Patent ID: 7434160

Claim:
A processor-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions for processing a PDF (portable document format) document to produce a PPML (personalized print markup language) template, the processor-executable instructions comprising instructions for: opening the PDF document; converting a PDF element within the PDF document into a variable object, wherein converting the PDF element within the PDF document into the variable object comprises further instructions for: providing a tool for operation by a user; and responding to operations of the tool which result in a selection of a portion of the PDF document to be associated with the variable object, wherein responding to operation of the tool comprises further instructions for: providing the user with a first set of properties for graphical objects and a second set of properties for text objects; allowing the user to adjust the properties; and governing conversion of the PDF element within the PDF document into the variable object according to the properties; selecting a macro containing rules governing operation of the variable object; configuring the PPML template to include a definition of the variable object, the macro and a version of the PDF document, wherein the version of the PDF document is configured as a background element within the PPML template; saving the PPML template as an optimized tree-structure; and using a PPML to PDF converter to produce an optimized PDF document from the PPML template wherein subsequent instances of a PDF object will be substituted with references to an initial instance of the PDF object.