Custom file name generation
Version number:

Buy Now Download

Consistent file naming is an important part of organizing your files. Black Ice Printer Driver’s new ‘Custom File Naming’ option provides an easy-to-use tool allowing consistent file naming when converting documents.

The custom file naming option lets you build up a custom file naming scheme from predefined tags. File names can even contain dynamic information, for example:

• time of conversion
• date of conversion
• user or computer names
• page number
• custom text string

Custom file naming is especially useful when the conversion results in multiple documents. The ‘Custom File Naming’ option is available in every Black Ice Printer Driver version 13.20 and above.

The custom file name scheme is built through the Custom File Name dialog.

To open the Custom File Name generation window, on the Filename Generation tab of the Printing preferences choose the ‘Custom file naming’ option in Filename Generation Method section. To use custom file naming scheme, please disable the ‘Enable Save As Option’.

Press the ‘Configure’ button to start the Custom File Name generation window.

A preview shows the selected custom file naming scheme if the output contains multiple files. If the result of the document conversion is a single output file, e.g. PDF file, the file name will follow the first line of the example.

Custom File Name configuration

The Basic File Name Construct can consist of 5 parts: a Prefix, 2 Optional Fields, a Custom Field and an Extension.

Prefix can be 4 characters long or empty.

Custom Field can be empty, a separator or used as a custom text filename element.

Optional Field: Several basic tags can be used as an element of the output file name.

Name	Tag	Description
None		empty text
Document Name	<<DOCNAME>>	Inserts the original document’s name into the output file name. Maximum length is 256 characters.
User Name	<<USERNAME>>	Inserts the current logged in user into the output file name.
Computer Name	<<COMPUTER>>	Inserts the host name of the computer in the output file name.
Page Number	<<PAGENUM>>	Inserts the Page number of the document. If multipage document printed as a single file, the value will reflect the total number of pages.
Date	<<DATE>>	Inserts the actual system date at the time of printing. The formatting will follow the system’s default format.
Time	<<TIME>>	Inserts the actual system time at the time of printing. The format will follow the system’s default format.

Extension: The extension of the output filename can be specified as well.

Printing Tips for Developers

Setting custom file naming programmatically

The Custom file naming option can be set programmatically through the BlackIceDEVMODE dll and ActiveX control and through the printer driver INI file. For more details please refer to the online documentation.

Custom file naming added as an extra option and does not interfere with any existing file name generation method. Backward compatibility is preserved. Previous file name generation methods can be used programmatically with the latest 13.20 version also.