*** From the Archives ***
This article is from June 8, 2009, and is no longer current.
PR: In-Tools Releases AutoFlow Pro Plug-in
[Editor’s note: In-Tools is offering 50% off the cost of this very cool plug-in to InDesignSecrets readers until June 22, 2009.]
June 8, 2009 NYC, NY, USA – In-Tools, developers of automated computerized publishing solutions, announces the release of AutoFlow Pro 1.0, a plug-in for InDesign CS3 and CS4. AutoFlow Pro combines with InDesign’s sophisticated composition abilities to provide a remarkably advanced solution for flowing and reflowing entire documents, and requires only minimal user attention. With AutoFlow Pro you fully control the layout of both text and images, using both master frames and non-master frames.
AutoFlow Pro is simple enough for even beginner users, but is also an incredibly advanced plug-in that has the power to automate the flow of documents in extremely complicated ways. The automation is exceptionally flexible and is useful in a wide range of applications.
AutoFlow Pro adds the following functionality to InDesign’s composition of documents:
- AutoFlow Pro dynamically expands and shrinks individual text frames, and threaded stories.
- AutoFlow Pro adds and removes text frames and pages as necessary to fit text.
- AutoFlow Pro does not require the use of master text frames. This is an important advantage over other products which offer auto-flow capabilities.
- AutoFlow Pro adds the ability to apply unique settings to any or every individual story in a document, which is far more flexible than InDesign CS4’s document-wide-only ability.
- AutoFlow Pro intelligently flows the text according to your settings.
- AutoFlow Pro applies master pages according to your settings to transform ordinary master pages into dynamic page templates that can move and resize both text frames and graphic frames, by simply applying a different master page!
- AutoFlow Pro’s transformations can be automatically activated by text reflows.
- AutoFlow Pro can link paragraph styles to master pages and automatically apply the correct master page as necessary.
- AutoFlow Pro can automatically thread stories across different master pages.
- AutoFlow Pro can automatically reposition and resize both text frames and graphic frames when page sides or the applied master page changes.
AutoFlow Pro provides the following valuable benefits for book compositors, magazine producers, and graphic designers in general:
- Transform your master pages into dynamic templates.
- Take complete control of your document flow.
- Let automatic pagination free you to actually design your publication.
- Retain full quality control of your publication in collaborative environments.
- Instantly adjust the layout of an entire page or group of pages.
- Increase precision with text frames which will always fit exactly to your text.
- Save time and headaches when reflowing text.
Pricing and Availability:
AutoFlow Pro licenses can be purchased from the In-Tools Web site, www.in-tools.com at an introductory price of $99 (USD) for use with InDesign CS3 or CS4, on a single Macintosh or Windows workstation. AutoFlow Pro is also available as part of the InBook and InSefer plug-in packages. When purchased as part of the InBook or InSefer plug-in package, use is allowed on up to two personal workstations. A 30-day fully functional Demo is available for download.
In-Tools is offering a FREE upgrade to all licensed users of Auto-Flow (a much more basic, now-discontinued product which offered auto-flow capabilities). AutoFlow Pro is available for both Macintosh and Windows, and works with Adobe InDesign CS3 and CS4.
About In-Tools:
Based in New York City, NY, with operations in Israel, In-Tools Solutions sells Adobe Middle Eastern software and provides both off-the-shelf, and customized automation solutions for publishers. In-Tools specializes in creating innovative ways to automate production, saving substantial time and money. In-Tools will create customized solutions for all publishers and designers. At In-Tools, almost no job is too big or too small. For more information, visit www.in-tools.com, or email [email protected]. Copyright (C) 2009 In-Tools. All Rights Reserved.
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I’ve heard that these plug-ins are pretty good and I tried a few of the demos, and I ended up trying to purchase the InBook package. It has been nothing but a headache. The link in the confirmation link doesn’t work and I get a error message. I contact their techs support and they are like “oops, we really need to fix that one of these days.”
I’m trying to activate the package, and it doesn’t work. I just get stuck going to their site and a thing to purchase.
The licensing and tech support is lousy. I’ve been at this for over an hour and in another minutes I’m gonna tell them to shove it and get my 200 bucks back.
I don’t want to–but this shoddy way of doing things (and that stupid plug-in you need to even install the stuff) is ridiculous.
NOTE: Their tech support was very “helpful” when I had problems trying to purchase their plug-ins via e-mail, but haven’t heard diddly since the major issue with trying to download the licenses.
My recommendation: Let other idiots like myself try to buy and use these things before you whip our your charge card. It will save you a lot of aggravation.
@Dwayne: So it sounds like the problem you’re having is not with the plug-in, but rather with their licensing agreement. I wonder if that’s with APID or with InTools. Either way, I’ll ask them to look at this thread.
It does sound aggravating, but I have faith that your particular issue can be worked out.
Dear Dwayne,
I am so sorry to hear your experience with InBook is not going well! We’re the makers of APIDToolAssistant, the plug-in you refer to, which is used by InBook.
I won’t blindly jump into this issue at this point in time, as it does not sound like the issue is with APIDToolAssistant per se – the people at In-Tools would normally contact me if the issue were with APIDToolAssistant.
What I did want to mention: both Harbs (the developer of In-Tools) and me (the developer of APIDToolAssistant) are in different time zones than the USA – so please keep in mind that e-mail responses will not always be immediate – sometimes 12-hour or even longer lags in e-mail responses are unavoidable.
Please bear with us – we’re all running small companies, and we do make mistakes, and sometimes things don’t go as smoothly as they should, but I am sure this will get sorted!
Cheers,
Kris
Hi Dwayne,
Sorry about your trouble. You had the misfortune of experiencing a blip in our licensing software in the middle of the night where I am… :(
I responded to your support request, and we’ll get your licenses credited ASAP!
Our licenses are usually credited automatically. Accounts are credited when PayPal completes a handshake informing our server that a transaction was completed. This usually works well. If communication is lost with PayPal for any reason (i.e. a browser window is closed prematurely), the only way we are going to notice that a license is not credited is by receiving an email from you that it didn’t work. We give such emails top priority, and fix these issue as quickly as we possibly can.
You do have to realize that we are a small company and don’t have a support team working 24/7… These issues are almost always sorted out within 24 hours — usually much less (more than 12 hours is very rare). Our web programmer is currently looking into options to make the communication with PayPal more foolproof, so we can eliminate these issues entirely.
Thanks Kris and Harbs. I shouldn’t have become so agitated.
Apologies and thanks ahead of time for getting this resolved.
Maybe the folks who run this site will see fit to delete my posts.
dwayne
Update– Harb has been extremely helpful this morning and the issue is being resolved.
Again–I want to apologize for becoming frustrated so quickly.
Dwayne
I see that I’ve come across this post years later, but I felt I had to write. Each time I’ve contacted In-Tools for support (and there have been a few times while I learnt my way around…) I got very quick response, Harbs was helpful and pleasant. Their product has helped me a lot in my work!
Grateful, that’s no nice of you to take the time to post that great feedback about In-Tools. They are great, aren’t they!