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A little bit more - suggestion for a better user experience

zmags

If you are familiar with Zmags, then keep on reading. Zmags Publicator is where ICM takes place. The core of Zmags Publicator is the PDF conversion engine that allows you to convert a static PDF file to a live page-turning publication. Once created, Zmags Publicator gives you more than 75 features ranging from different ways to customize or add rich media, managing and archiving your collateral and analyzing the readership as results get in.

From users' perspective

Having used Zmags ICM solution about a year for various projects we noticed one thing. It's easy to make a digital publication in Publicator but rather troublesome to insert links to various locations later. Especially when you are a reseller and happen to manage bigger client portfolio.

Inconveniences start when updating already published catalogs. Sometimes it was easier to replace whole publication instead of replacing single pages. If you happen to manage couple of product catalogs then you know a quality product catalogs share. Prices tend to change. Sometimes they even change several times in two months.

Well, it made us thinking..

Active Slot

What would happen if web page and publication are not directly connected? Rather than having unique Publication ID to distinguish between publications, there could be one additional layer between single publication and a web page. 

For example, instead of inserting publication ID-s into code, one could connect "active slot" with his web page. Once it is done you could edit and replace publications inside Publicator - whatever their ID-s are.

Why? It seems easier to move new created publication into "active slot" once you are in Publicator anyway. Digging into the code in your homepage would be only needed for additional publications. It would save time for resellers and might be less daunting for average user.

Another advantage is, that slot ID would remain the same meaning that all blogs and other pages linking into your publication would automatically stay updated even when you change your publication inside Publicator.

Cheers and keep up the good work, Zmags!

 

Comments (1)

Jan 20, 2010
Joakim Ditlev said...
Hello CannedApps,

Thanks for taking your time to evaluate our tools. Feedback from valued customers is what drives improvements of our solution.

It is on our list to make major improvements to the part of the program, where you insert links. I can't give you further details, but I agree that it could - and should - be simpler to add links and other enrichments.

The idea about the active slot it pretty good actually. In our most recent newsletter we informed about a somehow similar option that simply allows you to redirect traffic from obsolete publications to the newest one. It's another workaround, but I guess that would solve your problem here as well. Read more about the option here: http://www.zmags.com/newsletter/pros_newsletter_jan10.html

Don't forget that you can share your thoughts and ideas with other Zmags users on our community. The Ideas section, for example is an important guidance for our product development team when planning the roadmap.

Thanks,
Joakim Ditlev
Zmags

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