Features Premedia Software
Quark Releases New Content Automation Platform

Quark Software Inc. introduced what it describes as significant new updates to its content automation platform. The new release, the second major update in 2017, adds enhancements to content management and Web-based content review, including the ability to assemble and manage PowerPoint slides at a component level.
 
Quark explains its content automation platform enables business users and editorial teams to collaborate throughout the multi-channel content life cycle – from creation and management to publishing and delivery. By creating and reusing content components – rather than traditional static documents and files – teams can share, search, track, and reuse content, which translates into greater cost savings, more valuable content, and ultimately better content experiences.
 
“With the new updates to our content automation platform, we are especially proud to announce the first release of component-based PowerPoint slide assembly. Keeping PowerPoint presentations up-to date through manual processes is unsustainable and unmanageable for most large organizations. One update to a single slide could require manual changes to tens or hundreds of copies of the original deck including slides that are translated to multiple languages,” said Dave White, Chief Technology Officer at Quark Software.

White continues to explains that now subject-matter experts and business users working directly in PowerPoint can reuse entire slide decks, individual slides, or components within slides such as multimedia, tables, and charts – all from within a centralized content hub. “With one-click synchronization of slides, this effectively eliminates the need to copy, paste, recreate, or manually update content, which allows our clients to communicate in a more accurate, timely, and compliant manner,” said White.
 
The Quark Content Automation Platform consists of modules, including the following ones affected by the new update: Quark Publishing Platform, QuarkXPress Server, Quark Author Web Edition and Quark XML Author.

QuarkXPress Server leverages the graphic capabilities of QuarkXPress with server-based automation. New updates to this module include the ability to directly access new productivity and design enhancements to QuarkXPress 2017, such as responsive HTML5 output and native image manipulation. It also now includes automated item styles to produce infographics using the new automation features for styling boxes, frames, corners, drop shadows, and more. The new features also include transaction-based font management, which can include licensed fonts as part of a rendering request.