Project Overview
First published in 1994, County Snapshots provides brief descriptions
of every county in the state of Georgia. The publication
is produced by the Georgia
Department of Community Affairs and is used by teachers,
students, business leaders, elected officials and others for
various research and presentation purposes. Because Georgia
has 159 counties, the 4-page publications involve a large
number of elements:
- 636 separate blocks of descriptive text covering local community information, demographics, economics, and government information, all drawn from a Microsoft Access database.
- 318 text-based tables based upon data from a Microsoft Access database.
- 954 graphs generated in Adobe Illustrator based upon data drawn from a Microsoft Access database.
- 318 photographs cropped, size and color-corrected in Adobe Photoshop, along with captions for each produced in Microsoft Excel.
- 477 maps placed into the final document.
- 636 separate pages formatted in Adobe InDesign.
- 159 final PDFs with hyperlinks generated with Adobe Acrobat.
Going From Print To Pdf/Web
Snapshots is one of DCA's most popular and most requested
publications and previously was produced in printed form only
on a 4-year publishing cycle. Once the document was printed,
data became outdated quickly.
This year, the department decided to produce the publications on the web with PDFs available for on-demand printing. Changing from a commercially printed document benefits DCA in the following ways:
- The publication becomes easily updateable.
- The data remains current and accurate.
- The PDF format is more flexible for the client–they can print out individual county PDFs rather than search through a 700 page plus document and make copies.
- The PDF format saves significant money in commercial printing costs and postage. The last Snapshots print run cost $30K, plus postage.
An All-Adobe Solution
A previous publication (CityScapes)
was automated by Scripting Events using QuarkXPress. This
time, Scripting Events recommended a solution based upon
Adobe InDesign because of its excellent AppleScript support,
both for formatting text and graphics as well as producing
PDFs directly from the program via scripting. More info on
this solution >>
By taking advantage of excellent AppleScript support in Adobe Illustrator, Scripting Events was also able to automate the production of all 954 graphs, which included bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts. This script was run multiple times as data was corrected and chart formats were refined, and also produced charts in JPEG format for use on the website. More info on this solution >>
DCA was also interested in knowing if Scripting Events could help with the tedious process of scanning and editing 318 photographs for use in the publication. Scripting Events came up with an automated solution using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign to crop and position the photos for the final publication, and produce files with standard photo editing applied. More info on this solution >>
Time Saved
It took over a year to complete Snapshots. It was a major
effort on the part of DCA and other state and federal agencies
with regard to data collection and analysis activities. Scripting
Matters developed the scripts for each stage of the project
while the DCA went through an internal review process. Once
the final script was delivered, the automation only took a
few minutes per county.
Scripting Events developed four sets of scripts which were run by DCA overnight. Most scripts were run 2-3 times to account for updated data--a process which could not have been considered if the job had been done manually. A conservative estimate of what it would take to do this project manually would be around 2000 hours, or the equivalent of one employee working for more than a year (assuming the employee took a minimum number of breaks and was extremely productive).
With this process, it took less than two minutes to build each publication.
"Working with InDesign was easier than working in Quark. Adobe PageMaker is our main page layout application and InDesign has a similar interface resulting in a minimal learning curve. On the client side, InDesign features such as the Links Pallet and Hyperlink Pallet allowed the menus to be visible and thus easier to use than Quark's Usage window.
On the vendor side, InDesign features such as PDF distribution for print, integration between InDesign and the web, the ability to generate PDF bookmarks (for the glossary) as well as HTML (for the web, including links for the glossary terms) were essential for the success of the project.
I ran the scripts overnight with much success. The Error Log Report was very helpful in identifying errors so I was very confident running the scripts without watching them, and thus freeing up my time to work on other projects.
Scripting Events is a pleasure to work with. We are repeat customers and expect to use Ray for future projects. Ray is always professional and courteous. His services are reasonably priced and the scripts always work! But what makes the difference is Ray's willingness to make the scripts work for you and your project.
Even after consultations, script development, and trial and errors, we were continually tweaking the scripts to make them more efficient and useful. Many vendors could easily have said, "This is what we agreed upon; changes will cost you extra. Ray's commitment to his client really makes all the difference in the world!
I am also impressed with his ability to grasp the project's concept and keep it on track. Via email and phone, Ray was able to understand our project and our needs, conceptualize the solution, present a flexible proposal, and successfully deliver the final product. Our project took over a year and we were never waiting on him to deliver the scripts...he was always waiting on us. I am sure he was working on other projects during that year but we always received full attention and timely deliveries and responses.
Scripting Events is an excellent company and I highly recommend Ray for any project that would benefit from automation."
Patty Williams
Manager of Design Services
Georgia Department of Community Affairs
On the vendor side, InDesign features such as PDF distribution for print, integration between InDesign and the web, the ability to generate PDF bookmarks (for the glossary) as well as HTML (for the web, including links for the glossary terms) were essential for the success of the project.
I ran the scripts overnight with much success. The Error Log Report was very helpful in identifying errors so I was very confident running the scripts without watching them, and thus freeing up my time to work on other projects.
Scripting Events is a pleasure to work with. We are repeat customers and expect to use Ray for future projects. Ray is always professional and courteous. His services are reasonably priced and the scripts always work! But what makes the difference is Ray's willingness to make the scripts work for you and your project.
Even after consultations, script development, and trial and errors, we were continually tweaking the scripts to make them more efficient and useful. Many vendors could easily have said, "This is what we agreed upon; changes will cost you extra. Ray's commitment to his client really makes all the difference in the world!
I am also impressed with his ability to grasp the project's concept and keep it on track. Via email and phone, Ray was able to understand our project and our needs, conceptualize the solution, present a flexible proposal, and successfully deliver the final product. Our project took over a year and we were never waiting on him to deliver the scripts...he was always waiting on us. I am sure he was working on other projects during that year but we always received full attention and timely deliveries and responses.
Scripting Events is an excellent company and I highly recommend Ray for any project that would benefit from automation."
Patty Williams
Manager of Design Services
Georgia Department of Community Affairs
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