InCatalog and InCatalog Pro Features and Benefits

Flexible data sources and destinations

Use off-line simple ascii delimited data "snapshot" files, on-line FileMaker Pro (and Runtime) databases under Mac OS, and on-line SQL databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, and Access, using ODBC under Mac OS and Windows (Pro version only).

Transparent data linking

Use InCatalog's intuitive linking palette to establish links between any database element and any document text element--from a single character to a phrase to a paragraph to a whole story--or any picture element.

Links are transparent to the printing process (they don't affect page layout), but visible on the screen (if you choose) so you can see what you're doing.

Links are also moveable between documents and libraries transparently, for ease of building new documents from old document elements with links intact.

Interactive updating

Use the linking palette's interactive update capability to update the current single link, whole frames/stories, whole groups, or the current spread.

Semi-automatic building techniques

With pre-linked modules in libraries, drag a module, fill in a key value in one link, and watch InCatalog fill in the whole module interactively.

One-step batch updating

With just one menu selection (Update Document... or Update Data...), you've just made sure all linked document elements match their corresponding database elements.

Don't ever worry again about whether you've gotten all the price changes before the big catalog release, or whether, in the last-minute rush to get the catalog out the door, you've forgotten to update a few prices in the database that you updated in the document.

Work with multiple documents and data sources/destinations

Use multiple open documents and use multiple data sources and destinations for complex jobs, even per-document, switching among them at will.

Price styles

Define any number of price styles per publishing project using full tagged text for arbitrary formatting, and apply styles per-link.

Key linking options

Select different strategies for obtaining a link's key field value: direct in the link, direct from the linked document contents, indirect from the current group, or indirect from text before or after the current link. With grouping and indirect keys, build whole modules that require only one key to be set to fully link everything in the module, or build lines or paragraphs of multiple links that are controlled from a single item.

Tagged text support

Enable tagged text support for any given link, to capture the full InDesign Tags document formatting of any data element.

Picture placement options

Update pictures, automatically resizing them to fit their destination frame in various ways, or to be left sized as-is.

Picture search

Direct InCatalog to your picture folders, using aliases/shortcuts in your project control folder. Enable "fuzzy lookup," which even finds picture files with filename prefixes or file types/suffixes.

Scriptable

Script all of InCatalog's updating operations under Mac OS or Windows for powerful workflow automation.

Full Unicode support

InCatalog can read and write the full Unicode character set (that InDesign supports), in various encodings including UTF-8.