What program could I use for this?

[vigilante]

Not sure where to post this question or even if this is the right forum, but since I'm a member

This is more of a publishing question.

I designed a graphic like a product card that goes in product packaging. The same card template can be used for many products, and thus each card may have different product title and information etc.

The problem is, I am easily able to edit these cards, but no one else can. In other words, picture this scenario:

1) I create a single "card" (about 3.5x5 inches) in Photoshop, including a small bleed.
2) I create a full 8.5x11 in Illustrator and LINK the PS file in 4 areas so I can print 4 cards to a page.
3) Any changes I make to the single PS template, it updates in Illustrator as needed.
4) Each time I have a new template with a different product, I save it out to PDF so they can be printed directly without using PS/IL again.

This is perfect for me, but the boss is saying they want a template where other employees can edit the text, product description, titles etc and print it out.
Nobody has Adobe software except me on my workstation.

I have not been able to find a way to allow this "template" to be easily editable by random other people (without them screwing it up!) and not using super expensive software to do it.

• I can't use PS or Ill, those are only on my workstation and people need some level of training to use them, plus they could mess up the template itself if not careful.
• I've tried using Indesign for the whole project, but I'm not as good on it and it frustrates me to use. Besides, nobody else has that program either.
• I tried creating it with Adobe Acrobat, but creating the various text fields in the right places with right alignments at right sizes and trying to tweak the auto-size feature is just not practical, it simply doesn't work good, or at all!
  
• Microsoft Word and Excel are completely out, even though everybody has them. Those programs do all manner of graphical distorting and compressing and destroying. We can't use them for our quality prints.

I'm lost as to how I can create this template but let others edit the text as needed!

The only possible idea I've come up with is to print the templates as blanks, then use Word to create overlay text boxes in the right places. So people could open the Word template, type their text, then put pre-printed paper in and print over it.

Any other ideas?

 

[The_Traveler]

If an Adobe Acrobat pdf with formatted text boxes doesn't work, I can't imagine what would.
Does Word allow you to lock down all formatting except text entry?

This is headed for a bad ending.

 

[Light Guru]

How exactly does Microsoft Word distort graphics? People put graphics into word documents all the time and they look fine.

 

[Buckster]

A few years ago, I was tasked with designing and making laminated photo ID badges for personnel, employees and subcontractors, assigned to our division. I did so in Photoshop, making a template that I could readily use over and over to make a new badge for each person, and then for each new person that came into our employ in that division. It worked great for us.

Obviously, some things stay the same from badge to badge, like the company name and logo, while other things all change from badge to badge, like the person's photo, their name, employee number, and so on.

Then corporate decided they liked it so much that they wanted the other divisions in other locations around the country and even in other parts of the world to use it as a company standard, and I was tasked with putting together a universal template to send out to all those job sites.

That's when I ran into the same problem, and the same frustrations: I was the only Photoshop user with the program and experience to do it. It became necessary for me to put together some sort of template that the rest of the company could use at more of a clerk level, with little to no training, using the common programs they already had, which basically came down to Microsoft Office applications, Adobe Acrobat Standard, and a few other programs common to that company that might make candidates.

In the end, none of the programs I tried to use could really duplicate what I was doing in Photoshop. The closest I could come was in Microsoft Word and Excel. None allowed for the pixel level editing to recreate everything in the spaces and sizes used in the Photoshop template I'd made and was using. But, since I had to come up with something that EVERYONE could use, I made two templates that were as close as I could get, one in Word and one in Excel.

From my point of view, they were far from equal to what I'd been producing. They looked similar though in terms of what information was included, and where on the badge it was. There was an aesthetic and a quality issue that was difficult to really put my finger on, but it was there. Nonetheless, I used them to make some samples, and they were acceptable enough for those who make the final decisions to say, yes, that's what they wanted. They did not appear to see the differences that were so glaringly obvious to me.

I suspect you'll need to make some similar design choices and concessions.

 

[binga63]

Indesign

 

[dennybeall]

You can do it in EXCEL fairly easily also. Create a Form for input and have the cells linked to the print page.

 

[vigilante]

Both Excel and Word either distort or heavily or change the resolution. For example I do all Photoshop/Illustrator graphics in 300DPI but if I take a simple 4 inch by 4 inch 300DPI Photoshop graphic into Word, it fills the entire 8.5x11 page! Of course this is a pixel issue, Word doesn't understand how to know this is a 4 inch square, so you have to size it. But then it's not 300DPI any more, I think Word uses like 96dpi or something weird.
The simple fact is that you won't get your dense 300DPI graphics from Word.
I've found an even more bizarre issue with graphics in Excel, it literally distorts the graphic! Excel will let you set higher DPI for your document, but if you want precise images (such as being exactly 5"x5") your print will distort. This is a known issue: Excel will not print images at correct height width

I also have InDesign but this doesn't help allow anybody else in the office to use their computers and programs.
Something akin to a fillable PDF would be perfect. I've found that Adobe Acrobat does not have the needed options, their auto-resizing doesn't work quite right, paddings/margins are difficult to deal with, it doesn't have vertical justification, etc etc. Not only that, but my users won't get a rich text editor when editing fields in Acrobat, so it's a non-starter. The idea is right.

If only there were a PDF-like format where I can have proper high-rez graphics with overlaid text fields where users can edit as single-line text, or rich text, insert images or use any other "editable fields", change colors/fonts/styles, with smart auto-resizing, vertical justification and other advanced features. And of course the tool would be free, not unlikc how Reader is free.