Land O'Lakes, FL - Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced that AFP education will once again take center stage at their annual Global Conference and Vendor Forum, March 17-19, 2010 in Tampa Bay, Florida. Sessions will be conducted by noted industry experts including Don Scrima, EDP, Howard Turetzky, EDP and Stephen Wowelko, EDP and includes Continuing Education Units (CEU) credit towards professional certification. As part of over 70 educational classes covering the latest trends and best practices in the digital document industry, Xplor's Global Conference and Vendor Forum will include 8 AFP classes that will feature:

Introduction to Applications: Developed for those new to AFP and for those who have been using it and would like a better understanding of how everything works together, this is an introductory level class on AFP applications. The class will also explore what are the needs to print in AFP, how do the pieces fit together, how do you create the resources needed to print and format output and what do these resources look like and where are they stored?

Introduction to Architecture:  This class is designed to follow up the initial introduction to AFP by explaining how the AFP architectural concepts underlie the application in generating AFP data stream. The second class on AFP will go through AFP architecture, terminology and function, explaining the various components. At the conclusion, the attendee will have an understanding of AFP terminology and how the architecture relates to the data stream.

Font Basics: Of all of the AFP Resources: AFP Fonts are usually the least understood. This class will cover the three components of AFP fonts in plain English and show how they relate to each other. The class will also cover the difference between raster and outline fonts along with a general discussion about font characteristics.

Resources - PAGEDEF and FORMDEF: This class will dissect the traditional PAGEDEF and FORMDEF in PPFA. Real world examples will be used explain how these resources work. This class is intended for those who would like a more in-depth overview of these resources used in AFP. This class is also beneficial for those who use a software package to generate the AFP resources for them and would like to better understand what their software is doing for them.

Record Formatting: IBM added a powerful feature to the Page Definition – "Record Formatting". This feature gives the user more control over how their output will be presented and frees the user from the traditional fixed length input data record and allowed for XLM and delimited records. It also allows the dynamic creation of lines, boxes and circles under the control of the PAGEDEF.

Introduction to ACIF: The AFP Conversion and Indexing Facility (ACIF) is a versatile and powerful utility program for working with AFP files. It is a key part of many products such as InfoPrint Manager, Content Manager OnDemand, InfoPrint Workflow and InfoPrint Process Director. One of the program's original designers will discuss ACIF's basic functions and how to use them to convert files to MO:DCA, collect resources and index them.

AFP Workshop: There are three parts to the AFP workshop including Resource application creation on Windows, AFP viewers and ACIF. Those attending should bring their laptop to follow along and create actual resources.

Closing Discussion: This wrap-up session allows participants to ask presenters questions they may have on the AFP Architecture. All of the instructors will be present for this session. They will also offer tips on where to get additional help when using AFP.

As Xplor celebrates their 30th year providing excellent education to the document industry, they are offering a number of flexible registration packages including a platinum passport (all courses, all days and all events) as well as a choice of day passes. The pre-conference intensive can be combined with a Platinum passport, day pass or purchase stand-alone. The conference and vendor forum will be held at the Tradewinds Island Grand Hotel and Conference Center, a AAA four-diamond, 585-room resort destination.