FOLIO: mediaPRO

The Professional & Social Network for Magazine & eMedia Publishing Professionals

I have been using QXP and INDD equally. To work out something quick in QXP for some repetitive information or something that is part of the database, we use Catalog Maker to import images and text. Its nearly 3 times expensive than QXP. The price surprised me quite a bit. But I have now come to terms with this. However, Catalog Maker is so cumbersome and we waste a lot of time tagging in QXP for the it to read the information. The database files we use are XML files.

What I have been trying to find is an alternative to this QXP xtention. Does anyone know other xtentions that do a lot with less human intervention? Also i know there are XCatalog etc for QXP and EasyCatalog for INDD but these are really lengthy to understand and represent crude user experience.

Tags: automation, catalog, easy, indesign, maker, printing, publishing, quarkxpress, xcatalog, xtention

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Sachin, I'm afraid I haven't used Quark since v.4 (and haven't looked back, thank you very much). I just didn't want you to feel you were being ignored.

Going through the literature and help files in ID, I've come across mention of ways of working with XML. Have you tried getting some info from Adobe? Again, I've not done this myself, but I've seen some remarkable things done with scripts (collecting images and text from different databases and laying out a page and styling the type). Adobe has a developer site where you may find someone who's already done most of the heavy lifting for you.

Reply to This

Sachin, I also haven't used QXP since 4.32. I used to use XData for our directories. It was a fairly involved process, as I recall. But that was about six years ago... I haven't kept up with new developments on the Quark side. Hope you get the answer you're looking for...

Reply to This

Whoa! that was way back Javier. XData and XCatalog are those too old that help to a certain extent but i have not seen any progress in this field. I wonder if InDesign has similar tools on a larger scale to produce pages quickly. There are these automation tools to produce your work but how well are they and what they are i guess another discussion?
And yes, thank you for your honest reply. QXP really has taken the backseat and is declining in usage all over the world.

Reply to This

umm.... i will check that site up. This is encouraging for InDesign work that i do. :-)

Thank you so much for your reply David.

Reply to This

Obviously I am biased. BUT, checkout SmartCatalog for ID.

http://www.woodwing.com/en/Smart_Catalog

Reply to This

This is good. Good link.
I might want to try this in the future. But sometimes i wonder if i want to do some magazines would there be tools similar to Smart Catalog to help me achieve this, besides InCopy.

Thank you, and here i thought only Easy Catalog was the only tool.

Reply to This

RSS

Sign in

E-mail

Password

Member Search

Search member profiles by keyword, company & more  

Ex: Chicago, "Penton Media"
Advanced Search

Groups

FOLIO: mediaPRO Badge

Commercial Use Limitations: Use of any content features (blogs, forums, messaging, etc) for direct self-promotion, spamming, etc. will result in account termination. Profiles are for individuals only at this time, not companies. Profile headshots should not include company logos. Publishing/Media companies (non vendors) may create groups for their employees. Vendors see this post for more information.

© 2008   Created by FOLIO MediaPRO Team

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Privacy  |  Terms of Service