The ARTLab solution was to create a proof-of-concept, fully functioning AppleScript demo around a catalog production workflow. This was a publishing task that was incredibly labor-intensive, time-consuming and subject to last minute revision, but was also very repetitive and potentially could be automated.

ARTLab contacted Viking Office Products to come up with a workflow that could realistically use AppleScript to automate production of their monthly, multi-versioned office product catalogs.

ARTlab also worked with the AppleScript engineers and Quark Cumulus and FileMaker programmers to debug & implement AppleScript features into their software so that this kind of demo could even be possible.

The final AppleScript demonstration was very compelling and has been presented throughout the world at events and in the field. It uses a FileMaker text database & Cumulus image database to store pricing and descriptive product information for each product. The script looks searches the database, finds appropriate records, moves the data of each record to a Quark Xpress template, formats it and positions it as it was brought in. In a manner of minutes, the viewer can see a two-page catalog spread produced & fully formatted automatically.

The immediate impact of this demo was to motivate scores of developers to began implementing AppleScript support into their applications.

Because of the strong success at making an impact on both developers and consumers, ARTLab was further contracted to develop variations of AppleScript database-driven publishing using different desktop & SQL databases as well as different types of authoring environments and for different target markets.

ARTLab handled all aspects of the demos:

• Creating the scenario
• Negotiating with "real companies" for content
• Preparing the content
• Working with software developers to implement AppleScript support into their software,
• Writing the AppleScripts
• Presenting the demo to press & seminars