PDF Background

A document by any other name, a PDF document is specially formatted to be small in footprint for easy transport via the World Wide Web, while retaining the precise look and feel of a printed document.  Generally speaking, such documents are intended to be read only.  Adobe's Acrobat software enables the creation of PDF Forms, which are a mix between the read-only nature of a tradition PDF document and forms-based software.

In order to view a PDF document, a user must have the free Adobe Acrobat's Reader installed.  Today, most browsers come with a PDF "plugin" which allows the browser to load PDF.  In the case of a PDF form, the user can also enter data in a controlled manner, and save the entire document to disk.

To create a PDF document, a document administrator must have the full version of the Acrobat software installed.  For information on purchasing or installing Adobe Acrobat, please refer to Adobe's web site.

Creating a PDF Document

Creating a PDF document is as easy as creating a document in your favorite word processor, and then "printing" the document to a PDF file.  Once in PDF form, Adobe Acrobat can then be used to manipulate the document, including the creation of form fields and customized business logic.  In order to automatically integrate Aspen Workflow data into a PDF document, you must create form fields which can be "filled in" by the Aspen Workflow document generation module automatically.

The PDF form fields will name names associated with them.  By default, the first fill-in form field created will be "FillText1", though the document creator can modify these field name to be anything else.  You are free to use either the default naming scheme provided by Acrobat, or you may change these field names to represent the data they are intended to contain (e.g. PropertyAddress).

Linking the PDF Document to Aspen Workflow

Once the PDF document has been created upload it via FTP to the Aspen Workflow website.  (Note that this is not strictly required; it is possible to point to any PDF document on any web site in order to integrate with Aspen.  However, for simplicity, we'll assume that the PDF document is stored on the Aspen Workflow web server).

Next, go to Admin - Documents, and click on the Add a new Document icon.  Enter a document name, label, PathURL, and select PDF (Adobe) as the Mime Type.  The PathURL should be the relative or full URL pointing to the PDF document.  Note that you can test the validity of a PathURL simply by entering it into the browser's Location box and seeing if the browser loads the blank PDF document.

Choose Processes, Tasks, Fields & Functions for  Document

There are potentially thousands of fields available in each matter.  It is unlikely that any document will need all of them.  In the Document's Fields Used screen, select the Aspen Workflow processes, tasks, fields and functions that you wish to merge into the PDF document.  If your PDF form field names precisely match the Aspen Workflow field names, no further action is necessary.  If they do not match (e.g. you want your Aspen Workflow ClientLongName field to appear in the PDF's FillText1 form field), then you should rename the merge field name in Aspen.  This is done by click on the edit icon to the right of the merge field, and changing the DocumentField label.

Testing the PDF Form

As with any Aspen Workflow document, you can test from the Admin - Documents module by choosing the Test option in the Document Menu.  This should cause a popup browser window to open, and display the message "Loading PDF document".  Aspen Workflow will create the file required to merge with the PDF document, deliver this file to the browser, and then open the PDF document and merge the data.

Add Document to Related Processes and Tasks

Now that you have a working document available in the system, you must associate it with one or more tasks.  Until a document is associated with a task or a process, it will not be available for users to generate.

To associate a document with a task, choose Tasks and click GO.  An appropriate task is one which contains a substantial amount of information used in the document.  For example, and general Letter to Client document might be assoiciated with a Matter Received task.  On the other hand, a VA Appraisal Letter to Appraiser would be more appropriately associated with a VA Appraisal task.

Edit the Task, and select Documents from the Task Menu.  In the Task Documents screen, select your new document and click add.  Now, any files which have this task included will have your new document available from the File Document screen.

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