Print Designer: Digitization Request
The digitization request is the printout that goes with a photoduplication/digitization job — the sheet a staff member prints so the scanning team knows what to capture and (often) what the patron is being charged for. Its defining trait is that it has to pull in multiple billing line items: a single request can have several charges and payments, and the printout needs a row for each.
In Aeon 6 this was the hardest template to maintain. It lived as a special PrintDigitizationRequest.docx Word file stuffed with hidden mail-merge field codes; you had to turn on Word's Display Field Codes just to see it, and you were warned not to touch the braces or the merge functions on the first page or the line-item table would break. The Print Designer in Aeon 7 replaces all of that. You build the digitization request on a visual canvas in the browser, and the repeating line items come from a Billing Charges Table (and, if you want, a Payment History Table) element you drop in and configure — no merge codes, no hidden braces.
This is a configuration tool, not part of daily request processing. You'll come here when setting Aeon up, when migrating an existing Word template, or whenever the digitization printout needs to change.
- You're moving off the old
PrintDigitizationRequest.docxand want to rebuild (or import) it in the web designer. - The digitization request needs different fields, a different layout, or different billing columns.
- You want more than one digitization layout — for example, one with payment history and one without — and to choose which is the default.
The Print Designer is the same tool for every print template — request slip, call slip, user label, invoice, invoice statement, and digitization request. Only the available fields and the default differ. This page focuses on the digitization request and its billing tables. The general designer mechanics described here apply to all of them; see the sibling pages for Request Slip, Call Slip, Invoice, and the others.
Opening the Print Designer
- Open the Customization Manager.
- In the Designers group, choose Print Designer. It opens on the Request slip by default.
- Switch the template type to Digitization Request using the Print Designer sub-navigation under the Designers group (the same place you found Print Designer). The address bar changes to
/customizations/print-designer/digitization-request.
The Print Designer is part of the Designers configuration area. Your role must have the Designers configuration capability enabled to open and edit it. If your role doesn't include it, Print Designer won't appear in the Customization Manager. See Editing a Role: Configuration Capabilities for how this is granted.
The Print Designer needs room for its three panels and the page canvas. On a phone-sized screen it shows "Larger Display Required" and asks you to switch to a tablet or desktop. Design print templates on a real monitor.
How the designer is laid out
The designer fills the workspace with three working areas, left to right, under two rows of toolbar controls:
| Area | What it does |
|---|---|
| Elements (left) | The palette of things you can place on the page — Text, Field, Barcode, Line, Rectangle, Image, and under a Tables heading the Billing Charges Table and Payment History Table. |
| Canvas (center) | A to-scale view of the printed page. Drag elements here, click to select, drag to move, and drag the handles to resize. Rulers run along the top and left edges. |
| Properties (right) | Settings for whatever element you've selected. Empty until you select something; you can pin it open with the pin icon. |
The toolbar across the top holds the template selector and template menu, the page setup controls (size, orientation, records-per-page), zoom, undo/redo, group/ungroup, Preview, the save-status indicator, and Save.
Adding elements to the page
Every element works the same way to place:
- Drag it. Grab an item from the Elements palette and drop it where you want it on the canvas.
- Click it. Click a palette item and it drops into the center of the page, ready to drag into position.
The element types are:
| Element | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Text | Static text — headings, labels, fixed instructions ("Digitization Request"). |
| Field | A live value pulled from the request, user, or appointment — e.g. Transaction Number, item title, patron name. |
| Barcode | A scannable barcode generated from a field's value (defaults to the transaction number). |
| Line / Rectangle | Rules and boxes to divide the page. |
| Image | A logo or other image chosen from the image gallery. |
| Billing Charges Table | The repeating list of charges — this is what brings in the "multiple line items" the digitization request is built around. |
| Payment History Table | The repeating list of payments recorded against the request. |
Placing a field
- Drag Field onto the canvas. It lands showing the Transaction Number by default.
- With the field selected, open the Field section of the Properties panel.
- Use the Field Name dropdown to pick the value you want — fields are grouped by category (item, user, appointment, billing, and so on).
- Optionally set a Format (currency, short/long date, number, and the like) and a Prefix / Suffix (for example a
$prefix on an amount).
The billing line items (the heart of this template)
The whole reason the digitization request was a special template in Aeon 6 is its repeating billing rows. In the Print Designer that's just an element:
- From the Elements palette, under Tables, drag Billing Charges Table onto the page.
- It drops in pre-populated with the standard charge columns and a header row. At print time it expands to one row per charge on the request — no merge codes required.
- Select the table and use the Properties panel to adjust its columns, header, and row styling.
- If your digitization request should also show what's been paid, add a Payment History Table the same way.
Billing Charges Table and Payment History Table appear in the Tables section of the palette for templates that carry billing data — the digitization request, invoice, and invoice statement. They're the supported replacement for the old Word mail-merge functions, so you no longer hand-edit braces or worry about breaking the line-item logic.
Showing an element only when it applies (conditions)
Any element can be set to hide itself based on the request's data — useful on a digitization request where, say, a "Balance Due" line should only print when there's actually a balance.
- Select the element and find the Conditions section in the Properties panel.
- Click Edit to open the Edit Conditions dialog. Its prompt reads "Hide this element when:".
- Click Add Condition, pick a field, choose an operator — is not empty, is empty, equals, does not equal, contains, is greater than, is less than — and enter a value if the operator needs one.
- Add more conditions if you like. When there's more than one, Aeon notes that the element is hidden when any of them is met (OR logic).
For a plain Field element there's also a quick Hide if empty toggle in the same section, so you don't have to build a condition for the common case.
Page setup
The toolbar controls how the printed page is sized and how many records print per sheet:
- Page size — Letter, Legal, A4, or A5.
- Orientation — Portrait or Landscape.
- Records per Page — the grid button (it reads, e.g., 1 per page). Open it to set Rows and Columns plus optional Row Gap and Column Gap in inches, then click Apply. A digitization request is normally 1 per page; the grid matters more for label-style templates.
- Zoom — 50% to 150%, for working on the canvas. It doesn't affect the printout.
Previewing
Click Preview in the toolbar to render the selected template to a PDF using representative sample data, so you can see how the page — including the billing table rows — lays out before anyone prints a real request. Preview uses sample values, not a live request.
Migrating your existing Word template
If you already have a PrintDigitizationRequest.docx (or any Word print template), you can bring it in as a starting point rather than rebuilding from scratch:
- With Digitization Request selected, open the template menu (the ⋯ button next to the template selector).
- Choose Import from Word Document… and pick your
.doc/.docxfile. It's imported as a new digitization request template. - Aeon shows an import summary describing what came across. Word mail-merge fields are matched to Aeon fields where possible; anything it couldn't map is flagged so you can finish wiring it up — for example, set the right Field Name on a field, or replace the old merge line-item block with a Billing Charges Table.
Importing a Word document creates a new template and switches to it. If you have unsaved changes on the current template, Aeon warns you first — "You have unsaved changes to the current template. Importing will create a new template and switch to it — your unsaved edits will be lost. Continue?" Save or discard before importing if you want to keep the current work.
Templates: saving and reusing layouts
A digitization request layout is stored as a template, and you can keep more than one. The template controls live in the toolbar:
- Switch templates: use the template dropdown on the left. The one tagged default is the layout Aeon actually uses when printing a digitization request (unless a role assigns a different one — see below).
- New Template: ⋯ → New Template creates a fresh digitization request template.
- Duplicate / Rename: also in the ⋯ menu.
- Set as Default: ⋯ → Set as Default makes the selected template the one in effect.
- Export / Import: ⋯ → Export downloads the template as an
.aeon-print-template.zip; ⋯ → Import loads one back in (handy for moving a template between sites). This is separate from Import from Word Document… above. - Delete: ⋯ → Delete.
Your changes are not saved automatically. The toolbar shows Unsaved while you have pending edits and Saved once they're written; Saving… appears briefly during the save. Click Save (or press Ctrl/Cmd + S) to commit, or the discard (circular-arrow) button to throw away pending edits and revert to the last saved version.
Editing shortcuts on the canvas
When the canvas has focus, the designer supports the usual editing keys:
- Undo / Redo — Ctrl/Cmd + Z and Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z (or Ctrl/Cmd + Y); also the undo/redo buttons in the toolbar.
- Copy / Paste / Duplicate — Ctrl/Cmd + C, Ctrl/Cmd + V, Ctrl/Cmd + D.
- Delete — Delete or Backspace removes the selected element(s).
- Nudge — arrow keys move the selection a little; hold Shift for a larger step.
- Select all — Ctrl/Cmd + A; Escape clears the selection.
- Group / Ungroup — Ctrl/Cmd + G and Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + G (also the group/ungroup buttons). Grouped elements move together, and a group can carry its own conditions.
Assigning a layout to a role
Setting a template as Default affects everyone. If you instead want a particular role to print a specific digitization request layout, assign the template in the Role Editor rather than here. See Editing a Role: Layout Assignments.
Both the canvas and the Preview use representative sample data, so you can design the page without a real photoduplication request open. Once you save and the layout is the default (or assigned to your role), print a digitization request to see it render with real charges.
A few things an SME or screenshots should settle on this page:
- Confirm where staff actually print the digitization request from in the web client (request toolbar? billing tab? bulk bar?), and link that workflow page — this page documents designing the template, not the moment of printing, and I did not verify the print entry point in code.
- Confirm the billing-table behavior that the table element expands to one row per charge/payment at print time — this is stated from the palette/element definitions, not from rendering output I observed.
- Wire up the role cross-references: the two Editing a Role references (Configuration Capabilities, Layout Assignments) are plain bold text because the target pages under
roles-permissions-staff/don't exist yet; turn them into links once authored. (The sibling Print Designer links —print-designer-request.md,print-designer-callslip.md,print-designer-invoice.md— already exist and resolve.) - Screenshots needed: (1) the full three-panel designer (Elements / Canvas / Properties) on a Digitization Request template; (2) the Billing Charges Table selected with its Properties; (3) the Import from Word Document… menu item and the import-summary dialog.
The full generation metadata — sources, files read, and verifications — is in the HTML comment directly below this callout. When this page has been reviewed and approved, delete both this callout and that comment; a page with no Editor-review callout is one that's done.