Prepress
The fast track to an online future – WoodWings Content Station at IFRA Expo 2008
Wednesday 22. October 2008 - What would publishing be like if editors and publishers didnt have to worry about technology, and could focus entirely on effectively creating compelling stories and publishing these to any publication channel? It would be like working with WoodWing Softwares industry-changing Content Station, a revolutionary client application that will be introduced at this months IFRA Expo in Amsterdam.
WoodWing is debuting version 6 of its Enterprise publishing platform, which ships with the new Content Station client application. Erik Schut, President of WoodWing Software, said that Enterprise 6 and Content Station are changing the rules for publishers around the globe.
“In essence, what this does is provide a combined, integrated environment for the creation of print and online content, in a way thats never been done before,” Schut said. “In the past, most publishers would produce the print stories and photos first, and then push that content to the Web. Those days are gone. Now theres one combined environment for the entire operation. Once the content is created, it can be published to any channel at any time. This really gives every publisher a fast track to an online future.”
A new breed of application, Content Station is built with Adobes AIR technology, which is devoted to managing content from conception through distribution in both print and online channels. Before the content is distributed, the user can easily request a preview for each of the channels, improving oversight and management. With Content Station, users can:
Greatly improve their “pre-planning” of stories. Content Station allows users to quickly create and assign tasks to users, providing for greater control during the early phases of story planning. From the moment a story idea is conceived, tasks can be immediately assigned to the right people. “The right hand will always know what the left hand is doing,” Schut said. “It allows you to get a jump on planning, and provides for total oversight of every story thats assigned.”
Easily gather and organize content into folder-like objects called Dossiers. This greatly improves efficiency and workflow, allowing all the related items from one story (text, images, video, audio) to stay together. Dossiers can also contain information coming back from a Web CMS, including the page views or rating of a story after its publication.
Upload Microsoft Word files, audio, video or images from any mobile device or from the desktop directly into Content Station. In addition, the user can access any content source that is connected to the Enterprise publishing platform, like wire feeds, a DAM system or an archive. All content is available through one user interface.
Participate in discussions about content with the new LiveBlog feature, available in each Dossier.
Assign content to multiple output channels simultaneously, including print, Web and SMS, simply by selecting corresponding check-boxes. “This is what we mean by not having to worry about the technology,” Schut said. “You decide where the information should be published, and the technology takes care of the rest.”
Publish to any Web CMS system directly from the application. An out-of-the-box integration with the popular open-source Drupal system is included. Unlike other systems, Enterprise 6 offers integration with any Web CMS.
The release of version 6 is the largest Enterprise update in WoodWings history. The internal architecture has been changed to provide for all Content Station functionality. Many new features have been added too, as users now can:
Take advantage of parallel page design. Thanks to the new Layout Module, multiple designers can work on pages simultaneously. “The efficiency that this provides will be an enormous benefit,” Schut said. “Its going to greatly cut down on the amount of time it takes to produce a page, which will translate into important cost savings.”
Use Smart Jump to link articles between two separate InDesign documents, with the automatic placement of continued to/from elements. This will reduce work considerably.
Take advantage of a host of other benefits, including Smart Image for automatic caption and credit frames; the freedom and flexibility to place articles multiple times across documents, making multi-edition documents easier to construct and manage; storing Libraries in the database; publishing meta data as text variables; taking advantage of the InDesign Book support; and much more.
“Obviously, were enthusiastic about everything that Enterprise 6 and Content Station have to offer publishers across the spectrum,” Schut said. “We invite everyone to stop by our booth at IFRA Expo to see this in person. And were even more enthusiastic about what this will lead to in the future. Enterprise 6 forms the basis for a host of new possibilities and solutions. This truly is what the future of publishing is going to look like, and its available now.”