Meadows Publishing Solutions (MPS) today announced the release of Index Builder 6, a software module for QuarkXPress users that automates the creation of catalog indexes. Using the new software, catalog publishers can drastically reduce the production time of creating a catalog index from hours to just minutes. The updated version offers the following new features:
- Automatic renumbering of page numbers across all documents;
- Page number selection based on style sheet name;
- Combined product and manufacturer index;
- Different sorting methods for index entries and page numbers;
- Detailed reporting on all objects and index entries in all documents;
- Enhanced user interface design.
MPS Index Builder, compatible with QuarkXPress 6.5 Macintosh, is now available from MPS and its distributors. MPS is showing Index Builder in their booth (#634) at the 23rd annual ACCM catalog, Internet and Multichannel Merchant Conference in Chicago (May 8-10). For more information about MPS Index Builder or any other MPS offering, please visit www.meadowsps.com.
“We publish nearly 4,000 pages a year in three catalogs containing more than 50,000 parts,” said Mark Keedy, Catalog Production Manager, J&P Cycles, Inc. of Anamosa, Iowa. “Our success depends upon customers being able to find the parts they want in a hurry, so good indexing is just good business. Building an index for our 1200-page catalog used to take a full 8-hour shift. Using Index Builder, it now takes less than 30 minutes. And it used to take nearly a week to review over 1,000 pages of QuarkXPress index tags in our big catalog. Now the index terms can be assigned as the product groups are built (even without knowing what section or page the products will appear on) and we have the confidence of knowing that Index Builder will keep track of all of it.”
“The production of a B-to-B catalog index has always been a very time-consuming and error-prone process for our many catalog customers,” notes John Kriho, President, MPS. “The specific workflow and page layout processes incorporated by these companies are not well-suited for traditional indexing approaches. Therefore, we designed MPS Index Builder specifically for the catalog workflow, and accordingly the time savings experienced by our customers has been dramatic.”
MPS Index Builder was designed with catalogers in mind, thus it provides a number of unique features that make the product ideal for catalog-specific workflows. Index entries can be entered by hand at any time, or imported from a tab-separated text file. In addition, AutoPrice™ users can also extract SKU information to include in the final index.
For existing indexes, it is easy to import the old index, make changes, and start tagging for the future. Index entries can also be saved, exported and shared by any other workstation. Included is a built-in batch processing feature that will process any number of individual QuarkXPress documents in a single session. Documents can also be re-numbered in a single batch session if desired. A complete index can be created within minutes and can be updated at any time.
MPS Index Builder is also compatible with MPS’ GroupPicture software, which allows users to create, save, and database product blocks with embedded index information. This combination works great with most image database applications. In addition, the saved product blocks can contain AutoPrice database links, which allow users to quickly update specific content directly from an ODBC or flat-file database.
For more information about MPS Index Builder, GroupPicture, or any other MPS offering, please visit www.meadowsps.com.
About Meadows Publishing Solutions
Meadows Publishing Solutions is a software development and consulting company specializing in commercial and custom XTensions™ for QuarkXPress, plug-in modules for Adobe InDesign™ and Adobe Acrobat™, and other extensible technologies. Meadows has developed a number of popular software packages for the database publishing and variable data printing markets, including their award-winning products AutoPrice™ and DesignMerge™. Founded in 1991, Meadows is based just outside of Chicago in Schaumburg, Illinois.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on May 11, 2006
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