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BATS, the formula
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for simplicity
In times of Covid-19, bats got a bad name (no pun intended). But they are special animals, equipped with Sonar to navigate. A very effective yet simple tool. Some people are scared of bats, due to the appearance in horror movies. And they sleep upside down…
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CHILI publisher is a template building engine to enable that enables one smart template to output multiple variants of the same document. How to do you get the most out of the smart template, without overdoing it?
The Formula:
B(ATS){*}
Translated to people who have less affection with with little affection for regex:
Build template - (Add 1 type of logic - Test - Simplify) {repeat until happy}
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Probably, your smart template journey starts on your desktop. If not, you can skip from this step to “Build your template”.
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The conversion itself is not the challenge. But it’s “What” you convert.
Reducing the complexity before conversion will greatly benefit the quest to for simplicity.
Imagine a design with a few thousand vector elements, used as a background for a design. When converting, these elements will be converted to vector elements, to be calculated individually to show in your browser window.
If these elements will remain background items, and will do not change with any variant, you can increase simplicity by combining all these elements into 1 vector layer and place this layer as an asset.
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At this stage, you have a blank document in CHILI publisher, or you have converted a document form from your desktop application. Either way, it’s time to start adding Logic to the document, to make it smart.
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Imagine a campaign for CHILL water, for several sport types. A database feeds the template with types of output, flavor, etc. So, all elements are available, to make output in different formats, styles and sizes.
To make a document smarter, several tools are at your disposal.
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How can you test? That will differ according to your setup. If you your setup allow allows the interaction with an end-user to fill in the variable, look for challenging variable content. What is the shortest word, what is the longest variant?
Maybe your setup containts contains a datasource, that will auto populate the variables. Best It’s best then to check the shortest and longest variable. Does the datasource contain special characters?
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Check output with datasources
Simplify
When you your test is successful, now it is a good time to think about simplification, before adding more automation logic.
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Frame2 is anchored to the left side of Frame1, without offset.
Nothing There’s nothing wrong with this setup, but the left of Frame 1 is Frame1 never changingchanges. So, the second anchor of Frame2 is unnecessary. And it would mean a 4th calculation, where only 3 are necessary.
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If the outcome is not what is supposed to happen, then it’s time to call in the troops, and inform us you may have found an exceptionsexception.
You could submit a support ticket with the Client Success team, or you could ask for specialist help.
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Below is an attempt to list features that will make your template smarter. Some features have more impact on complexity than otherothers. This table gives you an insight in less and more taxing features.
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| Note |
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There is no exact weight nor cost, since it will always depend on the context and your specific situation. |
Low Tax | Medium Tax | Heavier Tax |
|---|---|---|
Swatches | Text in shapes | Snippets |
Image frames | Complex variables | Alternate Layouts |
(low amount) Simple vector Objects | Actions | Complex Actions |
Text Frames | Multipage documents | Anchors |
Simple variables | Several styles in 1 document (paragraph and character style) | Dynamic Layouts |
Logic / Actions triggering other logic | ||
Transparancy effects | ||
Dynamic Asset Providers | ||
Tables | ||
Datasources |
| Warning |
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Warning: Combining several “Low Tax” features will also add up to complexity |