Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Database Publishing (or Data Publishing) is all about turning unformatted data, such as spreadsheet or database data, into a human-friendly format. Typical uses include catalogs, price lists, directories, and classified ads. CatBase is the most flexible database publishing solution available!

CatBase is a data publishing solution that simplifies, speeds up, and automates the task of transforming database or spreadsheet data into beautiful publications such as catalogues, price lists, and directories.

You can see lots of examples of different publications created with CatBase here.

See a short demonstration here!

Yes indeed!

For the single-user version, just choose the appropriate platfomr when you place your order.

For the multi-user (network) version, the server can be either Mac or Windows, and the clients can be any combination of Mac and windows machines.

You can find more specific platform details - and download a free Trial version here.

Yes it does! This is how it works:

1. When you publish your data from CatBase, this creates a tagged text file (a plain text file with special tags inserted to tell InDesign what to do with the text).

2. That text file is then placed into your InDesign document.

3. The content is organised and formatted as required, including the (optional) placement of pictures.

For a bit more details on this topic see this page.

Absolutely!

CatBase will do its best to match the columns in the spreadsheet with fields in the CatBase database. When you import a spreadsheet for the first time, you can select fields to match columns, or create new fields in CatBase, if a match isn't automatically found.

For more info, see this page.

CatBase Publishing Stylesheets provide a customizable framework that allows you to define and manage the content, formatting, and design of your publications with ease.

You can create any number of Publishing Stylesheets so that your data can be published in many different ways: as an illustrated catalogue, a price list, a directory, product labels ... just about any style of publication you can think of!

Moreover, CatBase integrates seamlessly with a variety of software tools commonly used in publishing, such as Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word, and PDF.

Prices start at £595 for the single-user version.

All prices are shown on our Shop page. If you have any questions about our pricing, please contact us!

xTags is a plugin for QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign which enables the automatic creation and filling of picture and text boxes in your publication.

xTags is published by Em Software. You can download a trial version from their website.

The Data Chameleon Edition provides options for interacting directly with other ODBC-compliant databases, such as MySql and MicrosoftSql. This enables you to both upload and download data to/from other databases. See more detailed info here.

The Enterprise Edition offers all functions except the ODBC connection option.