Newsletter December 2005, Issue 3. Mapsoft Computer Services Ltd

December 2005

Issue 3

Welcome to the third edition of our Mapsoft Newsletter and Season's Greetings to all our readers. We wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Our main feature this month is particularly topical for this time of year. It looks at how Hallmark, the UK's leading greetings card publisher, are using bespoke Mapsoft software to streamline the annual production of 2.2 billion cards.

Also, in this issue it's the turn of our Mapsoft ThumbNails PDF plug-in to feature in our Spotlight Series. This plug-in is a powerful publishing aide providing an easy way of improving the accessibility of marketing collateral.

Unleash the power of PDF with Mapsoft.

Please contact us if you have any comments on any of the articles in this Newsletter, or ideas for topics you'd like us to cover in future issues. Have your say. We'd love to hear from you!

Did you know ....

...that Mapsoft licenses Adobe's own core technology to make sure you get the best PDF output possible when using Mapsoft software?

By doing this, Mapsoft helps to ensure the reliability and glitch-free use of all its plug-in products and customised software solutions.

Spotlight on ....
Mapsoft ThumbNails

The Mapsoft ThumbNails tool is a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat and is particularly useful in desktop publishing or web design. It can be used to improve navigation around a web site and create customised web links to important data such as company details or product information.

The ThumbNails tool allows you to embed thumbnails of PDF thumbnails into a PDF document. A thumbnail is a miniature view of each page within a document.

Thumbnails provide a preview of each page to give you easy access to relevant sections and information contained, for example, in annual reports or product directories.

In addition, ThumbNails also allows you to export these thumbnails as separate image files which can then be used for desktop publishing or web design, to produce distinctive, visible web links to company brochures or specific product information. External image files can be easily customised to complement existing marketing material and can be created either with or without borders.

ThumbNails is a powerful publishing aide but is also a simple way of renewing company documentation and updating existing marketing collateral with functionality to make those documents more accessible.

See our movie demo of ThumbNails, or download a free, no obligation tryout today.

Hallmark:
Mapsoft's Automated Card Solution Keeps Hallmark as the King of Cards

Customised software solution from specialists Mapsoft results in a more streamlined and efficient production process for Hallmark, the UK's leading greetings card publisher, saving time, money and resources.

Mapsoft's Card Create solution has allowed Hallmark to automate their card design process and streamline the annual production of 2.2 BILLION cards.

Card Create is a PDF, server-based solution which has replaced Hallmark's previous paper-based system allowing Hallmark to automate the process of composing individual design layouts for around 8,000 card templates.

"Mapsoft had the experience and expertise to create a solution tailor-made to meet our specific business needs"said Vanessa Redshaw, Digital Technology Manager at Hallmark. She added: "Mapsoft's solution has now become a standard, and indeed essential, element of Hallmark's card production process".

The solution has been successfully deployed at Hallmark's Hambledon Studios, the division responsible for producing cards for wholesale. An end-to-end server solution, Card Create has streamlined design and production, eliminated unnecessary administration and reduced the room for error. Vanessa Redshaw at Hallmark says that Hallmark is hoping to extend Mapsoft's solution to other business divisions within Hallmark "to further streamline and automate the production process, increase efficiency and equip Hallmark for the future".

Click here to read fuller details on this project.

Contact Mapsoft if you would like to discuss the possibility of us developing bespoke software to meet your needs, or fill in our Enquiry Form. You'll be given free and friendly advice, with no obligation to proceed.

Our Approach to Customised Development

If you have a problem that needs a software solution, you can rely on Mapsoft to deliver the solution you need, when you need it, to a very high quality. We adopt the following approach to all our customised projects to ensure you get the best possible results:

	Assess Requirements We start by assessing your requirements. We do this by asking you questions about the specific problem you’d like us to solve and by finding out about your business in general. Only when we really understand your business can we help you achieve your goals.
	Define Project Once we have gathered your requirements, we put together a detailed Proposal outlining the solution we will provide. This will include a fixed price and a schedule for the project. Depending on the complexity of the project we may need to work with you to produce a detailed functional specification as part of this stage. We need you to agree our Proposal before we start the development of your solution.
	Design & Develop Solution We will develop your solution using industry-standard stages of development, namely, Design, Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate and Gold Master. We will keep you up to date with progress at regular stages throughout the development, and will incorporate your feedback into the solution.
	Test & Deliver Solution We always perform extensive technical testing to ensure that your solution conforms to the agreed specification but of course you will perform the final acceptance tests to ensure that the solution conforms to your expectations.
	Support All our solutions come with one year’s free support. This covers fixes for any software failures or any instances where it can be demonstrated that the solution does not perform as was originally agreed. Maintenance can be purchased for an additional sum if this is required.

Hints & Tips

These top tips should help you when using Mapsoft plug-ins:

Mapsoft Impress Version 2.0.1 supports foreign language characters in Acrobat base fonts, Times, Helvetica, Courier etc. This functionality was not supported in Impress Version 2.0.

A free upgrade to Impress V2.0.1 is available from Impress V2.0 Contact Mapsoft if you are using Impress V2.0 and would like to upgrade. It's free to do so!
When using Impress Pro for stamping page numbers across multiple documents the first page of each document will be re-set to page-number '1' (when Start Page Number is set to its default of ‘1’). For example, if stamping page numbers onto three documents, the first having 250 pages, the second 22 pages and the third 58 pages the pages in the 250 page document will be numbered 1 to 250, those in the 22 page document will be numbered 1 to 22 while those in the 58 page document will be numbered 1 to 58.

However, it is possible to stamp multiple documents with one unbroken page numbering sequence by using the Serial Number field. In this example, the 250 page document would still be numbered 1 to 250 (as it is the first document to be stamped) but the 22 page document (the second document) would be stamped with the page numbers 251 to 272, while the 58 page document would be stamped 273 to 330 to give an unbroken numbering sequence across the three different documents.

Address: Mapsoft Computer Services Ltd, 5 Victoria Place, The Promenade, Kingsbridge, Devon TQ7 1JG United Kingdom
Copyright © Mapsoft Computer Services Limited 2005 . All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are acknowledged.