Documents

The Data+ module provides editing of documents, for use as templates whenever Microbizz needs to generate PDFs.

A document consists of one or more “sections”, a section is a PDF that is used as background, with various information inserted into / on top of the PDF. All the sections of the document are stringed together to form a single PDF.

There are 3 ways of inserting information into a section: a) the content area, b) fields from the relevant object and c) PDF forms.

Section

A section consists of a PDF with additional information / content inserted by Microbizz.

Multiple pages

The PDF may have multiple pages, each page may have a different sized content area but the source of the content is the same of each page, e.g. if the content consists of the lines from a quotation then each page will contain some of the lines.

If the content takes up more space than available the pages will be repeated to make room for all the content. If there is just 1 page then that page will be repeated. If there are 2 pages then the last page will be repeated. If there are 3 or more pages the first and last page will not be repeated but the middle pages will be repeated.

Styling

You may setup styling (text colour, font, font size etc.) for each section, or you may leave the section to use the global styling.

Each page may have its own margin.

Tab

You can add Tab markers to the page - these are used when insert texts that contain the Tab character, f.ex. when you edit text lines on a quotation you may insert the Tab character.

Content area

The content area is where complex content like lines and HTML and collections of images is inserted. The content area in a section can contain only one source of content. Different objects provide different types of content that can be inserted in the content area, f.ex. quotations provide several types: 1) the quotation lines, 2) a summary of quotation lines, 3) a list of revisions, 4) a collection of images, and more.

Totals

If the content are lines you will be to select if a total line, or sub total line, or VAT line should be included. You will also be able to setup which columns to display and how wide the columns should be.

Editing fields

The object (quotation, invoice etc.) provides a number of fields that may be inserted into the section. When you edit the page you can drag the fields from the right side list of fields to the page preview on the left side.

Once you have placed a field on the page you may resize it. If you click on the field buttons will appear next to the field, the buttons are for deleting the field and for styling the field.

The page may have a grid and it may have horizontal and vertical guide lines; when dragging a field the edges may snap to the grid or the guide lines.

Notice that the static texts defined in the old System module can also be inserted as fields.

PDF forms

A PDF may include form fields, these are named fields that can be filled in by software manipulating the PDF. This means that the PDF itself can control styling of the field. Adobe provides tools for this, but LibreOffice can also edit the form fields.

Microbizz can insert values into the PDF form fields - when a master in generated the Microbizz fields will be insert into the PDF form. The fields in the PDF form need to be named in a special way to match the Microbizz fields, eg. %quotation:title% . Please contact the support department if you feel this may be useful for you. More details can be found here.