Program Control

Features of Montax Imposer are controlled through a series of palettes, which bring together various controls according to their function. The most important of these palettes are the Info Palette (controlling for example margins, spaces, sizes etc.) and the Imposition Appearance (showing the appearance in a form of a table and controlling all basic features such as page-to-position assignment etc.). These 2 palettes are always shown and they cannot be hidden.

The next palette Imposition Presets is somewhat different, containing buttons for a fast selection of a preset imposition layout for most usual impositions. The Imposition Check Palette serves an informational use only – it is not used to change any properties of your imposition. It is, however, very useful to find out if there is anything wrong with your imposition – it shows all errors if there are any. A palette Pages for Imposition allows manipulation with the pages before it is placed to sheet. More Imposition Tabs are found below the main work area and they are used to work with several impositions simultaneously.

All other palettes (Sheet Size, Marks, Page Repetition, Scale, Paper Thickness Correction, Groups of Sheets, Uniform Back Side, More Impositions Assignment) are similar in their layout – A checkbox is found on top of them, which activates features of the palette. If it is checked it means that the palette is activated and cannot be hidden. If you try to close a palette with an enabled feature (or several features) you will be asked if you really want to close it and if you choose to do so all the features controlled by the palette will be de-activated. This assures you that all features affecting your imposition are always displayed on the screen. Also, if you decide not to use some features of Montax Imposer you make sure that you are not (by accident) overlooking an active control somewhere by closing the appropriate palette. Most palettes can be minimized (only their name and the first feature are shown) and maximized (all features are shown). Many palettes can also be displayed in an expanded mode which allows you to use specific features that are only used in special cases. Some palettes contain a button  that you can use to set additional palette properties. Generally it is always a good idea to close everything you do not intend to use – you will get a clear overview of all features you are using and avoid making mistakes. There are various settings and features and checking them all can be exhausting. For example the Details of Marks Palette contains so many features that if they are all enabled it can be really hard to get a synoptic overview – therefore all de-activated features are automatically hidden. If you close a palette and then somehow (for example by pressing the undo button or by switching to another imposition) re-enable its features the palette will be displayed in order to follow the principle that if something affects the imposition it is shown on your screen.

The only palette that is excluded of this principle is Pages for Imposition which can be closed even though its pages were modified somehow. It is because this palette is a bit different than the rest – it is focused on page preparation prior to the imposition. Most of its features can be replaced by preparing the source PDF in Acrobat (or even before that when the first PDF is generated). In most cases, however, using this palette saves a lot of time and makes imposing easier although the active features of this palette cannot be displayed easily. It can use several various functions such as scaling, repetition or rotation on various pages and the page order itself could be modified. Some of its functions can be seen on the Imposition Check Palette, where unusual adjustments are also shown besides errors.

If a control feature does not display a value it means either that it does not exist (for example a gap between columns if there is only one column) or the value is different for multiple options (for example row height when position sizes are not uniform). Inputting a value manually sets this value for all active objects (e.g. rows).