Creating an Input Definition File

The input definition file contains the code that is generated when you work with a print stream in either the data viewer or the graphic viewer. This code is written to the control file from which you launched the viewer. However, you can also export the input tag group to an external file called an input definition file (*.IDF).

To create an input definition file, follow these steps:

  1. Select File > Open and open the print stream for which you want to create an IDF. For more information, see Opening a Print Stream.
  2. Verify that the page breaks are defined correctly. See Setting and Verifying Page Breaks.
  3. Define document breaks. See Setting and Verifying Document Breaks.
  4. Define all fields. See Creating a Field.
    Note: You can delete a field or field reference at any time. See Deleting a Field and Deleting a Field Reference.
  5. (Optional) Create a report of the field or fields you just created. A field report contains a list of all the fields and their values and provides the document and page number of each field. You can use this report to verify that the fields were created properly. See Reporting Field Values.
  6. (Optional) Set the address fields. You do not need to define the address fields unless you will be finding the ZIP Codes within the addresses in the print stream, cleansing the addresses, or performing a postal presort. See Defining Address Fields.
  7. (Optional) Specify whether to create a simple or verbose input definition file. See Control File Style.
  8. (Optional) Preview the Enrichment control file tags that you just created. See Previewing Enrichment Tags.
  9. Save the input definition file by clicking File > Save. See Saving an Input Definition File.