Publishing a Membership Directory

CatBase Directory Publisher makes it easy for you to publish a membership directory for your club or association. You can enter the data directly into CatBase's database or you can import the data from just about any other source.

Take a look at our Member Directory demonstration movie to see how easy the publishing process is!

An example of a Membership Directory that was made with CatBase and Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress:

In this example, out membership directory is sorted by Category, with all the members in each category listed alphabetically. Each member can be in any number of categories. Additionally, members can choose to go with the basic, free listing or they can pay for various upgraded listings.

Feature	Description
	Category Headings: Categories can be orgianised in a three-level hierarchy; in this example, Electrical is the top level and Houses is a sub-category. We've sorted the Members alphabetically under their subcategories. Each Member can be in any number of categories.
	Basic entry : In our Directory, each member gets a free, basic listing: their essential details set in a plain font..
	Bold entry: Our members can upgrade to a Bold listing. they get their name set in bold and their contacts are listed as well.
	Logo entry: In this listing upgrade, members' logos are included. They are set in an anchored picture box so that if the surrounding text moves, the logo will always be int he same relative position to the member's details.
	Semi-Display ad entry: These text ads are created "on the fly" when the details are published. You enter the text into a text area in the member's record, and CatBase creates a text box and places the text inside it. You choose a basic stylesheet for the text and you can apply character styles to selections of text - such as bold, italic, etc.
	Display ad entry: With this upgrade option, the member gets a display ad. The display ads are set in unanchored boxes so that they can be freely moved around the page and positioned wherever you want.

Membership Directory example two: Members' details sorted by County

In this example, the members are sorted first by their county and then alphbetically by name under each county. A heading is automatically created for each county.

Feature	Description
	County Headings: Members are sorted first by their County, and the county name is set just once as a heading for each group. This is managed in CatBase by selecting the Unique Group Entry option for the County paragraph in the Publishing Style Sheet
	Hyperlinks: We've told CatBase to create hyperlinks on the Email and Webste addresses. If you convert the publication into a PDF document, they will become live hyperlinks. Note: This option is not available for QuarkXPress.
	Mixed formatting : A stylesheet has been specified for the paragraph, but a different character style (bold) has been selected for the "T:". You can choose different character styles for any elements in a paragraph.
	No blank lines: If a member doesn't have, for example, a website address, you don't end up with a blank line or – even worse – a line with a lonely "W:" on it. You smply tell CatBase to omit the line completely if the Website field is blank.

Database Features and Options

Feature	Description
	County headings :In order to publish each county as a heading, we selected the Unique Group Entry option for that Element. Elements are the building blocks of Paragraphs. Find out more in the Publishing Style Sheets Tutorial. In order for this to work correctly, the data has to be sorted first on the county field.
	Table and Field Setup: you can: Rename the tables Add new fields Delete fields you don't need Modify the settings for fields
	Form Design Wizard: Design your own data entry forms Add/delete/move/resize fields Add/modify/delete tabbed "pages"
	Emails: Send emails to your Contacts. You can: Merge data from the database Include attachments Automatically create a Memo each time an email is send, optionally with a followup reminder date
	Letters: Send letters to your contacts - a full-featured word processor is included. Merge data from your database.

Save Time Making your Membership Directory!

Tell CatBase what data you want to publish and how you want it formatted.
Transfer the data to your chosen publishing destination (page layout program such as Quark XPress or Adobe InDesign, web pages, etc.)
Everything is automatically formatted in the correct fonts, sizes, styles etc.
No more tedious hours spent choosing styles for your publication - eliminates the human error factor
Pictures, such as display ads, company logos, etc. can be automatically placed and sized
Lots of conditional formatting options

Data Sources

You can enter your members' details directly into CatBase Directory Publisher's database, or you can import the data from another source such as a MySql or SqlServer database (Data Chameleon Ediiton); a spreadsheet; delimited text file, etc. For more information, see the Importing Data Tutorial.

Lots of ways to publish your Membership Directory

In addition to publishing your Directory with a page layout program such as QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign, you can also publish it to:

An ODBC-compliant application such as MySql or Microsoft SqlServer (Data Chameleon Edition)
XML
Delimited text files

Options