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martinl17344155
Participating Frequently
October 4, 2019
Question

Brochure Creation - live data management plugins/software

  • October 4, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 418 views

I'm starting work on large brochure/catalogue work with publications up to 800 pages. 

I'm looking for options to live manage data (product codes, descriptions, prices, images etc) from a central database which will update in the Indesign artwork when the database changes. 

 

I understand the Easy CatalogCS plugin is an option but I'd like to know of others.

 

Indesign's Data Merge function seems to be too limited in that you cannot update a data source to the merged file, so I guess I'm looking for a tagging system which will link product fields in the artwork to a source database and live update the artwork when the database is amended. This is a fundamental requirement as products for this client can change in status during catalogue production (eg, spec, code and whether they are actually going to be in the brochure or cancelled). 

 

We are porting over from Corel Draw (used by the client inhouse) to Indesign, so artwork will be created from scratch. 

 

The solution would have to be able to work with Tables as well as Text boxes. 

 

Cheers.

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    1 reply

    Dave Creamer of IDEAS
    Community Expert
    Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 5, 2019

    Here are a few places to start your search:

    • Em Software InData and InCatalog
    • 65Bit Easy Catalog 
    • Teacup Software Datalinker

    I mainly use InData, but have used all of them in the past.

    David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
    M
    martinl17344155Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 7, 2019
    Thanks. I've had a look at the first two software vendors. I'll look at Teacup today. Briefly, why the 2 products for EM software? What's the difference between InData and InCatalog? There's a large difference in price, but the blurb tries to persuade users to buy both!
    Dave Creamer of IDEAS
    Community Expert
    Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2019
    InData works from an exported tab-delimited file exported from a database. InCatalog creates a live connection to the database.
    David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
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