When a client is faced with the decision to select a Digital Asset Management system or Content Management System I often see a battle play out in the decision making process between user experience (user interface) and system functionality.

Usually in the early stages of system evaluation a product is measured by functionality against a set of requirements. Products that look good on paper are then evaluated in Web-based or in-person demos.

On a couple of recent Digital Asset Management consulting projects a few clients asked me how they would distinguish different uses of the same image in a DAM system.

How do I relate my Camera RAW image asset to my Hi-res RGB JPG? How do I relate my main image to another image that is of the same subject but at a slightly different angle?

First off let me say that FileMaker is a great database system that has proven to be extremely flexible and easy to manage.

Countless times we have started a project with a client to determine content strategies, data warehousing strategies, and digital asset management strategies and they all have one thing in common. The client will usually mention an implementation of FileMaker that they are looking to replace. "We need a way to migrate from FileMaker." "We have multiple FileMaker systems that we need to either eliminate or integrate with."

Ask any print designer what pre-flighting is and that person will most likely describe a quality assurance process that they follow to prepare their spreads and layouts for printing. Before going to press, designers must be sure that they have included all the necessary document fonts, and that all graphics have been properly resized and are the correct resolution and color space.

I'm using the image below to show two things. First, we see how awesome it is that InCopy CS4 finally shows tables in Galley view and second, we see how I am able to view both the galley and layout view of this single document at the same time.