Managing Content Objects

Content objects are the dynamic placeholders in your design — the elements whose values change for each recipient. For example, a text content object can hold a personalized first name; a graphic content object can switch images based on the recipient's age group; a visibility content object can show or hide a section depending on the recipient's preferences.

Each content object has a name, a type, and a rule. The rule is an expression that calculates the object's value for each recipient; you create and edit rules in the rule editor.

When you link your document to a data source, uCreate Print automatically creates a content object for each column header. You can also create new content objects manually to tag your design with dynamic formatting, conditional logic, or calculations. Content objects appear in the Dynamic Content panel, where you create, edit, and manage them.

Create a content object

  1. Right-click anywhere in the Dynamic Content panel and select New Content Object.

  2. Enter a name for the content object. This name will be displayed next to its icon in the Dynamic Content panel.

  3. Select the content object type: Text, Text with Style, Text File, Graphic, Visibility, Style, Link, Table or Multi-Page PDF Table. The type determines which options are available in the rule editor.

  4. If your plan defines audiences and you want this content object to produce a different value for each segment of an audience, select that audience from Link to Audience. The rule editor will then let you define a separate expression for each segment, plus a default expression for recipients that don't match any segment. Leave it as None if the same rule applies to every recipient. For information on audiences, see Working with Audiences.

  5. If you wish, you can select the Add New Variable or Add New Input Data Field checkboxes to concurrently create a new variable or input data field. In this case, the rule created will be a reference to the variable/input data field.

  6. Optionally, enter a value in the Sample field. The sample is used to display the content object's value in the design before a data source is connected, helping you preview the layout with realistic content (see Using Content Samples).

  7. Select Edit Rule to open the rule editor, where you can define the content object's rule.

Content object rules

A content object's rule is calculated for each recipient and produces the object's value. The options available in the rule editor depend on the content object's type. See Rule Editor for the full reference.

Work with content objects

Right click the content object in the Dynamic Content panel to perform the following operations:

  • Place into Design: Create an insertion point in your document and then insert this content object.

  • New Content Object: Create a new content object for use in your document.

  • New Variable: Create a new variable for use in your document.

  • New Input Data Field: Create a new input data field for use in your document.

  • Edit Rule NG: Open the redesigned rule editor. Recommended for most content objects.

  • Edit Rule: Open the legacy rule editor. Use this for Style and Text with Style content objects.

  • Duplicate: Create a copy of this content object. You can then change the name of this copy and use it as a basis for a new content object, which can be further modified as necessary.

  • Delete: Delete this content object. The design objects that were tagged with it in your document will no longer change dynamically.

  • Rename: Override this content object’s name with a new name.

  • Type: Change this content object’s type. Note that if this content object is already assigned to any of your design objects, a warning is displayed, notifying you that this operation will invalidate all references to this content object within the document.

  • Group: Place the content object in an existing group, or in a new group.

  • Set as Campaign Dial: Select to mark this content object as a campaign dial, thereby making it available for modification via uStore. The uStore Back Office application enables administrators to choose which of the available dials are to be accessible via the uStore customer application, so that customers can customize their values.
    A symbol appears next to the icon of the content object which is set as a campaign dial .

    Note that if you're using the Excel pricing model in uStore, the dial name cannot contain parentheses or other special characters.

  • Set As Primary Field: Mark this content object as the document's primary field — the field used to uniquely identify each recipient. Records in the document are sorted, and VDP output is produced, according to this field.

  • Samples: View live examples of content objects. This provides designers with the ability to easily create content samples for specific content objects, and then cycle through the different values to see how they display in the document. Read more.

  • Highlight Placeholders: Highlight the selected dynamic design object(s) in the document.

  • Other Actions:

    • Turn To Variable: Convert the content object into a variable. See Convert content objects to variables below.

    • Link to Audience: Link this content object to an audience from the plan. The rule editor then shows a separate row per audience segment, so you can define a different rule for each one. Pick an audience name to link, or None to unlink. See Link a content object to the audience for details.

    • Sort By Name, Sort By Type, Sort By Group: Sort the content objects by name, type, or group.

    • Find and Replace: Open the Find and Replace dialog to find and replace content objects in the document.

    • Highlight All Content Placeholders: Highlight all dynamic design objects in the document.

Convert content objects to variables

You can convert an existing content object into a variable, or a variable back into a content object. In either direction, the new object has the same name and the same rule definitions as the original.

To convert a content object into a variable:

  • Right-click the content object you wish to convert, and from the context-menu select Other Actions > Turn To Variable.

    A variable with the name of the content object is created and added to the variables list.

    The content object that has been converted to a variable is now defined based on the variable.

To convert a variable back into a content object:

  • Right-click the variable you wish to convert, and from the context-menu select Other Actions > Turn To Content Object.

More topics

Examples of Content Object Rules