Books & Manuals

MetaCat is an ideal tool for collaboratively developing and maintaining books or manuals online. The structure of the document can be customized, and editors can edit only sections to which they have permission. The document, or sets of documents can be searched easily by end-users as well as easily updated by editors as needed. Content can be exported to PDF format and also XML format, such that it can be imported into programs such as Adobe InDesign for professional layout and printing

Open Harvest Cooks is a cookbook currently on sale at Open Harvest Cooperative Grocery in Lincoln, Nebraska. This compilation of member recipes was developed online using MetaCat. While there are many ways to collect and compile recipes, nothing is more efficient than a web-based repository to collect, edit and manage a book or manual development project.

MetaCat made the process of compiling, organizing and editing the data very efficient. Only the current version is displayed, so reviewers were always working with the latest version of recipes. During the process, the recipe categories were adjusted several times as the committee tried several classification ideas for the table of contents.

Highlights of the Cookbook Project:

A team will determine the initial template (such as title, ingredients, method, author) as well as desired metadata (such as flagging recipes as vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, etc.). It happened several times that the categories and flagging fields were adjusted as the project progressed. MetaCat's ability to easily adjust during the course of project implementation sets it apart from other vendors.

Members could then log in and enter their recipes, which were reviewed and edited by the cookbook committee. Workflow and signoff controls were employed. Template setup was quick and easy. No programming was required.

Once the recipe sections (beverages, desserts, salads, breads, etc.) were complete, they were easily exported in XML format and then imported into Adobe InDesign for final layout and printing.

Screen shot of a sample recipe in MetaCat

Examples of Solutions
Powered by MetaCat®