As a Prinect Support Specialist, I truly enjoy working with Heidelberg’s software products. The products are so robust that I often find that customers have not leveraged all of the amazing capabilities that they have to offer. Through this new “Did You Know” series, we hope to educate new and veteran users alike on various features of Prinect they may already have access to but didn’t know about and how these features can streamline and maximize the efficiency throughout their print shop.
In this first article, we’ll explore basic “Hotfolders” – a great and easy way to automate tasks in your workflow. They can be used on a Heidelberg DFE or within a fully integrated workflow. With Hotfolders, you can program simple tasks like creating a new job and preflighting or more complex tasks like creating fully automated workflows with imposition and online proofing.
In the Qualify sequence, under the heading “Hotfolder,” activate the option to “Create new job and process document there”:
Elements in the PDF file name can be used to identify the name and number of the new job being created:
While these seem like simple tasks, they can be very powerful in eliminating touchpoints and maximizing your productivity. Additionally, creating a Hotfolder requires very little training, so you can easily educate many members of your team on how to use them; however, Hotfolders and their settings can also be hidden from the everyday operators, so only people with permissions will have the ability to edit and create them.
Once you have your Qualify sequence configured, the Hotfolders can be created, deactivated and edited under Administration in your Cockpit:
This is just the beginning of what can be achieved with Hotfolders. I recommend starting small by using them to automate some of your simpler tasks. When you are ready for the next step, our team of Prinect experts can help you get the most out of your workflow.
Want to learn more about Hotfolders? Contact us using the form below.
Joe Banich
Prinect Product Specialist
Heidelberg Canada
