Patent ID: 8924841

Claim:
A method of generating a variable-data printing document template comprising: producing, by a computer, the template that is in a computer-readable format, wherein the template comprises a layout of document portions, wherein the document portions comprise at least a first group of one or more variable portions on a page and a second, different group of one or more variable portions on the page, and wherein each of the variable portions contains content which is variable; defining a plurality of themes associated with the template, wherein a first of the themes corresponds to the first group of one or more variable portions, and a second of the themes corresponds to the second group of one or more variable portions, wherein the plurality of themes are associated with different layers to enable different ones of the groups of one or more variable portions to be viewed by selecting different layers; and temporarily switching on or off selected ones of the different layers during design of the template to allow a user to visualize a selected one of the first and second groups on a display unit with the other one of the first and second groups switched off, wherein a document is for generation from the template in response to input selection data which causes selection of one of the plurality of themes to cause a corresponding one of the first and second groups of one or more variable portions to be enabled in the document.