Text Fields

Text fields are used to display personal data (address and other information). Address Panels are created with them.

Text fields can be divided into three types:

• Personal Data - such as name, address, telephone, etc. These fields correspond to Apple Address Book fields.
• Counters - fields for automatic document numeration.
• File Data - fields to insert data from a text file.

There are 2 ways for adding a Text Field:

1. The first way is to drag a panel from Design Window, Address Fields tab, and place it on a Label/Envelope.
2. The second way is to add a text using Text Edit tool (A) in the lower left part of the window. In Inspector Window, in the top drop-down list change field type (e.g. Personal Data).

Personal Data

Personal Data can be filled with address information either manually, or pulled from a contact manager - Address Book, MS Entourage, MS Excel, Now Contact, vCard, FileMaker or from a tab- or comma-delimited text file. Addresses change automatically when a person is changed through Contacts Window.

To fill Personal Data:

1. Click on the Contacts toolbar button to bring up the Contacts Window and choose a person from there.
2. Alternatively, you can type the data manually. Add a text field using Text Edit tool (A) and fill it manually. Use Return to insert a line break, and Enter - to finish editing.

Text field, as any other object can be deleted by Delete button.

Text field properties can be altered in Inspector Window. To open it, click the Inspector toolbar button, or use Show Inspector command from Window menu.

Personal Data field can reflect Recipient or Sender data. Switching between Sender and Recipient data can be done using Inspector Window, Refers To option.
Data to fill Sender is taken from the internal Sender Database - active record is shown in Contacts Window, From tab.
Data to fill Recipient is taken from one of external sources (e.g. Apple Address Book) or internal Print List.

Personal Data type can be changed (e.g. phone to fax) using Type drop down list.

As a person's record may have more than one address location (for instance, "work" and "home"), you are given an option to choose which one to use, available from the "Preferred Address" drop-down list.

To have the data written in capitals, click the Capitalize button.

You can change various font attributes of the text inside the address panel. For more information about it, see "Working With Text".

Counters

Counter fields are used for automatic label or envelope numeration while printing. To add counter to a label/envelope, choose Text mode (A) and choose Counter option from drop down list in Inspector Window.

It is possible to set Starting Number from which counting starts and Incrementation size (e.g. if you would like to obtain figures raw 010, 020, 030, 040 and so on - you would have to enter 10).
For obtaining figures with the same number of digits (e.g., consisting of 4 digits) leading zeros are added to them. This can be set by Make N digits (use leading zeros) option. In this case number 3 will look like 0003, and 346 will look like 0346.

Note that numbers aren't displayed in editing mode, but will appear in Print Preview and while printing.

File Data

File Data fields are used for automatic data insertion from text file. To add such fields to a label/envelope, choose Text mode (A) and choose File Data option from drop down list in Inspector Window.

Text file which is the data source is chosen (Browse button). You can also specify the type of storing data in the file.
If you choose Read each line option - data will be read for each line, starting from the first line.
If you choose Read as delimited option - data will be read according to delimiters.

Lets examine a file that includes the following lines:

001,Russell Simmons,Manager,347-12-567
002,Shirley Kaiser,Accountant,653-54-444

For this file, you should choose comma as a delimiter (from drop down menu). To display the field, e.g. Occupation - number 3 should be entered in Column field of Inspector Window (because the first in each line is the index number, the second is name, and the third is occupation).

Note that text data from files is not displayed during editing, but will appear in Print Preview and while printing.

Note: In fact, you can use Personal Data, option to fill text fields, then use a text file as an external source. File Data will be kept unchanged, if it is necessary to take data from several files simultaneously.