Dossier workflow

This workflow is specifically designed to compile multiple PDF documents into a single dossier. All PDF document supplied to the job are merged into a single PDF in the order that they were added to the job.

The workflow supports these features:

• Title page with title, subtitle, and a custom background.
• Extensively customizable table of contents.
• Bookmarks to structure the dossier.
• Stamps to create e.g. watermarks, header or footer lines.
• Conversion to PDF/A (optional)

Supported file formats for Dossier workflow

This workflow takes PDF files as input. To use other document formats, convert them to PDF using a preprocessing step in the Dossier workflow, which points to another workflow that performs the preprocessing conversion.

Add a title page

This workflow can be configured to create a title page for the dossier. The title page contains the title and subtitle of the dossier. The font, size, placement and alignment of the text is fully configurable.

Additionally, a PDF document can be configured to be used as a custom background of the title page. The title page can be customized for each job using the DOSSIER-TITLE and DOSSIER-SUBTITLE job options.

Structure the dossier

The dossier can be structured by creating a table of contents and a document outline (bookmarks). By default, the title of each document is taken from its metadata.

If the title from the metadata is not suitable, it can be overriden by using the DOCUMENT-TITLE option.

Create the document outline

The document outline, also called bookmarks, provides a way to quickly jump to a specific part of the dossier.

The Dossier workflow uses the existing outline tree of the input documents. Optionally, a parent bookmark can be created for each individual document.

The document outline can be customized for each job using the TOC-OUTLINE-TITLE job option. The document outline can be further configured for each individual input document using the ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE and DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE.

Create the table of contents

The automatically generated table of contents provides a great overview over the dossier.
The table of contents supports multiple individually configurable nesting levels by using the existing outline tree of the input documents. Optionally, an parent entry can be generated for each input document.

The table of contents can be customized for each job using the TOC-TITLE job option. The table of contents can be further configured for each individual input document using the ADD-DOCUMENT-TOC-ITEM and DOCUMENT-TOC-TITLE options.

Add stamps

A general overview about stamps can be found in stamping. Stamps can be further customized for the Dossier workflow by using the DOCUMENT-STAMP-TITLE option or using a custom option CUSTOM.<OPTION-NAME>. See Placeholders.

Example using the Dossier workflow

This example uses the shell client to create a dossier from a cover page and two chapters. For the second chapter, the name of the bookmark is explicitly overridden.

C:\Temp>pdfclient -v -w Dossier -do ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE false ^
  chapter-1.pdf -do DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE "Chapter 2: XYZ" chapter-2.pdf out.pdf
Creating job (id job1_5g5fkycbhhe)
Adding file ".\chapter-1.pdf" (id jgvmhpyquh0)
Adding file ".\chapter-2.pdf" (id 4ogify1xd31)
Output: "out.pdf"
 - Info: Assembled PDF files 'chapter-1.pdf' and 'chapter-2.pdf' into dossier 'out.pdf'.

Job and document options for the Dossier workflow

The Dossier workflow lets you use job and document options to pass job- or document-specific values to be used when processing documents using the workflow.

Job options

Job options apply to all documents processed in the same job. Any subsequent jobs processed with the workflow profile use the profile's default settings.

Type	Option	Description
Title page	DOSSIER-TITLE	Adds a title page with a title for the Dossier. This option overrides the value specified in the profile configuration. The option should only be set at job level and is ignored at document level.
Title page	DOSSIER-SUBTITLE	Adds a title page with a subtitle for the Dossier. This option overrides the value specified in the profile configuration. The option should only be set at job level and is ignored at document level.
Table of contents	TOC-TITLE	Sets the heading for the table of contents. This option overrides the value specified in the profile configuration. The option should only be set at job level and is ignored at document level.
Table of contents	ADD-DOCUMENT-TOC-ITEM	Creates a table of contents entry for each document included in the job. It can also be set at document level. true (default): entry in the table of contents is added for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are added as sub-entries. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the table of contents. This is useful e.g. for the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, e.g. a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks
Document outline	ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE	Adds an outline (bookmark) for all documents in the job. true (default): A new bookmark is added to the document outline for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are preserved and added as children to the newly created bookmark. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the document outline. This is useful e.g. for the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, e.g. a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks
Document outline	TOC-OUTLINE-TITLE	Sets the title for the outline. The name of bookmark created for the table of contents (if enabled). If it is omitted, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The value of the TOC-TITLE option. The title of the table of contents configured in the profile. TOC-OUTLINE-TITLE should only be set at job level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Metadata	META.AUTHOR	The author of the document
Metadata	META.TITLE	The title of the document
Metadata	META.SUBJECT	The subject of the document
Metadata	META.KEYWORDS	Keywords that apply to the document

note

Apart from the standard metadata properties, you can also set extended metadata properties.

Document options

Document options apply only to a specific input. It allows you to determine specific properties based on an individual document, rather than as a global setting (either determined by the job or the profile). Any subsequent jobs processed with the workflow profile use the profile's default settings.

Type	Option	Description
Document property	DOCUMENT-TITLE	Sets the title for the document by overriding the title determined by the metadata. If no title is set in the metadata, DOCUMENT-TITLE is used for the table of contents, document outline, and stamp placeholder. It can be overridden by the DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE, DOCUMENT-TOC-TITLE, and DOCUMENT-STAMP-TITLE options. If it is omitted and no other specific option is set, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Document property	DOC.PASSWORD	Set the password for the document.
Document outline	ADD-DOCUMENT-OUTLINE	Adds an outline (bookmark) for the specified document only, rather than all documents in the job. true (default): A new bookmark is added to the document outline for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are preserved and added as children to the newly created bookmark. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the document outline. This is useful e.g. for the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, e.g. a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks
Document outline	DOCUMENT-OUTLINE-TITLE	Sets the name of the bookmark in the dossier outline. If this option is omitted, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The value of the DOCUMENT-TITLE option. The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Table of content	ADD-DOCUMENT-TOC-ITEM	Adds an entry in the table of contents for the specified document only, rather than all documents in the job. It can also be set at job level. true (default): entry in the table of contents is added for the input document. Existing bookmarks of the input document are added as sub-entries. false: The existing bookmarks of the input document are added directly to the top level of the table of contents. This is useful e.g. for the following use cases: Special input documents that don't represent a chapter in the output document, e.g. a cover sheet or table of contents. Documents that already contain all necessary bookmarks
Table of content	DOCUMENT-TOC-TITLE	Sets the name of the entry in the table of contents for the specified document. If this option is omitted, one of the following values is used instead (in order of precedence): The value of the option DOCUMENT-TITLE. The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration.
Stamp options	DOCUMENT-STAMP-TITLE	Sets the title of the document used for stamping, i.e. for the [input:DOCUMENT.TITLE] placeholder (if used). If this option is omitted, one of the following values is used as placeholder value instead (in order of precedence): The value of the option DOCUMENT-TITLE. The document title from the document metadata. The filename of the input document (without the extension). This option should only be set at document level and cannot be configured in the profile configuration. Accepts placeholders.
Stamp options	CUSTOM.‹OPTION-NAME›	Options whose name starts with CUSTOM. define custom placeholder variables that can be used with the placeholder format [custom:‹OPTION-NAME›]. See Placeholders.