MetaTool > Help > Edit > Clipping Editor

040-050 MetaTool Edit – Clipping Editor

Sometimes you need to cut a specific part of a scanned page that is not always located in the same place. This could be a photo, signature or an address.

In our example, we will cut the address of the recipient on outgoing mail. This will result in small image clips which we will use to print a registered mail form required by the postal service. The registered mail form and the envelopes will be saved as PDFs in separate folders.

Example of registered mail with bar code and address
Example of the empty Registered Mail form
The result after export, a Registered Mail form completed with our setup.

01 Clipping Editor – Add Rule

In our example we will make use of a simplified version of the Mail-OUT – Registered Mail job. This job is automatically installed when you install the CaptureBites Registered Mail Solution.

For a more detailed explanation about the Registered Mail Solution (Mail Out), you can watch an introduction video here.

The Clipping Editor is defined in the MetaTool Edit tab. Press the Add button and select Clipping Editor.

The Clipping Editor setup window opens.

02 Clipping Editor – Setup

03 – Scroll wheel resize step: here you can adjust the size of the resize steps when scrolling your mouse wheel. See below to watch it in action during export.

04 – Check first document only: here you can select if you want to clip the first document or all documents in the batch. In our case, we want to clip all documents / envelopes. So we leave the box unchecked.

Finally, we use some MetaTool extraction rules for setting the sender information and bar code. We use the Multi Export and Print export connector to generate and print the Registered Mail form and export the envelopes.

05 Clipping Editor – Export

During export, the Clipping Editor window opens

Make sure the selection tool is selected and draw a rectangle to set the clipping zone. In this case, you draw a rectangle around the recipient’s address.
06 – Default size and position of clipping zone: The clipping zone’s position and size will be remembered for the next document of the same paper size. In other words, the clipping editor remembers the last drawn zone for commercial size (DL size), postcard size (C6), catalogue size (C4) envelopes etc. individually. In that way you don’t have to redraw the clipping zone for each envelope when dealing with standard envelope sizes.

07 Clipping Editor – Tips for setting your clipping zone

08 – Resizing your clipping zone
09 – Moving your clipping zone
10 – Redrawing your clipping zone

11 Clipping Editor – Results

After selecting all addresses in the batch, press export and each clipped address image will be appended after the last page. In this case, the last page is the envelope. Consequently, the envelope will be page 1 and the clipped address will be page 2.

The final result after export using the MetaTool Clipping Editor and the Print export connector:

The result after export, an automatically completed registered mail form
Separate folders holding the envelopes and registered mail form(s)