Question Edit Text from Within Onyx (Postershop)?

[jochwat]

Howdy, doodies.

I've got a number of industrial decal sheets that we print to order. Each of these sheets have a text box to reference the part number of the sheet, the customer's reference name for it, and a production date. Each time a decal sheet order comes in, I change the date to that on the work order... IF I happen to catch it. Other times, the print operator will have to wait for me to come to work if I'm out the day the order arrives. I'll leave out the details on why the operator can't make the change when I'm out.

Is there any way that she can make the change from within the RIP (Onyx Postershop)? I've looked through a lot of search results and videos, but the most I can conjure up is variable data and labels. Neither seem to offer a way to do the trick. Has anyone done this before? I just need to be able to load up the file into Onyx, go to the date text, change it, save it, and print it.

Thanks!

 

[balstestrat]

Not possible.

 

[JBurton]

Sounds like you need a little step by step workflow for the operator to follow to add the dates to the art. Also backup anything you're letting them fidget with. That or a remote desktop so you can change it from home...

 

[jochwat]

Not possible.

Kind of what I figured, was just hoping I was missing something.

 

[jochwat]

Sounds like you need a little step by step workflow for the operator to follow to add the dates to the art. Also backup anything you're letting them fidget with. That or a remote desktop so you can change it from home...

Yes, that would be the best plan theoretically, to let the operator get into the file and change it on their own. Maybe the included second seat of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription on the RIP machine would be put to good use in this case.

 

[White Haus]

It should be easily doable from Acrobat Pro - is that something your operator could potentially handle?

 

[jochwat]

It should be easily doable from Acrobat Pro - is that something your operator could potentially handle?

Hmmm, I know that saving over the file after editing it in Acrobat will kill the layers and such... but maybe a second file used for date changes and printing would be something to consider... Thanks for the option!

 

[JBurton]

Yes, that would be the best plan theoretically

So jump on it!
My guess is that you've had them try it before, or maybe a totally different operator, that wrecked a decent sized repeat order that should have been a grandslam, and your faith in employees has since remained shaken. Well fret not, I come to spread the good news! Your employees don't want to mess up at work, though sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not they care, but with enough hand holding and repetition, they can achieve mediocrity without you standing over their shoulders! With management, delegation is the only path to success. You aren't there to work your ass off so 3 or 10 other employees can coast along and collect a paycheck, you are all there to help the company succeed as a whole! If this one employee is theoretically incapable of some apparently minor work, then they are not fit for such a position and need to be reassigned or terminated.
Don't worry, I kindly typed that out for myself to read more than you, but if it applies, great.

 

[jfiscus]

Not sure what your original file is set up in, but I agree with the ability to edit/resave the print artwork easily in Adobe Acrobat as a PDF file.

 

[White Haus]

Hmmm, I know that saving over the file after editing it in Acrobat will kill the layers and such... but maybe a second file used for date changes and printing would be something to consider... Thanks for the option!

Resaving in Acrobat shouldn't affect the layers as far as I know....I'll have to do a little test.

 

[jochwat]

Resaving in Acrobat shouldn't affect the layers as far as I know....I'll have to do a little test.

Looks like the file can be edited in Acrobat and saved, but when reopened, if I wanted to keep the date change, I'd have to choose to keep the changes that were done "outside of Illustrator". That's when the layers get dumped because the page gets flattened. But if the only issue is changing the date, which will get changed again anyway the next print run, then I guess "discarding changes" will bring the file in as expected. So this could work just fine. Thanks for bringing up that option!

 

[jochwat]

So jump on it!
My guess is that you've had them try it before, or maybe a totally different operator, that wrecked a decent sized repeat order that should have been a grandslam, and your faith in employees has since remained shaken. Well fret not, I come to spread the good news! Your employees don't want to mess up at work, though sometimes it's hard to tell whether or not they care, but with enough hand holding and repetition, they can achieve mediocrity without you standing over their shoulders! With management, delegation is the only path to success. You aren't there to work your ass off so 3 or 10 other employees can coast along and collect a paycheck, you are all there to help the company succeed as a whole! If this one employee is theoretically incapable of some apparently minor work, then they are not fit for such a position and need to be reassigned or terminated.
Don't worry, I kindly typed that out for myself to read more than you, but if it applies, great.

Yeah, the hand-holding and protection from the unknown definitely doesn't help. Good point, and taken!

 

[JBurton]

Looks like the file can be edited in Acrobat and saved, but when reopened, if I wanted to keep the date change, I'd have to choose to keep the changes that were done "outside of Illustrator". That's when the layers get dumped because the page gets flattened. But if the only issue is changing the date, which will get changed again anyway the next print run, then I guess "discarding changes" will bring the file in as expected. So this could work just fine. Thanks for bringing up that option!

No clue how acrobat and illustrator interact, but couldn't you just make a file 'read only', and then instruct the user to 'save as' whenever they are editing the dates?