Module to automate the production of printed documents in standard design and layout software (QuarkXPress, InDesign, FrameMaker). Many output formats are produced (native DTP format, PDF for printing or for availability online). Real time generation of product catalogues, manuals or pricelists in several languages as Western European, Central EU, Russian, Greek, Chinese and many others.
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xCS.press is a database publishing solution that can be used in combination with an existing database, in most cases this is your existing ERP or CMS system.
This module is of course optimised for use in combination with xCS.content.
xCS.press can be used for the automatic production of many types of publications:
- catalogs and pricelists that must be produced regularly
- technical documentation and user manuals
- financial publications in combination with financial management tools such as:
- Multifonds
- Invest1
- Cosifin
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The complete layout of your publication can be generated automatically. In other words pictures, texts, and tables are automatically placed on the basis of existing templates and style definitions. In addition different templates can automatically be assigned to pages.
Multiple layouts can be defined in order to support the generation of a variety of publications. The selected data can then be transformed towards the DTP package by xCS.press.
Different versions are available depending on the environment, infrastructure and functionality required. The range begins with a single user environment and continues through to an enterprise database publishing server environment. |
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 To the left you see an example of a typical structured catalog page. Here the page is built up based on the data that is selected. In this case the data is the driving force behind the automatic placing of tables and images.
We often call this type of publication 'Content driven'.
This type of catalog is mostly found amongst wholesalers where it is essential to be able to publish up to date information quickly and accurately. The layout needs to be perfect in this case as no manual fine tuning should be carried out afterwards. The technique we use to achieve this is often referred to as 'Push technology'. |
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 This type of catalogue is virtually impossible to automate because each page is different and no obvious structure can be found within the catalog. Therefore automating the generation process has no point.
We often call this sort of publication 'Layout driven'. The generation of these reauire a completely different approach as layout is the leading factor. The technique used can be categorised as als 'Pull'. There is still a potential for saving since the data such as pictures, texts and prices can be collected and grouped more quickly and accurately. This process can be further optimised by for instance running price updated on the made up pages, even after they have been manually adjusted. |
Some important functions are described below.
Barcodes
xCS.press supports various barcode-systems, but one of the more popular is the EAN1Bar3 system: Barcodes are entered in the xCS.press database as a either a 12 or 13-digit number, and are translated to the layout package as an EAN13 barcode.
Chapter TOC’s and Indexes
The Chapter TOC’s and Indexes module: the easiest way to get individual TOC’s and Indexes per chapter. Typically, a catalogue consists of a number of chapters. All these chapters can be grouped together in one document, but it’s also possible to split them up into separate documents If a publication consists of separate documents, they are normally placed in a book file (depending on the DTP software used), which regulates the page numbering, paragraph numbering and the pagination of all documents in the publication.
Cross Reference
Cross References are used in FrameMaker and InDesign to refer to a specific location in the publication (that location may even be in another document). (For example: “See also the extended description of this part on page 4.87”).
When that location changes, the cross reference is updated so that the reference is always up to date. |
