PR: Blatner Tools 1.0 InDesign Plug-ins Released
PRESS RELEASE
Blatner Tools 1.0 InDesign Plug-ins Released
Prague/Seattle, December 14, 2009 – DTP Tools announces the immediate availability of Blatner Tools 1.0, a suite of 12 InDesign plug-ins at one low cost. This collection offers over 100 new features for InDesign users, including the ability to create color and style reports, create fractions automatically, build character and paragraph styles and apply them across an entire document quickly, and more. These features were perfected (and more features added) during a six-week public beta period this fall.
The Blatner Tools suite was designed by longtime industry guru David Blatner, who also co-hosts the InDesignSecrets.com site. Blatner noted, “I love InDesign, but there’s plenty of room for improvement! Blatner Tools adds many of the features my clients and students have been requesting for years. Tools to create and manage styles better, the ability to find and replace colors, to quickly identify hard-to-locate document errors – this stuff was painful before, but Blatner Tools makes it all easy!”
In the current economy, every second counts, and Blatner Tools is all about maximizing productivity, efficiency, and quality.
Key Features
Blatner Tools includes too many features to list here, but here are some of the most important functions:
- Analyze documents to automatically create and apply character and paragraph styles
- Find Color lets you find colors — even spot colors inside placed graphics!
- An Extras menu provides quick access to scripts
- Compare Styles shows how two or more styles are different
- Remove Local Formatting can strip unwanted text formatting out of an entire document
- History Lite offers an easy to use Undo/Redo panel
- AutoPage lets text frames extend and auto-thread to new pages to avoid overset text
- Text Controls gives you powerful tools for fast and precise text formatting
- You can apply any keyboard shortcut you want to layers, styles, and even color swatches!
- One-click formatting for professional looking fractions.
- Live “quality assurance” finds common typographic and document errors.
This is just a fraction of what Blatner Tools offers. We encourage you to visit our website to download the free trial version, see more detailed feature lists, or to watch tutorial videos made by David Blatner.
Availability
The Blatner Tools version 1.0 14–days trial version , for InDesign CS3 and CS4, and for Mac OS and Windows, is available for immediate download at: www.dtptools.com/bt
or at the direct download links:
- MAC: www.dtptools.com/blatnertools/Blatner_Tools_1.0.zip
- WIN: www.dtptools.com/blatnertools/Blatner_Tools_1.0.msi
About David Blatner
David Blatner is the world’s most-recognized authority on Adobe InDesign. He is the author of 15 books, the co-host of InDesignSecrets.com, and the editorial director of InDesign Magazine. Over a half-million copies of his books are in print in 16 languages, winning him awards and praise from readers. He has spoken at conferences and workshops around North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Japan, and South Africa.
About DTP Tools
DTP Tools is a leading provider of InDesign and InCopy solutions. With widely-renowned plug-ins such as History, Cross-References, and Page Control, we help make tens of thousands of worldwide InDesign users more efficient and more fun. Check out our site to find how our other plug-ins can help you save more time and money in the production process! For more information, email info @ dtptools.com
Nice. Any information on the price?
On DTP tools it comes up as 109 euros, roughly $158.
While I likjely am finished at CS4 what are the updates requirements and costs for CS5 which appears to be coming right around the corner?
I am sure many are apprehensive about plugins and the like with a new version only months away.
The price on their site is 109 euros, but their shopping cart seems to know where you’re located. When clicking on the shopping cart here in the states, it shows up as $149… a deal!
@Gary: Jan Macuch from DTP Tools wrote in a different blog post that they have never charged for an update before. That bodes well for a free update for CS5. I wouldn’t worry about it. That’s one of the things that I love about DTP Tools; they bend over backward trying to help their customers.
i mentioned this on the other post, but will they do volume licensing?
@gwells: Yes, absolutely. Check out the dtptools site. Also, for larger site licenses, contact support at dtptools.com
Full Disclosure: It’s not a Secret that I’m a huge fan of David Blatner. With that being said, I can honestly say that I really love Blatner Tools (InDesign Plug-ins). So many great, useful features!
This is definitely a must have plug-in. I have been using it a for less then a week and I keep discovering more and more about it.
Some plug-in’s do one thing (like Q2ID and autoprice). David’s plug-in does hundreds of things. It is like a vegas buffet, you might not want in there but you want to try it all!
I haven’t dropped the money yet on these plugins. I probably will after the holidays. They seem very impressive.
I like the Find Color feature mentioned in the podcast. I was thinking that another cool thing to do with the color palette would be able to group colors. Let’s say I have a magazine template and it comes out quarterly. If I could group the colors then I could have color groups for spring, summer, fall and winter all in one file.
What do you think?
inkeye: we think this is a great idea, we’ve actually been asked many times to do such feature and we do listen to our customers wishes
there will be a lot of work behind this one though.
Although my boss will never buy it seems like a great addition to ID – congrats on finishing it!
At the same time it makes me wonder about the new features/improvement in CS5..