We’ve recently recognized a significant growth area for Appingo’s business. It happened by accident, but it makes perfect sense. I’m actually embarrassed that we didn’t think about it earlier. Here’s how it happened:
When we decided to build the Appingo software system, we wanted to build a tool to UNTANGLE the process of making a book [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Best Practice Tip’
October 15, 2009
For tangled hair: A good brush is a good start…
September 23, 2009
Production Best Practice tip #9
It’s not all that new.
My first boss ever, Lenny Higgins of Higgins Ice Cream, always said ‘Take and Fill a #10 tin with hot soapy water and clean the…”
Lenny had it almost right. The task is very clear, “Clean the…” all the rest are ‘To-Do’s’ which are part of the task. There was no question [...]
August 5, 2009
Production Best Practice tip #8
Don’t forget propeller F.
There’s lots to be thankful for, but Wikipeda is definately high on the list. Here’s a little back story on the origin of the ‘Propeller Key‘. Mr. Jobs again leading the way.
The propeller key does so many things in the mac environment, but one of the most useful is ‘Propeller – F’ [...]
July 20, 2009
Production Best Practice tip #6
Ship to Printer.
Even in the world of digitial, XML, and On-Demand publishing, Ship-to-Printer is a favorite task to check off as done.
At Appingo, all the classic print production schedules end this way. In a visit to a client a couple of years ago, the white board just inside the front door had a list of [...]
July 16, 2009
Thursday Production Tip #5
I’m a bit addicted to recycling.
If our family motto wasn’t “everything comes out with warm soapy water,” it would be “there is no such thing as too much recycling.” Unlike trash night, which is just a chore, recycling is something I look forward to doing. This stuff will see a new life in some form [...]
July 8, 2009
Production Best Practice tip #4
Art Log: A new perspective
We were working with a publisher customer today who raised an interesting question.
Can the Appingo Art Log model a workflow that segregates illustration, photos and also reflects a pool of possible image choices, a pool of first cut choices, and a set of final images?
An interesting discussion followed. We talked about [...]
July 2, 2009
Auto Generate
We had an interesting time at dinner last night.
The restaurant was overtaken by diners. Really. On a Thursday night in summer, I’m sure they were not at all prepared to be descended on by hoards of hungry locusts. The food was great, and the discussions really interesting.
The question came up of auto-generating schedules. A fascinating [...]
June 30, 2009
Production Best Practice tip #3
‘So, I get the idea of a Task. I’ve made a new one, what do I call it?’
This is a very common quandary, it’s very important to the task and the schedule. There IS an excellent best practice that will help.
Name the Task with an Active Verb.
Dynamic verbs have duration, that is, they occur over [...]
June 25, 2009
Production Best Practice tip #2
When will it be done?… or, Can we do it by?….
Every boss has these questions. The questions are not that hard. Finding the answer is a little more difficult.
We will need to know what is to be done, and have a pretty good idea of how long each step will take. That’s actually pretty easy. [...]
