This section of the newsletter is designed to keep you up to date on the latest from our in-house developed online ordering service, EzyPrint.

This month I would like to explain one of the exciting built-in features of EzyPrint - floating fields. Because EzyPrint uses Adobe PDF files as templates, which, as part of the ordering process produces live, print-ready PDF files, the templates need to accomodate for many variables. One of the more complicated variables to accomodate is when, for example, a qualifications field is needed to sit next to a persons name on a business card. This is simple in a PDF field if the font, size and colour of the name and qualifications are the same, however it is usually the case that the qualifications field needs to be displayed using a different font size. This means two fields are required in the PDF template. But where do we place the fields in the PDF file? If my name was 'Tom Smith', the qualifications field would be in one location but if my name was 'Alexander Reallylongname' it would need to be in a different location. This is where floating fields are used.

To use a floating field, in the PDF template the qualifications field is placed over the top of the name field, as pictured below:

Then, in EzyPrint, for the 'qualifications' field, we specify that the field's value 'floats' from the field value of the 'name' field, as pictured below:

Then, no matter what length the name is, EzyPrint will float the qualifications field to the right of the name field! As easy as that! Floating can be done to the left or right of a field, from the centre of a field, or as part of a centred field group (eg when phone numbers and fax numbers need to float from each other on a centred line).