InDesign plug-in in use at COLTENE

Initial situation

The use of the InDesign plug-in was initiated in order to better meet regulatory requirements. Especially for important content such as USPs or central product statements, it is necessary to clearly prove the origin of the content. The plug-in makes it possible to seamlessly trace where this information comes from and how it was integrated - a decisive advantage for compliance with all relevant regulations.

Procedure

COLTENE produces the segment catalogs using the crossbase.print print print publishing module. The company uses the InDesign plug-in from crossbase to create manually typeset publications such as flyers or brochures. This supports the placement of text and image links directly from the crossbase.text PIM system, ensuring consistent and efficient publication creation.

Clear labels can be stored when placing content in the InDesign document. These labels enable clear identification of references and easy tracing back to the source element in the crossbase database. This creates comprehensive transparency and audits can be carried out easily. In addition, the embedding of InDesign snippets, such as product tables from existing catalogs, is also possible and can be used effectively.

Once the plug-in has been installed, all content such as images, texts and InDesign snippets from the crossbase.text database can be accessed via a new palette that is connected to the central API server. These can be inserted into the current document at the click of a mouse. The search for elements is carried out via the designations of the media elements and in the text content.

Text formatting from the database can also be adopted if required, provided that the corresponding paragraph and character styles have been created in the InDesign document beforehand. Placed content such as text and images can be subsequently updated with a single click so that even manually created documents always match the current information from the PIM system.

Translations can also be added retrospectively. Texts and images in the desired foreign languages are automatically inserted on the corresponding language layers, congruent with the source language. For flexible editing, image data can also be downloaded to a local directory in low resolution if access to the PIM database is temporarily unavailable.

Result

By using the InDesign plug-in, COLTENE was able to achieve a significant increase in efficiency and better traceability in document creation. Regulatory-relevant content is now traceable at all times, making it easier to comply with legal requirements. In addition, the teams benefit from fast and consistent maintenance and updating of product information, even for multilingual documents.