Virtual Publisher Niche Media Webinar

This week Niche Media and Blanchard Systems came together to show users how they use Virtual Publisher to plan and produce their magazines.

October 27 2014 Upgrade

Virtual Publisher

• Official Editorial Page Manager Plugin Release 1.0
• Redesigned clipboard to make more visual space.
• New highly customizable clipboard tables, including custom field widths and sticky field headers.
• New option to default to "All Pages" in book plan view user preferences.  
• "Inserts in wrong position" message improved to simplify the process of finding problematic inserts.
• Revision number can now be seen in the editorial thumb list view.
• When last publisher approval is done to the last page of an editorial file, the parent editorial will automatically be set to complete.
• When dragging editorials which are less than one page on top of one another, the option to swap editorials will now appear.
• Added option to bulk lock and unlock multiple editorials coverage at one time. This can be seen in the editorials list action menu.
• Better color pickers in many areas of the site. New color picker makes use of a smaller specific set of colors. This makes colors easier to assign and remember.
• New footer in book plan view make information easier to read.
• Book plan pagination system moved into new footer at bottom for better screen use.
• New pdf/jpg icon on page revisions helps users see if their revision is a jpg or pdf.
• New book plan filters added to see Editorials Only or Ads Only.
• Position tag placement rules can now be setup to warn the user instead of rejecting. Previously only rejecting the move was an option.
• Ladder view now supports adding plan comments for manual tracking of plan changes.
• New option in publisher settings added to auto highlight swapped ads. This can be useful for seeing which ads have been recently swapped.

SendMyAd

• New Ad creator feature. Added ability for publisher to control frame stroke width and background color of uploaded ad creator templates.
• New option allows publishers to change the default recommended action for files which failed trim. Previously the only suggested action for advertisers was to trim the file using the online trim tool. It is now possible to set the recommendation to "Auto Center", "Trim" or "Make No Suggestion".

BUG FIXES

• Snapshot plan now accounts for inserts and gatefolds, this was causing some snapshots to be clipped off at the bottom.
• Fixed Virtual Publisher display bug when section runs to left page of signature split in plan view.
• An ad's running issues can no longer be edited after an ad is complete.
• Fixed plan snapshot bugs.

September 2nd Upgrade

SendMyAd

• New ability to control gutter safety values on spread ad specifications.
• New ability to create and manage digital ad reservations. Just like print ads, digital ads can now be reserved through the "Reserve an Insertion" menu option.
• New SMA Billing dashboard for publishers. New view shows publisher present ad past bill details. Proper rights are required to view this.
• New Master approval option allows some approvals to override all others. This can be seen as a new checkbox in the approval forms.

Virtual Publisher

• New option to allow only one user to edit plans at a time. This new option can be turned on in the company profile and allows only one user to edit a plan at a time.
• New advanced vp page view allows for better revision comparison and more content accurate zooming.
• New option to add 2 or more empty pages to any portion of a virtual publisher plan. 
• Status view option added to magazine browser based viewer.
• Added new folio label type which can auto fill all empty labels.
• Added ability to drag files from desktop directly to VP editorial pages while in editorial details view.
• Added more help descriptions to ad import form including display of how field selectors work.
• Editorial history details are now more accurate and show more information.
• New VP production report shows production related plan data.
• New options added to inserts to count them as editorial or ad. These numbers are now reflected as true coverage counts in the plan.
• Paging buttons added to the following list views: Tablet Ads, Digital ad campaigns, VP Images, Users list
• Added new editorial shapes to match all available ad spec shapes.
• Added new option to ad pickup import problem screen to convert the current ad to a new ad. This will allow ads which have multiple pickup options to be converted to a new ad as needed.
• Read only VP plans now allow read only viewing of page details.
• New editorial thumbs list view makes it easier to see editorial pages. 
• New option to manually adjust ad and edit percentage coverages. This allows publisher to alter the reported ad and editorial numbers, so they can be printed in the reports.
• Inserts can now be included in the ad percentage or the editorial percentage on the edit insert form. 
• Editorial assignment system now accepts a single user or group. Includes new configurable email template.
• Note borders can now be colored.
• Publications now support a margin field value. This will apply the supplied margin to all merged pages.
• Added ability to see VP plan snippet details and rename them.
• Magazine viewer now supports zooming on pages by double clicking them.
• New check added in VP book plan to ensure inserts are always at signature breaks. This prevents inserts from accidentally being placed in the wrong position after re-signaturing is done.

General Features

• Change to notification system interface. All user's notification details can now be seen under the user details view. This now makes it easy to control and see exactly what notifications a user will get.

Fixes

• Story reflow fixes. Story flow now supports extremely complex flows.
• Fixed bug in indesign template ad spec creation, when name had quotes in it.
• Many fixes in regionalization refreshing
• Several small fixes to the performance of dropped single and split spreads in VP
• Fixed bug with run list and plan view not showing inserts positioned on front and back side of book
• Publisher approvals no longer alert approver for confirmation on screen.
• When new plans are created in VP, all physical editorial files are no longer copied to the new plan when the plan is a copy. 

July 2nd Upgrade

FEATURES 

• New signature features
• Swap 2 signatures
• Restack signatures to front of book.
• New drag and drop re-order of sigs. Just grab the preview bar and start moving.
• New tool tip on sig preview helps show more details.
• New click on empty signatures in sig preview to fill.
• New missing signatured pages count on signature preview area.

• New "Ad Types" tab added in plan details view.
• Option to colorize items by ad type and count ad types by "paid for"
• New production report which counts ad type details.

• New snippets bin area tab on clipboard allows selection of items to be placed in a temporary holding bin for moving
• New pagination setup for vp pages. All pages are now broken into 100 page sections. Users can still see all pages by selecting the "All" option. This speeds large plans up and reduces scrolling. Users may also choose to change the amount of pages per screen in the plan settings area.
• New ads expiring report shows ads expiring over next 90 days.
• New ability to remove un-transfered or erroneous deliveries from the VP delivery list view.
• New report visible after CVS ad list import which shows a list of unaffected ads in the issue. 
• New options added on CSV ad import
• New pickup treatment options:
• Skip adding pickups, create new ads.
• Always use first pickup found even if there are more than one found.
• If 2 or more pickups are found for one ad create a temporary ad. This new option creates a temporary ad with the label PICKUP PROBLEM. This ad, when selected will show a new interface allowing the user to choose which ad is supposed to be the pickup.
• Ad types are now supported on the CSV import
• Advertiser emails are now supported on the CSV import
• Agency emails are now supported on the CSV import
• Many enhancements to prevent crashing of the ipad magazine viewer.
• New option in ad creator templates to reorder data labels on form.
• New advanced plan action to scan plan for errors in advanced plan actions. This will inform the user of several different potential problems with the plan.
• New ability to select / unselect all ad spec delivery destinations for a single publication in the ad specification delivery filters area. 
• New SendMyAd digital ad reservations system.

June 17th Upgrade

(Minor Release)

This release of the software was a quick follow up to the June 2nd release and contains mostly speedups and fixes to existing issues.

 

Virtual Publisher

Features / Fixes

• Ads which are placed in inserts now show as "placed in insert", in the clipboard parent plan's clipboard.
• Multiple plan speed ups, dragging and dropping should be more responsive.
• Fixed bug where items that were shifted off end of big disappeared.
• New filter drop down added in VP plan history view allows users to see better historical information.
• Added more information to plans which are locked due to missing info.
• Fixed bug where inserts were locked when promoting plan to production.
• Added warning about signatures which reference color profiles that have been removed.
• Description field added to edit insert forms.
• Can now download previous image revisions.
• Can now see all historical work items when toggling image revisions.
• Added ability to remove previous image revision

SendMyAd

Features / Fixes

• Ad creator help fields now support html and html links.

June 2nd Upgrade

Features

Virtual Publisher

• New image viewer includes completely redesigned viewing experience 
• Image viewer allows multiple revisions to be viewed at once.
• Better zoom and fit tools
• Toggle work items on and off
• CSV import defaults added. Users can now save their csv settings as the default for all subsequent imports. This saves the user time in not having to remap import settings each time.
• CSV data imports now limited to 250 rows for better memory management.  This prevents memory timeouts.
• New option on ad specification form to set as a default for ad reservation creation and csv import.
• Signature report have been enhanced and now shows more information and document format saves as excel file format.
• Signature details can now have ship dates assigned to them. This information can also be seen in the signature report download.
• Addition of the ability to set dynamic ad types and count them as ads and or chargeable ads. This is also useful for reporting information.
• New iPad viewer signin screen for better user experience and better overall memory management.
• Enhanced shift book system to support shifting a range of pages. Makes moving bulk pages easier.
• Image portal retention system created to allow publishers to manage image disk space and to be notified when image disk is getting too large. 
• Better error messages, when a file has low level issues like corruption, it is now easier to know what went wrong.
• Issue code can now be entered on the add issue form.

SendMyAd

• Ad Creator now has several new field management options.
  • Option to show ad category selector and require it on upload.
  • Option to show the sales rep selector and require it on upload.
  • Option to hide the advertiser field
• New brand field available on ad forms
• Printers can now access an affiliate report and see a list of publisher accounts.
• New "Can edit print ad" right added to allows publishers to prevent users from editing ads.
• New "Can see pricing data" right added to allow publishers to prevent users from seeing financial data.

Page Manager Plugin

• Page Manager plugin 1.6.26 released. 
• Fixes bugs with preview uploads
• Now supports edition selection when page has regional editions.

Blanchard Systems Announces New Webinar Series

Blanchard Systems is pleased to announce a new “Tips & Tricks” webinar series focused on training our SendMyAd and Virtual Publisher customers.  These FREE webinars will be held every month with the goal of making you more familiar with the features and power of our portals.

 

Presentations will be 30 minutes, leaving plenty of time for questions. All webinars will be recorded and accessible online 24 hours after the webinar.

To see the upcoming webinar schedule visit the Events page and simply click and register for each session that interests you. If you have an idea for an upcoming Tips & Tricks topic, we would love to hear from you.

Blanchard Systems, Inc.
1100 Poydras St, Suite 1230
New Orleans, LA. 70163
Office: 504-529-8869
www.blanchardsystems.com

April 15th Update

VP Features

    GENERAL

• Approvals system now allows customization for notifications and force approve in order for each file type.
• New option to subscribe to scheduled rollouts. This allows you to get an auto email when a rollout is scheduled and completed.

   
    BOOK PLANNING & PRODUCTION

• New cover signature offset system. Cover signatures can have up to 8 pages on the front side of the book.
• New options in the signature details list view to inject a signature as a selected signature's start position.
• New option in the signature details list view to auto-rename all signatures from a selected position.
• Plan Items clipboard view has same filters as SendMyAd. This allows users to get the same list view as SMA.
• Ad clipboard has new filtering pulldown which can now show both placed and unplaced items. 
• Ad clipboard includes filter to show insertion orders and materials without insertion orders. This allows users to more easily see what ads have been merged with incoming ad reservations and which have not.
• Merged ads are no longer removed from the system but are now archived in the removed folder. This allows complete restoration of data merged content. 
• Folio number and Proposed folio can now be seen on the ad clipboard.
• Insert system has been completely redesigned to allow same full flexibility of a vp book plan.
• Inserts now have exact weight option which overrides paper weight calculations.
• Plans now have optional glue weight and ink weight fields.
• Plan sections now have option to set an editorial due date and an ad due date. This can be combined with a new SMA feature to require section selection on the ad upload form.
• Plans can now be setup to have a forced grid size based on columns and or rows. Can be setup in the publication details.
• New downloadable bindery report in signatures view.
• Delivery of completed pages in Virtual Publisher now has downloadable report.
• Delivery of completed pages in Virtual Publisher now has section field and section filtering options.
• Many enhancements to the ad data merge interface, easier now to merge an ad material with an insertion order.
• Added ad credit hold system. Red overlay on ads with credit hold.
• Added cancel ad system. Red overlay on ads with cancelled mark.
• Nearly fully integrated Virtual publisher with Datatrax ad point of sales system.
• Many enhancements to ad import view. Import details added to plan history, added downloadable report, details added to plan log, easy view table of changes, and option to mark items red in the book plan which were changed.
• New externalId option added to import ads screen. Allows publisher to choose a different field other than materialsId to key off of ads.
• Added option to mark editorials as advertisements in the editorial csv data import.
• Ability to increase text on plan snapshots.
• Split spreads will always stick together now in VP when dragging from clipboard, to clipboard or around in plan view.
• New option for Virtual Publisher companies to not remove margin on incoming editorial files. By default VP removes margin on incoming files.
• Added new field option on insert details to denote if insert is supplied or not.
• VP only ads can now be changed to and from SMA + VP or VP Only.           

    WORKITEM SYSTEM

• Removed need select issue in work items list view.
• Workitems no longer editable after the file is complete.

VP Bug fixes

• Issues with pickups not working on CSV ad imports.
• Some fields not emptying on csv ad import updates.
• Fixed bug with editorial details view displaying out of order in rare situations.
• Ad merge system bug fixes. Merging ad data should work correctly now.

SMA Features

    GENERAL

• New option to subscribe to scheduled rollouts. This allows you to get an auto email when a rollout is scheduled and completed.
• Approvals system now allows customization for notifications and force approve in order for each file type.

    PRINT ADS

• Section selection option now available on ad upload form for companies with Virtual Publisher. This allows publishers to force advertisers to select a section before uploading.
• Added ad credit hold system. Red overlay on ads with credit hold.
• Added cancel ad system. Red overlay on ads with cancelled mark.
• Nearly fully integrated Virtual publisher with Datatrax ad point of sales system.

    AD CREATOR

• Ad creator now has new "internal data field" option to map an ad template field to an existing field in SendMyAd. This makes reporting and list view easier to see specific template data.

SMA Bug Fixes

    GENERAL

• Ad sizes view no longer shows ad sizes from publications which are disabled.

    AD CREATOR

• Ad creator now has better phone number formatting for alpha based phone numbers.
• Ad creator image editor bug fixed with squished image when fitting to frame or centering.
• Placeholder text is now stripped if user does not enter anything.

Feb 25th Update

Virtual Publisher Book Planning Features

• New HTML5 softproof viewer added for Images and Pages. Java Viewer is being phased out.
• New Affiliate report added for companies who have more than 1 Virtual Publisher customer.
• New ad credit hold system marks pages red in the book plan when there is a credit hold on the ad.
• When ads are in the book plan only and not in SendMyAd, we added information labels to let the user know this.
• Word count added to story import system.
• Book plan text size dynamically changes on book plan scale. This works for the snapshot tool as well. This makes text sizes easier to read.
• Added pdf flattening system to snapshot book plan pdf for faster streaming to laser printers.
• New swap and merge options on ad drag, simply drag an ad on top of another ad in the plan and see the new options.
• Added new option to shift book content forward or backward from a specific point. Found in page menu.
• Enhanced merge ad system to dynamically choose better data and fixed several issues associated with merge.
• Ad import system change: If field selector is not selected, the ad content for that field will not updated. Previously data was overwritten with empty data.
• Ad import changes: Import matches ads by  materialsid and or booking number. Previously only booking number was matched.
• Many new ad shapes added in the ad specification shape selector for easier shape matching.
• Updated story flow system to support ads which have no proper shape. This is still not recommended but it now works. 
• Better preflight data for ads in ad details view of VP added.
• Lots of additions to the VP and SMA api to support third party system data collection and creation.

Virtual Publisher Image Management Features

• New FTP hotfolder system for sending bulk images via FTP drop.
• New group creation system for grouping multiple images together on upload or at a later time.
• Workitem check in / check out system add for images. Also added new rights based system to allow users to only do checkin and checkout work.
• Work item hover system added to right panel with easy to read tooltips.
• New HTML5 softproof viewer added for Images and Pages. Java Viewer is being phased out.
• New left menu workitems area added. Allows users todo and see workitems as a list. Also comes with group management and new rights.

SendMyAd Features

• Ad creator has 2 new field type options, 
• Internal data set, allows ad creator field to be mapped to an existing SendMyAd field.
• Delimited data set allows for the creation of a custom delimited string on the user's ad. 
• New ad credit hold system added which marks the ad with a red overlay when there is a credit hold placed on the ad.
• Ship date added to issue import system.
• Issue run date and Material due date added to add new issue form for easier issue creation.
• Ad merge system added to list view. Users can now select 2 ads from list view for merging.
• Added new group right based system to allow publisher ad sales reps to see only the ads they are associated with.
• New ad rate and net cost fields added to left panel for publishers to manage ad cost details.

January 14 Update

Virtual Publisher

• Moved all view config selectors into gray toolbar
• New overlap status system implemented any time there is too much content on a page.
• New overset options menu. When a story is overset, a new option is available to treat the overset
• New once per upload approval options allow publishers to setup file approvals which will only need approval once even if the file is revised.
• iPad book review system in VP book plan. Go to the vp book plan on an iPad.
• New custom paths system allows publishers to create customized delivery paths for specific pages in a plan by setting up folio labels.
• New background color options in VP Book plan.
• New dark gray tool bar added to all views to make room for UI components.
• Indesign plugin renamed from Editorial Manager to Page Manager in anticipation of actual plugin which manages true indesign and incopy editorials.
• New VP Image Manager plugin designed for downloading and placing FPO and High res images into indesign documents.
• New Publications Ad List report

SendMyAd

• Actions menu moved to new gray toolbar
• Notes and revision history now appear in the digital receipt
• Ad Creator image uploader has a new button to center the image
• Ad Creator can now use the traditional SendMyAd publisher approval process. Create publisher approvals at the publisher or publication level just like print ad approvals.
• New tablet device setups for iPhone 4 and 5
• New warning when attempting to remove a preflight profile that is in use by one or more color profiles
• Extended the new custom view and reporting system across the application (publications, issues, etc)
• New once per upload approval options allow publishers to setup file approvals which will only need approval once even if the file is revised. Configured per approval step. 
• Many fixes, some new methods and complete documentation for the SendMyAd API. Browse the API manual at http://www.sendmyadsupport.com/api