March 2013

 

 

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If there is a perpetual flavor of the month in this business, it has to be eCommerce, aka web2print. More readers clicked on the SkyMall preview in our last newsletter than on any other topic since we started publishing.

Some asked whether it even made sense for a small print shop to add a webstore to their marketing expenses. The answer to that is surprisingly similar to whether you should or shouldn't publish an email newsletter: it's not the cost that will hold you back, it's the time. Distributing FlyBy to more than 3,600 subscribers costs us less than $50.00 every other month. The time to write the copy, prepare the graphics, and get the HTML ready for mailing, that part can easily take a day.

Listening in on a webinar recently, I overheard one owner of a midsize print shop complain that setting up their online store and then filling up the shelves took the better part of six months. The SkyMall, powered by the Morning Flight pricing engine, will cut that time to a fraction.

Hal Heindel
Unitac International Inc.
 

 
 

PaperEntryV13_1_March_2013

 

Morning Flight Upgrade V13.1

 

There was a time when I suffered from the delusion that what consumers of software cared most about was power and depth of utility. Then I bought an iPad and got over it.

Even in the early years, few users (myself included) ever bothered to read the manual. That has changed - today nobody does. This has led most vendors to package their software in an eye-watering but largely empty box, save for a CD/DVD and a minimal "How to get Started" guide.

The point? Smart phones have changed the landscape to where ease of use is everything. Morning Flight needed a makeover anyway to get it ready for the SkyMall, so while the cowling was off, we overhauled the paper section and polished the interface. The result is V13.1, now in the final testing phase and scheduled for release in April. You'll be able to download the upgrade at no charge, regardless of the original date of purchase. We'll email you the link.

 

 
SkyMallWhiteDemo_March_2013

 
Theming the CloudPrintStore

 

Our last FlyBy included a preview of the CloudPrintStore in basic black. Here is the same store in classic white. Nothing magical. We just switched themes - a one click process, no coding required.

The themes come without a price tag and are easy to customize. You can change fonts and move things around with the built-in drag and drop graphics editor, or get a totally new look by editing the HTML/CSS.

 
Visit the SkyMall Demo Store
 
 

 

TipOfMonth_March_2013

Tip of the Month

 

Multi-part Carbonless digitally

Owners of the Gold and Pixelblitz editions know that, with MyWay Pricing, they can quote any kind of product on any kind of paper. Here is how to quote a digital run on precollated carbonless:

1. From the Main Menu, click the Quote MyWay button, then press the F2 key.

2. Under Quote Printing, click the "Sheets" radio button, then click OK to close the window.

3. Back in the Quote window, click the F3 button or press the F3 key.

4. Select Carbonless in the black panel on the right, then double-click the set you want to quote.

The program will deduce the product configuration from the number of parts in the set.