Create templates for invoice, booking, participation and payment confirmation

Configuration -> Basic Settings -> PDF templates

General information

PDF templates are required to provide documents such as invoices, booking, participation and payment confirmations for participants. PDF files are linked here and it is possible to specify which dynamic content is to be output on which PDF document and how.

PDFs for Converia should be created with the compatibility setting “Acrobat 5” (PDF 1.4).

Background: Newer PDF versions from Acrobat 6 (PDF 1.5) use some compression methods that are not supported by the PDF library that Converia uses. This does not mean that newer PDFs do not work in principle, but their error-free display cannot be guaranteed.

Adobe also generally recommends creating common PDFs with “Acrobat 5” (PDF 1.4) compatibility to ensure that they are displayed correctly on all systems.

Fig. 1: Overview of existing PDF templates

At least one PDF template is required for each event. However, multiple templates can be stored, for example, one per document type and language, as shown in Fig. 1. The deciding factor is whether the structure, letterheads, graphics or texts should differ in the various documents. For example, does the template for the attendance confirmation contain a signature or the booking confirmation a ticket graphic? In this case, in addition to the standard template for invoices, separate templates should be used that contain these special elements and are customized for the respective purpose.

A PDF template is also sufficient for multilingual events, provided that the text elements in the template (see Fig. 2, left) are sufficient in a single language.

The location given in the PDF templates refers to the location of the corresponding contact (e.g. invoice -> registration contact).

Fig. 2: Empty PDF template with static content (left) and PDF template with dynamic invoice content added by the system (right)

Dynamic and static content

When creating the PDF templates for all documents from Converia (booking confirmation, invoice, participation and payment confirmation), a distinction must be made between dynamic content and static content.

Dynamic content is different for each person and can be placed on the documents using placeholders. In addition to personal data, information about the booking, for example, can be listed here. The formatting options are limited.

Static content is the same on every document template. This can either be stored in the respective configuration with HTML formatting or in the underlying PDF template. There are few limits to the design of the PDF template.

Creating a new PDF template

A template can be created via New entry or an existing template can be copied (blue double-page symbol) and customized accordingly. The latter is recommended, for example, if a multilingual template is to be used that has the same content except for the linked PDF document.

When creating a new entry, the values are already preset for a standard letter template (without a ticket). These may only need to be slightly adapted to your own PDF template.

The settings can be checked at any time in the preview. Depending on the preview accessed, the corresponding document with dummy content is opened in a new tab. The content configured for the respective document is used (more on this in the following chapters). Participation and invoice data are randomly generated.

The preview button is only available after saving a new entry.

Editing the content elements of a PDF template

In general, the millimeter information can be used to determine the position of the individual elements on the document as in a coordinate system (vertically on the Y-axis, horizontally on the X-axis).

General

• Define a unique name for the PDF template. For multilingual templates, a language code should be added to make it easier to assign the template later.

• A document in PDF format with the smallest possible file size should be uploaded as a template under File. Otherwise, the total storage space available may be exceeded due to the subsequent number of invoices, confirmations, etc. An optimal PDF template for an A4 document is less than 100 kB in size. It is also possible to upload templates consisting of multiple pages.

• If required, an additional, static PDF can be uploaded. This PDF will later be included in the PDF document generated for the participants as an additional page(s).

Fig. 3: Section – General

Edge

• This is where you can specify the distance from the edge of the document at which the text begins. A different setting can be specified for the top margin for a second page of the document (if, for example, only a reduced letterhead is displayed there).

• The total width is currently without function, but the text width can be changed in the next section.

• The line spacing is set here for the entire document.

Fig. 4: Section – edge

Invoice text

• The position of the main text content of a document can be set using the X and Y axes (corresponds to Text above/Text below in the configuration of invoices and booking confirmations and the invoice table).

• The global font and text font are fixed at FreeSans and cannot be changed.

• The font size can be adjusted separately for most sections.

• The text width in this section affects the entire document.

• The checkbox Output additional text must be activated if the configuration of the invoice is done with the replacement #:invoice.additionalText:#, which displays the contents of the additional field from the invoice address.

  

  Fig. 5: Section – Invoice text

Heading

This is where you define the position of the heading in the document using the X- and Y-axis and the font size.

TFig. 6: Section – Heading

Address

This is where you define the position of the address block in the document and the font size.

Fig. 7: Section - Address

VAT registration number/order number

• The position and width of the area for the VAT number/order number can be defined here. The VAT registration number is only displayed if the reverse charge rule is activated.

The VAT registration number is only displayed if the reverse charge rule is activated.

To display an order number on the document, it must be activated in the backend, see Configuration.

Fig. 8: Section - VAT registration number/order number

Date

• The position, font and font size for the date can be set here.

• In addition, the position of the due date of an invoice, as well as the payment period, the font and the font size can be set.

Fig. 9: Section – Date

Table

The width of the table columns on the invoice can be edited here.

This is not the absolute width of the column (in mm), but rather where the column starts in relation to the edge. This means that the Item column starts at a distance of 24 mm from the edge, while the Quantity column starts at 35 mm from the edge. Thus, the width of the Item column is 11 mm.

Fig. 10: Section – Table

Contact

Adjustments to this area have no effect. The function that could be customized here is not implemented in the current Converia versions.

Ticket

If a ticket is used, the position of the text fields can be defined here so that they fit on the ticket template.

Wird kein Barcode für das Ticket verwendet, können die Koordinaten genullt werden oder der Barcode auf eine Position außerhalb des Dokumentes verschoben werden.

Fig. 12: Section – Ticket