Morel Communications Workflow Enhanced with DesignMerge

Morel Communications Inc. (formerly Witham and Dickey) is a one-stop shop for printing, headquartered in Portland, OR and servicing the greater Northwest. They offer a full spectrum of services, reaching a very diverse market. With roots in traditional offset printing, they have expanded their business into many profitable new market niches by incorporating variable data printing. Their personalized promotional products range from pens, hats and coffee mugs to full apparel, with the Homestead Cards division offering popular Holiday Union specialty cards that can also be personalized. And as a premier printer for political campaigns, they provide anything that may need printing, like the "Get The Message Out" Tee's, in a jiffy!

Following is a short interview with Joe Lloyd, Prepress/IT Manager discussing how DesignMerge has helped meet their unique challenges with a solution that has resulted in increased profits and an expanded customer base.

	What business challenges have you faced in the VDP market? Our main challenge, moving into the variable data market, was what to charge for this new service. Realizing that we needed to analyze the market to understand its potential, we asked the questions, “How would our investment in the variable data market grow and expand our business?” “Would we see a profit while offering competitive prices for our client's ability to personalize their direct mail campaigns and newsletters?” Well, we've answered these questions and have installed new equipment to better serve our customers with a HP Indigo 550 6-Color Press and DesignMerge variable data software. Now we can dazzle our customers with personalized print on everything from books to mailers and anything in between!
	Why did you choose DesignMerge for your VDP implementation? We chose DesignMerge as our VDP solution because it's a powerful and cost-effective implementation to a workflow we already had in place. It's a simple plug-in solution for InDesign that adds superior functionality without having to leave our composition software. This smooth integration of DesignMerge into InDesign meant that our operators were up and running in virtually no time. We also receive great support from the technical staff at Meadows Publishing Solutions anytime we have a question. Furthermore, DesignMerge is very flexible, enabling us to create everything from quick turn-around jobs with a few lines of variable text, to very complex layouts that involve photos, map locations, and postal bar codes.

What were the results of your DesignMerge implementation? Our ROI with DesignMerge has been phenomenal! Not only from a profit standpoint but from a customer enrichment standpoint as well. We are now able to show new and old customers alike, the benefits of variable data printing and personalized mailing campaigns. They in turn, can teach their marketing groups and buyers a new method for increasing sales and expanding business, resulting in a Win-Win situation all the way around.

See Us at On Demand 2011 in Washington DC

Meadows will be demonstrating the very latest version of DesignMerge in booth 2937 at the On Demand Expo, March 22-24 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. The demonstration
will include a preview of the new DesignMerge Image module, which is an integration feature that allows DesignMerge to work seamlessly with a number of Variable Image packages. Please stop by for a personalized demonstration.

We hope to see you there!

New Features in DesignMerge Pro for Adobe InDesign!

The recent release of DesignMerge Pro v3.10, v4.10, and v5.10 software for Adobe InDesign introduces many new features that will help you deliver the best in your variable data printing jobs. Following is a quick overview of some of these new features which we know you will enjoy using in your VDP jobs:

• “MPS GroupPicture” module + the DesignMerge ’ÄúGroupPicture’Äù Link Type
  The new "MPS GroupPicture" module and DesignMerge "GroupPicture" Link Type let you save inDesign groups of content for quick re-use and also to merge these groups as variables in your VDP jobs.
  
• “Consecutive Numbering” Utility + “Consecutive Number” Keyword Variable Link
  These two new features make it easy to include a consecutive number in your printing jobs, regardless whether your VDP job includes other variable content.
  
• New Variable Picture Position options!
  The latest version of DesignMerge for Adobe InDesign introduces new Variable Picture Position options, giving you even more control over the position and size of any VDP job's variable pictures.
  
• “MPS Scripting” and “MPS Print Automation” optional modules
  With the addition of these two new optional modules for the latest version of DesignMerge for InDesign, you can automate your VDP jobs. Also, when the “MPS Scripting” module is present, any type of DesignMerge Rule can launch external scripts, allowing your VDP jobs to achieve an even higher level of custom results.
  
• Master Page Variables
  By being able to place both fixed and variable content on Master Pages that a Page Rule applies while merging, you can now set up a document to swap any of the content, both fixed and variable, that will appear on a page when the document is merged.
  
• “MPS Tags”
  MPS Tags are a custom set of easy “style tags” that can be included in text files which the new "MPS Tags Utility" can process when importing the file, or embedded in data for Variable Links to provide pinpoint, character-to-character control over the styling of the text when DesignMerge merges that data into a Variable Text Link.
  
• “MPS Tags Converter” Utility
  This new feature helps you retain DesignMerge Text Links when converting InDesign documents to a format that does not support DesignMerge Text Links (for example, the “INX” InDesign Interchange format or the “IDML” InDesign Markup format).

For more information on these new features, please see the DesignMerge v3.10/v4.10/v5.10 Release Notes, available in PDF format in the DesignMerge product folder that the installer places in your Macintosh Applications or Windows Program Files folder.

Current DesignMerge Software Versions

Are you running the most current version of the DesignMerge software? Check the table below. For information on upgrades, please contact our sales department at sales@meadowsps.com

MACINTOSH:

WINDOWS:

DesignMerge Pro Bundle Software

Professional Variable Data Printing Software for QuarkXPress® and Adobe® InDesign®

www.designmerge.com