creating proof pictures in CorelDraw

[Glen Monaghan]

I was using Export as well. The problem was that there might be a handful of rows and several columns spaced across the table with gaps between to improve handling, and I had some complaints that the exported pictures were problematic to view on older or smaller screens (some customers apparently view on mobile devices), so I was moving all those rows and columns closer to make shorter/narrower proof pictures. Couple that with changing the color coded fill (used to engrave one column at a time for faster engraving time due to not skipping over the gaps), and it was becoming a time consuming chore to create the proofs.

So after asking here and finding, to my surprise, that I apparently am the only person who does proofs this way, and that no one had any particularly good solutions other than one commercial macro package that looks like something I'll probably get eventually for other reasons, I rolled my own macro to do the job. I actually just finished it yesterday, with the error checking and layer manipulation (engraving, registration, product image reference layers that may be visible or invisible, editable or not, printable or not, depending on what phase of the project I'm in) that I glossed over initially, and it works a treat. A hot key or a custom button on the tool bar both let me go from a finished, color coded job file to simulated product proof picture in a single key stroke or mouse click, and it's undoable with another single keystroke or mouse click.

It's been a while since I've done any coding, but there are so many tutorials and bits of example VBA out there that I was able to glean what I needed and work out a neat solution. There probably are even better ways of coding it, but it finishes before I've let off the key or mouse button so plenty good enough! Now I just need to find that self-certificate creator so I don't get that annoying "This file contains macros, do you want to enable or disable them?" security warning when I open the template to create a new engraving job file!

[Glen Monaghan]

Bill,

I started doing these proof pictures maybe 18 months ago when I was doing less than a tenth as much business as I am doing now. At that time, I started creating proofs for one-time, custom design, high value jobs.

These "product simulation" proofs were, indeed, partly for my own peace of mind to make sure the customer wouldn't come back after receiving the product and say "That's not what I was expecting/asked for, please re-do". It was also to help certain customers, who didn't have a clear mental picture of what they wanted, figure it out before committing to the actual engraving. It worked so well in low-volume business that I basically adopted it as standard practice on pretty much all engraving jobs.

But then, at that time, I did a lot of things that worked fine at low volume, such as almost-real-time email responses, same-day or next-day engraving, overkill packaging, so forth and so on. But, as time went by and business picked up, all those details became more and more cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive. That lead to a sort of crisis situation late last year when order volume (and revenue! :^) more than doubled month-over-month for three consecutive months. Things have stabilized somewhat now, but even if the proofs only take 1-2 minutes each, preparing them all was approaching an hour a day, which I finally realized was nuts.

Maybe these photo-realistic proofs are overkill and, clearly no one else here seems to be doing something similar, at least not on a regular basis. Even so, I still like providing the proof service, and my customers frequently comment how much they appreciate it so, for me, taking the time to figure out how to automate the process and reduce it to a one-click, split-second process was well-worth the effort. Time is money, and my custom macro reduced the time to basically zero. But providing service that delights customers also (can) translate to money, so I was willing to make the effort to enable me to provide said service without the onerously repetitive and time consuming manual effort.

[Bill Stearns]

GLEN -
I've got' a say: that's the clearest you have been as to "why" you are doing what you're doing for your customers. ('least I more clearly understand.) In truth: I wasn't looking at your issue, your methods, from a technical (how-to) stand point, but rather from a sales v.s. time-spent standpoint. More I think 'bout it, more I see: You are smart to use those software tools available today - to guarantee your customers' understanding and ultimate satisfaction. Looking for, and finding more productive, faster 'n easier ways to do what we do, well, you're obviously a smart and dedicated businessman. No doubt explains why you are doing so well.

Bill