Collaborate
Perfect your magazine layout as a team with our Collaborate feature
Designing a magazine online is a group effort. Once you get to the planning stage, it helps to get different opinions and eyes on your magazine page design. Our Collaborate feature brings that vital element of teamwork to flatplanning. Work together from anywhere, and organize your content design process in a way that benefits from everyone’s input.
What is flatplan software?
A flatplan is a page-by-page plan of a publication that shows how the editorial content and the advertisements are laid out. Flatplan software digitalizes flatplanning and allows you to have complete control over the publication design process.
In one click, you can transform your magazine layout, edit or move pages, or change the structure of your publication.
Issuu’s Collaborate feature makes it easy to delegate and share the magazine page design and flatplanning process from start to finish.
How to create a magazine layout
Flatplanning — Use our flatplan software to place ads and articles, assign team members, and manage your workflow as materials are developed, revised, and approved.
Status tracking — Keep everyone on task and on deadline as articles are fleshed out by contributors and ad deals are negotiated and sold by your sales team.
Collect assets and materials — Gathering all collaborator assets and finished ad materials happens directly within Collaborate, so you no longer have to bounce around.
Preview, feedback, and approvals — Once the art director uploads finished layouts, team members can comment on any potential issues before seeking the editor’s approval.
Publish and download — Publish directly on Issuu to have your publication beautifully presented on desktop and mobile devices around the world or download the PDF - the choice is yours.
Build teamwork through communication
Good communication is the foundation of teamwork. With our Collaborate feature, you can assign tasks and leave comments. It’s all designed to help you stay organized, avoid confusion and duplication, and achieve more together.
Streamline your workflow
Issuu is built to support an efficient workflow. As your magazine layout comes together, it’s easy to cross-check your work, identify and fix errors, and make structural changes where needed. Our tools are there to assist you and your team, integrating seamlessly into your existing workflow.
Project management made easy
The hardest part of collaborative work is keeping track of all the elements and people involved. Our Collaborate feature is designed to make life easier by putting everything you need from sourcing content, to flatplanning, to final publication in one place. You and your team have total visibility and control every step of the way.
Collaborate FAQs
Magazine editors and designers used to have to do flatplanning manually. It was an expensive and time-consuming process. They had to use scissors and tape to cut lines of text to fit the columns on the page. Then the whole design had to be made print-ready. Digital magazine page design tools have made the whole process much easier. Designers and editors still have to make sure everything fits on the page and looks right visually, but it’s possible to make design changes in just a few clicks.
However, the basics haven’t changed. Your content still has to look good on the page (or screen). It’s important to balance text and images and ads, not just for visual appeal, but for the reading experience as well.
Behind every great magazine is a great content calendar. Just like a blog, you need to plan magazine content ahead of time. It helps to think in recurring features and columns, like a magazine. Think about topics you want to cover in each edition. Look ahead to holidays and other important events for inspiration. This makes it easier to plan, and readers will know what to expect as they look forward to your next issue!
Getting a magazine layout right takes planning and thoughtful design. You can’t just wing it; you have to know how things are going to look on the page. Will the margins work? Does everything look balanced and visually appealing? These are questions you should answer before you commit to publication. Fortunately, our flatplan software makes it easy to design a magazine online and allows you to involve your team in the process.
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