• Adobe InDesign

  Best way to store info for bi-monthly catalog w/lots of text?

  Posted by Mandy1111 on January 25, 2006 at 4:29 am

  Hi there!

  I am trying to save a little of the painstaking trial and error process and this time go in for some good professional advice…

  I do a bi-monthly catalog for a seminar company. The catalog is 40 pages and there are usually long text descriptions and bios as well as date, time and price information for each ad. Some are on-going classes and some are one time workshops. How best can I organize the information? Is there a program out there that will make the process a little neater?

  Currently I do an excel spreadsheet each time to refer me to what file & organize the dates.. there seems like there would be something better that would work in conjunction with InDesign..

  Much thx for your attention.

  🙂

  Kelly Johnson replied 20 years, 6 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Kelly Johnson

  January 25, 2006 at 4:22 pm

  Hmm. Well, in addition to websites and print design, we produce three montly publications each of which are always between 56 and 76 pages.

  Are you trying to manage the organization of the content as you receive it or as it is placed, or in checking it against content that might already be in?

  These pubs have numerous ads and articles all of which change each month.

  For the larger pub, we have folders for each section of the publication (“Diretors,” “Political Frontline,” “Letters to the Editor,” etc) and each section has a log sheet which assigns a number to each individual piece of information within that section. So, for instance in the Letters section, each letter would be L01, L02, L03 etc.

  Because it’s always a different content length each month, we really just have to use that basic system or organize what comes in. And of course we use style sheets for formatting.

  I’m not sure what kind of program would provide the organizing of content which InDesign could utilize.

  The standard slap-stick is to dupe the previous issue, color all text some wierd green or something and as you make new edits, color it back to black. you could then have information that stays already there as opposed to having to flow in all new copy which is just different due to dates.

  But, you run a risk of a small change in some area, such as a description, which gets overlooked.

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