Use Overlays for Graphical Design

You can use overlays to provide the graphical design elements of your final forms. They are designed and maintained outside Lasernet Form Editor using one of the applications listed below (amongst others). This approach not only allows for the rapid creation of new overlays from existing marketing materials, but also ensures a clear separation between the graphical design and data retrieval aspects of form building.

To get an overview and maintain a list of overlays and templates added to a configuration go to Lasernet Developer > Resources > Overlay.

Note

Overlays are relevant to EMF-based output only.

Designing Overlays

The overlays represent all the graphical elements of a form such as company logo, borders, boxes, fixed text, images, lines etc. You can use a single overlay for a form or create separate overlays for each individual graphical element, for easier maintenance.

You design and maintain overlays outside of Lasernet Developer using any Windows application that can print to the Lasernet Print Capture printer, which is an integral part of the Lasernet installation. The following is a list of recommended Windows applications to use when creating overlay files for your Lasernet forms:

• Microsoft Word

• Microsoft Publisher

• Adobe InDesign

Overlay files are created in Lasernet EMF format and are generated via the Windows printer queue named Lasernet Print Capture.

We recommend that you split up all of your graphical elements for a form into separate overlays. For example:

• An overlay file containing your company logo and company address

• An overlay file containing the text ‘COPY’ to be used on all of your printed copies

• Separate overlay files for each of your form types: e.g. one for invoices, one for credit notes, one for a statement of accounts, one for payroll statements etc.

Example of Overlay Design

The following example shows how to create a simple overlay designs for your forms.

The image above depicts an overlay designed in Microsoft Word. The overlay contains the company logo.

The image above depicts an overlay designed in Microsoft Publisher. It is a payment slip to be used as a part of a form layout.

Generating Overlays

The Lasernet Print Capture printer is added to your list of printers in Windows.

When you have finished creating an overlay file, in your design application, select File > Print from the menu and the printer page displays.

Select the Lasernet Print Capture printer and click Print. An overlay file is now exported and ready to be imported into your Lasernet configuration. The overlay file retains the same name as the one given by the application that printed it, with an .lnemf file extension.

Troubleshooting tip

Make sure that the Lasernet Print Capture Windows service is running.

Import Printed Overlays to the Setup

Overlays files printed to the Lasernet Print Capture are temporarily stored on disk and are not available to the Lasernet Form Editor until they have been imported into the configuration via the Lasernet Developer or via the Overlay Files tab of the Sheet Options dialog in the Lasernet Form Editor.

Note

Lasernet Developer must be running on the same machine as the Lasernet Print Capture. Once imported, the configuration can be sent to any Lasernet machine over the network as normal. Any overlays are then transferred with the configuration.

Open the Sheet Options dialog on the Overlay Files tab in the Lasernet Form Editor, click Import, and all the overlays, which have been created since last import are available to be imported into the currently open configuration.

Alternatively, overlays can be imported from the main menu Lasernet Developer > Resources section by clicking the Import Overlays button.

Activate the overlay(s) to add them into your current project.

Click Import. As a result, the overlays are removed from the list and moved to your project.

During the import, you can change the temporary file names given for each document in the list.

Please note that you are only prompted to rename files if the feature is turned on. To change this setting, go to Lasernet Developer > View > Prompt for Overlay Capture File Name to toggle this feature on/off.

The Import overlay function is also available from the Sheet > Sheet Options > Overlay Files menu in the Lasernet Form Editor.

When you have imported the overlays, they become available in your project from the Lasernet Form Editor application.

The result of importing overlays via the Lasernet Developer or Lasernet Form Editor is exactly the same. In both cases, all the imported overlays become available for all the forms created in the configuration.

One of the advantages of importing overlays directly from the Overlay dialog is that a little wizard can help you to easily insert a range of overlays into the first, middle, last and single page(s) of the sheet you are currently working on.

Adding Overlays to the Sheet

You can access and manage the list of overlay files in your form via the Sheet > Sheet Options > Overlay Files menu (the same dialog where you can import your overlays from).

On the left-hand side of the Overlay Files tab, the overlays that you have added to the First Page, Middle Page, Last Page and Single Page are shown. To the right of the box is the Preview area where you can see a representation of the selected overlay.

By default, overlays are shown as thumbnails. To show overlays as a list, click the Thumbnails button.

Add Overlay

You can add additional overlay files to a page by clicking the Add button. As a result, a dialog for viewing available overlays files listed in the Files > Overlay folder appears.

In this dialog box you can browse to the directory containing your overlay files with the .lnemf extension and activate a single or multiple overlays. On the Thumbnails tab, you can also preview overlays before adding them. From the Source files tab you can open an overlay in a corresponding graphics editor and edit it, if needed.

Select/activate the appropriate overlay file and then choose what page it should be added to. Click the Ok button to include it in your form.

Apart from files, you can also add JobInfos. A JobInfo contains a name of the overlay file stored in the default directory of the current setup.

Overlay Properties

Sequence of Overlays

You can change the sequence of the overlay files using the Move up and Move down buttons. The sequence is important because it describes the order of the layers. The last drawn overlay is placed at the top. Rearranges, Insert Text etc. will be added afterwards and will always stay on top of the overlay.

Remove Overlay

You can remove an overlay from a page by selecting it and clicking the Remove button.

Import Overlays

Click the Import overlays button and select an overlay file from the import overlay dialog.

All of the overlay management functions are also available from a pop-up menu that can be accessed by right-clicking in the output design view of the Form Editor.

Summary

Overlay files can be created and used by following these simple steps:

1. Design the overlay files representing your form’s graphical elements in your favorite Windows design application.

2. Open your Lasernet project in Lasernet Developer.

3. Print the graphical design files to the Lasernet Print Capture printer.

4. Import the overlay to make it available in the configuration.

5. Add the overlay files (.lnemf files) to the relevant pages in your form.