In today’s marketing and publishing world, data must be used more than once — otherwise, content is just too expensive. Networking via the cloud and structured work based on web technologies such as HTML and CSS simplify the multiple use of content significantly.
Repurposing the same content among various publications is just one part of the equation. In the digital publishing era, the same content is also used repeatedly within the same publication. The new unit for content is no longer the classic published “issue.” Rather, it is the article itself.
In today´s marketing and publishing world, the same article will be published in different contexts. The article displaces the issue as “content unit”.
The same article likely will be published in different contexts. It might first appear in the news stream in an app before it’s also used as part of a digital or printed edition. The article could also appear in a special edition (collection) on specific topics. While the content itself doesn’t change, it’s efficiently reused as is or repurposed using existing elements. This is the process of creating once and publishing many times in its purest form.
Responsive HTML5 layouts without coding
WoodWing found that coping with these new requirements has become increasingly difficult for traditional software packages. This insight led WoodWing to develop Inception, a cloud-based tool for creating responsive content for various channels. Responsive content generated with Inception automatically adapts to the screen size of any device on which it is displayed.
In WoodWing Inception, an article will be built from “Story Elements”. Users can select from categories including “title”, “text”, “media” and “layout”.
Since Inception generates articles in clean HTML, the content can be processed differently for various publication channels. Inception currently supports direct export to Adobe Digital Publishing Solution (DPS) and Facebook Instant Articles. Additional output channels such as Apple News are in the pipeline.
From ready-made standard templates to self-coded layouts
Inception includes a basic layout template, which WoodWing refers to as “Look & Feel.” The supplied default is fully responsive and has been tested on a variety of mobile devices. Publishers that desire more customized layouts can download WoodWing’s default template, engage with the code and save their own “Look & Feel.”
Any article structure that users want to reuse multiple times can be saved as a template. Selecting one of the templates when a new article is created makes it easy to ensure consistent content. The article itself is composed using the Story Elements option. A context menu provides blocks, including the categories Title, Text, Media and Layout, which users can insert wherever the cursor is positioned.
The layouts created in Inception are responsive to match the screen sizes and formats of the device they are viewed on. Using the preview feature, the display on different output devices can be simulated.
High ease of use, based in the cloud
Inception is largely self-explanatory, and anyone who is familiar with a web browser should have no trouble using it. This is in contrast with other software for editors, such as Adobe InCopy, which require training and regular use for efficient production. Other publishing system editors are well-intentioned, but none of them is as comfortable to use as Inception. Since Inception is a cloud-based solution, no additional software is required and collaboration with remote workers and freelancers is a snap.
Conclusion
Publishing tools and processes are in flux. With the demise of legacy desktop publishing, we have arrived at the age of cloud-based publishing. Browser-based software has replaced traditional desktop tools to the same degree that desktop publishing systems replaced typesetting systems 30 years ago. With Inception, WoodWing is a front-runner in cloud-based publishing. The software runs on a standard web browser and the vendor takes responsibility for data storage, backup, maintenance and updates. Affordable to rent on the cloud, Inception is ready to use immediately.
