Optional, but Required
BLOX Total CMS’s output is OPTIONAL. It is not a required part of BLOX Total CMS for Adobe InDesign. It does however play an integral part of working with Page Tracker. And for sites using hosted Blox’s Live e-Edition with BLOX Total CMS segmenting, Output is required to send the segmentation to Live e-Editions.
What Output Does
With the exception of interacting with Page Tracker (with or without feeding Live e-Edition), all our Output functions are doing is hiding the user interface from the user. Thus it’s biggest advantage is that Adobe InDesign users will be less likely to mis-configure output options.
Nonetheless, if the Adobe InDesign users can’t output manually, then they can’t output using BLOX Total CMS. This means that if the output settings aren’t known, or if the Adobe InDesign presets aren’t loaded on the individual workstations, then the BLOX Total CMS output functions can’t be used.
Local Output
Output is handled on local workstations, not via background machines.
Unlike some editorial pagination systems, output from BLOX Total CMS for Adobe InDesign is handled by individual user’s workstations and not on a background server. This was a decision made by TownNews because few of our sites could afford the high cost of the servers and software necessary for doing background output.
In addition, by distributing the effort amongst the workstations, there is greater redundancy for output and it is far less likely for the output to get bogged down during the final minutes before deadline.
Workstations need configuration
All BLOX Total CMS for Adobe InDesign workstations must be consistently configured for output. Primarily this means that each workstation has all the Adobe InDesign PDF Export Presets or the Adobe InDesign Print Presets loaded referenced by the output functions. It is the responsibility of the site to handle this configuration.
In addition, if the site is using printing versus a PDF export, then the printers must be installed with the same names and functionalities as referenced in the Adobe InDesign Print Presets. Again, it is the responsibility of the site to handle this and other aspects of the workstation configuration.
