How to efficiently produce catalogs in foreign languages

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Category: General

Use our InDesign extension to automate localization

Catalogs in foreign languages or multiple languages are important for addressing customers in international markets. A catalog that describes and illustrates your offered assortment of products — in one or more foreign language versions — can boost sales in the respective market.

When producing catalogs in a foreign language version, also known as localization, many companies in the German-speaking region (DACH) begin with what is familiar, so they start with their German language catalog. Once the German catalog has been produced, these companies use it as a master catalog to create the foreign language version or versions.

However, the marketing and graphic department quickly recognizes that creating the localized catalog or catalogs can become very time consuming. Many companies transfer all text from the German catalog to a Microsoft Excel document using copy and paste. Next, a translation bureau, agency, or freelance translator translates all the German terms in the Excel table into the desired target foreign language. Then, all the translations are copied and pasted from the Excel table into the proper places in the InDesign file (catalog), replacing the German terms in the process.

This manual copy-and-paste process takes a long time, is inefficient, and is prone to error. In addition, the process must be repeated for each language edition of the catalog and each and every update to all the catalogs, regardless of language edition.

An InDesign extension from T+S can greatly help in producing catalogs in various languages, rapidly, simply, and free of errors.

Three steps to automated catalog production with an InDesign extension

Let’s say you start with a German catalog and wish make one in English just like it.

  1. Using the InDesign function “Conditional Text,” the InDesign extension marks all German text in the InDesign catalog (the master catalog) as “German” and saves all these German texts in a Microsoft Excel workbook in one long column. If a text is present in the catalog more than once (for example, the word “Price” or “Quantity”), the identical text is stored only once in the Excel worksheet.
  2. A translator translates all German terms in the Excel table into English. The English terms are stored in a second column in the Excel worksheet.
  3. The Excel worksheet containing both German and translated (English) terms is read by the InDesign extension. Press a button in InDesign, and the extension replaces the text marked in step 1 as “German” with the corresponding foreign language terms (in this case, the English ones) from the Excel table. The foreign language is marked as “Conditional Text” in the target language. Once all texts marked “German” have a corresponding foreign language equivalent, the catalog in the foreign language is complete.

The InDesign function “Conditional Text” makes it easy for the graphic designer to administer several language versions of in one InDesign document and to toggle back and forth between the versions using the mouse. (Click here to see our blog entry for an example of the use of “Conditional Text.”)

In the future, when the text in the master catalog is changed or new text is added, and there is not yet a foreign language translation in the Excel table for this modified or added text, the InDesign extension can be used to target exactly these modified and added texts and terms. That means that only the changed and added texts need to be translated; all other text already has corresponding translated texts in the Excel worksheet.

This saves on translation time and costs, as only changes and additions need to be translated, not entire catalogs.

Through the use of an InDesign extension from T+S to automatically pull text from catalogs, build up a glossary, and reuse translations, localization of catalogs becomes tremendously easier and faster than using manual routines. Especially when additional languages and future editions of catalogs are taken into consideration, automation using an extension saves valuable time and reduces errors. The extension finds missing translations automatically and can thus save on translation costs as well.

In summary, an InDesign extension from T+S can make producing foreign language catalogs a whole lot less expensive and time-consuming, enabling your company to address its customers and prospects in their preferred languages.

Would you like to learn more about catalog production or InDesign extensions?

Are you interested in discussing with T+S how to automate the production of your catalog?
Contact our expert, Michael Tschuschner, to get started today.
E-Mail: m.tschuschner@ts-gmbh.de

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Use the T+S InDesign Variable Data Printing (VDP) Plugin to Automate the Creation of Personalized Sales and Marketing Collateral

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Category: General

  • Connect data sets (CSV, PIM, DAM) to Adobe InDesign
  • Fill InDesign templates with the variable data elements to personalize documents automatically
  • Automatically personalize brochures, invitations, catalogs, and more

Manufacturers selling through large distributor networks may wish to provide their resellers and dealers highly personalized B2B sales collateral and digital assets. Customized materials help distributors drive sales of products and close deals.

Centrally produced promotional materials such as invitations to house fairs, brochures, vouchers, product announcements, flyers, and media kits that are personalized with the respective dealer addresses and logos work to strengthen the effect of marketing communication while staying on brand.

The marketing departments and agencies tasked with producing this collateral face the challenge of inserting fully personalized company-approved content elements, or variable data, into Adobe InDesign master pages (templates) that conform to brand and CI (corporate identity) guidelines.

When creating these marketing documents with Adobe InDesign, graphic designers may quickly reach the limits of the data merge functionality within InDesign. Therefore, the Adobe InDesign scripting experts at T+S developed an InDesign plugin for variable data printing (VDP) that takes into account the special needs of marketing automation.

The plugin allows graphic designers to create multi-page InDesign templates and to connect placeholder fields (text, images, QR codes) with an imported data source (CSV file, PIM, DAM). Before the sales and marketing documents are generated, the correctness of the defined settings is checked with selected data sets. The plugin automatically creates the personalized documents in separate subdirectories for each record of the data source. All documents created in a data set (PDF files, JPG files, InDesign document) can be zipped by the plugin into one file, the promotional kit. Then only one file needs to be sent to each distributor or made available for download.

If needed, the variable data printing plugin (InDesign extension) can be customized to special requirements. That can involve a direct connection to your ERP system to fully automatic production of sales and marketing documents using InDesign Server.

Would you like to support your dealer network with personalized marketing collateral that conforms to your corporate identity? Are you interested in variable data printing to automate your personalization projects?

Find out more about what InDesign scripting from T+S can do for you from our expert, Michael Tschuschner.

Contact T+S today!

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Discover how to automatically generate data sheets with Adobe InDesign Server

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Category: General

Making available downloadable technical data sheets in an online shop is a must for providing customers a wealth of information about a product. Adobe InDesign Server can be used to automatically generate these data sheets from a product information management (PIM) system or other data source. The result: high-quality PDF documents containing current data direct from a PIM system — in multiple languages and versions for different countries or regions — and created on demand.

InDesign scripting makes it possible to meet all requirements — from producing simple documents to implementing complex business rules to generate documents. Using InDesign templates guarantees that your company’s corporate identity (CI) guidelines are precisely met. InDesign script templates manage the sequence of static and dynamic sections of the data sheets.

The data format used to automatically create data sheets can be, for example, an XML file or a JSON file. An InDesign script created by T+S reads the content from the data source in order to create the data sheet according to the rules you define. For example, you decide where page breaks occur in data sheets containing text that runs over more than one page. It is even possible to program the script such that at defined positions, the script adds explanatory texts or legends to illustrations according to defined rules. Text accompanying or overlaying an image thus becomes dynamic; document text in or near images can be updated based on the data source instead of being embedded permanently or statically in the image itself. An InDesign script from T+S makes it possible.

If necessary, InDesign documents created by Adobe InDesign Server can be opened in Adobe InDesign Desktop and manually touched up. The automatic generation of data sheets can therefore be seamlessly integrated into your company’s complete workflow for generating and releasing data sheets.

Good to know: Data sheets can also be created without Adobe InDesign Server using the desktop version of Adobe InDesign and an InDesign extension from T+S. Read more about how to create documents automatically using the desktop version of Adobe InDesign.

T+S can help your firm generate high-quality data sheets with Adobe InDesign Server.

Get information from our expert Michael Tschuschner about what InDesign scripting from T+S can do for you.

Reach out to T+S now!

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Update Prices – 100% Automatically!

General / /

Category: General

  • Save time and money in the long run using InDesign scripts from T+S
  • React swiftly and flexibly to price adjustments and last-minute changes

Surely you know this situation: The new manually created catalog is ready, just add a few last-minute changes, and then the catalog is ready to be published. Finished once again! And next time? Then you probably have to copy and paste every single price – article number after article number – from a Microsoft Excel table into the Adobe InDesign document. When thousands of prices have to be updated, this activity takes a very long time and in addition, errors tend to creep in.

Do you subject your customers to ancient price catalogs and lengthy price lists just because manually updating prices in catalogs and on lists takes way too much time and effort?

The solution is InDesign scripting.

InDesign scripts from T+S for updating prices first analyze the manually created price catalogs by detecting the article numbers and corresponding prices. Then the scripts look in the available Excel files for the article numbers found, select the prices, and replace the old prices in the InDesign document with new prices.

Each manually created price catalog is a little different from the next. Sometimes article numbers are separated from prices through a tab in a paragraph structure. In other catalogs, article numbers and prices are arranged in a table. In a cross-classified table, the price results from a combination of entries in the table header and the table cell. Custom-built InDesign scripts from T+S take these differences into account. The experts at T+S create an optimum solution in each case.

T+S also offers solutions for cases in which the article number does not even appear in the InDesign document. With a special InDesign plug-in, you tag the relevant prices invisibly with article numbers. The effort taken to do this once definitely pays off during the next round of price updates.

Custom InDesign scripts from T+S update prices in minutes instead of days or even weeks. All replaced prices receive a special mark in the InDesign document so that you can see (visually recognize) which prices have been updated. If a price is not marked during an updating run, it means that the article number in the document was not found in the Excel file. That could be because the article number is incorrect, or because the correct article number is not contained in the Excel table. The visual check gives you the certainty of knowing that all prices have been updated. Some of our customers have found errors in their price catalog this way – errors that had gone unnoticed for years.

With InDesign scripts specially adapted to your needs, you can react swiftly and flexibly to price adjustments and last-minute price changes. At the push of a button – within a few minutes – the current prices are applied, error-free, every time. 100% automatically. 

Please have a look at our new video about how to update prices in InDesign catalogs quickly with InDesign scripting. Also have a look at a more comprehensive view of updating prices with InDesign.

Update prices faster. Talk to T+S about it now.

Update prices using a custom InDesign script from T+S. Discuss your needs with our expert, Michael Tschuschner.

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Two Great Ways to Use Conditional Text to Create Different Versions of an Adobe InDesign Document Without Creating More Files

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Use One Layout but Hide or Reveal the Display of Prices in Different Currencies or Text in Multiple Languages

We at T+S apply the “conditional text” function in conjunction with InDesign scripting to manage various versions of a single document more easily. What is conditional text, and how can it be applied to simplify working with documents containing multiple prices or languages? In this blog post, we explain what conditional text does and give two examples of how using conditional text can simplify working with multiple versions of one layout.

Conditional text is a standard function in Adobe InDesign. It can be found in the Window menu > Type & Tables > Conditional Text. By using conditional text, a graphic designer can assign specific text to a category (condition) defined and given a name by the designer. For instance, in a price list, a given price (which appears as text in a document) can be categorized as “Euro price” or “American dollar price.” Once the relevant text is marked and assigned to the proper category, the text can be displayed or hidden by clicking to apply the condition. InDesign automatically hides the non-relevant text when the condition is applied.

Applying conditional text allows a designer to better manage changes to text in a single document, greatly simplifying workflows in the process. The alternative would be to create separate individual documents; say, one price list document containing only prices in Euros and another, separate price list containing only prices in American dollars. The advantage of using only one price list with conditional text is that when it comes time to update all prices, in the document with conditional text, there is only one document to manage. Changes are made only to one document. There is no need to save, locate, or update a second document.

When price lists come in not just two versions, but ten or more, updating prices is immensely simplified and faster when conditional text is used.

Our second example concerns a catalog to be produced in five languages. One document containing text in all five languages is created and managed. All English-language text in the catalog is assigned to the category (condition) “English,” the Spanish text is assigned to the category “Spanish,” the French text is assigned to “French,” and so on for the other two languages. When the Spanish-language catalog is to be output to a PDF file, the condition “Spanish” is applied. Immediately, the text of the other four languages is hidden and only the text marked “Spanish” can be seen. The Spanish catalog is then generated. The four remaining catalogs can be generated similarly by applying the respective condition in turn. Thus, one document is managed, but five versions of the catalog can be outputted.

Conditions can even be defined and then combined in sets. It is thus possible to create various versions of a catalog that match multiple conditions; for example, “price is in British pounds and language is GB-English,” “price is in American dollars and language is US-English,” and “price is in Euros and language is GB-English.”

In summary, using conditional text improves productivity by eliminating time spend updating multiple versions of a document when managing one would be simpler. It also obviates the need for dealing with layers.

Get in touch about InDesign scripting now

Discover a world of document production possibilities with InDesign scripting from T+S. Discuss your needs with our expert, Michael Tschuschner.

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Data Sources for InDesign Scripting Workflows

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Category: General

We at T+S are often asked by our customers which data sources can be attached to InDesign scripting extensions or plugins.

One can distinguish between online data sources and offline data sources. An online data source is a live access of a database or product information management (PIM) database. On the other hand, an offline data source is always a file created by a data system and processed within InDesign at a later time. Both online and offline data sources have advantages and disadvantages that depend on how they are used.

InDesign extensions (also called plugins) can work with the following offline data sources:

  • Excel files
  • CSV files
  • XML files
  • JSON files

Offline data sources that InDesign can work with include:

  • Web service (REST or SOAP)
  • ODBC data access
  • Native database drivers

Excel files

Excel files can be read directly by an InDesign plugin. We at T+S do not recommend this approach, however, because Excel files can contain quite a few “pitfalls” such as faded out columns, formatted cells, or applied filter conditions. These modifications have to be taken into account during an import, making the development of the import routine time-consuming before one even comes to the actual task at hand — automation.

It is more elegant to insert the content of an Excel file using the clipboard with copy and paste in a text field within a plugin developed by T+S. The method of using the clipboard removes all formatting, making the import routine quick and manageable. This approach always yields a text file separated by tabs.

CSV files

CSV files are flat text files that in the first row contain a header definition of the data fields and starting in the second row contain the actual data. Data fields of a data set are normally separated by a comma, semicolon, or tab. When the field separator character also can be found within the relevant data to be used, the affected fields have to be escaped by quotation marks (quotes).

XML files

XML files are an elegant and efficient way of obtaining data with multiple-level hierarchies (1:n relationships) from a source. Using an InDesign plugin to work with XML files that are several hundred megabytes large can be done easily. However, some time may be needed between generating the XML files and reading them in.

JSON files (JavaScript Object Notation)

JSON files are used primarily to exchange data with web services. They are, just like XML files, an elegant and efficient way to transfer structured hierarchical data from a database system to a plugin.

Web service (REST or SOAP)

A web service is a service that makes available data through the http or https protocols. This service normally receives its data from a database or a product information management (PIM) system.

The advantage of having an InDesign plugin receive its data from a web service is the currency of the data, because the access takes place online. In the case of CSV, XML, or JSON files, there is always a bit of a span of time between when the files are created and when the files are read into the plugin.

ODBC database driver

Connecting InDesign Plugins to a database using ODBC is only possible with third party plugins. So we do not recommend this possibility.

Native database driver

For Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL, we have successfully used JavaScript libraries to directly access databases. The advantage is the same as with a web service in that the data is current because the access takes place online.

However, every time the database is updated, there is the question beforehand of whether afterwards the plugin will access the data tables successfully. It is therefore necessary to very carefully evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this method.

Get in touch about InDesign scripting now

Discover a world of document production possibilities with InDesign scripting from T+S. Discuss your needs with our expert, Michael Tschuschner.

Your message to T+S

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