Automated Image Importing and Insertion

Business Card Composer allows to insert images automatically into your card when you print multiple cards (each card will get another image). Images can be taken from the following locations:

• Address Book - useful for printing name badges when personal records contain contact information and photos.
• iPhoto. You can print multiple images from iPhoto on one or several paper sheets. Use this to create a sampler, to print name badges or for other tasks.
• Text File. When your pictures are stored in one or several folders on your hard disk, you can select a text file where images are listed (the path to images).

An image from the selected source will be shown right after the source is selected, other images will replace it during printing.

Address Book

Contacts in the Address Book can contain images, which you can use in your cards.

To insert images from the Address Book:

1. Open the Image tab of the Inspector window (menu: Window > Inspector > Image).


2. Select the image (on your card) you want to be replaced and set the Merge Image checkbox.


3. Select the Address Book as source.


4. Start printing by choosing Print for Several People in the File menu.
   To print a single card, you can use the ordinary printing mode.


5. Select persons, whose contact data and photos you want to print, and click the Print button to continue.

If one of the selected contacts has no picture, its card will be printed without a picture.

Note: images are automatically inserted in cards after you started printing. Images will look the same as in the selected source. If you want to edit one, print it separately.

iPhoto

Images form your iPhoto library can be automatically inserted into cards at printing.

To insert images from iPhoto:

1. Open the Image tab of the Inspector window (menu: Window > Inspector > Image).


2. Select the image (on your card) you want to be replaced and set the Merge Image checkbox.


3. Select iPhoto as source.


4. Select images you want to print.


5. Start printing.

If one of the selected contacts has no picture, its card will be printed without a picture.

Note: images are automatically inserted in cards after you started printing. Images will look the same as in the selected source. If you want to edit one, print it separately.

To print image titles from iPhoto:

1. Add a text field to the card.


2. Open the Text tab of the Inspector window (menu: Window > Inspector > Text).


3. Change type of the text field to iPhoto Title: in the upper drop-down list select iPhoto Title.
   Titles of the selected images will be shown in the box below.

Text File

Business Card Composer can print images listed in a text file (path to each image must be there). The text gives the program actual images' location on your hard disk. Images can be taken from different folders.

To insert images using a list of their locations:

1. Open the Image tab of the Inspector window (menu: Window > Inspector > Image).


2. On your card select the image you want to be replaced and set the Merge Image checkbox.


3. Select "Text File" in the Source drop-down list and select the file (click the Browse button if the Open File dialog was not opened by the program).


4. Select delimiter type and column number. Then click OK.
   "Delimiter type" and "column number" are described in Structure of the image list file.


5. Start printing.

If one of the selected contacts has no picture, its card will be printed without a picture.

Note: images are automatically inserted in cards after you started printing. Images will look the same as in the selected source. If you want to edit one, print it separately.

Structure of the image list file

Image name and location are taken from a list in a text file.

Data in the text file is distributed among lines and columns. There can be a single line or column too. Every cell of this imaginary table contains some data (in our case - the path to an image). Cells are separated by the specified symbol - delimiter. This can be space, tab, comma or other symbol.

The file may have the following structure:

[IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER][IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER]...[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]
...
[IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER][IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER]...[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]

Or more simple:

[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]
[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]
...
[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]

You can also use a combination of different sorts of data in a single text file. For automatic name badge creation, put contact information and image path into the same file.
Look at the sample below.

001,Russell Simmons,Manager,347-12-567,"Users/Admin/Seminar Participants/Russell Simmons.jpg"
002,Shirley Kaiser,Accountant,653-54-444,"Users/Admin/Seminar Participants/Shirley Kaiser.jpg"

In the sample, each personal record (line) has 5 data fields (columns): the first four columns are used for automatic insertion into File Data text fields, the last one contains photo location. In this case the Read as delimited option must be set for File Data fields.

Since you set column number for every "File Data" text field and image, the program inserts text data and images correctly.

How to create a list of images to import?

Method 1

Your list may already be stored in a database or spreadsheet. In this case you should export it to a text file (usually tab- or comma-delimited).

To create a list by hands:

1. Open a new file in the Text Edit application.
2. Switch to the plain text format: choose the Format > Make Plain Text menu command (Cmd-Shift-T).
3. Open the folder containing your image in Finder and drag the image into the text file. The path to the image will be added there.
4. To add one more image, move the cursor to the end of the last added path and press Return. Then repeat the step 3.
5. Save the file.

Do not add any unnecessary symbols! Otherwise you will break the file structure.

If a symbol is used in path and as the delimiter, the path must be written in quotes. For example, when the space symbol is the delimiter, write a path containing space(s) as follow:
"Users/John Smith/Desktop/Images/Image 1.jpg"

Note: only files in plain text format must be used for import.

Method 2

This method allows to use just a list of image names (without the full path).

To create a list:

1. Open a new file in the Text Edit application.
2. Switch to the plain text format: choose the Format > Make Plain Text menu command (Cmd-Shift-T).
3. Open in Finder the folder containing your images, select them and press Cmd-C (or use the Copy command from Finder Edit menu).
4. Paste file names into the text file pressing Cmd-V (or via the Edit > Paste command).
5. Save the text file into the folder containing images you want to import. The program will look for images using the path to the text file.