Rim rats: Top, SAXoTECH's implementation of Quark CopyDesk SE allows editors to trim stories to fit without having access to the full Quark XPress application. Bottom, the SAXoPlan product allows for full production planning.

Quark CopyDesk just the right fit for SAXoTECH front-end

NEW ORLEANS -- Not everyone disses Quark XPress as the "desktop publishing application of the last millennium." Adobe InDesign hasn't wiped out Quark. In fact, Quark seems to be holding its own in the world of many editorial applications.

One redoubt for XPress is SAXoTECH Inc., often called "the other Danish newspaper system supplier." SAXoTECH has no intention of tossing aside Quark XPress and skipping down the Adobe path. It's been more than a year since SAXoTECH penned an agreement to use Quark's CopyDesk. The progress of the joint effort can be seen in the upcoming release of SAXoPress Content Management System.

SAXoTECH started as "an internal project at a Danish newspaper," said Robert Laszlo, vice president of customer fulfillment for SAXoTECH's U.S. subsidiary, which is based in Rockville, Md. "It is a Quark solution built around the Macintosh."

The system may have been Mac-centric when the company was formed in 1993, but now SAXoTECH offers complete cross-platform systems. The company's preview of SAXoPress Version 5 at NEXPO 2001 showed that this new and improved iteration contains several enhancements, including slick integration of Quark CopyDesk SE.

SAXoTECH expects this new version of SAXoPress will be ready to ship in 2002, Laszlo said; beta testing continues. With the integration of CopyDesk, editors and paginators benefit from the increased functionality and flexibility afforded by CopyDesk's features.

"Up until the release of Version 5 of SAXoPress, the word processor was called SAXotext," Laszlo said. A proprietary product, it lacked WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and hyphenation and justification (H&J). With SAXoPress Version 5, customers can have either SAXotext or CopyDesk, and from what was shown at NEXPO 2001, CopyDesk is the right fit for this system.

SAXoPress now offers users true copy fitting while working on stories or designing pages. Users can also manipulate images and graphics within CopyDesk. Being a cross-platform system, theoretically users on a Windows PC can edit copy to fit, with a page designer taking that copy to a Macintosh to build a page.

Reporters could work on Windows PCs while designers could stay with their ever-trusty Macs for design work. As demonstrated at NEXPO, the same page could be H&Jd on a PC and a Mac, with the same results. For newsrooms with a mix of operating systems, this setup eases existing machines into a new environment.

The next release of SAXoPress is scheduled to include a new planning tool, improved on-line publishing integration and an asset management tool that permits improved control.

The asset module allows all types of files into the system and tracks them via file extension. The files are stored in the SAXoPress database (Oracle8i), which handles the metadata, and carries the characteristics of those files through the workflow.

This allows users to easily manage a variety of disparate objects within one system. In addition, the asset module allows for use and manipulation of multimedia files or objects. This would allow newspapers to publish video and audio content directly to their web sites.

The planning module brings much-needed customization to the workflow. This handy feature allows for drag-and-drop for setting up tasks, projects, resources, appointments, deadlines and ideas for future stories. The interface is mighty user-friendly, and a snap to learn.

Another realm where SAXoTECH seems to have enhanced its product is in the area of seamless publishing on-line. Many newsrooms, through staff reductions or a desire to gain more control over on-line activities, are retaking responsibility for posting web content.

The Publicus Online Publishing System is tightly integrated with SAXoPress. It offers a peer-to-peer, two-way communications server for customers using both SAXoPress and Publicus for cross-media publishing. (In addition to SAXoTECH's cross-platform systems, Publicus affords cross-media publishing within one system. Laszlo said The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, is using Publicus with its editorial system from Advanced Technical Solutions Inc. of Wilmington, Mass.)

Publicus permits content-driven web publishing. It stores content separately, which allows for easier repurposing of material. It comes with object-oriented publishing tools and has Personal Digital Assistant and Wireless Application Protocol technology built in. It runs on Microsoft's SQL Server 7 or 2000.

Publicus integrates not only with SAXoTECH but also with Quark Publishing System, as well as systems using Microsoft Word and the NewsDesk system from CCI Europe of Kennesaw, Ga. The integration with SAXoPress is bi-directional -- content can be pushed to the Web from SAXoPress, and content from the Web can be pulled into SAXoPress.

All of these enhancements directly correlate to improved and more efficient workflow. SAXoPress facilitates a variety of objects to enter the system and fit together. It also allows these same objects to be dispatched from the system in whatever format the recipient chooses.

Currently the SAXoPress Content Management System runs on UNIX/Solaris or Windows NT/2000. Laszlo said SAXoTECH has done some testing with Linux, but so far customers have not asked for that as an option.

While SAXoTECH seems like a proprietary system, the company claims to have built it on open standards, thus allowing for easier integration and future adoption of technology. Its modular design facilitates incorporating it into an existing systems environment, as well as the ability to plug in the latest and greatest down the road.

In keeping with its modular design, one application that is being woven into SAXoPress is the Tansa Media System. It's essentially a client-server spellchecker that can be integrated with just about any system. The setup allows anyone connected to the network to share the same dictionary and all its rules.

"It's a spellchecker on steroids," Laszlo said.

Tansa is highly customizable. Work is under way to incorporate the Associated Press stylebook into the system; right now it can be tweaked to adhere to AP style. The system handles accents, preferred spellings and unique spellings.

Last year, SAXoTECH was breaking ground in the U.S. market, selling actively for only the last two years. This year, the product appears much more stable, with additional functionality planned.

Its cross-platform design makes it an attractive system for newspapers looking for pagination and workflow solutions.

-- J.Z.

SAXoTECH Inc.,
(301) 294-0805, e-mail: rlaszlo@SAXoTECH.com.

From THE COLE PAPERS, July 2001, Copyright © 2001, All Rights Reserved.