Tips and Bits

Please Respond to Our Survey

When we planned the feature set for the Pageflex 7.7 release that we launched this week, we decided to enable multi-channel campaigns created in Pageflex Campaign Manager to be orderable through a Pageflex Storefront catalog.

This decision was based on consistent feedback we received from customers about their need to:

1. simplify the process of selling multi-channel campaigns, and
2. expand the types of services that they can sell through their Pageflex Storefront sites.

We often hear I wish I could just let my customer self-order a campaign through my Storefront site…

Tell Us Your Experiences

Understanding our customers’ business needs is fundamental to planning the future development of Pageflex products.

On Tuesday we emailed a survey to a cross section of our North American customers to discover best practices for printers making the transition to offering marketing services. If you received this email, please take the time to complete the survey online or get one of your colleagues to complete it. You do not need to be offering marketing services today to participate in the survey.

Prizes and Knowledge

I know that finding time to complete a survey is difficult, so as a thank you we are entering all customers that complete the survey in a drawing. The prizes include an Amazon Kindle 3G, $75 Amazon gift certificates, and $25 gift certificates to our sister Bitstream product line Myfonts.com. There are 7 prizes in all, so your chances are pretty good of winning something.

And everyone that completes the survey will get an executive summary of the report from InfoTrends, a leading market research and consultancy firm that we have partnered with on this study. InfoTrends is exploring the current state, critical steps, best practices, and go-to-market strategies for offering cross media marketing services.

I look foward to sharing the best practices and trends resulting from this study with all of our customers in future blog posts and webinars.

Driving More Product Integrations

In addition to learning what works and doesn’t work when offering cross media (or as I prefer, “multi-channel”) services, this survey is also intended to help us understand what other components our customers are using in their production workflows. This information is critical in helping us determine which other companies in the industry we should partner with, and which integrations with other products on the market may offer the most benefit to our customers.

Of course, we love it when we get this information through one-on-one conversations with our customers, so please do keep talking to us directly. We hope this survey will jump start more of these conversations.

If you are a printer that uses a Pageflex product in North America and would like to take the survey, but don’t have the survey email, just let us know at marketing@pageflex.com. We’ll gladly send it to you.

Pageflex 7.6 Beta Preview Webinar: Calling all potential beta testers!

Calling all early adopters: the Pageflex Beta Program is looking for additional volunteers to provide us with feedback on our forthcoming release. If you think you have what it takes (time, inclination, and a spare server), please join Jeff Perk, Director of Product Management, next Tuesday, August 10 at high noon (Eastern Time) for a Webex overview of Pageflex 7.6 features. Participants will be able to walk away from the presentation with a beta download of the new release, and be eligible for joining our on-going series of usability focus tests for future development initiatives. Participants should be current Pageflex customers on support. Space is limited, so sign up now!

Click here to register for the event.

New Plug-In: QR Code Generator

Pageflex is pleased to announce a new QR code generating content source plug-in available for Studio 7.5.2 when used with Storefront, Campaign Manager or Pageflex Server. The plug-in is available free of charge to clients on support.  To get the plug-in, please log in to the Pageflex Support Site and search for "QR". Alternately, the answer ID of the tech note is #427.  The plug-in is downloadable from the tech note.

QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes designed to be read with a QR code reader app installed on a user's mobile phone. The reader typically uses the camera of the phone to scan the code, which usually contains either a link to a web address, personal contact information, or a short message about a product.

QR codes are primarily used in marketing programs as a response mechanism, so try them on your direct mail pieces, brochures, business cards, and trans-promotional statements. Pageflex's QR code generator can generate generic QR codes with one URL, such as the one linking to Pageflex.com above, or individualized QR codes that take users to a pURL or gURL. 

Some tips for successful QR codes: 

• White Space Matters - Give the QR code some room in your design. A bit of white space around the code dramatically improves the readability of the code. And, larger codes are easier for mobile phone cameras to focus on, so try to make your codes at least 1 inch by 1 inch. The Pageflex plug-in will let you specify the size of your code.

• Provide an Alternate Link - Because QR codes are new and not every reader reads every QR code, it's very important to provide an alternate link to web pages you want users to visit. If space is tight, consider a URL shortener.

• Test Your QR Codes with a Variety of Readers -  QR code readers are evolving rapidly. There are a plethora of readers available. We've enjoyed using QuickMark  on the iPhone and several Android mobiles. And, BeeTagg was great on the Blackberry. You can test your QR code reader (and enjoy some font humor! ) with these Pageflex-generated QR codes.

                               

                             

We hope you enjoy the QR code generator!

Storefront Webinar: Integrated Data List Acquisition Extensions with Petri Isola and Phil Proto on June 24th at 2:00 PM EST

Please join Petri Isola and Phil Proto of Pageflex Services for an in-depth look at three new data list acquisition extensions that are now available for purchase and use within Storefront. We'll be previewing and configuring integrations that allow you to connect your Storefront's Data Merge step to Salesforce.com, LeadsPlease and Mailer's Haven.

The Salesforce.com extension allows Salesforce/Storefront users to import data dynamically from reports written within Salesforce.

The LeadsPlease and Mailer's Haven extensions allow end users to query for and purchase commercial data lists on-the-fly within Storefront.

This Storefront webinar is appropriate for current and prospective Pageflex customers. This webinar will be held on June 24th at 2:00 PM EST.

Register here:
https://bitstream.webex.com/bitstream/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=486517257

Pageflex Welcomes Our New Press-sense Colleagues and Customers

Hello, I'm Anna Magliocco-Chagnon, President and CEO of Bitstream. Today we announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Press-sense, including the IP. This is an exciting point in the history of Bitstream. I want to welcome the Press-sense employees, customers, partners, and distributors to Bitstream.

 

We have committed to continue iWay and Press-sense manager product development, maintain the Press-sense office in Israel, and continue to support the OEM partners and customers that have chosen to make the Press-sense iWay and Manager technologies a major component of their production workflow solution. The Press-sense products will join Bitstream’s Pageflex publishing product line.

HP, Océ, and Xerox have all expressed support for Bitstream as the new owner of the iWay technology and we expect to continue and expand these relationships.

Some of our Pageflex customers also own a Press-sense product. We know that the recent months have been anxious ones for Press-sense customers as you awaited word of what would happen with Press-sense. We hope that you will give us the opportunity to support you and work with you during this transition.  We look forward to hearing your feedback on how we can further develop our software to meet your needs. There are many things we have not had time to address yet. We ask for your patience as we work through the details and integrate our teams.

Among other strengths, Pageflex is known for its knowledgeable, friendly support team and powerful, published APIs and SDKs that enable and simplify the process of extending our products and integrating them with third-party systems. We fully intend to invest necessary resources to bring these two qualities to our new iWay products. To that end we will retain nearly all of the current Press-sense employees. They know the technology intimately, they know you well, and they know your concerns and needs.

Our initial focus will be on stabilizing the iWay product, addressing immediate functionality issues (those pesky bugs), and actively supporting those of you who are on current support contracts.

We have posted an FAQ at press-sense.bitstream.com along with additional information. I further welcome your feedback and questions here and at iWay-acquisition@bitstream.com.

Wanna Put a Branded Watermark on Your PDF Previews?

Howdy, my name is Petri Isola. I am the Consulting Services Manager here at Pageflex.

Many Pageflex Storefront customers would like to have the PDF previews on their site be watermarked. With a watermark you can offer a high-quality PDF preview while protecting the piece from being printed elsewhere. And better yet, the watermark should be customizable. For instance, it may display your logo or your customer’s brand.

With the help of a Pageflex-provided Document Action script it is easy to create branded watermarks to be used on the Pageflex Storefront deployments. When your end-users view a PDF preview, the customized document will include your watermark.

You have control over the look and content of the watermark, and you can easily share it across multiple deployments by putting the watermark image in a shared location.

I’ve placed the watermark document action script and detailed instructions in the Pageflex Support Knowledgebase. Search for Answer ID #416 under “Find Answers.”

Replay Recent Webinars at Your Convenience

After each of our popular webinars, we get asked if it was recorded. Some people have a conflict and can’t attend at the time we broadcast it, and others simply want to hear parts of it again. So we’ve been experimenting with various technologies to make this happen. And I’m very happy to announce that our awesome webinar production team has recorded our last two webinars and posted them in our support knowledgebase. You can see what was shown on screen and hear the full audio. These webinar recordings are available to all Pageflex customers with active support contracts.

 

If you’d like to understand the API enhancements that happened with the new Pageflex Storefront 7.5 release, please see Answer ID #411. Pageflex Principal Software Engineer, Chris Reisz-Hanson, and Product Manager, Jeff Perk, discuss what these changes mean for anyone thinking about upgrading customer extensions and their Pageflex Storefront deployments.

 

Answer ID #405 in the support knowledgebase will give you an in-depth look at building long documents with Pageflex Studio or Persona. During this webinar, Nikki McNurlen, Pageflex's Senior Training Specialist, covered three key long document skills:

 

1. Using Document Variables - Document variables allow you to dynamically insert and remove pages from a document. Nikki teaches you how to create them and how to insert them into a Pageflex template.

2. Filler Pages - Did you know that Pageflex templates can be programmed to automatically round long documents up to a specific printable signature? Nikki shows you how to make sure that you don't end up with 7 page brochures by creating variable filler pages. She also covers how to use filler pages to do things like force the beginning of a chapter in a book to a right hand page. The webinar also touches on the use of master pages for managing filler page designs.

3. Dynamic Tables of Contents - Last, but not least, you'll learn how to build a dynamic table of contents and insert page numbers to finish off your book or brochure.

Upcoming Webinar: 7.5 API Enhancements with Chris Reisz-Hanson

Have you developed custom extensions for your Storefront deployments? Are you ready to upgrade the deployments that use them to Pageflex 7.5? If so, you'll want to join Pageflex's Principal Software Engineer, Chris Reisz-Hanson, and Product Manager, Jeff Perk, as we discuss the changes to the Storefront API in the latest version of Storefront (7.5) and what those changes mean for anyone thinking about upgrading their deployments to the latest release.

The webinar will be February 4th at 2:00 PM US Eastern Time.

Click here to register.

This webinar is intended for current Pageflex Storefront developers and administrators. It will be technical in nature and Chris and Jeff will assume that attendees have knowledge of the previous versions of the Pageflex Storefront API. 

If you are a developer who's new to the Storefront API, feel free to join us but you may also want to consider attending the Document Actions and Storefront API class. The next class is February 23rd -25th in Marlborough, MA.

Pageflex 7.5 is Available!

 Hello, I’m Katherine Reisz-Hanson, Director of Pageflex Product Marketing. I’m happy to announce that Pageflex 7.5 is available as of today. Our Storefront, Campaign Manager, Server, and Studio products all have something new to offer with this release. Thank you to all of you that have been eagerly reading this blog and our Twitter feed (@pageflexinfo) over the past few weeks to learn about the new capabilities that will be available with this upgrade. There have been more than 100 of you checking in daily!

This release really is the Pageflex team’s present to our customers this holiday season. While we know there are still more features you really want (there always will be more!), our engineering team really worked to include some of the most requested capabilities across our product line. We focused on capabilities that will make you more productive, your marketing communications more effective, and your customer’s online experiences more pleasant and rewarding. If you’re interested in upgrading to 7.5, please contact support@pageflex.com. And if you are not an existing Pageflex customer, please contact sales@pageflex.com.

And there’s still one more new treat I want to tell everyone about. It’s the Pageflex Storefront feature I am most looking forward to using myself.  Pageflex 7.5 includes a new Storefront UI theme called “Corporate.” This optional site design is targeted at deployments serving document fulfillment workflows rather than e-commerce Web-to-print businesses. The Corporate theme illustrates how simple changes to a deployment’s nomenclature can help separate your brand management activities from your e-commerce workflows.

What about Pageflex 7.5 has you excited?

 

New Feature: Send HTML Email Notifications from Pageflex Storefront

Season’s Greetings! I’m here in Denver surrounded by snow and excited about all of the new features that we’re delivering to our customers with the release of Pageflex 7.5. I am definitely in the holiday mood now. Hope you are too?

I’m Allison Boxall, a Business Development Manager at Pageflex. When I give gifts I make an effort to wrap them beautifully. The presentation becomes part of the gift. I think this way the recipient becomes more excited and appreciative of the gift even before they unwrap it. This holds true for the notification messages you send from Pageflex Storefront also. Now with Pageflex 7.5 you have the ability to format the email notifications in HTML. You no longer need an extra extension to jazz up the appearance of these emails to help them get read.

Now, right out of the box, Pageflex Storefront Administrators can choose whether to use HTML for any—or all—of the notifications offered by Pageflex Storefront. HTML provides many rich capabilities for enhancing the look and feel of your deployment’s automated customer-facing (or even internally-facing) messages. You can use text formatting like bold, underline, and colors to emphasize the most important information in the email. And you can create visually appealing that reinforce your brand.

Which of your notification messages could benefit from some beautification with this great new feature?