Producing the Practical print catalog (fall 2016)

About: Producing the Practcal print catalog (fall 2015)

#HangOut in #PrintCatalog

We compose this catalog in on our print application

→ http://www.speaktomecatalog.com/db/catalog.php

which is gated and guests cannot access.

#1 …

denise chooses the products and places them on pages 1-12 (our currently designed catalog) ← #Done

#2 …

generate XML for print job use gen_print_xml_files.php?niche=p

← seems some product editing is needed

after generating stroy_and_pictures.xml (above), special caracters must be removed from the data via db.

The file is best audited by viewing the XML file in a browser, Firefox will indicate exactly where the errors be.

apparently my famous “...” cannot be used in our product descriptions … they make a character type which when copied from here to speaktomecatalog db barfs when it gets into an XML file.

okay all erronious copied character types have been found and now the XML file validates

#aside: niche “p” contains only the practical products not the fun novelty ones. this is the only print catalog that we have produced for the last couple of years.
#SeeAlso “New Print Catalogs by Niche” and “(private thought)”
perhaps more in niche,print … lots of old history to shuffle through to see what actually happened and stuck. but this does not need to be done right now … er, hopefully.

#3 …

(a) created a director for the print project mirriored on my local google drive. I’m using this format “niche PT YYYY-MM”

(b) set FTP view of “print catalog XML” to align with new directory … in this case “niche PT 2016-09” and download story_and_pictures.xml into that local directory.

#4 …

Joson dinks and puts the high resolution pictures in CYMK in our shared Google/My Drive/picture
That directory should sync to my local Google Drive/picture.

Currently they look in sync. But if they were not i might have to download.

#5 …

load the last inDesign file from it’s google drive directory and #SaveAS in the current one. Old directory will probably be in File/Open Recent.

in 2016 new cataloged was saved to

My Drive/print projects/PT 2016-09.indd

#6 Replace old XML structure with new one #Done

You can see the old structure by clicking View/structure/show structure

To replace it with the new structure click File/Import XML and let the options show the same as in this picture, and click OK. The new pictures and text will replace the old ones in their respective slots on the pages

#7 Now review all the pages and products. #Done

Move things around in the app → http://www.speaktomecatalog.com/db/catalog.php
Make changes to the product text in → http://www.speaktomecatalog.com/db/
Export the new XML file with → gen_print_xml_files.php?niche=p
ftp the XML file back to the local drive with the FTP profile “Print Catalog XML”
Import the revised XML file in the document with “File/Import XML”

… repeat →

# 8 Dink pictures #Done

Your basic dink is ...

select the picture
click fit frame to content
click fit content to fram
move with just arrow keys to new position
maybe do 3 & 4 again

# 9 Review performance of last year’s coupon #Done

see database – online orders only were recorded here

would need to check records in Tome to find phone orders

Count of use of code “PRINT1” in Tome yields:

15 orders @ $10 each costing us $150 and yielding something in excess of $750.

the exact gross is more because people did not just order $75 but would take too much work to calculate.

after review by denise the coupon will be

# 10 Choose a printer

YourTown Press Estimate No: 106561 PDF ← a #NoBrainer 7500 @ $1881 same as last year
Eagle quote ~ $400 above

# 11 Spellcheck the whole document within the #indesign #Done

Call up the spellchecker: Edit/Spelling/Check Spelling
change spellings in /db
update the document as in #7 (2-5) above

#12 Output a pdf file on GoogleDrive

Instructions → File/Adobe Presets/[High quality print]

← viewable now #Done

#13 review products & prices with denise

can be done direct from PDF. (no need to print) #Done

#14 Make corrections in file or db and regenerate as above.

final changes ← #Done
export new pdf ← #done

#15 Output Black & White version for press

      In File/Adobe Presets/[High quality print]
      Output tab:
           Color Converstions : Convert to Destination
           Destination: choose Dot Gain 30 %

← #done

#16 Send job to press via email attachment

     Send job to YourTown press via email attachment ← #done

     Recieve proof back in private email and go ok it here.
     and my response here ← #Done

     Okay proof and wait for YourTown Press to print job and send to eagle mailing (4 days) #Done

#17 Generate the mailing file in Tome

Hit nicheExport.php to produce a db/niche.txt file that gets FTP’d to denise:c:TOME
Run codeselectivemail.prg on TOME.
Modify db/labelm.prg according to this ...

*Niche mailing of practical borshire * count is 6108 before selectivecoding when date was {^2013-01-01} * after codeselectivemail.prg counted 6427 up to {^2013-01-01} * moved date up to {^2013-04-01} * 6256 sent to mailing house 10/11/2016 thismail="#u" set filter to; (empty(media) or "p" $ lower(media)); and not "x" $ code; and not "x" $ media; and empty(country); and not empty(zip); and "p" $ lower(comment); and not "$" $ comment; and statusdate>{^2013-04-01}

run labelm to produce the c:\tome\mailing.dbf #done
email job … #done

Ray Little
Eagle Mailing Service
rlittle@eaglemailing.com
503-393-6646
1-800-752-4081
503-393-7260 Fax
www.eaglemailing.com

see Ray Little’s email archive here

Wait for them … wait for them … ← #InProcessNow

Comments

Si says
Just wondering why you keep republishing this instead of updating it? Is there something here you want me to look at?

Seth says
woopse sorry … i guess i was pressing publish rather than update.