February 14, 2008

Help I'm a Small Organization that wants a Workflow Management System but can't afford one!

The title says it all! Many smaller groups and organizations that publish small magazines, newsletters, or journals are stuck with a cumbersome workflow process using MS Word together with InDesign or QuarkXPress. These organizations would love to get the benefits of an editorial workflow management system like K4, but they simply can't afford this level of a solution.

Have no fear, there are answers to your prayers. There are a lot of interesting options for smaller organizations to get into the workflow game. Many organizations can benefit from the smaller workgroup versions of their bigger brothers and sisters. K2 for example is a version of K4 meant for smaller groups with less users, and fewer metadata needs. Additionally many people don't realize that Adobe's own LiveEdit workflow management system is free with the purchase of a few InCopy licenses. The Adobe LiveEdit workflow uses InCopy and can be combined with Adobe Version Cue and Adobe Bridge to help manage files and keep track of workflow.

In all cases these workflow management systems offer the benefits of dividing the content from the layout and allows for simultaneous editing and design by two or more people. This allows for the person working on copy to know how much more they can write to fit in the layout. This collaborative workflow also allows the designer to keep control of the styles and the integrity of the layout without having to worry about a writer knowing how to use InDesign or potentially making an inadvertent mistake in the design. Using a system that includes InCopy ensures that designers won't need to waste time re-flowing text and re-styling, and with InCopy new doors are opened around exporting content to XML.

Posted at 06:03 pm by Ivan Mironchuk

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