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The BrandAssistant Workflow
The documents produced by your group
likely start out at a layout artist’s workstation and
end up at a print house or on a website. BrandAssistant helps
you move files through pipelines like these, making stops
long the way for as many approvals and edits as needed.
Production
Page designers work in QuarkXPress
7. A single menu connects them to the cataloged files available
to them based on their permissions. They can quickly find
the files they need either by browsing the catalog, entering
search terms into a search field or selecting pre-configured
queries from a menu.
Once you're inside QuarkXPress,
you're only a few steps away from your cataloged file collection:
Choose the Connect menu option (1), enter your login information
(2), and your file palette apears, all ready to go (3). To
make it even easier, select the "Auto Logon" check
box (2) and you'll be automatically connected to your Cumulus
Server each time you launch QuarkXPress.
Placing files into the layout is as
easy as drag and drop. Any file format supported by QuarkXPress
7 can be used, including text, composition zones in addition
to images.
Get your files from the BrandAssistant
palette right into your QuarkXPress layout with an easy drag
and drop.
Once the layout is complete, the designer returns to the Cumulus
menu to catalog it. Any assets created for the layout are
automatically cataloged, helping ensure your catalogs accurately
reflect your projects, and that no file gets lost in the hectic
pace of production.
Cataloging new layouts using
BrandAssistant is easy: Select a menu option (1), choose whether
you want BrandAssistant to create (and link) a PDF file of
the layout (Acrobat not required), and choose an Asset Handling
Set, which is a preset of cataloging options. You might only
ever use one, but you can have as many as needed.
Approvals
Using the Cumulus Client software available
for both Mac and Windows, art directors can access, preview
and edit the metadata of any of the files used in a project.
(The Client software is also where configuration options such
as predefined search queries and user access permissions are
defined.)
Search queries defined in the
Cumulus Native Client can also be used from the BrandAssistant
Web Access Client. This makes it easy for you to define simple
menu options your clients can use to quickly find the files
they need. The Web Access Client also supports the "split
view" mode, which enables users to find assets based
on their relationships. Here, a PDF variant of the layout
is found by clicking on the layout file in the top pane.
Once approved, the art director can
email to the client a Web link that’s generated automatically
by Cumulus. Using any standard Web browser, the client can
then click the emailed link to access the review file for
download.
If the file needs further edits, the
art director can easily redirect it back into the queue of
the designer. Once a project has been approved for delivery to the print
house or a website, Cumulus makes it easy to move the project
and all referenced assets exactly where you need them to go.
BrandAssistant helps you build a brand-management
workflow you and your clients
can count on, project after project—at a fraction of
the cost you might expect.
BrandAssistant is based on the
Canto Cumulus
Core Digital Asset Management Engine, for unsurpassed performance,
flexibility and reliability.
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