Print/Digital Catalog

[habreu]

We are going to produce a print catalog of our products, with no prices, and a digital version - perhaps like a flip book. I am wondering if there is anything out there that makes it possible to import Miva data somehow and then edit the results. Or do I just get software for this and construct it manually?

If this latter is my choice then does anyone have any recent experience and favorite with Flipbook or any of these other products? Or perhaps something that could import a catalog from Word and convert it? I'm looking for an easy (not overly complex) work flow to design the pages and such so the guys and gals here at the office can construct it and only involve me if they need help assembling, converting or publishing it.

Thanks.

[Nerd Boy Inc]

Try here: https://issuu.com/pricing?entryPoint=topnav

[habreu]

Thanks. I was actually on that site digging around right now.

[lesliekirk]

You would need something that could create PDF's. I spent a few years doing a digital magazine that used software called FlippingBook. All it needed was PDF pages. I used Adobe InDesign to create my pages, but anything that can create PDF's should work for Issuu. Something to keep in mind when doing a digital catalog - make sure the mobile version is not Flash.

[delcorsets]

Perhaps check out Catalog on Demand - https://www.catalog-on-demand.com/pr...rchant-content

[habreu]

Thanks everyone. We opted for FlowPaper. I did a test with the demo and was able to export our product list from Miva, create a catalog merge in Microsoft Publisher and then import that into Flowpaper to produce a basic catalog with images and all in 15 minutes. We can edit the result in Publisher and/or Flowpaper so it seems like a pretty simple workflow.

[lesliekirk]

Thanks everyone. We opted for FlowPaper. I did a test with the demo and was able to export our product list from Miva, create a catalog merge in Microsoft Publisher and then import that into Flowpaper to produce a basic catalog with images and all in 15 minutes. We can edit the result in Publisher and/or Flowpaper so it seems like a pretty simple workflow.

That looks really interesting. Over the weekend I took advantage of a sale on Next FlipBook Maker Pro for Mac. I have played with it yet. It would be great if you do a follow up post after you've published. I think the stumbling block for many is finding something that can take a product export and merge it into a layout. Are you just taking the products and creating individual pages for each one? Or are you using the category pages? Or both?

[habreu]

I will. In the meantime here is the page explaining how to do a catalog merge in Publisher https://support.office.com/en-us/art...2-7C8EF3862EB2

Here are two quick pages. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9840907/sample.pdf You can pick the basic layout - so single column, double etc. Tweak it. Change font, size layout and so on around the << field tags >> . Select which fields from the exported proucts.csv you want to attach to a merge field and so on. It did a quick merge of 3500 products in just about 3 minutes. The only thing I had to edit in the csv was to append the full path of the site for the images as the export gives you relative path i.e. graphics/ so a quick search and replace fixes that. There are also some products that we'll manually tweak because they are virtual the same except for size so don't need 3 pages of the same thumbnail and description.

The import into FlowPaper is straight forward using PDF's and they also have some templates depending on whether you want a catalog, or presentation etc.

I think what you can do with categories if you want to vary is to manually break up your csv (just leave headers) and say category 1 you import and use the 3 columns, and category 2 you want the single column template so they have more room and then just combine the various pdfs before importing into FlowPaper.

[lesliekirk]

First thing I would need is a Mac equivalent to Publisher (that works).

[habreu]

Yep. Outside of my experience but merging data/email lists etc with documents has been around for a very long time. I'm certain something exists but you'll need to do some homework. Good luck. :)