Database publishing simplified!
CatBase makes it easy to produce your publication using InDesign. It does all the hard, boring work for you! The process, in a nutshell, goes like this:
- Get your data into the CatBase database. You can either enter it manually, import a delimited text file, or (Data Chameleon Edition) extract it from a MySql or ODBC-compliant database or spreadsheet (such as Microsoft SqlServer, MySQL, Access, etc.)
- Set up Publishing Style Sheets in the CatBase database. These tell CatBase what data you want to publish and how you want it sorted and formatted. You can have any number of Publishing Style Sheets, so you can publish your data in lots of different ways (and to various publishing destinations).
- Define a Set of records (for example, all records in the table; all people in Arizona; all products in a certain category; or all new products, etc.).
- Define a Publishing Project, which describes which Set of data to publish, which Publishing Style Sheet to format it with, and where to save the resulting file.
- Click on the Publish Data button on the main window to publish the data.
- Import the resulting file into your InDesign template. All the text is - magically - formatted exactly as you want it to be, with pictures included if appropriate!