Seeking Recommendations for Automating InDesign Workflow

[Creative Team36196112yb7i]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, and I’d appreciate your help with automating my workflow.

I work on promotion catalogs and need a way to streamline updates—especially for pricing—so that any changes are automatically reflected in the file. Additionally, since our team works remotely from different countries, the solution should support online collaboration.

What would be the best plugin or tool for InDesign to achieve this? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

How big and how complicated your catalogs will be?

How do you store your data? Some kind of a database or just Excel file(s)? 

How often will you be making those catalogs - and how often update them? 

One or multiple languages? 

Will you be printing them - or strictly online? 

[Creative Team36196112yb7i]

Thank you for your questions. Below are the details regarding our catalog requirements:

1. Catalog Size & Complexity:

   • More than 28 pages with extensive details, including:

     • Pricing, descriptions, and specifications in both Arabic and English.

     • Images, brand logos, and product identifiers.

     • Frequent corrections from the commercial team (pricing updates, product changes, and layout adjustments).

2. Data Storage:

   • Currently using Google Sheets for live updates and collaboration.

3. Update Frequency:

   • Manual updates now, but seeking automation to streamline the process due to frequent changes.

4. Languages:

   • Bilingual: Arabic  and English.

5. Distribution:

   • Printed copies as well as a digital version shared with our online team.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Creative Team36196112yb7i

Thanks for more info. 

By "update frequency" I meant daily / weekly / monthly? 😉 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

You have a couple of options depending on your needs...

• Create a price list table section, separate from the images and descriptions. This is often done for printed catalogs that have a stable product selection but flucuating prices. The price table is often printed on cheaper paper. You can link to an Excel table and have the InDesign table update when the Excel file is updated. It's very easy to share an Excel file with multiple users.
• Depending on the catalog design, you could use something like Em Software's InData plugin. This can update from an exported csv file from a database.
• For live connections to a database, you could use something like Em Software's InCatalog plugin. This would be better if the part number and pricing is spread throughout the catalog.

Note: while I mentioned Em Software, there are other solutions available, including from 65bit, Teacup Software, Meadows Publishing, Cacidi, and others. 

[Creative Team36196112yb7i]

Dear David,

Thank you for the detailed breakdown of options—this is incredibly helpful.

Given our challenges (frequent pricing/product updates, bilingual layout, and remote collaboration via Google Sheets), I’d value your expertise on which EM Software plugin (InCatalog vs. InData) would best suit our needs. Specifically:

1. Automation Priority:

   • We need live or near-live updates for prices, product changes, and layout adjustments (not just isolated price tables).

   • Does InCatalog’s database connection handle this more efficiently than InData’s CSV-based approach?

2. Remote Work:

   • Our team relies on Google Sheets for real-time edits. Would either plugin integrate smoothly, or would we need to migrate to Excel/another database?

3. Complex Layouts:

   • With content spread across pages (not just a price table), does InCatalog offer better stability for multi-language (RTL Arabic) and dynamic layouts?

I’ve noted your mention of alternatives (65bit, Teacup, etc.), which one is the best?

Thank you again for your time and guidance.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Creative Team36196112yb7i

What is your budget?

Some tools are cheap = less options - others are more expensive. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

1. You need a product that connects directly to the data source such as InCatalog. 

2. InCatalog can work with spreadsheets but to find out if it supports Google Sheets, you will need to contact the company. (Although, this is really a job for a database, not spreadsheet.)

3. That's a question for the company.

https://emsoftware.com/products/incatalog/

Again, be sure to check out the other companies I mentioned and compare them all.