MadeToPrint Quick Tour

MadeToPrint for: Adobe Acrobat, Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy, QuarkXPress, and QuarkCopyDesk (Macintosh and Windows)

MadeToPrint -- THE tool for printing

Do you belong to those people who do not just print a file on an ordinary sheet of paper but instead print on different formats, to different output devices -- sometimes even at the same time, and create PostScript and/or PDF files on top of everything? If this is the case, you should definitively continue to read this paper!

MadeToPrint is a powerful tool that structures and automates your workflow at the same time. Working with MadeToPrint XT means avoiding any kind or errors when printing to EPS, PostScript and PDF files as well as when printing to a laser writer, color printer or proof. Deadlines and the vast variety of setting you have to check before you hit the OK button, error occur and thus time is wasted, as well as paper and film. And of course, you carry the stress with you why don't you just let MadeToPrint carry the burden?

Have you already hit the print button today?

The easy way of printing with MadeToPrint: With the hit of a single button you can output your document even with different settings and on different output devices, e.g., printer or proof, create EPS-, PostScript- or PDF files, or all together. Of course, MadeToPrint also offers you the batch print functionality. Via only one dialog box, you can manage your whole output simply by saving all your print settings as profiles, including also the output device.

Besides this core functionality, MadeToPrint offers you a variety of additional output options such as adding an infobar on your output or the static and dynamic file naming when converting files to EPS, PostScript or PDF files.

The Pros of MadeToPrint

Before you hit the print button you usually have to go through a number of settings in order to ensure you get the output you want. With MadeToPrint you can save the whole print job as profile, device specific, and just execute them. Or you combine one or more of your print settings to one job and, e.g., print to the laser printer and create a PDF file at the same time.

The handling of the output procedures gets extremely simplified by MadeToPrint, of course, you still have access to the regular print setting of your application.

All mandatory settings for a print job, such as output device on the network, paper size, printer settings, have to be defined only once: As soon as you have saved them as templates in MadeToPrint, you do not have to care about them any longer for future print jobs.

For those of you who need to set-up a 24/7 output and production chain, should take a close look at the output and automation power package MadeToPrint and AutoPilot, both from callas software. AutoPilot automates MadeToPrint and thus adding the final point of efficiency and productivity to your output workflow.

Scenario 1: Create a MadeToPrint print job and output on a laser printer

Image you are working in an environment where you have a laser printer that can print single and both sides and supports DIN A3 and A4 as paper size. MadeToPrint ensures you get the right output at the same time, on the right format! Please see below an example that illustrates how to set up a print job on a windows machine to print for DIN A4 format, both sides printed:

What steps have to be done?

1st Step: Install MadeToPrint on your computer

Call the file setup.exe and follow the instructions of the installations dialogues.

Select the language for MadeToPrint and define a destination folder for the file acrobat.exe in case you do have more than one copy of Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer and the installation program has not selected the right copy.

No manual interaction is needed for the rest of the installation procedure. MadeToPrint will be launched automatically when starting Adobe Acrobat. You will see two new menu items in the File menu:

2nd Step: Define your print job

When defining a print job, all relevant settings are saved as profile for the output on a specific output device, either for printing to a printer or to a file.

In the following example, we will set up a print job to print this document, double page: select the printer on your network, define the print settings, including paper size and orientation. Just open the dialogue MadeToPrint Setup, and click the button New in order to set-up a new profile.

1. Edit the name for the print job

2. Choose in the pop-up menu Destination the output device for your print job.

3. Click the button Printer ...

The print dialog opens up. Please select DIN A4, portrait, double side everything you would do anyway for this print job and finally click OK

4. Click the button OK in order to save your print job.

3rd Step: Start your print job.

In order to start your new print job, you call the entry Run MadeToPrint… within the file menu, select one of the print jobs and click the Print button.

Scenario 2: Take advantage of the MadeToPrint infobar functionality

Just imagine you are working in team where you have to submit reports to various colleagues for review, they may work not on the same floor as you, they receive many reports with different deadlines at the same time. And each one of your colleagues has his own desktop printer. In order to avoid running from one colleague to the other and placing the reports on their tables, you may just send them your report on their desktop printers, given that you all work in the same network. And in an ideal world, your colleague receives all the information with the output, such as name of the author/sender, deadline, date and time, etc.

What do you have to do to realize this?

1st step: Install MadeToPrint on your computer

Follow the steps as described in scenario 1.

2nd step: Define a print job

The general procedure is the same as in scenario 1. But you have to create a new print job for each printer in the network. Furthermore, you may ad an info bar feature to each of these print jobs, and each output will be printed with an info bar, including for example name, date and time, and other information that you may find useful Open the dialog MadeToPrint Setup and click New in order to define a new print job:

1. Enter the name of your new print job

2. Select in pop-up Destination the respective printer in your network.

3. Click the button Printer ...

The print dialog of your system opens and you define all the settings for your print job, including paper size, etc.

4. Click the button Infobar and click Edit when you want to create a print job with an info bar.

5. Choose the option Enable Infobar in order to activate the MadeToPrint infobar functionality. The infobar is divided into three parts, left, middle and right. You can custom define the size of each part and edit the entries either by choosing one of the dynamic tokens (date, time, user name, etc.) or enter static information manually.

The tokens will be evaluated at the point of time when printing while the manual entries will be always the same. You may get a preview by clicking the Preview button.

5. Click the button OK in order to save your settings.

6. Click the button OK in order to save your print job.

3rd step: Save multiple print jobs as set

After creating different print jobs, you can now save them into sets. Open the dialog MadeToPrint Setup… in the file menu.

1. Click the button New Set.

2. Name the Set

3. Select from within the list of available jobs (right hand side) the jobs you want to combine in one set.

4. Click the button Add. The selected jobs will be moved in the the the list of Jobs in Set (left hand side).

With the button Up and Down you can change the sequence of the jobs within your set.

5. Click OK in order to save your set, the set is now listed in the dialog

4th step: Print sets of print jobs

To print a set of print job follows the same rule as to print a single print job just select the set and click Print and your document is printed according to the different print jobs that you have combined in this set, this means, it will be printed in the sequence you have chosen, to different output devices, with different settings, etc.

The examples may have shown you that MadeToPrint simplifies the whole print process by giving the user a tool at hand that remembers all the things the user usually does not want to care about anyway. As a system administrator, you may take additional advantage of the fact that you can transfer the print jobs as well as all the sets to any other machine, you do not have to configure MadeToPrint on each workstation individually.

MadeToPrint is available for both platforms, Mac and Windows*, and for 5 basic applications, including Adobe Acrobat, Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy, QuarkXPress and QuarkCopyDesk.

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