How to design and print cards using a database connection with. emedia CS Software

Transcription

1 How to design and print cards using a database connection with emedia CS Software Open up emedia software by clicking on the desktop icon. On opening the software you will see the following screen: Click on the Switch to Design Mode icon and the screen below appears: You are now ready to start designing a card! 1

2 Start by adding your Company logo. Click on Create a New Picture object icon A default photo will then appear on your card template as the screen below shows: This photo needs to be changed to your Company logo. To do this, go to the Properties panel on the right of the screen. Go to Object Name and re-name that field as Logo. Go to Contents and using the green down arrow next to the text fields change Image type to fixed image. Next go to Picture and click on the green down arrow a drop down menu will appear click on select an image from disk then find your company logo file on your system and select it. The file path will then appear in the text box. The Picture Store text box should now read External file on disk. 2

3 Your company logo will now appear where the photo was depending on the size of the logo this may not show as complete, however you can adjust the size to suit & re-position the logo as required. See the following example: Tip: Click & drag the centre of the logo to position it as required & use the field border points to adjust the size Now that you have your logo as Fixed image on the card template, you need to add the Objects that are required to complete the card template. For this exercise we will require three Objects : (1) Photo (2) Name & (3) Department. Now we need to connect to the database that you are going to retrieve your Object information from. For this exercise, we will use a Database that has been created in EXCEL. The example below shows the database fields populated with the employee information note, the Photograph column shows the file path for the location of the employee photo on your system Tip: When connecting the card template to a database, the database file must not be open. 3

4 Now go to the tool bar at the top of the e-media CS screen & click on Tools. From the drop down menu select Connect to a database. A Database connection pop up menu will now appear. For this exercise select Microsoft Excel worksheet & then click Next. The following screen will appear from which you can browse your system to select the path to your database. Once you have selected your database, click Next. You will be prompted to enter user name and password if the database is protected or password controlled on your system. 4

5 You will then be given the option of selecting the record to use, for example sheet 1 of an Excel worksheet. Click on the required target & it will highlight in blue. Then click Next On the following screen, check all of the authorisation boxes & again click Next On the following screen, ensure that all the required fields are shown & that the Display & Edit boxes are checked. Then again click Next 5

6 The following screen will confirm if all the database connection information is recorded & will prompt you to click Finish Once this is done, we now need to fully populate the card template with the employee information from the database. As before, click on the Create New Picture icon & re-size / relocate the default photograph as required (see example below) You now need to go to the Properties panel & edit the Object Name & Contents fields First change the Object Name from Picture 1 to Photo. Then go to Contents & click on the green arrow next to the Picture Store field. A drop down menu will appear & from this select DB field as a path to a file. (The default photo will disappear but will leave the outline of the photo field on the template). Next, click on the green arrow next to DB Field. A drop down menu will show the column headings on your database & from this select PHOTOGRAPH. E-Media CS will now extract the first employee photograph from your system, using the file path in the PHOTOGRAPH column of your database & insert it in the Photo field on the card template. 6

7 Next we will add the Name Object. To do this, click on the Create New Text Object icon. A text box will now appear on your template. Click on the text box & move it to the desired location. Next go to the Properties panel & & change the Object name from Text 1 to Name. Now go to Source under the Contents heading & click on the green arrow. A drop down menu will appear & from this select Database field. Then go to Field & click on the green arrow. A drop down menu will show the column headings on your database, from this select NAME. Next, go to Text & click on Font so that you can select the size & style of lettering. Tip: Use the field border points to expand the text field as required the text fields must be big enough to accommodate long names! 7

8 Following the steps above, create a second text box to add the DEPARTMENT Object. For this exercise, we now have all the database fields we require set up on our card template & we are ready to print! To print the card, we need to switch from Design Mode to Operating Mode by clicking on the Switch to Operating Mode icon. After clicking on this icon, the template screen view will change as shown below. You will now see the first employee s name & department shown on the card and in the Input panel. To print this card, click on the printer icon on the input panel, or the same icon on the top left hand side of the e-media CS screen. Your card will now print exactly as designed. 8

9 To move to the next employee card, click on the forward arrow at the top of the input panel & the next card template will appear & can be printed. Repeat until you have printed all required cards. If your card printer can print batches of cards, click on the magnifying glass icon on the input panel & from the pop up menu select the Records tab. As there are six employee details in this database exercise, enter 1 in the First Record box & 6 in the Last Record box. To print the batch of all 6 cards, simply press the Print icon in the pop up screen. Once your card printing job is fully completed, you must disconnect the card template from the database. To do this, click on the Design Mode icon to return to the design screen. Then click on Tools on the toolbar & select Disconnect from Database from the drop down menu. The below prompt will appear from where you can click to disconnect. 9