and select the 'Update All (field name) Fields
In The Panel' menu option.
i
Only data shown in the panel can be used to
update the data source - therefore, you should
‘Update Panel’ prior to ‘Update Data Source’.

SYNCHRONIZING
UPDATING PAGE The page number(s) where each record appears can stored in one
of the record's fields using the ‘Update Panel→With Page Numbers’
NUMBERS
menu option.
Section page numbers are used to update the field
i content. Therefore, the format of the page number

will be defined by the document’s ‘Numbering &
Section’ options.
The ‘Page Number Update’ Dialog
➀➁➂➃
➄➅➆
➀ Search For: Field
Define which field(s) for a record should be used to determine the

page a record is placed on, and whether only text fields, picture
fields or both types should be searched for. For example, if a single
record spans multiple pages you may only be interested in the page
number that the 'Price' field is placed on.
Option Description
All fields for a record will be searched for in the document.
All When one is found, its page number will be used to update
the 'Update' field.
The document will be searched for the specified field, and the
Field Name page this field is placed on will be used to update the 'Update'
field.

SYNCHRONIZING
UPDATING PAGE ➁ Search For: Content Type
NUMBERS Option Description

(CONTINUED) Both text and picture boxes will be searched for a field in the
All
document for each record.
Text Only text boxes fields will be searched in the document.
Picture Only picture boxes will be searched in the document.
➂ Update : Field
Nominate the field that should be updated with the page number the
record is placed on.
➃ Update : Records
Option Description
All All records in the data source will be updated.
Panel Selection Only the records selected in the panel will be updated.
➄ Populate With
Option Description
The page number that the record first appears on will be
First Page
used.
The page number for the last occurrence of the record will be
Last Page
used.
A list of all pages numbers for all instances of the record will
be stored in the field.
All Pages
For example, if a record appears on pages 1,2,3 and 5 the field
will be updated with “1-3, 5”.
➅ Collate pages for all grouped records
If your data panel is grouped, this option will update all records in
each group with a list of the page numbers for every record in the
group. This option would be used, for example, to get a list of pages
that all records in a particular category appear on.
➆ Only update records in current document
By turning this option on, only the records placed in the current
document will have their page numbers updated. If this option is off,
any records not placed in the current document will have their page
number fields emptied.
Updating Page Numbers From Multiple Documents
Page numbers from multiple documents can be updated to the panel

by storing them in an InDesign book:
➀ Select any field or record in the panel you would like to update.
➁ From your InDesign book’s menu, use the ‘Update EasyCatalog

Fields with Page Numbers’ menu option.

SYNCHRONIZING
UPDATING DATA WITH The panel can also be updated with the X and Y position of each
record in the document using the 'Update Panel → With Page
PAGE POSITIONS
Positions' menu option. The X and Y position of the frame containing
the field will be used to update the panel (not the position of the field
within the frame).
The ‘Page Position Update’ Dialog
➀➁
➂➃➄
➀ Search For: Field
Limit the update to searching for a specific field (rather than any field
for the record) and whether only text fields, picture fields or both
types should be searched for.
Option Description
All fields for a record will be searched for in the document.
All When one is found, its position will be used to update the
'Update' field.
The document will be searched for the specified field, and the
Field Name position of this field is placed on will be used to update the
'Update' field.
➁ Search For: Content Type
Option Description
Both text and picture boxes will be searched for a field for
All
each record.
Text Only text boxes fields will be searched in the document.
Picture Only picture boxes will be searched in the document.

SYNCHRONIZING
UPDATING DATA WITH ➂ Update : X Field, ➃ Y Field
PAGE POSITIONS Nominate the fields that should be updated with the position of the
(CONTINUED) 'Search For' field.
➄ Update : Records
Option Description
All All records in the data source will be updated.
Panel Selection Only the records selected in the panel will be updated.
UPDATING THE DATA

SOURCE
!
Before updating your data source, you must first
update the contents of the panel (see above).
Once the panel has been synchronized with the document, the
original data source can be updated. The source of the data will
determine how it is updated.
Select ‘Update Data Source’ to update the original source of the

data.
File-based data
A file ‘Save As’ dialog will be displayed. In the normal manner, enter
a file name and select where you would like the file to be saved. The
format of the file will be the same as the original input format.
Database (ODBC) data
EasyCatalog also tracks the fields that have been updated - those
that were changed in the panel. The fields that will be updated are
shown with a blue dashed outline in the EasyCatalog data panel.
Only the fields that have been changed will be updated on the database
- resulting in faster update times through fewer transactions.
Only fields that have an update statement
!
configured will be updated on the database.
Ensure that the 'Update Using Statement' check
box is set in the Field Options.
An update SQL statement must be configured for each of the fields

that will be updated. Further information on this can be found in the
manual that accompanies the ODBC Data Provider.

PAGINATION BASICS
CHAPTER 8
PAGINATION BASICS
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog offers a number of pagination options - from the simple
insertion of single fields into text, right through to designing complex
‘Product Styles’ and the automatic creation of page content.
‘EasyCatalog Libraries’ extend the functionality of InDesign libraries,

and allow dynamic content to be used in the design. When an item
is dragged from an EasyCatalog Library to the page, the content for
the selected record is used to paginate it.
Through intelligent tracking of content, EasyCatalog can identify

those fields that are placed, if their content is up-to-date and, if not,
update it.
SINGLE FIELD The simplest of all pagination options, a single field can be inserted
by simply selecting the desired field in the EasyCatalog panel and
INSERTION
hitting the ‘insert’ button.
Only one field should be selected in the EasyCatalog panel, as a

multiple-field selection will insert a simple table (see below).
The current document selection will determine whether the field text
is inserted, or a picture imported for the field.
Hit the ‘Insert’ button to insert the currently selected panel

field(s) into the document. The number of fields selected in
the panel, and the current document selection will affect the
behavior of this button.
Inserting text
If there is a valid text insertion point in the document, the field content
will be inserted. This method is useful for constructing documents
where records do not appear in a structured manner and field text
must be inserted into normal text runs.
Any character style sheet which has been defined for a field (in Field
Options) will be applied to the field text.
Green ‘Field Marker’ characters will also be inserted around the field
content - these markers are non-printing and are used to designate
where the field content is in the document. After a document
synchronization, these field markers will appear in red when the
document content does not match the data source content (see
‘Synchronizing’).

PAGINATION BASICS
SINGLE FIELD Insertion point

INSERTION
(CONTINUED)
Ensure that there is a valid text insertion point, select a single field in the
EasyCatalog panel and hit the insert widget.
The field has been inserted

into the document, enclosed
in green field markers. If
a style sheet has been
specified in the Field Options
dialog, it will be applied to
the inserted text.
If the ‘Dynamically Update Panel’ preference is

set, the field will be shown in green in the panel
Working with Field Markers
Field markers are non printing and are zero-width, and are used to
track the content of fields in the document.
Individual field marker characters can not be deleted - they can only
be removed if both the start and end marker characters are included
in the selection.
Field content is shown between green, or red, field markers in the document
Field marker characters can only be deleted if the entire field is selected. As
this selection range does not encompass the entire field, the start field marker
character will not be deleted
All characters other than the marker character have been deleted.

PAGINATION BASICS
SINGLE FIELD Inserting Pictures
INSERTION If an empty picture frame is selected, the picture will be imported for
(CONTINUED) the selected field.
An empty picture frame

must be selected
➀ Select a field to insert

➁ Hit the insert button
The content of the field determines the name of the picture file that
will be imported. To find the picture file, EasyCatalog will attempt to
import the image from the following locations:
• If the field contains a full path to an image, it will be imported from

this location
• The ‘Content Location’ folder defined in Field Options will be

checked to see if a file with the same name as the field content
exists. If not, the ‘file extension’ will be appened to the filename
and EasyCatalog will attempt to import again.
• The ‘Images’ folder inside of the workspace folder:

Inside of your ‘Workspace Folder’ is another folder for each of
the data sources currently open. Within that folder is an ‘Images’
folder, where images for the data source can be stored.
Missing Images
In the event of the image file not being found in any of the above
locations, the ‘Replacement Image’ image will be imported (if
specified in Field Options). In the event of the ‘Replacement Image’,
or no image, being imported, the field will be shown as being in error
in the document and in the panel.

PAGINATION BASICS
SINGLE FIELD
INSERTION
(CONTINUED)
If the picture can be found, it will be imported, aligned and scaled as defined by
the Field Options
The frame shows the key for the record

- again, Field Markers will be shown in
green or red
i
If the correct image for a field can not be found, the
‘Replacement Image’ specified in Field Options
will be used.
SHOWING AND The appearance of the field markers when designing your document
can be specified using the ‘Show/Hide Field Marker’ panel menu
HIDING FIELD
option. This viewing preference is a document-based preference
MARKERS - therefore, the visibility setting of the markers will remain with the
document.
The visibility of the field markers does not affect EasyCatalog’s ability
to update document content, or the user’s ability to delete them - the
markers are there, but invisible.
Field Markers will also not show when viewing your document in
‘Preview’ mode or on frames when “Hide Frame Edges” has been
used.

PAGINATION BASICS
LINKING A Field Adoption allows fields on a document to be associated to a new

data source. All fields in a document, or only fields on the ‘active’
DOCUMENT TO A
layer, can be relinked to a new data source.
NEW DATA-SOURCE
As fields are re-linked based on their names, it is important that
(FIELD ADOPTION)
your new data source contains fields of the same name as the data
source that was used to create the document. Also note that fields
are associated to new records based on their key, so it is also a
requirement that the new data source contains data with the same
key fields.
Relinking Fields
➲ Open your document
Open the document that was created with your old data source.
Fields in this document will be re-linked to a new data source.
➲ Create your new Data Source
Either create your new data source, or open the panel that you want
to link the document to.
Records from the new data source should contain
! fields with the same names as the original data

source, and use the same key fields.
➲ Select ‘Adopt Fields’ from the panel’s popout menu
Only fields on the active layer will be adopted
Fields in the document will be linked to the new data source - fields
which were relinked correctly will be shown as green or red in the
new panel.
Fields shown in red need updating in the document, so you should

either correct them manually or use one of the ‘Update Document’
options.

PAGINATION BASICS
REPLACING FIELD EasyCatalog allows the content of one field to be substituted with the
content of another from the same data source. Field replacement is
CONTENT
useful for producing multiple versions of the same document, using
different pricing for instance.
Replacing Fields
➲ Open your document
➲ Select ‘Replace Fields...’ from the

panel’s popout menu.
➲ Specify the field to search

for and the field to replace it
with.
The panel will update to show that the old field (the ‘Search For’ field)
has been replaced with the new field (the ‘Replace With’ field). Only
fields on unlocked layers will be replaced.
REMOVING FIELD To remove field markers from the document - effectively unlinking it
from the data - use the ‘Remove Field Markers’ menu.
MARKERS
!
Removing Field Markers breaks the link between
the document and the data permanently.
All
All Field Markers will be removed from the document.
From Panel Selection

Field Markers will be removed from all occurrences of the fields
selected in the document.
From Document Selection

The Field Markers in the current document selection will be
removed.

PAGINATION BASICS
MARKUP FIELD If you need to link existing document content to a field in the panel,
use the ‘Markup Field’ keyboard short-cut.
Use the Keyboard Shortcuts editor (Edit→Keyboard Shortcuts) to assign a

keyboard shortcut to EasyCatalog’s ‘Markup Field’ operation. This is listed
under the ‘EasyCatalog’ product area.
Select a field in the panel and the content in the document to link to
Use the keyboard short-cut assigned above to link the document content to the
selected field

TEMPLATES AND LIBRARIES
CHAPTER 9

INTRODUCTION You have already seen how EasyCatalog can bring dynamic content
to documents by inserting fields into text, tables and picture boxes.
For publications that require templates to be designed in advance and

for automatic pagination, EasyCatalog can also help - by showing
where fields should appear and the style in which they should appear,
EasyCatalog can automatically import and format data content.
DATA EasyCatalog uses ‘Field Specifiers’ - special fields in templates and

libraries that define where, and how, a field should appear when
PLACEHOLDERS
paginated.
(FIELD SPECIFIERS)
During the pagination process, Field Specifiers are replaced with field
content - any styling information that has been applied to the Field
Specifier will be retained in the paginated field content. Populated
Field Specifiers are then tracked in the same way as normal fields.
Field Specifiers are not linked to a data source - they simply specify
the name of a field to use. Therefore, templates and libraries can be
used with multiple data sources, provided the field names exist in
each of the data sources.
Field Specifiers have been designed to have as little impact as

possible on the design process.

INSERTING FIELD To insert a Field Specifier, select the required field from the ‘Field
Specifiers’ menu on the EasyCatalog panel. The current document
SPECIFIERS
selection will determine the behaviour of this menu option:
The current document selection determines how a Field Specifier will be inserted
into the document.
If there is a valid text insertion point,

If an empty graphic frame is selected,
a text-based Field Specifier will be
it will be tagged for graphic importing.
inserted
A text-based Field Specifier behaves

like a standard EasyCatalog field, but
A frame-based Field Specifier shows
is enclosed in blue marker characters.
the name of the field that will be used
As will be shown later, the text content
to populate the graphic frame.
of the specifier determines the
formatting of the final field content.
To quickly insert Field Specifiers, hold the CTRL
i key (Windows) or Apple key (Macintosh) whilst

double-clicking in the column header in the
panel.
Text Field Specifiers
A text-based ‘Field Specifier’ will be inserted into the text at the

current insertion point.
Field Specifiers behave in exactly the same way as normal fields,

except they are surrounded by blue Field Marker characters. The
Field Marker characters can not be deleted in isolation - the entire
‘Field Specifier’ must be removed from the document.

INSERTING FIELD A Field Specifier is a place-holder that shows EasyCatalog where, and how,
SPECIFIERS fields should appear when paginated
(CONTINUED)
During pagination, the ‘Description’ field will appear here. All formatting settings,
such as font and size will be retained.
The Field Specifier has been replaced by a standard EasyCatalog field after
pagination which is tracked in exactly the same manner as other fields.
The default content of a text-based Field Specifier is the field’s

name, and its default style is the Character Style sheet that has been
defined in the Field Options.
During pagination, the text content of the Field Specifier tag will be
merged with the field that is being placed. This merging process
offers a further powerful level of control over formatting, which is
best explained using the example shown below.

INSERTING FIELD
SPECIFIERS
(CONTINUED)
The content of the Field Specifier is largely unimportant - during pagination,

the field content will be merged with the content of the Field Specifier. This
helps to preserve any formatting that may have been applied.
Here, we are ‘showing’ EasyCatalog how a typical price should appear. The
last three characters (‘.99’) have superscript applied, although any character
formatting including font and size changes could have been used.
The field content ‘£13.20’ was The field content ‘£29.99’ was
merged with the content already in merged with the content already
the document ‘9999.99’. By only in the document ‘9999.99’. Here,
replacing the characters it needed EasyCatalog simply replaced the initial
to, EasyCatalog has preserved the ‘999’ with ‘£2’.
formatting of the field.

INSERTING FIELD Picture Field Specifiers
SPECIFIERS The frame will be tagged with the name of the selected field. During
(CONTINUED) pagination of a record, the picture for each tagged frame will be
imported. The importing of pictures for Field Specifiers behaves in
exactly the same way as inserting a field directly into a picture box.
The preferences used, such as alignment and scaling options, will be

taken from the Field Options for the field being paginated.
Frame-based Field Specifiers are place-holders to show where pictures should

be imported for a record. The field name shown on the frame is replaced by the
record’s key
CONVERTING FIELD Field Markers in the current document selection can be converted to
Field Specifiers using the ‘Convert to Field Specifiers’ menu option.
MARKERS TO FIELD
SPECIFIERS Text Field Markers
The text content between the blue marker characters will be replaced
with the field name.
Picture Field Markers
The picture frame will update to show the name of the field; any
image inside of the box will be removed.
Use the ‘Convert to Field Specifier’ menu to convert Field Markers to Field
Specifiers
The content of text Field Specifier is replaced with the field name; picture Field
Specifiers show the field name and any image content is removed.

DESIGNING A An EasyCatalog template is simply an InDesign document containing

Field Specifiers where content should appear. Therefore, design your
TEMPLATE
template document using standard InDesign tools, inserting Field
Specifiers where record content should appear.
All boxes that should be populated with fields for a single record
should be placed in the same InDesign group (using the Object→Group
menu)- this grouping identifies to EasyCatalog the boxes that make-
up individual records. This step is critical to ensuring that EasyCatalog
uses the same record when populating individual fields in the group.
This grouping is referred to as a ‘Product Style’.
Create the Product Style using standard InDesign tools, placing Field Specifiers
where field content should appear.
The ‘Description’ field will appear here - the

paragraph and character attributes will be
All of these boxes retained after pagination
should be grouped to
show EasyCatalog that
they all form part of the
same Product Style
Here, a frame-based
Field Specifier has
been used. The scaling,
alignment and other
field options for the
‘Stock Code’ field will
be used to import the
picture. Field Specifiers can appear anywhere text can -
here they are inside an InDesign table
A number of Product Styles can also be grouped together to assist

with paginating multiple records in one step. For example, if four
individual Product Styles are grouped together, it is possible to
paginate all four styles in one step by dragging four records to any
box in the grouping.

POPULATING A A template can be paginated by either dragging individual or multiple

records to a Product Style on the template. The grouping of Product
TEMPLATE
Styles is critical when attempting to paginate multiple records at
once.
Dragging Individual Records
Drag a single record to any box in the Product Style. The Field
Specifiers will be replaced with field content (in the case of text-
based Field Specifiers), and pictures will be imported (for frame-
based Field Specifiers).
Select the record to

be paginated in the
EasyCatalog panel, and
drag it to any of the
boxes in the Product
Style
Dr
Boxes for the Product Style ag
are grouped - if they are not,
only the box dragged to will be
populated with record data
The Field Specifiers

have been replaced
with standard
EasyCatalog fields.
Dragging Multiple Records
Multiple Product Styles in the document can be populated in a single

drag using the ‘Position Index’ Pagination Rule. Further information
on this can be found in the Pagination Rules Reference chapter. The
Pagination Rules panel is only available with the optional Pagination
Module.

EASYCATALOG EasyCatalog brings dynamic content to InDesign libraries by allowing

Field Specifiers to be used in library designs. When dragging a library
LIBRARIES
item to the page, the Field Specifiers will be replaced with the content
for the currently-selected record(s) in the EasyCatalog panel.
EasyCatalog Libraries allow a number of Product Styles to be

defined and stored in standard InDesign libraries. Using EasyCatalog
Libraries allows complex, module-based pages to be created quickly.
The selection of each individual module can be made by the user at
pagination time.
Creating an EasyCatalog Library
An EasyCatalog Library can be created by:
• Selecting ‘New EasyCatalog Library’ from the File→New menu
• Creating a standard InDesign library, or opening an existing

one, and setting the ‘EasyCatalog Library’ menu option - when
EasyCatalog is loaded a new menu option, ‘EasyCatalog Library’
will be shown on each library’s panel menu. The ‘EasyCatalog
Library’ setting will be preserved with the library file.
Select File→New→EasyCatalog Library to create an EasyCatalog Library.
When EasyCatalog is loaded, each

InDesign library offers a new menu
option - ‘EasyCatalog Library’ - this
must be checked to enable to Field
Specifiers to be automatically replaced
when library items are dragged to the
document.

WORKING WITH Designing Your Product Style
EASYCATALOG ➀ Design a single Product Style in the document, using the standard
LIBRARIES InDesign tools and inserting Field Specifiers for each of the fields
that should appear. Product Styles are designed in the same way
as for templates (above).
➁ Drag the Product Style to the EasyCatalog Library - it is usually

better to group the boxes in the Product Style before dragging it
to the EasyCatalog Library, as it will be easier to identify a Product
Style in the document after pagination.
➀ Create your Product Style in

the document in the same way as
when creating a template
Dr
➁ Drag the group in

ag
to the EasyCatalog
Library.
➂ The Product Style

is now stored in the
library.
EasyCatalog Libraries behave in the same way as InDesign libraries - multiple

library assets can be stored in a single library

WORKING WITH Paginating the Style
EASYCATALOG ➀ Ensure that the ‘EasyCatalog Library’ menu option is set on the
LIBRARIES library.
(CONTINUED) ➁ Select the record that should be used to populate the library item
in one of the EasyCatalog panels.
➂ Drag the required library item to the page. When dropped, each
Field Specifier in the library item will be replaced with field content
in exactly the same way as paginating a template (above).
➀ Select the record that should be

used to populate the library item
Dr
➁ Drag the library item ag
to the document - when
dropped in the document, Field
Specifiers will be replaced with
the selected record content

ASSOCIATING Product Styles can also be associated, and stored against, individual
records from the data source. This association allows the decision of
PRODUCT STYLES
how a record should appear to be made early on in the production
WITH RECORDS process, and the actual pagination can occur much later - even by a
different user.
Drag
To associate this Product Style to

a record in the list, simply drag it
from the document to the row in
the panel.
The row’s status column

updates to show the record
has associated geometry
This record can now be paginated by dragging from the status column to the
document
Drag
The Product Style is populated in the same way as dragging from an

EasyCatalog Library
Once a Product Style been associated with the record, pagination is

simply the reverse process. Click in the status column and drag the
record to the page - the drag and drop process will behave exactly
like dragging from an EasyCatalog Library. Once the page items have
been dropped on the page, any Field Specifiers in the style will be
populated with field content for the record.

PAGINATION
ATTRIBUTES
i These advanced pagination options are
only available with the optional EasyCatalog
Pagination module.
The Pagination Rules panel can be used to apply attributes to each

box in a Product Style.
➲ The Pagination Rules panel shows the

attributes applied to the current document
selection. If the panel is not visible, show
it by using the Window→Pagination Rules
menu.
The most commonly-used attributes are shown below, and these

apply whether using the automated pagination provided by the
Pagination Module or during drag and drop operations.
Further information on using the Pagination Rules panel to apply

attributes can be found in the ‘Pagination Attribute Reference’
chapter.
AUTOMATICALLY The size of text and picture boxes can be automatically adjusted to
fit their content by applying the ‘Fitting’ attribute from the Pagination
ADJUSTING THE SIZE
Rules panel.
OF BOXES
The box can be resized horizontally, vertically or in both directions.
DELETING BOXES Boxes within the Product Style can be deleted based on the contents
of one of the fields being used to populate the style.
By applying an ‘Action’ from the Pagination Rules panel it is possible

to define a rule whereby one or more boxes in the style will be deleted
when the value of one of your data fields matches a predefined
condition.
BRINGING BOXES TO The z-order of boxes can also be adjusted by applying an Action
from the Pagination Rules panel. This option is useful where you
THE FRONT
have multiple boxes defined in your style, but only want one to be
visible (by bringing it to the front) based on the contents of one of
your fields.

TABLES
CHAPTER 10
TABLES
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog offers a number of options to insert tabular content
into the document. Records and fields are inserted into the table in
the order they are shown in the panel, so by re-ordering and sorting
the data you can define how you want your table to appear before
placing it in the document.
SIMPLE TABLES Simple tables are ideal for situations where you want to quickly insert
a table and manually reformat it later. Inserting a table is as easy
as selecting the records and fields to insert in the panel and hitting
the ‘insert’ button. The CS3, CS4 and CS5 versions of EasyCatalog
apply the default table style ‘[Basic Table]’ to the inserted table.
Inserting a new table
➀ Use the sorting and filtering options to re-order your data.
Prior to inserting your table, you need to ensure that the data in your
panel is in the order you would like it to appear in the table. For
example, if you want your records to be inserted in ascending price
order ensure that the panel is sorted by the price field.
When inserting the table EasyCatalog will create columns of the

same proportion as the columns in the panel.
➁ Select the fields to insert in the table
➂ Ensure you have a text insertion point
New tables can only be inserted when you have a valid text insertion
point that is not within an existing table.
➃ Hit the ‘Insert’ button
Column widths are created in the same proportions as in the panel
Table headers
are automatically
created using
the names of the
selected fields

TABLES
SIMPLE TABLES Inserting into an existing table

(CONTINUED) When the insertion point is within an existing document table, data
from the panel will be inserted into it. As much data as possible will
be inserted into the table - it will not have additional rows or columns
added to accommodate the amount of data being used.
Insertion point
The data from the panel has been inserted into the document table:
These fields have not been placed due to insufficient space in the table

TABLES
EASYCATALOG EasyCatalog also allows the use of tables within Product Styles.
TABLES EasyCatalog will expand or contract the table to accommodate the

number of records being paginated, whilst retaining (as much as
possible) the original design.
DESIGNING THE As with all Product Style components, design the table using the
standard InDesign tools - apply cell and row attributes as necessary,
TABLE
and insert Field Specifiers into the table cells where field content
should eventually appear. Again, attributes can also be applied to the
Field Specifiers to adjust the appearance of the fields.
Header rows will be populated with data for the first record used in the table
Use Field Specifiers where field

content should appear in the
Footer rows will be populated with
table. The body of the table will
data for the first record used in the
be expanded or contracted to
table
accommodate the amount of data
being used to populate the table
Field Specifiers included in the header and footer rows will be

populated with the fields from the first record being used to populate
the table.
Records are inserted into the table in the order in which they appear
in the panel - therefore, ensure that the records in the panel are sorted
in the order that they should populate the table. See ‘Simple Tables’,
above, for more information on configuring the panel.
By default, EasyCatalog assumes that each row will contain a single

record. This is only the case, however, where table cells do not span
multiple rows. All rows spanned by merged cells will be populated
with the same record.

TABLES
DESIGNING THE Where a table row contains cells that have been merged vertically, all rows
TABLE spanned by the merged cell(s) will be populated with data for the same record.
(CONTINUED) These cells have been merged vertically
Although these Field Specifiers are on different table rows, they will be
populated with data for the same record
Tables can also be populated by dragging a group from the panel to the
document. The table will be populated with all records within the group.

TABLES
POPULATING THE EasyCatalog Tables can be used in template documents and may
also form part of an EasyCatalog Library item.
TABLE
Tables within Templates
Select all of the records that should populate the table - groups can
also be selected, in which case the table will be populated with all
records within the group(s). To populate the table, simply drag the
records/groups from the panel to the document.
i Records can only be dragged to the document

from the left-most, status, column of the panel.
If the table forms part of a Product Style grouping, drag all of the
records that should populate the table to any box in the group. Any
fields that are outside of the table, including in a different box, will be
populated with the fields from the first record.
To populate the table, drag the records from the panel to the document
DR
AG
The Field Specifiers in the table have been replaced with field content, and
the table has been expanded to accommodate the amount of data dragged

TABLES
POPULATING THE Tables within EasyCatalog Libraries
TABLE Select all of the records (in the panel) that should be used to populate
(CONTINUED) the table. When the library item is dragged to the document, any
EasyCatalog tables in the item will be populated with all of the
selected records - any fields outside of the table will be populated
with the fields for the first selected record.
If the table is part of a Product Style stored in an EasyCatalog library, it will be

populated with all of the records selected in the panel prior to dragging to the
document
DR
AG
The table has been populated with all of the records selected in the panel
ADVANCED TABLE Properties can also be assigned to table cells, rows and columns
that allow you to define additional behaviours that affect how the
OPTIONS
table will appear after pagination. For example, using the Row
Options, the grouping hierarchy of the EasyCatalog data panel can
be inserted into a table by including header and footer rows for each
group.
Advanced table options are intended to

dramatically speed-up production of complex
tables. As some attributes cause the structure
! of the table to be changed, such as deleting

columns and merging cells, it may not always
be possible to later re-populate the table with
different records.

TABLES
GROUP HEADER AND The hierarchy or grouping of the EasyCatalog data panel can also be
used to populate a table. Rows can be inserted at the start and end
FOOTER ROWS
of each group defined in the panel using the ‘Table→Row Options’
dialog:
Table Row Options

This table row will be populated with data for an individual record, and will be
repeated to accommodate the number of records being paginated
Group Header and Footer Rows

This row will be populated with group data
➂ ➁ ➀
By default, each row in the table will be populated with data for the
records shown in the panel.
Using the ‘Row Options’ dialog, you can tell EasyCatalog that the
selected row(s) in the table should appear once per group, at the
start of the group (as a header) or at the end of each group in the
table (as a footer) using the ‘Insert’ pop-up ➁.
➀ Group Menu
Select the point in the grouping hierarchy where this row should
appear. For example, if you require a header row at the start of each
‘Manufacturer’ group select ‘Manufacturer’ in the pop-up.
➂ Allow Single Instances
Using this option, you can configure EasyCatalog to include the

group row even if there is only one instance of the group in the table.
For example, this option can be used to prevent a ‘Manufacturer’
heading from appearing in the table when there is only data for one
manufacturer in the table.

TABLES
GROUP HEADER AND Group Header Row Example

FOOTER ROWS Use the ‘Table→Row Options’ dialog to apply properties to the table row:
(CONTINUED)
Here we are defining this table row as

being a group header row: for each
new ‘Manufacturer’ group this row will
be inserted into the table.
Turn off ‘Allow Single Instances’

to prevent the header row from
appearing in tables that contain only
one group.
The header row has not been inserted, as the table only contains data for a single
manufacturer

TABLES
REMOVING EMPTY Table rows can be removed from the table if they are empty or the
fields they contain are empty.
ROWS
➀➁ ➂
Delete... Description
➀ Never The row will not be deleted after population.
➁ When Fields The row will be deleted only if the EasyCatalog fields in the
Are Empty column are empty, even if there is other text in the cells.
➂ When Cells Are Every cell in the row must be completely empty for the it to
Empty be deleted.
AUTOMATICALLY Adjacent table cells can be merged together if their content matches
after being populated with data.
MERGING CELLS
Using the ‘Table→Cell Options’ dialog, each cell can be configured to
merge horizontally and/or vertically.
Table Cell Options

At pagination time, table cells can be merged horizontally and vertically if the
content in an adjacent cell matches exactly

TABLES
AUTOMATICALLY Vertical Cell Merging Example
MERGING CELLS Cells can be merged automatically if their contents match exactly.
(CONTINUED) Without cell merging:
With cell merging:
Merging Vertically across Groups
Cells will not merge across the groups configured in the EasyCatalog
panel, regardless of whether group rows have been inserted into the
table.
Table cells will not be merged vertically across different groups. In this example,
the bottom cell was not merged into the cells above because it belongs to a
different group in the panel.

TABLES
REMOVING EMPTY When a column is empty, it can be automatically removed using

properties available from the ‘Table→Column Options’ menu.
COLUMNS
Removal of Empty Columns
After being populated with data, columns can be removed if they are empty.
Other columns in the table can be optionally resized to fill the space of the deleted
column(s).
➀
➀ Delete
The options here determine when the column will be deleted, and
what constitutes a column being considered to be empty:
Delete... Description
The column will never be deleted automatically after
Never
pagination.
When Fields Are The column will be deleted only if the EasyCatalog fields in
Empty the column are empty, even if there is other text in the cells.
When Cells Are Every cell in the column must be completely empty for the
Empty column to be deleted.
Each cell in this column contains an EasyCatalog field and

the text ‘inc VAT’.
‘When Fields Are Empty’ will only check the contents of the
EasyCatalog fields in the column (it will ignore any other cell
content). In this example, the column would be deleted.
‘When Cells Are Empty’ checks the entire contents of the

cells in the column. In this example, the column would not
be deleted as each cell contains the text ‘inc VAT’.

TABLES
REMOVING EMPTY Collapsing Columns Example
COLUMNS
The last three columns in this
(CONTINUED)
example have been set to delete
when all fields in the column are
empty.
The width of this column will

expand to fill the space left by the
deleted column(s).
Using these attributes, it is possible to populate the table with data that contains
a variable number of columns. In this example, there are two groups: one
contains data in all three price columns, one contains data in only the first two
This group contains

data in all three price
columns.
This group does not

contain any data in the
10+ column.
Populated with first group with all three columns:
Populated with second group with only two columns:

Column has been
Column has
expanded to fill space of
been deleted
deleted column

TABLES
AUTOMATICALLY Columns can also be automatically resized to fit their content:
RESIZING COLUMNS
Width Description
Fixed The column will never be resized.
The option is only used when columns have been deleted from
Variable the table (see above). Each ‘variable’ column will received an
equal proportion of the width of the deleted columns.
The column will be resized to fit its content between the
minimum and maximum parameters. If the column cannot be
Fit to Content
resized to fit the amount of text, it will be given a width that is
proportional to the amount of text in the column.
The width of the column will be set to the value specified by
Specified By Field
the nominated field.
Except when using the ‘Specified by Field’ option, the width of the
table will not exceed the width of the original table prototype.

TABLES
AUTOMATICALLY
APPLYING CELL
!
This functionality is not available in the CS2 version
STYLES of EasyCatalog.
Cell styles can be automatically applied to table cells based on the

content of one of the fields for the record being used to populate the
table row.
Automatically Applying Cell Styles
Select the field that contains the name of the cell style to apply to the selected
table cells.
The cell style is only applied when the table is first

paginated. If the content of the nominated cell
! style field changes, the new cell style will not be
applied during an ‘Update Document’ operation.

AUTOMATIC PAGINATION
CHAPTER 11
i These advanced pagination options are only available with the optional EasyCatalog
Pagination module.
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog provides advanced pagination features to allow many

hundreds of records to be paginated into the document in one
operation. By providing an EasyCatalog Library of Product Styles,
along with a series of simple rules, EasyCatalog is able to make
decisions during pagination to determine which Product Style to use.
PAGINATION STAGES Configuring EasyCatalog for automatic pagination requires three

stages, each of which is covered in further detail later:
➀ Configure the panel to reflect the structure of your publication,

including the correct hierarchy
• Acquire or import your source data
Optionally:
• Filter your data to show only the records you would like to
paginate
• Group your data so that the panel represents the logical

structure of your publication. For example, if your publication
is arranged by Manufacturer, Make, and Model for instance,
you would group the panel by Manufacturer, Make, and
Model
• Sort your data so that the records are shown in the order that
you would like them to flow into the document
➁ Create your Product Styles
• Create an EasyCatalog Library that contains the Product Styles

to use during pagination. Multiple library items can be included
in this library – for example, you could have a Product Style for
a Manufacturer heading, a Product Style header for Make, etc.
➂ Paginate
• Use the ‘Paginate…’ menu to begin the automatic pagination.

Four different pagination types are available, depending on the
type of publication being produced and the available data.

TYPES OF EasyCatalog currently offers four types of pagination:
PAGINATION ’Into Text Flow’
Product Styles are inserted, one after the other, into an InDesign text
flow. A Product Style can be inserted for each group and/or record
shown in the panel’s hierarchy.
These Product Styles are inserted as anchored boxes (where the

style contains more than one box) or as text (where the style contains
one text box). This type of pagination is the most widely used and
is suitable for all publications where records simply flow into the
document one after another.
‘At Positions Specified in the Data’
Where your data contains positional data, such as a page number,

x and y co-ordinates, EasyCatalog can use this information to
automatically position Product Styles in the document.
‘At Page Guide Positions’
Product Styles can be automatically placed at the intersection of

guides on each page. This option is useful for publications that
follow a fairly rigid, grid-based, layout or where the paginated
Product Styles will require some manual alteration once pagination
has completed.
‘Using Master Pages’
‘Master Pages’ pagination uses Product Styles placed on master

pages. The positions of the Product Styles are predetermined by the
master page, the order that the items flow into the master page is
defined by the ‘Position Index’ pagination attribute.

➀ CONFIGURE THE By utilising EasyCatalog’s filtering, grouping and sorting features,

you can configure an EasyCatalog panel to show both the structure
PANEL
and running order of records in the document. By thinking of the
EasyCatalog panel as a preview of your final publication, you can
experiment with grouping, sorting and filtering to determine the flow
of records into the document.
Determine the running order of records using EasyCatalog’s filtering, sorting and
grouping features
‘Parent Category’ group

‘Child Category’ group
➀➁ ➂ ➃
During pagination, EasyCatalog will:
➀ Look in the pagination library for an item that can be used to paginate the
‘Parent Category’ group. If one exists, it will paginated and populated with
the contents of this group.
➁ Look for a library item that can be used to paginate the ‘Child Category’
group. If one exists, it will paginated with the contents of this group.
➂ Look for a Product Style that has been configured to be populated with
‘Record Data’. This Product Style will paginated for each record, so in the
example shown above three Product Styles would be inserted.
➃ Continue paginating the other ‘Child Category’ groups (and records

contained within each). Once all Child Categories have been paginated, the
process will begin again for the next ‘Parent Category’.

➀ CONFIGURE THE Acquire or import source data
PANEL Import your data using ‘File→New→EasyCatalog Panel’. This is

(CONTINUED) covered in detail in Chapter 2, ‘Importing’.
The level of automation that is possible with EasyCatalog Pagination

largely depends on the quality of the source data – for example,
it should be possible from your data to correctly group the panel
(if necessary) to reflect the structure of your publication. Also,
EasyCatalog can only automatically choose the correct Product
Style to use if this information is available in your data.
Filter your data
Use the ‘Subset…’ menu (Chapter 6, ‘Filtering’) to show only the

records that your would like to paginate. This stage is optional,
although it makes pagination easier when your data snapshot
contains thousands of records.
Group your Data
This stage is also optional, and should be used when your data
should appear hierarchically in the publication. If your data is not
hierarchical, you may skip this step – your Pagination Library should
also only contain a ‘Paginate → Record Data’ Product Style.
Use the ‘Group…’ menu option to create a grouping that represents

the logical structure of your document. For example, if you require:
• Manufacturer Heading
• Make Heading
• Products
Use the ‘Group Configuration’ (see Chapter 5, ‘EasyCatalog Panels’)

dialog to construct a hierarchy of Manufacturer, Make.
Use the ‘Grouping Configuration’ dialog to group your data to reflect the
hierarchical structure of your publication.

➀ CONFIGURE THE As will be shown later, it is possible to create Product Styles that will
be used at each level in the grouping hierarchy – so, for example, you
PANEL
(CONTINUED) could create a Product Style for a Manufacturer heading, one for a
Make heading, etc. It is also possible to use a different heading style
based on an indicator in your data.
Sort your Data
If your data also requires further sorting, use the panel sorting
options to create the correct running order of records (see Chapter
5, ‘EasyCatalog Panels’)
➁ CREATE YOUR Product Styles used during automatic pagination are created in the
same manner as normal, drag and drop Product Styles (see Chapter
PRODUCT STYLES
9, ‘Templates and Libraries’). When using Product Styles during
automatic pagination however, further attributes need to be applied
that identify when a Product Style should be used (at what level in
the hierarchy, for example) and whether any post-processing should
occur, such as resizing boxes. These attributes are applied to the
Product Style using the ‘Pagination Rules’ panel which is available
from the ‘Window’ menu.
Creating a Library for Automatic Pagination
A Pagination Library is a standard InDesign library containing

EasyCatalog Product Styles – Product Styles need to be defined for
each of the levels in the grouping hierarchy you want to paginate.
During pagination, EasyCatalog can determine which Product Style
to use based on attributes applied using the ‘Pagination Rules’
panel.
➲ Create a new library – this can

be a standard InDesign library or
an EasyCatalog Library
Create your Product Styles (see Chapter 9, ‘Templates and Libraries’).

You need to create all of the Product Styles that are necessary to
automatically paginate your records and groups.

➁ CREATE YOUR Inserting one Product Style per record

PRODUCT STYLES Product Styles can be defined that will be used each time a record in
(CONTINUED) the panel should be paginated.
Tables
If a ‘Record Data’ Product Style contains a table, one table per

record will be inserted into the document, not one row per record. If
you require a single table to be inserted containing multiple records,
define a Product Style that’s populated with the parent group’s data.
Record Product Styles
The lowest-level
Product Style, this will
be used to paginate
individual records
Inserting a Product Style for each group shown in the panel
Group Headers are created by defining a Product Style with the

Pagination Rule ‘Paginate’ set to ‘Group Data’. The ‘Group Label’
attribute should contain the name of the field used to group the data
in the ‘Grouping Configuration’ dialog.
A ‘Group Data’ Product Style will be inserted at the beginning of

pagination for each group being paginated.
Group Product Styles / Group Headers
We want to insert a
header each time a
‘Parent Category’ group
should be inserted
Similarly, we want to
insert a header for each
‘Child Category’ group
Tables
If a ‘Group Data’ Product Style contains a table, it will be populated

with all records within the group.

➂ PAGINATE
➲ Select the records or groups to
paginate. Now choose ‘Paginate…’
from your EasyCatalog Panel pop-out
menu.
The Pagination Dialog

If the pagination type requires a pagination libary, specify it here using the
‘Choose’ button.
Choose the type of pagination to use
TEXT FLOW Mainly used for publications where records flow in one after another,
such as directories or price lists, Flow-based pagination will insert
PAGINATION
your Product Styles into an InDesign text flow.
‘Asset Name’
This option should be used when the source data contains a field
which identifies the name of a library item to use. Further information
on this can be found later in the chapter (‘Choosing Product Styles
based on Field Content’).
‘Restrict Vertical Cell Merging to Page Bounds’
When merging cells in tables vertically, EasyCatalog will not merge

the cells across page boundaries when this option is set.
‘Break on Field Change’ / ‘Break Type’
During pagination, when the value of nominated field changes

EasyCatalog will insert a column, frame or page break (as defined by
the ‘Break Type’ pop-up).

TEXT FLOW ‘Use Item Geometry’

PAGINATION If you have associated a Product Style
(CONTINUED)
with a record or group in the panel,
EasyCatalog will use this Product Style
in preference to those in the Pagination
Library.
Configuring Your Pagination Document
Flow-based pagination simply requires an InDesign text box to flow

your Product Styles into.
Automatically Inserting Pages
If you would like the Pagination Module to automatically insert pages

as required, you must paginate into a text frame that has been
overridden from your master page. Further information on working
with, and overriding, master page items can be found in InDesign’s
online help which is available from the Help menu.
Example of overriding a Master Text Frame
Select ‘Master Text Frame’ - this option will create a master text frame on the
A-Master
Override the text frame on Page 1
Macintosh: Hold down the Shift and Option (Apple) keys and click in this area
to override the master text box on the page.
Windows: Hold down Shift and Ctrl whilst clicking and click in this area to
override the master text box on the page.
Paginating into this overridden master text frame will allow the Pagination
Module to automatically insert new pages when required.

POSITIONAL Positional Pagination should be used when your source data contains
information regarding where each Product Style should appear in the
PAGINATION
document.
The options available here allow fields from your data source to be
associated with the attributes required to correctly position your
Product Styles.
Positional Pagination
Associate the attributes

EasyCatalog requires for
pagination with fields from
your data source
In this example, we are configuring EasyCatalog to use the ‘y’ field from the data
source to specify the vertical position of the Product Style - the ‘Units’ popup
indicates that any measurements in this field are in points. All measurements
are relative to the top-left of the page
Field Description
Select the field that contains the page number to position the
Page No
Product Style on.
Select the fields that contain the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical)
X Position
coordinates. Change the ‘Units’ popup to specify the units used
Y Position
in each of the fields.
Width These fields are optional, and should be specified if your Product
Height Styles can be resized
Select the field that contains the name of the item in the Pagination
Asset Name
Library to use.
The fields chosen for ‘Page No’, ‘X Position’,
! ‘Y Position’, ‘Width’ and ‘Height’ should be

defined as numeric in Field Options.
There are no special requirements for configuring a document

suitable for positional pagination. New pages will be inserted where
required by the data.

GUIDE-BASED Useful for publications that follow have a ‘grid’ type design, Product
Styles can be automatically positioned at the intersection of page
PAGINATION
guides.
Guide-based Pagination
Guide-based Pagination will position

Product Styles at the intersection of page
guides
Guide-Based Pagination
➀
➁
➂
➃
➄
➅ ➆➇➈
Automatically Inserting Pages
If you would like the Pagination module to insert more pages as

required, ensure that your page guides are defined on the master
page(s) for your document.

GUIDE-BASED ➀ ‘Direction of Flow’

PAGINATION Specify the order of how the Product Styles should flow onto the
(CONTINUED) page:
Direction of Flow
Across then Down Down then Across
Direction Description
Product Styles will flow horizontally across the page in the order
specified by the panel until there are no more valid positions. The
Across/Down
Product Styles will then flow across the page along the next valid
horizontal guide below.
Product Styles will flow vertically down the page in the order
specified in the panel until there are no more valid positions. The
Down/Across
Product Styles will then flow down the page along the next valid
vertical guide to the right.
➁ ‘Asset’
During pagination, EasyCatalog will use the Product Style specified

by the content of the field selected in the ‘Asset’ popup. For further
information, see ‘Choosing Library items based on Field Content’
below.
➂ Apply Master Named In
When pagination moves to a new page, the master page specified by

the contents of the selected field will be applied.
➃ Break on Field Change / ➄ Break Type
When the value of the specified field changes, EasyCatalog will

break to the next column, frame or page (as defined by the ‘Break
Type’ pop-up).

GUIDE-BASED ➅ Use next position if item doesn’t fit

PAGINATION If the Product Style does not fit inside the bounds of the page, the
(CONTINUED) next guide intersection will be used. If this option off, pagination will
stop with an error.
➆ Ignore Page Bounds
This option will allow Product Styles to be placed outside of the

bounds of the page. For example, if a guide intersection is near the
bottom of the page the Product Style will be allowed to encroach
onto the pasteboard.
➇ ‘Collision Detection’ / ➈ ‘Gutter’
Collision Detection will prevent EasyCatalog from positioning your

Product Styles over the top of existing page items, or Product Styles
that have already been paginated. Product Styles will not necessarily
be placed at page guide intersections: the page guide intersections
are used as a starting point for pagination, and Product Styles will
be positioned where possible without overlapping other page items.
The optional gutter parameter will ensure that sufficient space is left
between Product Styles and any obstructions found. This option is
only available when ‘Collision Detection’ is on.
Use InDesign’s page guides to create a grid of acceptable Product

Style positions.
Ensure that you define your pagination grid

! using page guides, not spread guides.
Ensure that page guides - not

spread guides - are placed on
your document’s master pages
Do not position guides here

as the Pagination Module will
attempt to place a Product Style
at these intersections.

CHOOSING PRODUCT During automatic pagination, the Pagination Module can select
which library item to use from the Pagination Library based on the
STYLES BASED ON
content of one of your fields in the data.
FIELD CONTENT
There are two ways of affecting the library item that is chosen:
Using the Asset Name field on the Pagination Dialog
On the ‘Paginate...’ dialog, select the the field that contains the name
of the library item to use.
Name each library item using the ‘Information’ button on the library panel. The
name of the library item should match the contents of one of your fields in the
data.
Specify the name of the field containing the library style name in the Pagination
dialog
Using the ‘Ignore’ Pagination Rule
If you have the Pagination Module installed, the Pagination Rule

‘Ignore’ can also be used to force the Pagination Module to ignore
a library item and choose another when paginating the document.
Further information can be found in the Pagination Reference section.

‘USING MASTER Unlike the other forms of pagination, instead of defining a series of
Product Styles in a Pagination Library, ‘Master Pages’ pagination
PAGES’ PAGINATION
uses Product Styles defined on the document’s master pages.
Both the Product Style - and their positions - are defined by the
document’s master pages. The order that the data flows into the
document is determined by applying the ‘Position Index’ attribute to
each Product Style.
Use ‘Position Index’ to specify the order of pagination on the master page
The order the records will flow into the page or spread is determined by the
‘Position Index’ pagination rule.
1 2 3
4 5 6
Product Styles are placed on the
7 8 9
document’s master pages.
10 11 12

‘USING MASTER Master Pages Pagination

PAGES’ PAGINATION
(CONTINUED)
➀
➁
➂
➀ Paginate
The document can either be paginated a page or spread at a time.
‘Page’-based pagination should be used when the Position Indexes

of the Product Styles do not run across multiple pages on the master
spread.
‘Spread’-based pagination should be used when the flow of data

should run across the spread.

‘USING MASTER Paginate Pages / Spreads

PAGES’ PAGINATION When paginating ‘Pages’, single pages will be inserted into the document when
(CONTINUED) required. Therefore, if using facing-pages masters, Position Indexes should not
run across the spread onto the next page.
1 2 3 1 2 3
4 5 6 4 5 6
7 8 9 7 8 9
10 11 12 10 11 12
If records or groups need to be paginated at positions across the spread, as

shown in this example, the ‘Spreads’ option should be used.
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24
When required a new page or spread will be inserted into the

document.
➁ Break On Field Change
When the content of the specified field changes, pagination will

continue on the next page or spread (depending on the setting
specified by ➀ above).
➂ Apply Master Named In
When pagination moves to a new page or spread, the master page

specified by the selected field will be applied.

‘USING MASTER Configuring Your Pagination Document

PAGES’ PAGINATION Product Styles should be placed on the pagination document’s
(CONTINUED) master pages. The position and running order of the Product Styles
is determined by the Position Index attribute specified on each style.
Multiple master pages can be configured, each with a different

configuration of Product Styles. When pagination moves to a new
page or spread a master page can be applied based on the contents
of one of the fields in the next record being paginated.
Use ‘Position Index’ to specify the order of pagination on the master page
The order the records will flow into the page or spread is determined by the
‘Position Index’ pagination rule.
1 2 3
4 5 6
The ‘Position Index’ attribute specifies
the order that the records or groups
in the panel will be paginated in the
document. If the panel is grouped,
this Product Style will be populated
with the first group selected in the
panel; if the panel is not grouped this Style will be populated with data for the first
7 8 9
record in the panel.
10 11 12

CREATING AN INDEX EasyCatalog provides the ability to update the source data with the
page number each record is placed on. Using this information, it is
possible to generate an index using the Pagination Module.
To generate an index, your source data will need
to include a field to receive the page number
the record is placed on. In most cases, this can
simply be an empty column.
After pagination, use the ‘Update Panel→With Page Numbers’ menu

to populate the page number column in the data. The panel can also
be updated with page number information from multiple documents
by storing them in an InDesign book. Further information on these
options can be found in the ‘Synchronizing’ chapter.
Once your panel contains the page number information, the

Pagination Module can be used to paginate this data into your index:
➀ Group and sort your data panel so that the records are shown in
the order you would like the index to appear in.
➁ Create a new Pagination Library containing a Product Style that

define how you would like each index entry to appear.
➂ Paginate your index - typically you would use the ‘Into Text Flow’
pagination type.
Alternatively, the index could be generated by dragging and dropping

the index data to a table prototype in the document.

PAGINATION ATTRIBUTE REFERENCE
CHAPTER 12
i The Pagination Rules panel is only available as part of the Pagination Module which
must be purchased separately.
INTRODUCTION This chapter provides a reference for the attributes available on the
Pagination Rules panel. Using this panel, it is possible to specify
both processing instructions (such as when to use a Product Style
during pagination) and layout instructions (such as fitting each box
to the depth of the text).
SHOWING THE ➲ If the ‘Pagination Rules’ panel is not visible,

PAGINATION RULES show it by selecting Pagination Rules from
PANEL the Window menu.
USING THE The Pagination Rules panel is split into two sections: the top portion
PAGINATION RULES shows the attributes assigned to the currently-selected box in the
document; the bottom section shows the ‘actions’ that have been
PANEL defined for the box.
The Pagination Rules Panel
Attributes
Actions
Attributes
Attributes are used to define options that are applied to the box
during pagination.gr
Actions
Actions are simple rules that are evaluated at pagination time and
can be used, for example, to delete a box based on the contents of
one of the fields being paginated.

EDITING ATTRIBUTES To modify any of the properties shown in the panel, double click on it
or select it and use the ‘Edit…’ menu on the pop-out menu.
Double-click on a row to edit the attribute or use the ‘Edit’ menu option
Some of the attributes shown in the panel are dependant on other

attributes or the current document selection.
APPLYING Some attributes, such as the fitting options, can be applied to any
of the boxes within the Product Style. Other attributes affect how
PAGINATION RULES
the Product Style is used during pagination or how it is placed in
the document - in this instance, the Pagination attribute should be
applied to the Product Style group.
Pagination Types Flow-based, Guide-based, Postional

Apply to Outermost/group box
Dependant Attributes None
Where your Product Style consists of multiple boxes, group the boxes together
and apply the pagination rule to the group. If your Product Style consists of a
single box, apply the pagination rule to this box.
Apply the pagination rule to the group or the only

box in the Product Style

ATTRIBUTE Paginate
REFERENCE Pagination Types Flow-based, Guide-based, Postional
Apply this attribute to the outer-most box in the Product Style (if
the Product Style consists of multiple boxes, group them together
and apply this attribute to the group box). This attribute is used
to associate the Product Style with a level in your panel grouping
hierarchy and is mandatory for all types of automatic pagination.
Paginate... Description
The Product Style should be used each time EasyCatalog
Once Per Record
wants to insert an individual record into the document.
Apply this attribute to Product Styles that should be used
when paginating groups. You must set the ‘Group Name’
field to specify which group the Product Style should be
Once Per Group
used for. For example, to specify that the Product Style
should be used to paginate the ‘Manufacturer’ group, set
the Group Name attribute to ‘Manufacturer’.
This attribute is typically applied to page headings that
contain information about the first or last record on a page
Furniture Data
or spread. See the ‘Page Headings’ chapter for more
information.
Paginate Record Data

The Product Style will
be inserted for each
record in the panel
when ‘Paginate Record
Data’ is set.
Paginate Group Data

In this example, the panel is grouped by ‘Parent Category’, ‘Child Category’ and
‘Manufacturer’. Product Styles can be defined to paginate each of these levels.
If the ‘Group Name’ is
set to ‘Child Category’
the Product Style will
be used to paginate
each Child Category
group. If the Product
Style contains a table,
it will be populated
with all sub-groups and
records within the Child
Category group.

ATTRIBUTE
REFERENCE When using the Relational Module, the Group
!
(CONTINUED) Name attribute should always be set as a
Relational panel can contain records in multiple
groups.
Group Name
Pagination Types Flow-based, Guide-based, Postional

This attribute specifies the point in the panel grouping hierarchy

to use this library item. For example, if this library item should be
inserted once for each ‘Manufacturer’ group, ‘Manufacturer’ should
be specified in this attribute.
Relational Module Only
When paginating from a Relational panel, it is necessary to always

specify this attribute (even the “Paginate” has been set to “Record
Data”) as records can appear at any point in the grouping hierarchy.
Insert
Pagination Types Flow-based

This option affects whether the Product Style will be anchored in the
pagination text flow or if the text content of the Product Style will be
inserted.
Attribute Description
This option will insert the Product Style as an anchored box
As Inline in the pagination text flow – this is required if your Style
consists of more than one box.
This option must only be used when the Product Style
consists of one text box. Instead of anchoring the Product
Frame Contents
Style in the text flow, EasyCatalog will copy the text content
from the text box and paste it into the pagination text flow.

ATTRIBUTE
‘Insert’ Flow-based Pagination Rule
REFERENCE ‘Frame Contents’ will insert the contents of the Product Style into the
(CONTINUED) pagination text flow.
‘As Inline’ will anchor the Product Style into the pagination text flow.
Each record has been inserted as an

anchored box into the pagination text flow.
Paragraph Style

Dependant Attributes Insert ‘As Inline’
The Paragraph Style Sheet named here will be applied to the Product
Style when it is anchored in the pagination text flow. Using InDesign’s
paragraph style sheets allows typographical controls, such as ‘space
before’, ‘keep together’, etc to be applied to each anchored Style.
Note that the Paragraph Style Sheet specified here must be present
in the document being paginated into.
Append Return

Dependant Attributes Insert ‘As Inline’
When inserting the Product Style ‘As Inline’, this option specifies
whether to add a carriage-return after the anchored item.

ATTRIBUTE Force Break

REFERENCE Flow-based, Guide-based
(CONTINUED) Pagination Types Not all options available with both types of
pagination.
This option specifies whether the Product Style should be inserted

on a new page, or in a new column or frame.
Option Description
The Product Style will be inserted after the previous Product
No Break
Style.
Flow-based and Guide-based Pagination Only
Page EasyCatalog will ensure that the Product Style is being

placed onto a new page. A page-break character may be
inserted before the Product Style to ensure this is the case.
Flow-based Pagination
The Product Style will be inserted in a new column. A

column-break character may be inserted before the Product
Style to ensure this is the case.
Guide-based Pagination
The ‘Direction of Flow’ selected on the Paginate... dialog

Column affects how this attribute is applied:
When paginating ‘Down and Across’, pagination will move

to the next vertical column. When paginating ‘Across and
Down’, pagination will move to the next horizontal row.
Flow-based Pagination Only
Frame The Product Style will be inserted in a new frame. A frame-

break character may be inserted before the Product Style to
ensure this is the case.

ATTRIBUTE Prevent Break

REFERENCE Pagination Types Flow-based
(CONTINUED)
Dependant Attributes Insert At ‘Frame Contents’
This option specifies whether the Product Style should be allowed to

break across pages, columns or frames.
Option Description
Don’t Prevent The Product Style will be allowed to break across any frame,
Breaking page or column.
The Product Style will not be allowed to break across a
Over Columns column. If it does, a column-break character will be inserted
before the Product Style content.
Over Pages page. If it does, a page-break character will be inserted
Over Frames frame. If it does, a frame-break character will be inserted
Fitting
Flow-based, Guide-based, Positional

Pagination Types
Not all options available with all types of pagination.
Apply to Any box in the Product Style
Fitting options are provided to automatically adjust the size of each

box within the Product Style to accommodate a variable amount of
data. For example, the depth of a text box can be automatically
resized to the depth of its text.
Fitting Option Text Boxes Picture Boxes

None The size of the box will remain fixed.
If there is only one line of
text in the box, both the
width and depth of the box Both the width and depth
Frame To Content will be adjusted to the size will be adjusted to the size of
of the text. Where there are the picture content.
multiple lines of text, only the
depth will be adjusted.
The text content will be
resized until it fits within the
box. Constraints can be The picture content will be
Content To Frame
specified in the ‘Minimum/ resized to fit the frame.
Maximum Text Scale/Size’
attributes.

ATTRIBUTE Fitting Option Text Boxes Picture Boxes
REFERENCE The height of the box will

The height of the picture box
(CONTINUED) Frame Depth To
be resized to the height of
will be resized to the height
the text. The width will be
Content Depth of the picture box. The width
unaffected, regardless of the
will be unaffected.
number of lines of text.
The depth of the text box will
expand to accommodate the
amount of text, constrained
to the bottom margin of
Grow and Flow
the page. If the box is still This setting does not affect
(Guide-based
overset, the Product Style Picture boxes.
Pagination Only)
will be inserted again on the
next page and any boxes
marked as ‘Grow and Flow’
will be linked together.
The depth of the box will be specified by one of the other
fields for the record being used to paginate. When this
option is selected a ‘Field Name’ attribute will appear: enter
Field Depth the name of the field that contains the frame depth here.
Ensure that the field contains the measurement system -
e.g. 10mm. Use the Field Suffix field option to add this if
necessary.
Fit Content To Frame
Fit Content To Frame will automatically adjust the size of the box’s
text content until it fits. Both the point size and horizontal scale can
be adjusted until the text fits.
Maximum and Minimum parameters can be specified for point size and
horizontal scale adjustment. All parameters a percentages based on the
size of the text in the box prior to fitting.
Example:
Assuming that before fitting the text box contains 10pt text, the
Minimum Text Size is set to 50 and the Maximum Text Size is set to
150:
If the text is overset, the size of the text will be reduced until all of the
text fits in the box with a minimum point size of 5pt (50% of 10pt).

ATTRIBUTE Otherwise, the text size will be increased until it fits the box exactly,
up to a maximum of 15pt (150% of 10pt).
REFERENCE
(CONTINUED) ‘Grow and Flow’ (Guide-Based Pagination Only)
The ‘Grow and Flow’ fitting option provides the ability for a Product
Style to be split when pagination reaches the bottom of the page.
When applied to a text frame, the ‘Grow and Flow’ fitting option will
expand the text box vertically until all of the text fits in the box, or until
the page’s bottom margin is reached. In this instance, the Product
Style will be inserted at the start of the next page and any frames with
the ‘Grow and Flow’ fitting attribute applied will be linked together,
allowing their text content to flow across the page boundary.
Grow and Flow

Guide-Based Pagination Only
If the text in the box is overset, the frame’s height will be

expanded until either the text fits or the frame is as deep
as the page. If the page’s bottom margin is reached, the
Product Style will be inserted on the following page and
the boxes with the ‘Grow and Flow’ attribute set will be
linked together.

ATTRIBUTE Release Anchored Objects

REFERENCE Pagination Types Flow-based, Guide-based, Positional
(CONTINUED)
After pagination, a ‘Release’ will be performed on all anchored boxes

within any boxes with this attribute applied. Once released, the
anchored boxes become standard InDesign frames which can be
moved independently of their original anchor location.
Ungroup
Pagination Types Flow-based, Guide-based, Positional

By applying this attribute to a group box, an ‘Ungroup’ will be

performed after pagination. This option is useful where you want
to manually edit the document after pagination and do not want to
manually go through the document ungrouping each Product Style.
Usage
Applied to the outer-most box in Product Style, this option allows

different Product Styles to be used depending on the record or
group’s position within its parent group.
Different styles can

be defined that are
First Instance used to paginate
the first record in
the group; the last
record in the group
Regular
and everything
inbetween.
Last Instance
Single Instance
A style can also be defined for use

when there is a single record or
group within the group.

ATTRIBUTE Position Index

(CONTINUED)
Position index can be used to force the n’th record or sub-group to

populate a box within the Product Style.
Position
Index 1
Each box within the

Product Style can be
Position
assigned a ‘Position
Index 2
Index’. All boxes
within a group box
will be populated
Position with the same record
Index 4 or group, unless a
Position Index is
specified in any of the
child boxes.
When dragging a group of records, the first record will go into the box set with
Position Index 1, the second into Position Index 2, etc.
‘Highest’/‘Lowest’ Position Index
A Position Index of ‘HIGHEST {field name}’ or ‘LOWEST {field name}’

can be specified to populate the box with the record containing the
highest or lowest value in the given field.

ATTRIBUTE
REFERENCE
(CONTINUED)
Specify the name of the field in { brackets }. In this example, the record
containing the highest ‘price’ field will be used to populate the box.
Continuation
Pagination Types Guide-based

Apply to Outermost/Group Box
By setting the ‘Continuation’ attribute to ‘Yes’, the Product Style will

be used whenever pagination moves to a new page. This attribute
should only be applied to the outermost (group) box for the style.
Remove Blank Lines for Empty Fields

This attribute will remove any lines in the textual content of the box
that contain only empty fields. This attribute is useful when paginating
data that contains optional values that should not be present when
empty.
Strip White Space

White space (tabs, spaces, etc) at the end of the text content in
the box will be stripped after pagination. This attribute is useful for
removing unwanted extra carriage returns.

ATTRIBUTE Apply Object Style From Field

(CONTINUED)
The Object Style specified by the contents of the nominated field will
be applied to this box during pagination.
This object style is applied only during pagination, so will not change
during an ‘Update Document’ operation if the contents of the
nominated field change.
Apply Swatch From Field

The nominated field can either contain the name of a swatch to apply
to the box or a hexadecimal value that specifies an RGB colour to
use - e.g.
If the field contains ‘My Swatch’, the swatch called ‘My Swatch’ will
be applied during pagination time; if the field contains ‘#FF0000’ the
box will be coloured red. The format of the field content should be:
#RRGGBB
Where RR is a hexadecimal value for the red component of the

colour; GG is the green component and BB is the blue.
When Frame Is Empty

Specify an action to take when the box is empty.
Option Description
Do Nothing The box will remain in the document when empty.
Delete The box will be removed from the document.

ACTIONS Actions are evaluated at pagination time, and allow you to affect the
appearance of boxes within your Product Style based on the data
being paginated.
Creating and Editing Actions
Actions can be
added, edited
and deleted from
the Pagination
Rules Panel’s
pop-out menu or
using the buttons
at the bottom of
Delete the panel
Add
Actions consist of two parts: an expression to evaluate (e.g. if

the price field is greater than 100), and an action to perform if the
expression is true.
When this
expression
evaluates to
true....
... this action will

be applied to the
box.
For alphanumeric fields, operators such as ‘Starts with’, ‘Ends with’,

etc are available. Numeric fields must use the numeric operators
such as ‘Less than’, ‘Greater than’, etc.

ACTIONS For fields defined in Field Options as ‘Alphanumeric’ use the operators listed
(CONTINUED) in the top of the operators pop-up. For numeric field types, including currency
types, use the operators shown at the bottom of the operator pop-up.
Alphanumeric
comparison
operators
Numeric
comparison
operators
Bring to Front

When the action evaluates to ‘true’, the box will be moved to the
front of the document z-order. This action is the equivalent of using
the Object→Arrange→Bring to Front menu option.
Delete

The box will be deleted when the action expression evaluates to true.
Hide

Available in the CS4 and CS5 versions only, this attribute will hide the
box if the action evaluates to true. The box will be shown again if the
action later evaluates to false.
To hide the box in CS4, the box is set to ‘non printing’ and is
transparent; the CS5 version takes advantage of InDesign’s ability to
hide and show individual page items.

ACTIONS Ignore
(CONTINUED)
Apply to Outermost/Group Box
If the action evaluates to true, this Product Style will be ignored by

the Pagination Module, causing another Product Style to be chosen
(if available). Using this attribute it is possible to have multiple
Product Styles configured which the Pagination Module can choose
from during pagination based on the contents of one of your fields,
for example.
SPECIAL FIELD EasyCatalog also offers reserved field names that can be used as the
field name in the action:
NAMES
Field Description
positioningroup Provides the index number of the record being

paginated within its parent group - i.e. the first
record would have an index number of 1, the
second would be 2, etc.
groupcount Provides the number of records in the group
being paginated.

CUSTOM FIELDS REFERENCE
CHAPTER 13

Custom Fields are only available in the CS4 and CS5 versions of EasyCatalog. For details
! of how to upgrade please visit our web site.
INTRODUCTION Custom Fields provide a way to add new fields to the source data,
the value of which can be computed using predefined functions.
Typical applications for Custom Fields include the ability to create

summary data (such as the sum of all values in a given field) and data
manipulation (e.g. extracting the first character from a field).
Custom Fields behave in exactly the same way as other EasyCatalog

fields, and Field Specifiers for Custom Fields can be inserted into
Product Styles where appropriate.
This chapter lists the functions that are available, and gives an
example of their use.
CREATING A NEW New Custom Fields can be created in the EasyCatalog data panel by
CUSTOM FIELD right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking on
Macintosh) in the data area of
the panel and selecting “New
Custom Field”.
Custom Fields are configured

using an additional pane on the
Field Options dialog.
i
Custom Fields can also be used with Relational
Data sources, although they must be created in the
appropriate child data source.

TYPES OF Functions in this reference have been split into four categories:
FUNCTIONS String Manipulation
String manipulation functions are available to enable you to extract

characters from a field, change the case of a field or determine the
length of a field.
String manipulation is often necessary when the source data needs

to be ‘cleaned-up’ before insertion into the document.
Math Functions
Several math functions are available that operate on either a record-

by-record basis or on groups of records. Many functions, such as
‘SUM' offer a group-based equivalent (e.g. ‘GROUPSUM’).
Logic Functions
Logic functions can be used to make decisions based on the content

of your data. For example, you could output a field only if the price
field is greater than a specified value.
Group Functions
Group functions operate on groups of records and are often used

to produce summary information for multiple records. For example,
there is a group function - ‘GROUPRTOTAL’ - that creates a running
total of a specified field within a group.
As Custom Fields are defined at the data source level, the visible
structure of the data in your panel is not important and cannot be
used to determine the order of records used by the group functions.
Therefore, all group functions typically have two parameters: a group
path and a field to sort the records by. The group path parameter
defines the fields use to group the data.
When using group functions, the Custom Field for all records in the
group will typically (but not always) be populated with the same value.
Example
GROUPLIST('Parent Category:Child Category','Price', 'Price',',',',',

' and ')
The ‘GROUPLIST’ function will populate the Custom Field with a list
of all unique values in a specified field. In this example, we want
to create a comma separated list of all “Price”s within each Child
Category group.

COMBINING Multiple functions can be used within the same Custom Field
statement to create complex operations:
FUNCTIONS IN A
SINGLE CUSTOM IF(FIELDVAL('Price'),'>=',1,CONCAT('£',FIELDVAL('Price')),
FIELD CONCAT(FIELDVAL('Price'),'p'))
In this example, if the ‘Price’ field is greater than or equal to 1 the

price will be prefixed with a pound symbol; otherwise it will be
suffixed with a pence symbol.
TYPES OF Each function shown in this reference chapter will expect its
parameters to be of a specific type. These parameter types are:
PARAMETER
Type Description
Specify only the name of the field. Usually, the field name would be
Field
enclosed in single quotes. e.g: LEFTSTR ('Description',5)
Either specify a string literal or use the FIELDSTR command to
String retrieve the contents of another field. e.g.: LENGTH(FIELDSTR('
Manufacturer'))
Either specify a numeric literal or use the FIELDVAL command to retrieve
Number
the numeric contents of another field.IF(FIELDVAL('Price')...
Some functions show a parameter of type '...', which indicates that
... the function accepts any number of parameters. Typically, the type of
these additional parameters is the same as the preceding parameter.
WHAT IS THE The two most commonly used functions are FIELDSTR and FIELDVAL.
If they are being used as arguments to another function, as a general
DIFFERENCE
rule use FIELDVAL if the function is expecting a numeric argument;
BETWEEN FIELDSTR use FIELDSTR if it’s expecting a string.
AND FIELDVAL?
FIELDSTR will return the formatted content of the given field -
including any prefixes, suffixes, number formats, etc. FIELDVAL
will return the raw numeric content of the field excluding number
formatting, prefixes, etc.

STRING FUNCTIONS SUBSTR
This function is used to extract specific characters from another field.
Parameter Type Description

Field Name Field The name of the field to extract characters from.
Start Index Integer The index of the first character, starting at 0.
Length Integer The number of characters to extract.
Example:
SUBSTR (Description,3,8)
Description SUBSTR(Description, 3, 8)
Apple Computer le Compu
LEFTSTR
This function returns characters from the left (start) of the given field.

Example:
LEFTSTR (Description,5)
Description LEFTSTR (Description,5)

Apple Computer Apple
RIGHTSTR
This function returns characters from the right (end) of the given field.

Example:
RIGHTSTR (Description,3)
Description RIGHTSTR (Description,3)

Apple Computer ter

STRING FUNCTIONS PARTSTR

(CONTINUED)
This function can be used to extract a specific element from a
delimited field.

Part No. Integer The element number to retrieve (numbered from zero).
The character(s) used to delimit each part of the
Delimiter String
string.
Example:
PARTSTR(images, 2, ',')
Images PARTSTR(images, 2, ‘,’)

Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3 Picture 3
EAN13
This function can be used to translate from an EAN13 code into the
correct glyphs in the free ‘eanbwrp36tt’ font.

Field Name Field The name of the field to containing the EAN13 code.
Example:
EAN13('Stock Code')
The output from this function should be placed in the document and
the ‘eanbwrp36tt’ font applied to its content.
EAN8
This function can be used to translate from an EAN8 code into the
correct glyphs in the free ‘eanbwrp36tt’ font.

Field Name Field The name of the field to containing the EAN8 code.
Example:
EAN8('Stock Code')
The output from this function should be placed in the document and
the ‘eanbwrp36tt’ font applied to its content.

STRING FUNCTIONS LOWER

(CONTINUED)
Converts the contents of the given field to lower case.

Field Name Field The name of the field to convert.
Example:
LOWER('Description')
Description LOWER(‘Description’)
Apple Computer apple computer
UPPER
Converts the contents of the given field to upper case.

Field Name Field The name of the field to convert.
Example:
UPPER('Description')
Description UPPER(‘Description’)
Apple Computer APPLE COMPUTER
CONCAT
This function will concatenate (join) the values of all of its arguments
together.

Argument String A value to concatenate to the result.
This function can have as many arguments as
...
required.
Example:
CONCAT(FIELDSTR('Price'),', Available in ',FIELDSTR('Availability'))
CONCAT(FIELDSTR(‘Price’),’, Available in
Price Availability
‘,FIELDSTR(‘Availability’))
10.99 2 days 10.99, Available in 2 days
5.99 1 week 5.99, Available in 1 week

STRING FUNCTIONS REGEX

(CONTINUED)
Performs a regular expression search and replace.

String to Search String The string to search within
Regular Expression String The regular expression statement to search for
String to Replace String The string to replace when a match is found.
Example:
REGEX(FIELDSTR(Stock Code), '^(....)(...)(..)','\1.\2.\3'))
Stock Code REGEX

AAAA12345 AAAA.123.45
BBBB67890 BBBB.678.90
CCCC12345 CCCC.123.45
DDDD67890 DDDD.678.90
STRIPWHITESPACE
Strip white space from the given string.

String String The string to remove white space from
When TRUE, remove all white space from the
Strip All Boolean string; when FALSE only remove white space
from the start and end of the string.
Example:
STRIPWHITESPACE(FIELDSTR('Category'))
TITLECASE
Change the case of the given string to Title Case.

String String The string to process
Example:
TITLECASE(FIELDSTR('Category'))
Description TITLECASE(FIELDSTR(‘Description’))
this sentence should appear in title This Sentence Should Appear In Title
case Case

STRING FUNCTIONS SENTENCECASE

(CONTINUED)
Change the case of the given string to sentence case.

String String The string to process
Example:
SENTENCECASE(FIELDSTR('Category'))
Description SENTENCECASE(FIELDSTR(‘Description’))
this sentence should appear in This sentence should appear in sentence
sentence case case
LENGTH
Returns the length of the given string.

String String The string to return the length of
Example:
LENGTH(FIELDSTR('Manufacturer'))
Manufacturer LENGTH(FIELDSTR(‘Manufacturer’))
Apple Computer 14

STRING FUNCTIONS INDEXOF

(CONTINUED)
Returns the character index of the first instance of one string within
another, or -1 if the first string does not contain the second.

Search In String A string to search within
Search For String A string to search for
(Optional) The character index to start searching
Start Index Integer
at (default: 0).
Example:
INDEXOF(FIELDSTR('Description'), 'Apple')
Description INDEXOF(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘Apple’)

Apple iMac 0
I like Apples 7
Dell Computer -1
Apple iMac by Apple, Inc. 0
Description INDEXOF(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘Apple’, 3)

Apple iMac 0
I like Apples 7
Dell Computer -1
LASTINDEXOF
Returns the character index of the last instance of one string within
another, or -1 if the first string does not contain the second.

(Optional) The character index to start searching
Start Index Intgeger
at (default: 0).
Example:
LASTINDEXOF(FIELDSTR('Description'), 'Apple')
Description LASTINDEXOF(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘Apple’)

Apple iMac 0
I like Apples 7
Dell Computer -1
Description LASTINDEXOF(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘Apple’, 3)

Apple iMac 0

STRING FUNCTIONS Description LASTINDEXOF(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘Apple’, 3)

(CONTINUED) I like Apples -1
Dell Computer -1
COUNTOF
Returns the number of times one string appears within another.

Example:
COUNTOF(FIELDSTR('Description'), 'pl')
Description COUNTOF(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘pl’)
Apple iMac 1
I like Apples 1
Dell Computer 0
CONTAINSANY
Tests to see if the ‘Search In’ string contains any of the strings
specified by the subsequent parameters.

Multiple ‘Search For’ parameters can be
... String
specified.
Example:
CONTAINSANY(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘A’, ‘iMac’)
Description CONTAINSANY(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘A’,

‘iMac’)
Apple iMac TRUE
I like Apples TRUE
Dell Computer FALSE
Apple iMac by Apple, Inc. TRUE

STRING FUNCTIONS CONTAINSALL

(CONTINUED)
Tests to see if the ‘Search In’ string contains all of the strings specified
by the subsequent parameters.

Multiple ‘Search For’ parameters can be
... String
specified.
Example:
CONTAINSALL(FIELDSTR('Description'), 'A', 'iMac')
Description CONTAINSANY(FIELDSTR(‘Description’), ‘A’,

‘iMac’)
Apple iMac TRUE
I like Apples FALSE
Dell Computer FALSE
Apple iMac by Apple, Inc. TRUE

MATH FUNCTIONS MUL
Multiply one field by another.

LHS Number A number to multiply
Factor Number The number to multiple by
Example:
MUL(FIELDVAL(Price),10)
Price MUL
10.00 100.00
15.00 150.00
17.50 175.00
DIV
Divide one field by another.

LHS Number A number to divide
Factor Number The number to divide by
Example:
MUL(FIELDVAL(Price),10)
Price DIV
10.00 1.00
15.00 1.50
17.50 1.75
MOD
The “MOD” operation finds the remainder of the division of one

number by another.

LHS Number A number to divide
Factor Number The number to divide by
Example:
MOD(FIELDVAL(Price),10)
Price MOD
10.00 0.00
15.00 5.00
17.50 7.50

MATH FUNCTIONS SUM

(CONTINUED)
This function returns the sum of all of its arguments.

Argument Number A value to use as part of the sum.
... ...
required.
Example:
SUM(FIELDVAL('Price), 10)
Price SUM
10.00 20.00
15.00 25.00
17.50 27.50
MIN
This function returns the lowest value in its arguments.

Argument Number A value to test.
...
required.
Example:
MIN(FIELDVAL('Price'),10)
Price MIN
5.00 5.00
10.00 10.00
15.00 10.00
17.50 10.00

MATH FUNCTIONS MAX

(CONTINUED)
This function returns the highest value in its arguments.

... ...
required.
Example:
MAX(FIELDVAL('Price'),10)
Price MAX
5.00 10.00
10.00 10.00
15.00 15.00
17.50 17.50
AVG
This function returns the numerical average of its arguments.

...
required.
Example:
AVG(FIELDVAL('Price'),10)
Price AVG
5.00 7.50
10.00 10.00
15.00 12.50
17.50 13.75

LOGIC FUNCTIONS COMPARESTR
This function can be used to compare the contents of a field with a

value or the contents of another field.

Field Name Field The name of the field to evaluate.
Value String The value to compare against the contents of the field.
(Optional) If the contents of the field matches the
True Value String given value, this parameter will be used as the output
of this command.
(Optional) If the contents of the field does not match
False Value String the given value, this parameter will be used as the
output of this command.
Example:
Comparing a field with a fixed value:
COMPARESTR(Description, 'abcdefg', 'Match', 'No Match')
If the ‘Description’ field contains ‘abcdefg’ then ‘Match’ will be

output; if the field does not contain ‘abcdefg’ then ‘No Match’ will
be output.
Compare a field with another field:
To compare against the value of another field, use the FIELDSTR

command as the second parameter to the COMPARESTR command.
COMPARESTR('Description', FIELDSTR('Long Description'),

'Match', 'No Match')
In this example, the contents of the ‘Short Description’ field will be

compared with the contents of the ‘Long Description’ field.

LOGIC FUNCTIONS IF
(CONTINUED)
Unlike the ‘COMPARESTR’ command, the ‘IF’ command also allows
an operator to be specified to make more complex comparisons.

Operand String The first field or value to compare
The operator to use in the comparison - valid
operands are:
< Less than

> Greater than
Operator String
= Equal to
<= Less than or equal to
>= More than or equal to
<> Not equal to
Operand String The second field or value to compare.

(Optional) The value to output if the comparsion
True Value String
evaluates to true.
(Optional) The value to output if the comparison
False Value String
evaluates to false.
Example:
To compare the contents of a field against a fixed value:
IF (FIELSTR(Price), '<', '100', 'Less than 100',

'Greater than 100'))
To compare the contents of a field against the contents of another

field:
IF (FIELSTR(Price), '=', FIELDSTR('Sale Price'),

'Prices Match', 'No Price Match'))

LOGIC FUNCTIONS AND

(CONTINUED)
This function will return TRUE if the values of all of its arguments are
true.

Argument String A value to test
... ...
required.
Example:
AND(IF (FIELDSTR(Price), '>', 10), IF (FIELDSTR(Availability),

'=', 'TRUE'))
Price Availability AND

10.00 TRUE FALSE
15.00 TRUE TRUE
17.50 FALSE FALSE
OR
This function will return TRUE if the values of any of its arguments
are true.

Argument String A value to test
... ...
required.
Example:
OR(IF (FIELDSTR(Price), '>', 10), IF (FIELDSTR(Availability),

'=', 'TRUE'))
Price Availability AND

5.00 TRUE TRUE
6.75 FALSE FALSE
10.00 TRUE TRUE
15.00 TRUE TRUE
17.50 FALSE TRUE

LOGIC FUNCTIONS XREFFIELD

(CONTINUED)
This function will search the data source for a record whose field
content matches a given value, and will return the value of another
field for the found record.

Search Field Field The name of the field to search in
Search Value String The value to search for in the 'Search Field'
The name of the field to return from the matching
Return Field Field
record.
Example:
XREFFEILD('PartNo',FIELDSTR('XRefPartNo'),'Page')
This example will search for a record whose 'Part No' field contains
the value of this record's 'XRefPartNo' field. When one is found, the
contents of its 'Page' field will be returned.

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPLIST
GROUPLIST will take values from the nominated field and create a
delimited list.

Group Path String The grouping configuration to use
Sort Field String The name of a field to sort the values by
The name of the field that contains the values we want
Value Field String
to create a list of.
First (Optional) The first separator to use in the delimited
String
Separator list.
Regular (Optional) The separator to use between entries in the
String
Separator delimited list.
Last (Optional) The separator to use between the
String
Separator penultimate and last item in the delimited list.
Example:
GROUPLIST('Parent Category:Child Category','Price',

'Price',',',',', ' and ')
In this example, the field will be populated with a comma delimited

list of all Price fields in each ‘Child Category’ group, sorted by ‘Price’.
Price GROUPLIST
15.00 10.00, 15.00 and 20.00
10.00 10.00, 15.00 and 20.00
20.00 10.00, 15.00 and 20.00
GROUPSUM
GROUPSUM will create a mathematical total of the contents of a

nominated field within a group.

Value Field String The name of the field that contains the values we total.
Example:
GROUPSUM('Parent Category:Child Category','Price')
This command will total all of the Price fields within the Child Category
grouping.
Price GROUPSUM
15.00 45.00
10.00 45.00
20.00 45.00

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPAVG

(CONTINUED)
GROUPAVG will create a mathematical average of the contents of a
nominated field within a group.

The name of the field that contains the values we want
Value Field String
to average.
Example:
GROUPAVG('Parent Category:Child Category','Price')
This command will return the average all of the Price fields within the
Child Category grouping.
Price GROUPAVG
15.00 15.00
10.00 15.00
20.00 15.00
GROUPMAX
GROUPMAX will the maximum numerical value of a nominated field

within a group.

The name of the field that contains the values we find
Value Field String
the maximum value in.
Example:
GROUPMAX('Parent Category:Child Category','Price')
This command will return the maximum value of the ‘Price’ field in
the Child Category field.
Price GROUPMAX
15.00 20.00
10.00 20.00
20.00 20.00

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPMIN

(CONTINUED)
GROUPMIN will the minimum numerical value of a nominated field
within a group.

The name of the field that contains the values we find
Value Field String
the minimum value in.
Example:
GROUPMIN('Parent Category:Child Category','Price')
This command will return the minimum value of the ‘Price’ field in the
Child Category field.
Price GROUPMIN
15.00 10.00
10.00 10.00
20.00 10.00
GROUPFIRST
GROUPFIRST will return the first value of a nominated field within a

group.

Sort Field String The field to sort the records in the group by.
Value Field String The field that we want to retrieve the value from.
Example:
GROUPFIRST('Parent Category:Child Category','Price', 'Price')
This command will first sort the ‘Price’ field into ascending ‘Price’
order and return the first value.
Price GROUPFIRST
10.00 10.00
15.00 10.00
20.00 10.00

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPLAST

(CONTINUED)
GROUPLAST will return the last value of a nominated field within a
group.

Value Field String The field that we want to retrieve the value from.
Example:
GROUPLAST('Parent Category:Child Category','Price', 'Price')
This command will first sort the ‘Price’ field into ascending ‘Price’
order and return the last value.
Price GROUPLAST
10.00 20.00
15.00 20.00
20.00 20.00
GROUPRTOTAL
This function will calculate a running total of values in a group.

Value Field String The field that we want to calculate a running total for.
Example:
GROUPRTOTAL('Parent Category:Child Category','Price', 'Price')
This command will process all records within the Parent Category:Child
Category group, sorted by Price. It will then keep a running total of
the nominated field:
Price GROUPRTOTAL
10.00 10.00
15.00 25.00
20.00 45.00

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPSEQUENCE

(CONTINUED)
Each record in the nominated group will receive the next value from
a given list of values.

A colon-delimited list to populate each record in the
Value Field String
group with.
Example:
GROUPSEQUENCE('Parent Category:Child Category','Price', 'A:B:C:D')
This function will evaluate to ‘A’ for the first record in the Child
Category group; ‘B’ for the second, etc. Once all vaues in the list
have been exhausted, EasyCatalog will continue with the first,
second, etc.
Price GROUPSEQUENCE
10.00 A
15.00 B
20.00 A
17.50 C
19.00 D
GROUPCOUNTUNIQUE
This function returns the number of unique values in a nominated

field within a group.

Field String The field to count the number of unique instances in
Example:
GROUPCOUNTUNIQUE('Parent Category:Child Category','Price')
Price GROUPCOUNTUNIQUE
10.00 3
15.00 3
15.00 3
17.50 3
17.50 3
This function will evaluate to the same value for every record in the
group.

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPCOUNT

(CONTINUED)
This function returns the number of records in each group.

Example:
GROUPCOUNT('Parent Category:Child Category')
Price GROUPCOUNT
10.00 5
15.00 5
15.00 5
17.50 5
17.50 5
This function will evaluate to the same value for every record in the
group.
GROUPSERIES
]This function can be used to populate the custom field with a

numerical series within each group.

The name of the field to sort the records in the group
Sort Field String
by
Start Integer An integer to start at
A value to increase the integer by for each record in
Increment Integer
the group.
Example:
GROUPSERIES('Parent Category:Child Category', 'Price', 10,100)
Price GROUPSERIES
10.00 10
15.00 110
15.00 210
17.50 310
17.50 410

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPONCHANGE

(CONTINUED)
This function will evaluate to TRUE each time a nominated field within
a group changes value, FALSE otherwise.

The name of the field to sort the records in the group
Sort Field String
by
Field String The field to evaluate
Example:
GROUPONCHANGE('Parent Category:Child Category', 'Price', 'Price')
Price GROUPCOUNTUNIQUE
10.00 TRUE
15.00 TRUE
15.00 FALSE
15.00 FALSE
17.50 TRUE
17.50 FALSE
GROUPISFIRST
This function returns ‘TRUE’ for the first ‘n’ number of records in the
specified group.

Sort Field String A field to sort the records by within the group.
Number of The number of records to return ‘TRUE’ for.
Integer
records
Example:
GROUPISFIRST('Parent Category:Child Category', 'Price', 2)
Price GROUPISFIRST
5.00 TRUE
10.00 TRUE
15.00 FALSE
17.50 FALSE

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPSERIESONFIELDCHANGE

(CONTINUED)
Populate a group with a numerical series that increments each time
a given field changes value.

Each time the value of this field changes, the value
Field Name Field Name
returned by this function will be incremented.
Start Value Integer An integer to start from
Each time the specified field changes value, the value
Increment Integer returned by this function will be incremented by the
amount specified by this parameter.
Example:
GROUPSERIESONFIELDCHANGE('Parent Category:Child Category',

'Price', 'Price', 1, 10)
Price GROUPSERIESONFIELDCHANGE
5.00 1
5.00 1
10.00 11
15.00 21
17.50 31
GROUPISLAST
This function returns ‘TRUE’ for the last ‘n’ number of records in the
specified group.

Number of The number of records to return ‘TRUE’ for.
Integer
records
Example:
GROUPISLAST('Parent Category:Child Category', 'Price', 2)
Price GROUPISLAST
5.00 FALSE
10.00 FALSE
15.00 TRUE
17.50 TRUE

GROUP FUNCTIONS GROUPCROSSTABLEHEAD / GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE

(CONTINUED)
These two functions are used to build cross tables that have a finite
number of columns. A cross table is a matrix-style table that contains
both a variable number of rows and columns, and is typically used to
produce a matrix of product options and prices.
Consider the following data that contains two products - ‘AAA123’

and ‘BBB321’. Both products are available in a number of colours,
but ‘BBB321’ is only available is red and green (no blue).
To paginate a table that contains product codes vertically and colours

horizontally, a function is required that will cross reference these two
fields.
product code red blue green
AAA123 $10.00 $20.00 $20.00
BBB321 $15.00 - $25.00
To achieve this we need to create Custom Fields for each of the

possible columns and also a field for each column header. For
example, if we know that there will be a maximum of three colours
we would create three header fields and three value fields. Using
Custom Fields we can then determine what the values of these new
fields should be:
GROUPCROSSTABLEHEAD
The GROUPCROSSTABLEHEAD function is used to determine the
headers for each column in the table. The value returned by this function
will also be used as a parameter to the GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE
function to determine the value to display in each table cell.

The grouping configuration to use. This will limit
Group Path String
the scope of this function to the specified grouping.
A field to sort the records by within the group.
Sort Field String This will determine the order that the columns will
appear in.
The field that should be used in each column of
Cross Field String
the table.
Header Index Integer The index number of this header.

GROUP FUNCTIONS Like all ‘GROUP’ functions, the scope of this function can be limited
(CONTINUED) to the nominated grouping. This could be used, in this example,
to prevent colours from products belonging to one department
affecting the colours from another. In this example, all products are
in the same parent group so we do not need to specify a group path.
So, assuming that we only ever have three possible colours per
product, we could create three new Custom Fields with the following
functions:
Field Name Custom Field

col1 GROUPCROSSTABLEHEAD(,,colour,0)
In this example, we are not interested in a particular group (as we

want the table to list all available colours from any product), or in
sorting the records. This function will look at all unique values in the
‘colour’ field and pick one (0 = the first colour; 1 = the second, etc).
GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE
The GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE function is used to determine the

value to display in each table cell.

The grouping configuration to use. This will limit
Group Path String
the scope of this function to the specified grouping.
A field to sort the records by within the group.
Sort Field String This will determine the order that the columns will
appear in.
The field that should be used in each column of
Cross Field String
the table.
Search Field String The field value to find in the ‘Cross Field’ field
Value Field String The field to use in the table
The value of this parameter will be used if the
Empty Value String
Search Field cannot be found.
The ‘GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE’ function is used to

determine the value that should appear at each intersection of
the table. This function should be used in conjunction with the
‘GROUPCROSSTABLEHEADER’ function to determine the cross
references.
Field Name Custom Field

col1value GROUPCROSSTABLEVALUE(‘product code’,‘’,‘colour’,‘col1’,‘price’,‘-’)

GROUP FUNCTIONS In essence, this function is searching the ‘colour’ field for the value
(CONTINUED) shown in the ‘col1’/‘col2’/‘col3’ field. When found, the value in the
‘price’ field will be used; if it’s not found then the literal value of the
last parameter will be used (‘-’) instead.
In this example, we want to restrict the search for colours to a single

product, so have specified ‘product code’ as the group path.
Using a combination of these two commands gives the following

result in the panel:
This data panel can now be used to create a table such as:
product code red blue green
AAA123 $10.00 $20.00 $20.00
BBB321 $15.00 - $25.00
Column collapsing can also be used on this table to delete columns

that are empty. So, for example, if one group only has two colours
the third, empty, column could be deleted.

CONDITIONAL PROCESSING
CHAPTER 14
INTRODUCTION ‘Conditional Processing’ is a simple scripting-like language that
allows decisions to be made by EasyCatalog during pagination
operations. For example, content can be inserted or excluded based
on the value of one of the fields being paginated.
Conditional Processing can be used in document template designs,

EasyCatalog Libraries or during automatic pagination.
Conditional Logic Example
Logic statements are included in the standard InDesign text flow and are
processed by EasyCatalog before populating Field Specifiers.
THE ‘IF’ COMMAND The ‘IF’ command is used to include or exclude portions of text in a
Product Style if an expression evaluates to true.
The ‘IF’ command consists of four parts: the command name itself,
two ‘operands’ and one ‘operator’.
The if command must be enclosed within ‘@@’ to distinguish it from other text
The ‘operator’
The ‘operands’ - to compare with the contents of fields, enclose the field
name within { and }
Each ‘@@if’ command must be terminated by a corresponding ‘@@endif’

command

THE ‘IF’ COMMAND The types of the operands must be the same - for example, it is
(CONTINUED) illegal to compare a numeric field to an alphanumeric field. A field’s
type is defined by the ‘Field Options’ dialog.
These fields must be defined in Field Options as the same type - i.e. they
must both be alphanumeric or numeric
Alphanumeric Fields
All comparisons are case insensitive - therefore, ‘abc’ is equivalent

to ‘ABC’. Undesired results may occur when fields that are defined
as alphanumeric contain numeric data. For example, ‘155’ is less
than ‘19’ as a comparison is made on each character in the field and
not the actual numeric content. It is critical to ensure that where a
numeric comparison is required, the field is defined as ‘numeric’.
When comparing against a fixed value, operands must be enclosed

within either single or double quotes.
Comparing Alphanumeric Fields

The field types of each operand must match - in this example, ‘yes’
is enclosed in single quotes as ‘myalphafield’ is defined as being
alphanumeric in Field Options
Numeric Fields
Comparisons are made on the numeric content of fields - therefore,

in the example shown above, ‘155’ is greater than ‘19’ when fields
are defined as ‘numeric’.

THE ‘IF’ COMMAND Valid Operators

(CONTINUED)
Operator Meaning
= is equal to
< is less than
> is greater than
>= is greater than or equal to
<= is less than or equal to
<> is not equal to
The content of text fields can be checked to see if they contain a
CONTAINS value - e.g.
@@if {myfield} CONTAINS ‘abc’@@
THE ‘ELSE’ Where alternative action must be taken in the event of the ‘if’
expression evaluating to false, the ‘@@else’ command may be
COMMAND
included.
NESTING ‘IF’ ‘If’ statements can be nested within other ‘if’ statements. For
example, the following situation is valid:
COMMANDS
Nesting ‘IF’ commands
‘@@if’ commands can be nested/

@@if {price} < 1000 enclosed within other ‘@@if’
@@if {availability} = 0 commands to make decisions based
Out of Stock! on the content of more than one field.
@@else In this example, the availability of the
Available in [availability] days item will only be shown if its price is
@@endif less than $1000, and the text ‘Out of
@@endif Stock’ will be used if the availability
field is set to 0.
SPECIAL FIELD EasyCatalog also offers special reserved field names that can be
used as part of the logic statement to determine, for example, the
NAMES
position of a record within its parent group.
Field Description
Returns ‘yes’ if the record is the first record in its parent
{first}
group; ‘no’ if it is not.
Returns ‘yes’ if the record is the last record in its parent
{last}
group; ‘no’ if it is not.
Returns the index number of the record being paginated
{index} within its parent group - i.e. the first record would have an
index number of 1, the second would be 2, etc.
Returns: ‘yes’ if the index number of the record within its
{odd}
parent group is odd; ‘no’ if it is even.
continued...

SPECIAL FIELD Field Description
NAMES {even}
Returns: ‘yes’ if the index number of the record within its
(CONTINUED) parent group is even; ‘no’ if it is odd.
Returns ‘yes’ if the record being paginated is the only one
{onlyrecord}
in its group.
{countunique Counts the number of unique values for the given field within
fieldname} the record’s group.
{length fieldname} Returns the number of characters in the given field.
Special Field Names Example
@@if {first} = 'yes'

This is the first record!
@@endif
In this example, the special field name ‘first’ will return ‘yes’ if the record being
processed is the first record in its group.
Example of ‘countunique’
@@if {countunique Price} = 1

Only [Price]
@@else
From [Price]
@@endif
The ‘countunique’ keyword counts the number of unique values in the given field
and is useful, as shown in this example, for determining whether the pricing for
a group of records should be shown as ‘From’ or ‘Only’. If there is only one price
for all records in the group being paginated, the text ‘Only’ will be used; if there
is more than one price the word ‘From’ will be used.
ERROR MESSAGES Type Mismatch Error
All operands in the if statement must be of the same type (as defined
in Field Options). When comparing against static values, be sure to
include alphanumeric content in single or double quotes.
If ‘myalphafield’ is defined as alphanumeric, the following example is

illegal and will result in a type mismatch error:
@@if {myalphafield} = abc@@
Because myfield is alphanumeric, include the right-hand operand in

quotes:
@@if {myalphafield} = 'abc'@@
Similarly, if ‘mynumericfield’ is defined as being one of the numeric

types in Field Options, the following example is illegal:
@@if {mynumericfield} = '123'@@
It should read:
@@if {mynumericfield} = 123@@

ERROR MESSAGES @@if without matching @@endif

(CONTINUED) Each ‘@@if’ command must have a corresponding number of
terminating ‘@@endif’ commands. When nesting if statements (one
or more if statements within another if statement), be sure to include
the correct number of @@endif commands.
For example, the following example is illegal as there are two @@if
commands but only one @@endif.
@@if {myfield} > 10@@myfield is greater than 10!
@@if {anotherfield} = 1@@anotherfield contains 1!
@@endif@@
Too many ‘@@else’s
Only one @@else command is allowed within the body of an ‘@@if’

command - the following is illegal:
@@if {myfield} > 10@@Do this
@@else@@Otherwise, do this
@@else@@Or do this
@@endif@@
Illegal number of tokens
Each command must contain a specific number of parts, or tokens -

the following example is illegal:
@@if {myfield} > 12 < 20@@
The ‘if’ command must consist of one left-hand operand, on operator

and one right-hand operand only.

PAGE HEADERS
CHAPTER 15
PAGE HEADERS
i Furniture options are only available with the optional EasyCatalog Pagination module.
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog supports the automatic population of page headers

based on the content of each page through the use of a function
called ‘Furniture’.
Furniture page items are usually found on master pages, and are
typically used for page headers, etc, that should contain summary
information for the records placed on the page or spread.
For example, if you’re paginating a directory, using Furniture it is

possible to create a page header that contains details of the last
entry on a spread.
DEFINING FURNITURE Furniture boxes are designed on the page using Field Specifiers, in
exactly the same way as Product Styles are defined for EasyCatalog
Libraries. Typically, furniture page items will be included as part of
the master page design to ensure that they are present on each page
of the document after pages have been inserted by Pagination.
Use the ‘Pagination Rules’ panel to define the boxes that should be populated
with Furniture data.

PAGE HEADERS
DEFINING FURNITURE ‘Furniture’ is an attribute that is applied to a page item using the
(CONTINUED) Pagination Rules panel. The record data to use to populate the page
items must also be specified using the ‘Populate Using’ attribute.
Populate Using Description

The box will be populated with the content of the first
First item on page record on the page. The ‘first’ is determined to be the
record that is nearest to the top-left corner of the page
Populate with the content of the last record on the page.
Last item on page The ‘last’ is determined to be the record closest to the
bottom-right of the page.
First item on Populate with the first record in the document - the
document record that’s closest to the top-left of the first spread.
First item on spread Populate with the first record on the spread.
Last item on spread Populate with the last record on the spread.
Last item on Populate with the last record in the document - the
document record nearest the bottom-right of the last spread.
The ‘Populate Using’ attribute can also be applied to group boxes

- each box in the group will be populated with the record data
determined by the ‘Populate Using’ attribute.
POPULATING Use the ‘Update Furniture’ panel menu option to populate all Furniture
page items in the document.
FURNITURE
Furniture page items will be populated in the same manner as
Product Styles – Field Specifiers will be replaced with field data.
Once populated, Furniture page items can be updated again at a
later time using the ‘Update Furniture’ menu option.
The Furniture box has been populated with the data for the last record on the
page - the record closest to the bottom-right of the page.
If your Furniture page item is on a master page, it will be overridden

in the document page prior to being updated.

THE RECORD VIEWER PANEL
CHAPTER 16

INTRODUCTION The EasyCatalog Record Viewer Panel presents your data a single
record at a time, making working with records containing a large
number of fields easy.
Using the Record Viewer panel, you can view individual records,
quickly filter and place your data on the page. To help to identify
fields already placed in the document, the Record Viewer panel can
also show the record(s) in the current document selection.
This panel is only available in EasyCatalog 2.1.1 or later.
THE RECORD VIEWER Using the Record Viewer panel, you can import, filter and place your data
PANEL OVERVIEW in the document.
Use the ‘Data Sources’ pop-up menu to import your data or switch to data
you’ve previously imported
Further options are
available from the pop-
out menu
Quickly filter your data
using the ‘Find’ options.
Data for the currently

selected record is shown
in the main area of the
panel.
Step through the records

in the data source using
the scroll-bar or the arrow
buttons
The index number of the current record is shown here. Jump directly to a
record by entering its number here.
Insert the selected field in the document
If the Record Viewer panel is

not visible, show it using the
‘Window→EasyCatalog Record
Viewer’ menu option.

FINDING RECORDS EasyCatalog offers a number of ways to step through the records
from you data source, and can also filter the records shown based
on the content of their fields.
Finding Records in the Panel

The records shown in the EasyCatalog Record Viewer panel can be filtered
using the ‘Find’ edit box.
Enter the text to search for here
The position of Choose the

the search text type of search
is highlighted in
the key field
The number of records matching

your search criteria
The scroll-bars and scroll buttons will step through all records where the key
field matches the search criteria
➃ ➁ ➀ ➂
Moving Sequentially through the records
Either use the ➀ horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the panel,
or use the ➁ left and ➂ right scroll buttons to move a record at a
time. If the panel is filtered using the ‘Find’ options (below), the next/
previous record matching the search criteria will be shown.
By Index number
Jump straight to a record by entering it’s index number into the ➃ edit
field at the bottom of the Record Viewer panel.

FINDING RECORDS Filtering Records

(CONTINUED) The records shown when stepping using the scroll-bar/arrow buttons
can be filtered by entering search criteria into the ‘Find’ text box.
➀ ➁ ➂ ➃ ➄
➀ Key Fields
Key fields containing the text entered into the ‘Find’ field will be
shown in the panel. Only records whose key fields contain the text
entered will be shown in the panel. To search for an exact match,
enter the search term in double quotes - e.g. "11SS"
➁ Text
All fields containing the text entered into the ‘Find’ field will be shown
in the panel. To search for an exact match, enter the search term in
double quotes - e.g. "11SS"
➂ Expression
Enter a regular expression into the ‘Find’ field. The complete syntax
of regular expressions is outside of the scope of this documentation,
but a number of tutorials are available on the internet. Examples of
some of the most useful expressions are shown in the table below:
Example Results
^12 Shows all records beginning with ‘12’
12$ Shows records ending with ‘12’
^1.*2$ Shows records that begin with ‘1’ and end with ‘2’
Shows all records that contain ‘1’ followed by any character
1.2
followed by ‘2’
Shows all records that contain ‘1’ followed by any number
1.*2
of characters followed by a ‘2’

FINDING RECORDS ➃ Selection

(CONTINUED) The fields in the current document selection will be shown in the
panel. The names of the selected fields will be highlighted in the
Record Viewer panel.
Finding Fields Selected in the Document

The fields in the current document selection can be displayed by choosing
‘Selection’ as the search type
The selected field is highlighted

in the panel
The number of unique fields

selected in the document
➄ Range
Enter a numeric range of record index numbers into the ‘Find’ field.
Ranges and single index numbers are allowed - for example:
1,2,10-20
will display records 1, 2 and 10 thru 20 (inclusive) in the panel.
INTERACTION WITH The Record Viewer will automatically update to show the range of
records selected in any of your EasyCatalog data panels. A ‘Range’
EASYCATALOG
filter will be applied to the Record View panel to allow you to step
PANELS through each of the selected records.
Note that the data source selected in the data source pop-up must
match the data source of the EasyCatalog panel for the filter to be
applied.
INSERTING FIELDS To insert a field, select it in the panel and either use the ‘insert’ button
in the bottom left of the panel. The current document
selection will determine whether the field content is
inserted as text, or if an image is imported.

INSERTING FIELDS Text Selection

(CONTINUED) The field will be inserted at the current text insertion point, replacing
any text that is selected. If a character style sheet has been defined
in the Field Options for the field being inserted, this will be applied to
the inserted text.
Picture-box Selection
The picture for the selected field will be inserted into the picture
box. The content of the field determines how much configuration is
required in the ‘Field Options’:
Field Options for the selected field can be

edited using the ‘Field Options’ menu option
on the panel’s pop-out menu.
• If the field contains a full path to an image, such as ‘Macintosh

HD:Pictures:1234.jpg”, the image will be imported from this
location and no configuration is required.
• If the field contains only the filename of the image, such as ‘1234.
jpg’, the ‘Content Location’ must be configured in the field’s Field
Options dialog.
• If the field contains only part of the filename, such as ‘1234’, you
may also need to specify the file type extension (e.g. ‘.jpg’) in the
Field Options dialog.
Pictures can also be optionally scaled and aligned using the

configuration options available in the Field Options dialog.
The frame will be tagged with the key field of the record - this is a
visual aid to help to identify which record a picture belongs to.

INSERTING MULTIPLE Multiple records can be inserted automatically into the document, or
into an existing table, using the ‘Copy and Repeat’ menu option from
RECORDS
the Record Viewer panel’s pop-out menu.
Automatically Inserting Text
The current text-selection can be repeated for each record selected

in the Record Viewer panel. By creating a simple prototype for a
single record, multiple records can be inserted — pre-formatted — at
the click of a button.
➀ Create a prototype for a single record.
Begin by defining how a single record should appear in the document

- do this by inserting fields from the panel and applying character
and paragraph formatting to the prototype.
➁ Select the prototype text
Select the text you want to use as the prototype in the document.
➂ Use the ‘Find’ options to filter the data in the panel
The records currently displayed in the panel will be placed in the

document. Use the ‘Find’ options to filter the content of the panel
so that it contains just the records you would like to insert into the
document.
➃ Select ‘Copy and Repeat’ from the Record Viewer panel pop-
out menu.

INSERTING MULTIPLE Automatically Inserting Table Rows
RECORDS Table rows can also be repeated for each record selected in the
(CONTINUED) Record Viewer panel. Again, by defining a prototype row that defines
how each record should appear in the table, multiple records can be
inserted at the click of a button.
➀ Create a prototype for a single record.
Define a single prototype row in the table, by inserting fields into the
correct cells and applying character and paragraph formatting where
appropriate.
Note that sufficient rows should be present in the table to

accommodate the amount of data being used - new rows will not be
automatically inserted.
➁ Select the prototype row(s)
Select the row or rows that should be used as a prototype for all of
the records being inserted into the document. Multiple table rows
can be used for each record being inserted into the table.
➂ Use the ‘Find’ options to filter the data in the panel
➃ Select ‘Copy and Repeat’ from the Record Viewer panel pop-
out menu.

THE RECORD VIEWER Insert Field
PANEL MENU Inserts the selected field in the document. The same can be achieved
by selecting the field in the panel and using the the ‘insert’ button.
Show/Hide Field Markers
The marker characters around each field can be hidden or shown

at any time using the ‘Show/Hide Field Markers’ menu option. The
visibility of the marker characters is a document setting, so it is
possible to set the visibility of the markers in individual documents.
Field marker characters are never shown when
!
the document is in Preview mode, and field
markers on graphic frames will not be shown
when ‘Hide Frame Edges’ has been selected.
Synchronize with Data Source
Retrieves the latest data for the data source selected in the ‘Data
Source’ pop-up. The data that is imported into EasyCatalog is cached
locally each time a ‘Synchronize with Data Source’ is performed --
this allows you to continue working with data even when the data
source (such as a database) is not currently available.
Data Source Info...
Display information about the data source selected in the data-

sources pop-up menu:
The current data source can be deleted using the ‘Delete’ button on
the Information dialog. Any open EasyCatalog panels for this data
source will be closed, and the data source will be removed from your
local workspace folder.
Update Document
To ensure your document always contains the latest data from your
data source, or to correct any changes that may have been incorrectly

THE RECORD VIEWER made to data in your document, use the ‘Update Document’ menu
option.
PANEL MENU
(CONTINUED) Only fields which need updating will be updated in the document,
and any character-level formatting will be preserved where possible
by merging the changes into the document rather than replacing the
entire content of the fields.
Only fields for the data source selected in the
! data-sources pop-up menu will be updated in

the document.
• All
Update all of the fields in the document.
• Selection
Only update the fields in the current document selection.
Copy and Repeat
Multiple records can be inserted by defining a simple prototype for

how each record should appear in the document. See ‘Inserting
Multiple Records’ (above) for further information.
Field Options
The configuration of each of the fields shown in the panel can be

edited at any time using the ‘Field Options’ menu. Select a field to
edit in the panel, followed by the Field Options menu option.
About...
Displays the ‘About EasyCatalog...’ dialog, which also allows the
software to be activated once a serial number has been purchased.

TEMPLATE DATA SOURCES
CHAPTER 17

INTRODUCTION After a data source has been created, it can be used as the basis
for creating other data sources. This feature is useful where, for
example, multiple files in the same format need to be imported.
i Template data sources can currently only be

defined for File, ODBC and XML Data sources.
For ODBC data sources, parameters can also be specified in the

SQL query. When opening an ODBC data source template, the user
will be prompted for the values for these parameters.
CREATING A DATA ➀ The first step is to create a standard EasyCatalog data source,
ensuring that you configure all settings (such as field options, etc)
SOURCE TEMPLATE
that you would want to be used when creating data sources.
ODBC Data Sources Only

When configuring an ODBC Data Source template, parameters
can be included in the SQL statement. When opening a new data
source based on this template, the values for these parameters will
be prompted for.
Parameters are included in {{ braces }} within the SQL statement:
Using Parameters in ODBC Data Provider Templates
Include parameters in the query inside {{ braces }}. These parameters will be
substituted with values entered by the user when creating a new data source
from this template.

CREATING A DATA ➁
SOURCE TEMPLATE
(CONTINUED) ➁ From the data panel you have
just created, use the ‘Close Panel’
menu option.
➂ Go to “InDesign→Preferences
➂ →EasyCatalog” (on Macintosh) or
“Edit→P references→E asyCatalog”
(on Windows).
➃ Press the “Reveal” button at the
top of the dialog that appears.
➄ Go into the highlighted folder.
Inside, you should see a folder for
each of the data sources you have
created.
➅ Move the folder for the data source you just created into the
“EasyCatalog Data Source Templates” folder.
This folder is created by EasyCatalog
DRAG
➆ Switch back into InDesign.

CREATING A DATA ➇ At the top of the “File→New→EasyCatalog Panel” menu, you should see
SOURCE TEMPLATE your template listed as a new data source type.
(CONTINUED)
Template Data Sources appear at the top of the ‘File→New→EasyCatalog

Panel’ menu.
OPENING A NEW To open a data source template, select it from the

“File→New→EasyCatalog Panel” menu.
DATA SOURCE FROM
A TEMPLATE Field options for the new data source will default to those specified
when the template was created, and any configurations that have
been set-up will also be available from the ‘Configurations’ menu.
File-based Data Sources

When opening a file-based data source template, a file-chooser
dialog will be presented. After selecting the data file to load, a new
data panel will be presented.
ODBC Data Sources

Any parameters that were included in the SQL will be prompted for.
MODIFYING A DATA To modify a data source template:
SOURCE TEMPLATE ➀ Drag the template’s folder from the ‘EasyCatalog Data Source
Templates’ folder into your EasyCatalog workspace folder.
➁ Open the data source from the “File→New→EasyCatalog Panel”
menu.
➂ Edit the data source.
➃ Use the “Close Panel” menu option to close the data source.
➄ Move the data source folder into the ‘EasyCatalog Data Source
Templates’ folder.
Modifications to the template do not affect data

! sources already created from the template.
DELETING A DATA Templates should be deleted by removing the relevant folder from
the ‘EasyCatalog Data Source Templates’ folder.
SOURCE TEMPLATE

REPORTS
CHAPTER 18
REPORTS
INTRODUCTION EasyCatalog provides simple reports showing the contents of the
panel, data source or front-most document.
All reports are generated as XML, and by default all reports generated
will be shown in your default web-browser.
REPORT TYPES EasyCatalog currently offers three types of report, available from
the “Reports” menu, which can be found on your EasyCatalog data
panel.
Data Source Report
This report shows all records and fields in the data source in a similar
format to the EasyCatalog data panel.
If the record or field is placed on the front-most document it will be

shown in red or green to show its status.
Panel Report
This report will shown only the records that are in the panel. They will
appear in the same order as the panel obeying any sorting, grouping
and filtering options you have configured.
If the record or field is placed on the front-most document it will be

shown in red or green to show its status.
Document Report
Generates a report showing the links in the front-most document.
The page number the link is placed on, and information about the
data source and key field it is linked to is included in the report.

REPORTS
REPORT TYPES Example Document Report

(CONTINUED)
Data source
name Field name
Page number the Key field value Field content

field is placed on:
OM indicates the
field is in overmatter.
This report is useful when you have a link in the document and you
cannot determine which data source it is linked to: simply copy the
link to a new document and then run this report.
XML REPORTS All of the above reports are generated as an XML file, which is
stored in an ‘EasyCatalog Reports’ folder inside of your EasyCatalog
workspace folder. This XML file is then opened in your default web-
browser.

APPLICATION PREFERENCES
CHAPTER 19
INTRODUCTION Available from the standard InDesign
preferences menu, EasyCatalog provides a new
‘EasyCatalog’ pane on the standard application
‘Preferences’ dialog.
The EasyCatalog panel offers preferences that affect the general behavior of the
plug-in - they are not preferences for the current, front-most document.
THE WORKSPACE
FOLDER
‘The Workspace Folder’
The ‘Workspace Folder’ specifies the location of the folder

EasyCatalog uses to cache data from the data source. The location
of this folder is not important - it is typically located on each client
machine and should be accessible by EasyCatalog each time it is
launched.

THE WORKSPACE By default, your workspace folder will be configured to be:
FOLDER Macintosh: Documents:EasyCatalog Workspace

(CONTINUED) Windows: My Documents/EasyCatalog Workspace
Multiple Users Share This Workspace
Enable this check box when the workspace folder is being shared
by multiple users. The configuration of data sources - such as field
options, data source options, etc - will be stored in the workspace
folder. The snapshot of data will be stored locally on each machine.
If another user changes the configuration of a shared workspace data

source, it may be required that the ‘Synchronize With Data Source’
menu option is used before the field options can be edited.
CONTENT TRACKING
‘Content Tracking’
Enable Content Tracking
This preference determines whether the document content should

be tracked - whether the Field Marker characters should be inserted
into the document. If this option is not set, the document can never
be updated with changes to the data (as EasyCatalog does not know
where each field is placed).
Field tracking can be disabled for individual fields using the ‘Content
Tracked’ Field Option.
If ‘Enable Content Tracking’ is turned off, fields
! placed on your document cannot be updated and

are not linked to your source data.
Dynamically Update Panel
When set, EasyCatalog will dynamically apply document changes to

the panel. For instance, when a field is removed from the document
it’s placed status will be updated in the panel. This dynamic tracking
is useful for viewing those records that are placed, although does
introduce a slight performance overhead.
With this option turned off, you must manually perform a ‘Synchronise
with Document’ operation to update the panels.

CONTENT TRACKING Synchronize Panel After Update

(CONTINUED) After an ‘Update Document’ or ‘Synchronize with Data Source’
operation, EasyCatalog will re-synchronise with the document
automatically. Any discrepancies between the document and data
will be highlighted, and any placed fields will be shown in the panel.
ALLOW PAGINATION
TO BE UNDOABLE
ONLY AVAILABLE WITH THE
PAGINATION MODULE
The ‘Allow pagination to be undoable’ option speeds up automatic pagination by
disabling the undo support in InDesign
EasyCatalog CS2 Pagination Module only

Select this option to disable InDesign’s undo and redo functionality
during automatic pagination. This has a significant impact on
performance - note, however, that the pagination option will not be
undoable and undo/redo history for the document you are paginating
into will be lost.
DATA SOURCE
DEFAULTS
Check the ‘Ignore White Space Changes’ check box to turn this option on
automatically for new data sources created
Ignore White Space Changes

Further information on the functionality of this option can be found in
the Field Options chapter.

HTTP AUTHENTICATION
HTTP PROXY
‘Content Tracking’
The settings specified here are used when retrieving images from a
URL, and are also used as defaults for retrieving XML data via the
XML Data Provider.
HTTP Authentication
Specify a user name and password here if the server you are
connecting to require these credentials.
HTTP Proxy
If all HTTP requests should use a proxy server, enter the address of
the proxy server and (optionally) your user name and password for
the proxy server.
KEYBOARD Some of the common document-based operations can have

keyboard short-cuts assigned, via the standard InDesign ‘Keyboard
SHORTCUTS
Shortcuts’ editor.
To edit EasyCatalog’s keyboard shortcuts, go to the shortcuts editor

(from the ‘Edit→Keyboard Shortcuts...’ menu option).
A new ‘Product Area’ is available from the pop-up menu - ‘EasyCatalog’.

Select this product area to reveal the actions that can have keyboard
shortcuts assigned.

MENU REFERENCE
CHAPTER 20
MENU REFERENCE
Permanently close this panel
Create a new panel based on
this one Prevent records from being added
Remove all records from this or removed to this panel
panel
Store and retrieve panel
configurations, such as column
positions, sizes, etc.
Group and ungroup the panel to
show data hierarchically
Generate xml-based reports on the
contents of the panel, data source
Automatic pagination (provided or document
by the optional Pagination Update page headers and footers
Module) (provided by the optional Pagination
Module)
Retrieve the latest data from the
data source Refresh the statuses of each field
Update the data source with shown in the panel
changes made to the data in the
InDesign document
Update the document with changes
Update the panel with changes made to the source data
made to the data in the
document
Remove the selected record(s) from
Show all records from the data the panel
source (remove any filter that
has been applied) Filter the data shown in the panel
Apply a filter that has been
previously saved Filter the data based on its status
shown in the panel
Show or hide colums

Edit Field Options, such as field
Define Field Formatting tags, type, for the fields in your data
used to include formatting
information within your data
Insert a Field Specifier (place-
Convert data fields in the holder) where data should appear
document selection to Field
Specifiers Format table rows, columns and cells
based on information in your data
Hide the Field Maker characters
in the current document Remove EasyCatalog’s field marker
Replace instances of one characters from the document
EasyCatalog field with another Relink fields in the document to a
new data source
Search the EasyCatalog
workspace folder for associated
Product Styles Remove a Product Style that has
been associated with this record
Scan a file system for images
relating to your fields
Display the ‘About EasyCatalog’
dialog, where the EasyCatalog can
be activated and deactivated

EasyCatalog Manual

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EasyCatalog Manual

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EASYCATALOG

FOR ADOBE® INDESIGN®

Version Date Remarks

CHAPTER 2 IMPORTING YOUR DATA................................. 25

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 5

CHAPTER 3 FIELD OPTIONS............................................... 33

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 6

CHAPTER 4 FIELD FORMATTING TAGS.............................. 53

CHAPTER 5 EASYCATALOG PANELS.................................. 59

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 7

CHAPTER 5 Loading and Saving Panel Configurations..................................... 69

CHAPTER 6 FILTERING DATA.............................................. 73

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 8

CHAPTER 8 PAGINATION BASICS...................................... 89

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 9

CHAPTER 9 TEMPLATES AND LIBRARIES......................... 97

CHAPTER 10 TABLES.......................................................... 109

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 10

CHAPTER 11 AUTOMATIC PAGINATION............................. 123

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 11

CHAPTER 12 PAGINATION ATTRIBUTE REFERENCE........ 141

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 12

CHAPTER 13 CUSTOM FIELDS REFERENCE..................... 157

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 13

CHAPTER 13 GROUPMIN........................................................................ 177

CHAPTER 14 CONDITIONAL PROCESSING....................... 187

CHAPTER 15 PAGE HEADERS............................................ 193

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 14

CHAPTER 16 THE RECORD VIEWER PANEL...................... 195

CHAPTER 17 TEMPLATE DATA SOURCES......................... 205

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 15

CHAPTER 18 REPORTS....................................................... 209

CHAPTER 19 APPLICATION PREFERENCES...................... 211

CHAPTER 20 MENU REFERENCE....................................... 215

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 16

65bit Software are committed to providing high quality software for

WHAT IS EasyCatalog is a complete database publishing solution, and provides

Document content is constantly tracked, enabling you to determine

• Data can be acquired from a variety of data sources

• Errors are reduced, as data on the page is coming

• Errors are detected. EasyCatalog can highlight

• Data can be filtered and grouped to only show data

• Data that has been changed on the database can

• Records can be dragged and dropped to the page

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 17

WHAT IS complex page layouts containing live linked data

• Formatting may be applied to fields, ensuring that

• Library styles may be defined for records, ensuring

• EasyCatalog offers powerful tabular data functionality,

• Using the optional pagination module, EasyCatalog

• EasyCatalog leverages the typographical and layout

• Reduced cost of ownership

• EasyCatalog is a front-end for existing databases

• As there is no new ‘production’ database to integrate

• As EasyCatalog is tightly integrated with Adobe

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 18

We aim to respond to all enquiries within one working day of receiving

Whilst you are evaluating EasyCatalog, the ‘About EasyCatalog’

PURCHASING If you’ve purchased or downloaded EasyCatalog from one of our

Serial numbers purchased via our web-store will be issued on

The number of days remaining

Once you have purchased

Internet activation offers many advantages, including the ability to

EASYCATALOG USER GUIDE PAGE 19