Aloaha Software

Many customers are not aware that it is possible with Aloaha to use multiple printers for PDF generation. This is pretty usefull to configure different printer with different letterheads and watermarks.

More information on how to configure multiple printers please find here: http://blog.aloaha.com/2012/10/03/monitor-alternative-printer-for-pdf-conversion-in-aloaha and here: http://www.aloaha.com/wi-software-en/monitor-any-printer.php

Since from now on Aloaha saves letterhead and watermark configuration on a per printer basis it became very easy to configure the above letterehad and watermark configuration.

Note: It is very easy in Aloaha to create a hardcopy from within the PDF preview. Just right click on the printer symbol and choose your hardcopy printer. 

Did you ever experience that your accounting software saves all your invoices in one large PDF document but you need to send some of the invoices by mail?

With the Aloaha COM APIs this is no problem at all since you just need to use the functions SplitPDF and AutoMailPrint of the Aloaha PDF SDK/PDF Suite Enterprise

But now it became even easier for user of the Aloaha PDF Suite Server Edtion. Aloaha introduced a new hotfolder to automate exactly the above tasks.

1. Just drop your large PDF into the folder <Aloaha PDF Suite Installfolder>\SplitMail
   (Can be reconfigured in: HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\SplitMailFolder)
2. Aloaha will look for the PageSeperator String to find the end of the single documents. The PageSeperator String is per default === but can be reconfigured in: HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\PageSeperator. A usefull seperator String would be “Kind Regards”
3. Optional the user can specify in  HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\SplitMailLetterhead a PDF used as Letterhead for the first page of the new document.
4. After the new document has been saved Aloaha will analyse it and if it finds an email address prefixed with emailto: it will email the document to that address.
5. If no address is found in 4 Aloaha will print/hardcopy the document to the specified printer.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions or suggestions. The email address is info@aloaha.com

Some tools produce one large PDF containing multiple documents appended to each other. In case the documents have a different ammount of pages it becomes sometimes quite a task to seperate/split the document in multiple documents. Here the function SplitPDF of the Aloaha COM Object aloahapdf.edit comes in.

SplitPDF takes a PDF, searches for the specified page seperator (for example “Kind Regards”) and then splits of the pages to save them as new document. Optional the function can be instructed to render a letterhead/watermark behind the first page of the new document.

For example:

Dim PDFObject
Dim InputPDF
Dim OutPutFolder
Dim PageSeperator
Dim Letterhead
InputPDF=”c:\Invoices.pdf”
OutPutFolder=”c:\splittedDocuments\”
PageSeperator=”Kind Regards”
Letterhead=”C:\letterhead\companyLetterhead.pdf”

set PDFObject=createobject(“aloahapdf.edit”)

call PDFObject.SplitPDF(cstr(InputPDF),cstr(OutPutFolder),cstr(PageSeperator),cstr(Letterhead))

set PDFObject=nothing

Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@aloaha.com in case you have further questions.

To email or print the resulting PDFs please have a look at http://blog.aloaha.com/2012/08/29/automatically-mail-and-print-pdf-documents/

Please also have a look at http://www.aloaha.com/software-development/freeware-apis.php

In enterprise environments document hardcopies and PDF documents go hand in hand. Hardcopies of every generated PDF might be needed for paper files or a PDF document for electronic archiving might be required for every document printed.

An easy solution is the Aloaha PDF Suite. Rather then sharing the physical printer to the network you share the Wrocklage PDF Printer to the network. Aloaha will convert every print to PDF and automatic print it to a physical printer connected.

The setup is pretty much straight forward. Log on to the console of your server and install the Aloaha PDF Suite. All you need to configure is to share the Wrocklage PDF Printer to your network, re-configure Aloaha to run as a service and enable Aloaha to generate a Hardcopy of every PDF. Below you will find a step by step guide on how to accomplish this.

Re-configure the Aloaha PDF Suite to run as a service

1. Remove the Aloaha shortcut from the autostart group of the startmenu.
2. Right click on the Aloaha systray icon and choose exit.
3. Open the service control manager and configure the PDF Suite Service to automatic startup
4. Choose the physical hardcopy printer and enable autoprint
   1) Start PMonConfig.exe from the Aloaha PDF Suite Directory. Usually that is c:\program files\wrocklage\PMonConfig.exe
   2) Choose the Wrocklage PDF Printer in the first drop down menu
   3) Choose your hardcopy printer in the second drop down menu
   4) Enable “Print Hardcopy to printer above”
   Please refer also to the screenshot below

Aloaha PMonConfig

Start Aloaha and verify settings

1) Open the services control manager and start the PDF Suite service

2) Right click on the Aloaha Tray Icon and choose settings.

3) Make sure you find your hardcopy printer in the “Print Settings” tab choosen

4) Define PDF save location in  the “Save” Tab

5) Click OK

6) Right Click on the Tray Icon and make sure there is NO checkbox besides the Interactive option

ATTENTION: The Tray icon does only show if you are logged on to the machine console. If you need to connect via Terminal Services make sure to call the client with the parameter /console

Hardcopy without Letterhead

In some cases it might be required that the hardcopy is being done before the PDF Letterhead is rendered to the document. For example when the hardcopy is done to company paper.

Should you require heardcopies without letterhead just create a registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Aloaha\pdf\printer]
“HardCopyPrinter”=”HP LaserJet P1005″

HardCopyPrinter defines the printer to be used! The keys below will then created automatically.

Obviously you need to replace “HP LaserJet P1005” with your printer name!

“HardCopyPaperSize”=dword:00000009
“HardCopyOrientation”=dword:00000000
“HardCopyCollate”=dword:00000000
“HardCopyDuplex”=dword:00000000
“HardCopyColor”=dword:00000001
“HardCopyQuality”=dword:00000002

The values for HardCopyPaperSize you get from:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd319099(v=vs.85).aspx

Additional Tipps and Tricks

Instead of useing the localsystem account to run Aloaha it is adviced to dedicate Aloaha its own user. Some settings are saved user based and to change them you need to log on as that user.

In case you need to configure some advanced settings such as automatic emailing of PDF documents, sorting PDF documents by user or enabling script engine it is adviced to run Aloaha with a dedicated account instead of the local user account.

To configure the settings mentioned above please log on to the system as the same user configured above. Call the creator.exe from the Aloaha PDF Suite installation folder (c:\program files\wrocklage\creator.exe) and configure these advanced options.

In the Aloaha Settings it is possible to define a Letterhead to be applied to all or just the first page of the rendered document. It is also possible to define a second Letterhead to be applied to the second page onwards. Recently Aloaha also introduced a setting to repeat this configuration every X pages.

For many customers those very variable settings are not enough since they need to render either on every page a different letterhead or change the letterhead with every print job. But even this is possible with the Aloaha embedded commands.

To use the embedded commands you first need to enable “Parse for PDF Commands”. Just right click on the Aloaha System Tray Icon and enable that setting! For performance reasons Aloaha is looking for the embedded commands ONLY if activated! To enable the parsing for the command please right click on the Aloaha System Tray Icon and choose “Configure Letterhead”. There please activate the option: “Search for Background command on every PDF Page”.

Now that the settings are right just include the embedded command for the Letterhead in your orginal document. The embedded command for the Letterhead is Background:

While rendering the PDF Aloaha will now search for the Background: command and when it finds it it will render the defined background to the PDF Page.

Please note that embedded commands can be in ANY Font Size or Color. For example Font Size 1 and Color white. Like that they have minimal impact to the document itself.

Example for Background: command

Background: c:\letterheads\company.pdf

Please note that the background command defines the letterhead ONLY for the page containing the command! In case you want that the command defines the letterhead on the page and all following pages please set:

HKLM\Software\Aloaha\pdf\keepbackground = 1

Automation Commands: http://www.aloaha.com/wi-software-en/automation-commands.php

New PDF/A Settings:

PDF/A Option in Settings

New “Repeat after X Pages” option in PDF Preview:

Once you activate the new setting Aloaha will render the first defined Letterhead on Page 1, the second letterhead on page 2 and 3 and then start again with Letterhead 1.