Automated Page Assignment (APA) is a feature that automatically assigns processed pages to the run list or page set positions of an imposition plan. APA enables page assignment during the intent stage before an imposition is generated. APA can also automatically assign geometry to pages. In some cases, it automatically creates page sets.
How it works
APA uses a file (with the extension .apa) to map the page positions of an imposition plan to the file names of the pages that will be assigned to those positions.
When you import an imposition plan into a job, Prinergy compares the file names of the pages in the APA file to the file names of actual processed pages in the job. If the file names match, Prinergy automatically assigns the pages to the correct page positions of the imposition plan.
After using APA, if you manually assign and unassign pages, the APA file is not updated with your changes. You can use APA files with unpopulated imposition plans, populated impositions plans, and Page Assigner files.
Creating APA files manually for unpopulated imposition plans
You create or import an unpopulated imposition, and then create an APA file directly in the APA Editor, and then import the unpopulated imposition. Prinergy automatically assigns the pages to the imposition plan when you process the pages. Using this method, you can create one generic imposition plan and reuse it in many Prinergy jobs, rather than having to create a unique imposition plan for every job.
The APA Editor has two modes: Run List Assignment and Page Set Assignment. Run List Assignment mode is useful for impositions with Products and Parts such as the impositions used in Workspace, while Page Set Assignment mode is appropriate for dealing with impositions without Intent such as the impositions used in Workshop. The Run List Assignment mode includes the Product Run List and Part Run List columns. The syntax is different than Page Set mode (ASSIGN for Page Set Assignment and ASSIGNRL for Run List Assignment). You can use both syntaxes in the same APA file.
To create an unpopulated imposition in Preps, assign blank pages to the run list.
To create an unpopulated imposition in Pandora, do one of the following:
- Place a dummy PDF (with no content) in the Pandora imposition.
To make the dummy PDF, create a simple box in Illustrator or other graphics software, and save it as a PostScript file. Process the dummy PostScript file in Workshop into a PDF, open Pandora, and place the dummy PDF. Save the imposition.
- Exclude the pages when exporting a job.
Export a Prinergy job that includes the imposition you want, and in the export process template, clear Include Pages in Job Exports. Create a new job and import the compressed file.
Importing populated imposition plans
You can create a populated imposition plan in Preps and import it into Workshop.
Prinergy creates an APA file based on the page assignments in the imposition plan. Each time you import the imposition plan into the job, Prinergy adds the page assignment information to the APA file and increments the file name to the next version. For example, Job.apa, Job.v1.apa, Job.v2.apa, and so on. You can use the APA Editor to modify the APA file to change placeholder names or to use wild cards.
Using this method, you can change the pages without having to go back to Preps to modify the original imposition.