Create automatically product sheets / technical sheets
The creation of product sheets / technical data sheets is an important step in providing a large amount of information and reassuring customers throughout their purchasing process. Product sheets often include one or more photos, a description, text fields, sales arguments, pricing, and more.
Available in print or online formats, product sheets (also known as technical data sheets) are communication tools that showcase a company’s products, services, or offerings. However, creating product or technical sheets that are both comprehensive and visually appealing requires special attention.
Fortunately, there are solutions you can rely on. Thanks to automated layout in InDesign, it is possible to save time and avoid errors. Creating product / technical sheets then becomes far less complex.
How can I make creating my product sheets / technical data sheets easier?
Generally, graphic designers use the same approach. First, they create and set up the layouts for product / technical sheets. Then, they manually copy and paste product data into each individual sheet.
However, this method is not well-suited for generating a large number of product / technical sheets. For designers, this task quickly becomes repetitive; proofreading takes a great deal of time, and copy-paste errors can easily slip into each product sheet.
What if this manual work could be replaced with an automated process? Automated layout in InDesign makes this possible—in record time.
What is the principle behind automating the layout of product / technical sheets?
It is possible to add the EasyCatalog plug-in to InDesign. This module takes desktop publishing even further by automating the layout of documents (product sheets, catalogs, price lists, labels, directories, etc.).
EasyCatalog allows you to connect your data source—such as an Excel file or a database (ERP, PIM, etc.)—directly to your InDesign document. This synchronization automatically imports data into InDesign into what are known as “product templates.” In practical terms, these are blocks made up of several areas containing configured fields linked to specific data. Once the data is connected to the appropriate template, the layout of product / technical sheets can be fully automated: product data automatically populates the designated fields.
As a result, you can generate dozens or even hundreds of product / technical sheets in just moments. Moreover, any changes made to the data in InDesign can be reflected in the original data source—and vice versa—since the link between InDesign and your data source is bidirectional. This ensures consistency and synchronization of your information.
Why automate the generation of my product / technical sheets?
Automated layout offers several advantages. Your product sheets will contain data that can be easily updated, and automation significantly reduces the risks associated with manual work. In addition, designers continue working within their familiar tool—InDesign—making EasyCatalog easy to adopt.
In short fewer errors and significant time savings for optimized creation of your product / technical sheets.
What remains to be done once my product / technical sheets are created?
Once your product sheets have been generated using EasyCatalog, you can finalize them by making any necessary adjustments. For example, you may visually rebalance your sheets by adding images or repositioning certain elements if needed.
Your product sheets can then be distributed to your sales teams or published on your website.
Would you like to change your product prices? Have you realized that several product images are of poor quality? The flexibility offered by EasyCatalog allows you to automatically update the affected product / technical sheets in just a few clicks.
Would you like to optimize the creation of your product / technical sheets, but are unsure whether they can be automated with EasyCatalog? Take the “Is your document automatable?” test to find out.