Layout design frustrations..

January 23, 201312 yr

Hi:

I've been having a one man brainstorming session for several months now and I'm down to the wire and could use some fresh ideas if any are to be had.

I work for a magazine publisher. I develop custom solutions for my employer and I'm working on an upgraded version of a CRM solution with Sales Order module to create insertion contracts.

We sell ad space across a few media now, Print, Online (web and email), Digital Enhancements (digital editions of our print magazines with items like links, videos, etc..

Historically, our contracts have been separate for each media because they don't always contain the some columns of data as a rule. with this new CRM, I've been asked to see if I can bring all the media to one contract for ease of presentation and ability to sell as a package type deal.

We could have up to 3 or 4 different insertion (ad) grids on a contract. I've mocked up what we currently use and I'm perplexed on how to impliment a similiar model using layouts using FMP 12.

THE ad/order detail is stored in one table in CRM, classified by a type (Print,Online,Digital,Event) and I've been racking my brain trying to determine the best approach to designing a contract that won't require a page for each insertion grid type. So far, I've come up with 3 portals filtered by media type, that would display the detail. Sales staff however, in the older web based system they use, can choose to hide or display columns of data as needed for the contract and is a feature they feel very much needed in the new CRM's contract design functionality.

The attached mock up shows how we currently lay them out when more than one media type ad is sold. we could opt top move them all to the last page as "attached schedules".

My goal here would be to try to design a layout that would be to design a contract that won't require a page for each insertion grid type. Often times, 3 grids could physically fit one one page, rarely, would it break onto two pages.

Any ideas by some old layout professionals, plug-ins or other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

thank you,

David Roth

Contract_Mockup.pdf