The Auto Publish Advertisers Index allows you to create a single or double page index directly from your flatplan.
The index is fully customisable, from font and colour choice to using your own master page layout. This means you should be able to replicate your index exactly as you do outside MagManager.
Any changes made will be saved and the same settings will be set up ready for your next issue – handy if you have multiple publications.
1 - Ensure Clients are Assigned to a Section and/or Category
For the index to work, all clients should be assigned to a section and/or category eg Plumber, Garden Centre etc. If you do not already assign your clients to sections and/or categories, you may want to organise this first. To do so, visit our Sections and categories notes for more details.
2- Create Your Index Master Page
To set up your Index Master Page, Go to the main settings page > Under Publications & Bookings > Select Page Layouts > Select the Master Pages tab > Select New Master Page, top right of the screen > This opens the Manage Master Page where you can set up your master index layout.
Enter the name for you master page into the name field eg ‘Index Master’.
Enter a description into the description field eg ‘Contains index background for XYZ Mag’
Ensure you click the Enabled check box, so the blue tick appears – if you fail to do this, the master page won’t be available to use at a later stage.
Drag the artwork file for your index master template onto the page or click to upload the file > Then click Save.
In the screenshot above, we have uploaded our directory of advertiser’s layout as it appears in our magazine and named it ‘Index Master’
3 - Creating an Advertisers Index
The 'Directory of Advertisers' settings page can be found by going to Publications > Select the issue you are creating the index for > This brings up the Flat plan Overview > Select Advertisers Index.
3.1 Placing the index on your flat plan
3.1.1 One Page Index & First Page of a Double Page Index
The first step is to place the index on your flat plan. Click Select Index Page, top centre of the page.
This will bring up the Select Index Page > From here click the page on the flat plan where you what the index to be placed. The page will turn purple once selected.
The message Index Page Created will briefly flash at the top of the page in green. The Select Index Page button will now display (1 selected).
3.1.2 Second Page of a Double Page Index
If you wish to add a second index page, simply repeat the process: Click Select Index Page (1 selected) this will bring up the Select Index Page > Click the page on the flat plan where you what the index to be placed. The message Index Page Created will briefly flash at the top of the page in green. The Select Index Page button will now show (2 selected).
3.2 Applying the Master Index Template to The Index Page
Once you have chosen the page for your index > Click View Flat Plan from the left hand side > Click the page number at the bottom of your index page to open the Page Layout.
This will bring up the Layout screen.
Towards the middle of the 'Layout' screen you'll see the settings for Left Master Page & Right Master Page. Select your Index Master from the drop down menu (dependent on whether your index falls on the left or the right hand page) and Click Save.
NOTE: If by chance you have clicked Preview with trim at this point, only the Index Master Template will be displayed – the next steps will add the name of the advertisers and their page number to the index page.
3.3 Index Customisation
The settings allow you to customise:
Font family, Font style & Font size
Ability to add dots
Height (spacing) (you can leave this blank for default calculation)
Column width (you can leave this blank for default calculation)
Top margin
From the Flat plan > Select Back to take you to the Flat Plan Overview page > Select Advertisers Index which brings up the Directory of Advertisers settings page where you can customise the index.
The index can be ordered by either ‘Sections’, ‘Main Category’ or ‘All Categories’. Choose one by clicking the toggle button to turn it green.
The headings settings will then appear as below, ready to be customised.
3.4 Index Customisation - Example
As an example we have our index customisation set up as follows:
Using the index may take a bit of playing around with at first to get used to it, especially with your own unique customisation settings.
3.5 Index Customisation - Setting Columns
For an index with multiple columns. Click the Break On Headings toggle switch to turn it green, (see image above). Next, click in the box beside Break On and select one or more headings eg ‘Education’. This tells MagManager on which headings to start a new column when creating the final index PDF.
TIP: A 2 column index will 'Break On' one category eg 'Education
A 3 column index will 'Break On' two categories eg 'Education' and 'Hair, Health, Beauty & Fitness'
A 2 page index with 3 columns will 'Break On' Five categories. The third category will mark the start of the second page of the index.
If a section is particularly large you may wish to break on a client name rather than the heading, to do this look for Break On under the Content section and select one or more clients from the drop down list eg ‘Sugar and Spice’ - see image below.
You may want to generate your PDF before choosing which sections/categories you want to ‘break on'. To do that click on the blue Generate PDF button on the top right of the screen.
This will let you see the position of your sections/categories and then you can customise it accordingly.
Important: Pay attention to the name of the last client in each section/category to ensure they are listed on the Index and have not been cut off after you have selected the sections/categories to 'break on'. As the content of each section/category does not wrap into the next column.
In this 3 column example below, we have told the index to ‘break on’ the headers: Education and Hair, Health, Beauty & Fitness. This gives us a really neat index, that looks like this…
3.6 Index Customisation - Adding Dots
If you use dots in your index (something we recommend, it makes your index much easier for people to follow and read), simply click on the Use Dots toggle button here to turn it green:
In this example below, you can see the addition of the dots between the name of the advertisers and the page number:
3.7 Generating the Index PDF
Once you are happy with your customisation settings. Click the blue Generate PDF button in the top left of the screen.
This creates the finished PDF of the index which is automatically placed onto your flat plan.
To check this on the flat plan > Click View Flat Plan from the left hand side > Click the the page number at the bottom of your index page > Click Preview With Trim, this will display the completed index including the name of the advertisers, their page numbers and the master index template in the background.
Additional notes:
1 - Clients Missing from Index
When you place adverts on the flat plan they will automatically be included when you generate your index within MagManager, so you don’t have to worry about adverts being missed out. Just ensure that you have the In Index toggle switched on, on the client artwork page. This should automatically be switched on for you, but if you can’t find a client in your index, somebody has more than likely accidentally switched this off.
2 - Resetting Index After Making Changes To Template
If after generating the finished PDF you go back and make changes to the master template, you will have to go back to step 3.1 Placing the index on your flat plan. You will know if you have to do this as the Select Index Page (0 selected) will be displayed when you Click on Advertisers Index from the flat plan overview screen.
The 'Select Index Page' displays are Select Index Page (1 selected) once you have successfully placed the index on the flat plan.
3 - Adding An Advert To Index Page
Adding an advert to your index page is as simple as moving it from the left sidebar of the flat plan onto the index page.
However, as MagManager can only see the single advert on the page, it will appear out of alignment when you 'Preview with Trim' as in the example below
To solve this alignment issue simply go back to the flat plan, click on the advert and move it up slightly on the page until you are happy with the location, as below:
When you click 'Preview with Trim' now, everything should be in alignment.
