Since the announcement of the Digital Publishing Alliance between WoodWing and Adobe in October last year, WoodWing engineers have been working closely together with the DPS development team at Adobe to create the best possible digital publishing solution.

Some days ago, Adobe released Sprint 18 of its DPS solution, while WoodWing made available version 7.5.1 of its multi-channel publishing system Enterprise. This marked another significant step forward on the path to sync the features of WoodWing´s Digital Publishing Tools and the Adobe Content Viewer. This latest release now enables WoodWing customers to create new editions of their digital publications that contain almost all the exciting features previously offered by WoodWing´s own readers.

Particularly noteworthy are the options for nested interactivity Adobe´s Content Viewer is now able to display. Designers can combine hotspots with web, audio and video elements as well as slideshows, dossier links, and even widgets. Widgets are HTML5 objects enabling an even higher degree of interactivity; they can be easily integrated in the page layouts of tablet publications. In addition, hotspots can be created in scrollable areas and, vice versa, scrollable areas can be defined in hotspots. Even hotspots on hotspots are possible.

All these features are essential to create an exciting reading experience and to easily structure even comprehensive content in a clear and reader-friendly manner.

Victor Cardoso leads international technology demonstrations and educational sessions for WoodWing Software, promoting the company’s innovative approach to cross-media publishing. He has a broad experience bringing together the needs of individuals and the goals of organizations when implementing automated workflow methods for the new media world.

Protect your Adobe® Creative Suite® investment and save 20%* on your upgrade from CS2, CS3, or CS4. Just don’t wait too long. With future versions of Adobe Creative Suite software you’ll only receive upgrade pricing if you’re on the latest version. Upgrade today to see what you’ve been missing and set yourself up for upgrade pricing on future upgrades.

Step up to the latest version of Creative Suite.
• Design eye-catching print content, immersive digital magazines, elegant eBooks, and standards-based websites, plus bring your designs to life on smartphones and tablets, including the Apple® iPad®, various Android™ tablets, and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™.
• Deliver rich browser-based content and interactive applications for any device with leading HTML5 and Adobe® Flash® authoring tools.
• Produce your best work more quickly than ever before with high-performance tools and game-changing innovations.

Protect your investment.
Whether you’re using CS2, CS3 or CS4, you can take advantage of upgrade pricing for CS5.5 right now to get the latest software capabilities and performance. But don’t wait too long. With future versions of Adobe Creative Suite software you’ll only receive upgrade pricing if you’re on the latest version.

Save money and expand your skills.
Gain a competitive advantage with competitive pricing. Use the 20% discount to upgrade your Creative Suite edition; move up from a point product to a Creative Suite edition; move from a Creative Suite, standard edition to a Creative Suite, premium edition; or move from any Creative Suite to Master Collection — giving you even more tools so you can try your hand at something new. Now is the time to save big, and to make sure you can qualify for upgrade pricing on future versions of Creative Suite.

For upgrade pricing please contact Andrew Lomas on (02) 9516 2677 or email andrew.lomas@folks.com.au

Upgrade Today.

*TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Save 20%* off the standard price of an upgrade version of Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 Design Premium, Design Standard, Master Collection, Production Premium and Web Premium software when upgrading from Creative Suite 4.x, Creative Suite 3.x, Creative Suite 2.x or certain other products listed below when purchasing from an Adobe reseller or online directly from the Adobe Store in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand), China, Taiwan and Hong Kong between 9 November 2011 and 31 December 2011.

Qualifying products are: Adobe Creative Suite 4.x Design Premium, Design Standard, Master Collection, Production Premium, Web Premium and Web Standard; Creative Suite 3.x Design Premium, Design Standard, Master Collection, Production Premium, Web Premium and Web Standard; Creative Suite 2.x Premium and Standard; Adobe Production Studio Premium and Production Studio Standard; Adobe Design Bundle, Video Bundle and Web Bundle; Macromedia® Studio 8; Acrobat® X and 9 Pro, Acrobat 8, 7.0 and 6.0 Professional; After Effects®, CS5.x, CS4 and CS3; After Effects 7.0 and Professional and 7.0 Standard; Dreamweaver® CS5.x, CS4 and CS3; Macromedia Dreamweaver 8; Flash® Professional CS5.x, Flash CS4 and CS3 Professional; Macromedia Flash Basic 8 and Flash Professional 8; Illustrator® CS5, CS4, CS3 and CS2; InDesign® CS5.x, CS4, CS3 and CS2; Photoshop® CS5,CS4,CS3 and CS2; Photoshop CS5, CS4 and CS3 Extended; Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.x, CS4, CS3 or 2.x; Adobe Premiere.

20%* saving also available off the standard price of an upgrade version of After Effects CS5.5, Audition CS5.5, Dreamweaver CS5.5, Fireworks® CS5.5, Flash Professional CS5.5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5.5, Photoshop CS5, Photoshop Extended CS5 and Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.5.

The 20% discount* will be taken off subtotalled amounts prior to calculation of tax and shipping fees. Allow 2–3 days for software delivery. Offer is not valid for subscription products, OEM bundles, or education versions of software. This offer is subject to availability and to change or withdrawal without notice. Errors and omissions excepted. Void where prohibited by local laws.

*Except where the qualifying products are available through the online Adobe Store, the discounts stated are in relation to recommended retail prices for the qualifying products only. Adobe products are licensed, not sold. Where software licenses are distributed through channel entities, Adobe cannot and does not guarantee that any customer will receive any particular discount(s) or pricing; actual license fees for each customer are determined by participating resellers. Local taxes and shipping charges may apply. Prices may be subject to exchange rate fluctuations.

2011 has been a huge year for the team at Creative Folks. We have completed projects in Asia and the UK along with many home grown success stories. On top of that we sold off our consumable division, judged the Newspaper of the Year Awards, sponsored the Magazine App of the Year Award (won by News Magazines – Super Food Ideas) at the Australian Magazine Awards, moved our company to a new location, maintained a huge presence at the inaugural Magazine Week Conference and  two-day trade show at Darling Harbour and presented several trophies at the Magazine Excellence Awards.

Phew!

So now its time for a short break.

Please be advised that our office will be closed from 5:00pm on Friday 23rd December 2011 and reopening at 8:30am on Tuesday 3rd January 2012.

On behalf of myself and the staff at Creative Folks I would like to thank you for your continued support throughout 2011 and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In the early days (less than three years ago for WoodWing), the company was always at pains to point out it developed software and maintained an arms-length approach with customers via its network of integration partners. This stance, company representatives maintained, allowed the company to concentrate on what it does best—to develop cutting edge software solutions for media companies.

Along came the iPad, and as opposed to business as usual, WoodWing approached some of its key customers and became partners overnight, directly interfacing with senior management, developers, designers, editors, and publishers. As the wave of iPad mania took hold, the requirement to service the burgeoning growth of digital magazines (digimags) on tablets grew, and WoodWing needed to rapidly expand its footprint in the service side of the business. Although the company still maintained its arms-length approach to the clients on the ground (not including the biggest launch partners such as Time Inc.), the company entered a phase where it was offering, and trying to provide, a 24/7/365 service for content delivery.

The rest is really history. The number of digimag apps escalated dramatically as publishers fought to gain traction in this space, and consequently we saw a veritable explosion of content in the form of digimag issues, all of which required significant storage space on a CDN via the CDS. Publishers were scaling out and were feeling the ever increasing pressure to add more and more features to the reader apps to keep it fresh. Clients and consumers of the tablet devices fill a very demanding demographic, so it was not unrealistic to expect cutting edge features to keep pace with the evolution of iOS on the iPad and in some of the Androids.

Now comes the real impact for WoodWing. The traditional channel for WoodWing has been print. It has done a reasonably good job at staying current with versions of Adobe InDesign and InCopy. At about the time the company launched the idea of using Adobe AIR and Flex as a means of delivering a cross-platform client tool (Content Station), the idea of using one content source for multiple output channels emerged as well.

WoodWing invested a considerable amount of time bringing the publishing workflow into the 21st century. The company faced a number of file format challenges from an Adobe point of view, especially with article formats changing between different versions of InCopy. Of course, the [lack of] maturity of the Adobe AIR technology caused various stability and user experience headaches along the way.

So we end up here today, witnessing the recent alliance of Adobe’s DPS and WoodWing’s Enterprise workflow. We see the imminent demise of the WoodWing Reader App and of CDN and CDS, but we also see some light at the end of the tunnel. Several WoodWing clients will face some uphill challenges in the migration from the WoodWing Reader Apps and the CDN and CDS.

However, the alliance is clearly a strong strategic move on WoodWing’s part. Namely, the company effectively outsources two of the biggest headaches it will likely encounter. Chasing the app-tail has in general not been very much fun for the company and a rather complex and pitfall riddled ride for clients. Unlike much larger, slower moving companies, WoodWing was agile enough to move quickly with the trends, but at what price?

Speed to market puts a lot of pressure on the biggest of players, and even with the best of discipline and good intentions bugs get through the cracks. WoodWing is no exception, and I could clearly see efforts to scale upwards and outwards was causing headaches from a development point of view. The rule of thumb is throwing more resources at a problem never works; it just plain takes time to get it right. This is not to say WoodWing was not miles in front of the nearest opposition, and herein lies the attractiveness of WoodWing to Adobe. The company was out there, doing it, and not looking back.

The end result of this outsourcing of the Reader App, CND and CDS is a refocusing on the core products that help pay the maintenance costs of hundreds of print-based seats, who, of course, are all interested in transitioning to multi-channel publishing, but felt the core product was left on the bench. This situation will definitely change, but not before WoodWing gets the Reader App, CDN and CDS monkey off its back. This transition will take quite some time to occur as there are approximately 16,500 legacy WoodWing Reader App issues to migrate over to the new Adobe DPS Reader App.

Understandably, there are a number of critical functional gaps between the Adobe Reader App and the WoodWing Reader App. The good news is Adobe has invested heavily in DPS and is about to escalate that investment to meet the demands about to be placed on the products and services now that the company has just effectively inherited 450+ unique apps from WoodWing. We have been assured by Zeke Koch, Director of Product Management, Digital Publishing, at Adobe the company is placing a very high priority on getting this right from the outset and taking care of business.

WoodWing is compensating its channel partners so the partners are financially and technically supported in migrating clients apps across. This compensation is, I am sure, co-funded somewhere by Adobe in this whole deal.

All in all, the benefits for WoodWing clients are obvious. Adobe will continue to increase investment in this space and has a huge footprint worldwide as compared to WoodWing. There is also the basic-to-intermediate level of Omniture analytics integrated out of box, which is also a big plus for clients who have previously needed to customize analytics integration. It is worth noting the alliance is also a big win for Adobe’s own DPS customers because now there will be a whole bag full of features accommodated that have previously been talked about, but no clear schedule had been forthcoming from Adobe.

On the cost front, WoodWing has always had a much more competitive advantage as opposed to Adobe’s pricing models. For some clients, the difference in the price model is marginal, but several clients will see a price differential of 800% and more. Not a good outlook for these clients, so there are definitely some gaps needing to be filled there by WoodWing and Adobe. There is anecdotal evidence there might be preferential pricing models for WoodWing customers, which I am certain will become a strong talking point by non-WoodWing customers. Democratization of the publishing platform may not extend to the pricing models.

In conclusion, the alliance is something I have suspected since IFRA 2010, yet there really was not any visible movement on it until the last three to four weeks. The alliance makes complete sense considering WoodWing is the longest standing InDesign/InCopy plug-in developer. Also, considering Content Station is based heavily on Adobe’s Flex and AIR technologies, it would not be surprising to find out one day there is more than an alliance regarding DPS. After all, Adobe DPS has always been a great idea in desperate need for a workflow.

Pacific Magazines were the first company to implement WoodWing in Australia, beginning with Who Weekly in 2007. Fraser Crozier has been at the forefront of the technology ever since, backed up by the team at Creative Folks.

The latest version of WoodWing’s multi-channel publishing system Enterprise features a tight integration with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS). The integration enables publishers to take advantage of the workflow benefits offered by Enterprise for the creation of print, tablet and Web editions, while leveraging the Adobe DPS platform to distribute publications to tablet devices. Enterprise 7.5 features a number of other enhancements, in particular of the Content Station multi-channel text editor. Enterprise 7.5 supports the latest version 5.5 of Adobe Creative Suite.

WoodWing Software, developer of workflow solutions for efficient multi-channel publishing, today announced that the integration of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite into the Enterprise workflow is available with the release of Enterprise 7.5.

Digital Publishing in an efficient workflow environment

The integration of Adobe DPS into WoodWing’s Enterprise enables publishers to efficiently create, manage and publish their content for tablets and other mobile devices from within a fully controlled workflow environment. The Enterprise system not only offers a host of efficiency benefits when working together on a publication with a team – it also features direct previews of the digital publications from within the Content Station application, as well as the option to directly publish final issues to the Adobe Distribution Service with the push of a button. To measure the success of their digital editions, publishers can use the Adobe DPS analytics powered by Omniture.

WoodWing Digital Publishing Tools increase possibilities and speed

WoodWing also provides its own suite of Digital Publishing Tools for InDesign, fully integrated with Enterprise. These tools have been built for efficiency, enabling publishers to easily add compelling interactive content from their content management system to a digital publication. These tools include InDesign panels for slideshows, hotspots, links and much more.

One of these, the Widgets tool, allows designers to include widgets – small pieces of HTML code that provide unique interactive features – in their InDesign layout without requiring additional technical skills. Examples of widgets include: Image reveal (swiping over an image to see what’s beneath), Animations (images moving in or out), Animated Pie Charts, Flickr feed, YouTube player, Simple Quiz, Nivo slideshow, Image touch and Google Maps. Upcoming widgets include zoomable image, parallax scrolling, slideshows with captions, vertical text view and more. To allow for maximum versatility, customers can also still use the Adobe Digital Publishing Tools in the WoodWing Enterprise managed environment.

More information about WoodWing’s digital publishing solution and the integration with Adobe DPS can be found in a white paper available on WoodWing’s white papers page.

Enterprise 7.5 enables true multi-channel publishing

WoodWing’s Enterprise system enables publishers to merge their tablet publishing activities with print and Web production. This opens up the possibility of creating editorial teams that can oversee and manage all publication channels, reducing costs and removing duplicate work. From the same environment, content can even be published to social media or sent by e-mail. Through all this, Enterprise enables true multi-channel publishing.

Content Station 7.5 enhancements

The recently introduced multi-channel text editor in Content Station is rapidly evolving. In version 7.5, an article compare function has been added, while other new functionality can be expected in upcoming versions. The Digital Publishing user-interface has been revamped completely, offering controls for .folio files to be created, managed, previewed and published to DPS from within Content Station. Other enhancements have been made in the publication overview, to provide support for CJK and Arabic page-ordering (right-to-left), while numerous smaller user-interface improvements have also been implemented.

Efficiency and Monetization

“Since the very beginning of the tablet era, WoodWing has made significant strides in establishing tablets as a new channel in multi-channel publishing,” said Erik Schut, President of WoodWing Software. “Today, tablets have been adopted by both publishers and readers. Publishers need to focus on getting their publications on tablets quickly and in the most cost-effective way, and on monetizing their content. With the integration of Adobe DPS in our Enterprise system, we provide publishers the tools to really implement an efficient multi-channel publishing strategy.”

WoodWing have provided us with a notification from Apple that iTunes Connect will be temporarily shut down from Thursday, December 22 to Thursday, December 29 for the winter holidays. The information below summarizes the effects of this communication

{quote}

During this shutdown, the following functionality will be unavailable:

- Access to iTunes Connect

- The delivery of any apps or updates

Additionally, the following will be delayed:

- Releases scheduled to appear on the App Store for the first time

- Pricing changes scheduled through the interval pricing system in iTunes Connect

We strongly recommend that you do not schedule pricing changes through the interval pricing system in iTunes Connect that would take effect from December 22 through December 29. Pricing changes scheduled to take effect during this date range will not be reflected in the App Store and the app will become unavailable for purchase.

We also recommend that you do not schedule any apps to go live during the shutdown. Releases scheduled with a sales start date between these dates will not go live until after the shutdown.

{end quote}

If you are planning any updates to apps or new issue releases during this time, please ensure you speak with your Project Manager as soon as possible.
–
Matthew

“A rising star in Sydney corporate landscape and one of the city’s most vibrant and diversified working villages.”

We will be moving on Friday 2^nd December 2011 and our new address is as follows:

Creative Folks iT

10.1 Graphix Row

160 Bourke Road

Alexandria NSW 2015

If you are visiting us, Sydney Corporate Park is located between O’Riordan Street, Bourke Road and Doody Street in Alexandria and is close to both the Domestic Airport and Sydney CBD. There are plenty of 1 and 2 hour free visitor parking spots as well as over 200 pay and display parking spaces. Valet parking is also available. You can have your car washed and polished whilst attending a workflow demonstration or training course.

All our new contact details will be posted on the front page of our website and communicated via phone and email.

Of course we will do our very best to ensure that there are no interruptions to our services during the relocation. However, if you have any trouble getting through to us please call the following numbers:

Tech Support: Call Tim on 0420 988 219

Sales and Admin: Call Matthew on 0418 247 470

We look forward to looking after you from Graphix Row.

- On Monday I came into work with my dad to learn about, and take part in, his daily routine. I looked on as he ate his way through his many bank payments and finances. Chasing money and paying bills didn’t seem like a lot of fun.

- On Tuesday I helped file and record payments with the accountant Melissa and looked on as Eddie stored and backed up some client’s servers and drives. I observed the tech support team build a new server for a customer, which included a complex RAID back-up solution. I was also shown how the help desk worked and watched Mario and Tim applying software updates and anti-virus patches to Creative Folk’s clients.

- Wednesday I got my hands dirty clearing out the warehouse and assisting in the logistics of moving the company. Creative Folks iT are relocating from Marrickville to Alexandria in only a couple of weeks.

- Thursday I sat down with Melissa and learned about accounts receivable, accounts payable, stock control, GST and the pains behind accounting.

- Today we touched on a few final jobs to conclude the week and had pizza for lunch.

To sum up, I enjoyed being Creative Folk’s slave for a week and it helped me develop a great understanding and insight on the key elements of running a small business.

Cheers,

–

Daniel.

WoodWing Software (www.woodwing.com), innovation leader in the field of effective multi-channel publishing solutions, is gearing up for the next stop on its WoodWing World Tour 2011, taking place at the Crowne Plaza Mutiara hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on December 8.

Following on from the highly successful conference held in Sydney on November 22, 2010, WoodWing are once again coming bringing their World Tour to the Asia Pacific region.

The participants in this free event on December 8 in Kuala Lumpur will experience through keynote speeches, presentations and case studies how they can master the challenges of modern multi-channel publishing. They will learn how easy it can be to publish content to any channel, including print, Web, mobile and tablets. One of the highlights will be the presentation by Datuk Mustapa Omar, Group Editor of Harian Metro, the first Malay language daily on the iPad. In addition, attendees will get the latest information about the tablet publishing alliance between WoodWing and Adobe Systems.

Tablet Publishing with WoodWing Enterprise and Adobe DPS

In the morning, the jam-packed conference program contains high-level keynotes, including those of Datuk Mustapa Omar, Group Editor of Harian Metro, the No. 1 newspaper in Malaysia, and Michael Stoddart, Product Marketing Manager for Creative Solutions at Adobe, who will both be sharing their vision of the industry, with a focus on the emerging tablet trend. Victor Cardoso, WoodWing´s Product Evangelist, will inform the audience about the integration of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) in the WoodWing Enterprise tablet publishing workflow. These presentations will be preceded by the keynotes of WoodWing CEO Hans Janssen and President Erik Schut.

In the afternoon, a program consisting of multiple tracks dedicated to newspaper, magazine and corporate publishers will address specific issues of the industry and show how to tackle them using WoodWing solutions. The topics range from “Publishing for agencies” and “Workflow Publishing,” to “Winning the digital war in media,” and much more. The detailed agenda can by found at http://worldtour.woodwing.com.

This mix of keynote speeches, customer stories, product demonstrations and partner presentations will inspire the attendees to think afresh and return home with new ideas. This event is also an excellent opportunity to meet industry peers and ask questions about WoodWing and its multi-channel publishing solutions.

Sponsors of the event are Adobe Systems (www.adobe.com), dataplan (www.dataplan.de), and Tansa Systems (www.tansasystems.com). The WoodWing World Tour in Kuala Lumpur is also supported by Creative Folks (www.creativefolks.com.au), Serious Technology (http://serioustec.com), and iDL India – all of whom are WoodWing Authorized Solution Partners.

There is no charge for any of the sessions, but registration is required at http://worldtour.woodwing.com.

Follow the WoodWing World Tour via Social Media by using either of the links below:

Learn from the best!

Featuring international and local industry experts, the Magazine Week conference will offer guidance on how to do better business. Speakers will discuss emerging trends; ways in which publishers are increasing revenues from new product lines; and share their own experiences.

In addition, specialist afternoon streams will address specific topics including:

Managing and growing subscriptions/database management.

Monetising digital magazines and apps

Editorial excellence

The future of the retail channel and what’s next for publishers

Beyond the advertising model – alternative revenue streams

Utilising social media to drive engagement

The conference will include plenty of opportunities for networking and knowledge-sharing in the morning and afternoon breaks and at lunch, as well as at the welcome drinks on Thursday 10th November.

The team at Creative Folks and WoodWing will be exhibiting at the industry’s first ever trade show, which runs alongside the conference, on Thursday the 10th and Friday the 11th November. Please make sure you visit us on Stand 1 at Bayside Lounge, Level 2, Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney.

To purchase tickets to the inaugural Magazine Week Conference please click the bright orange logo above.