About post-rendition processing

After a source document has been rendered, Meridian Enterprise Server can perform additional processing of the rendition:

• Apply configurable watermarks to the rendition (including the prior revision of the rendition in a Meridian Enterprise vault)
• Generate signature pages to manifest electronic signature information, for example, as managed by the Meridian FDA Module.
• Merge documents that are related to each other as a set and that should appear together as a single document.

A Publisher watermark definition is one or more images or strings of formatted text placed on a rendition for the same purpose. An example of one watermark definition would be a print stamp that contains the vault location and file name of the document in the margin of the rendition plus an overlay that contains the document's current workflow status and an effectivity statement across the body of the rendition. Multiple watermark definitions can be created for different purposes, such as for different document types or different document life cycle stages.

Watermarks are applied by components that are included with Meridian Enterprise Server. They are applied after Meridian Enterprise Server has generated the rendition. Depending on the type of watermark, the text can be static, read from a document property, or calculated using JavaScript for Acrobat. Watermarks can be conditionally applied based upon a document property value.

Signature pages are optional pages added to an Adobe PDF rendition upon which electronic signature information can be shown as proof that the prior pages in the rendition have been approved for a specific purpose, such as regulatory compliance. The information can be formatted on the page using a signature page template that can include standard text such as a legal disclaimer. Multiple signature page definitions can be created for different purposes, such as for different document types.

Notes

• These watermarks are independent of any watermarks configured in VBScript and printed by the viewer as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise Configuration Guide.
• During watermark rendering, the AutoVue Document Converter is set as the default printer if it is not already. The original default printer is restored after rendering has completed. To ensure that the correct paper sizes are applied, we recommend that the AutoVue Document Converter be manually set as the default printer.
• This feature requires the eSignature rendering module license described in About licensing.

Rendition merging is one of the more powerful features of Meridian Enterprise Server. The merged renditions can be related by Meridian Enterprise references between the source documents or they can have a Meridian Enterprise property value in common.

Meridian Enterprise Server detects the documents that are related to a submitted document and automatically submits them for rendering also. The rendering is performed by the rendering modules that have been configured to process the related documents' file extensions. Therefore, all file extensions that are expected to be merged together must be specified in publishing jobs with a configured rendering module. After the set of related documents have been rendered, Meridian Enterprise Server combines the renderings into a single Adobe PDF file.

Examples of related documents that can be rendered together:

• A cover sheet containing a list of documents and all of the related documents such as CAD drawings, MS Office documents, images, and so on.
• A set of related CAD drawings that must be considered as a single document.

Besides providing options that determine which documents are rendered and merged together, options are also available to control the order that the documents appear within the merged rendition. For more information about the options, see Configuring rendition merging options.

For more information about electronic signatures and the Meridian FDA Module, see the BlueCielo Meridian FDA Module Configuration Guide.

The following topics describe how to configure rendition post-processing.