A New Appreciation for Text Content

This developer blog article was originally published on MetaCommunication’s website in October, 2011 and illustrates the use of JavaScript (MetaScript) to extract text content within Virtual Ticket.

The original article is no longer accessible on MetaCommunication’s website, but the text has been preserved below.

In most of the blog articles I write, I’m typically covering new features and functionality of our Workgroups Suite, or finding new and innovative ways to use Virtual Ticket. Over the past few weeks, however, I’ve found a new appreciation in the value of a long-standing feature of Virtual Ticket.

A Text String Find in Virtual Ticket

As you may (or may not) know, Virtual Ticket can extract the text content of selected digital assets when they are cataloged as a digital resource in the system. This functionality exists when cataloging Adobe Acrobat PDF files, Adobe InDesign and Illustrator files (from the Macintosh platform), QuarkXPress files (also from the Macintosh platform) and Microsoft PowerPoint files. This information is saved in the Text Content field of the Digital Resources folder type.

So why is that so special?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of work with marketing departments of larger corporations. Each of these have their own brands and product lines, with marketing projects and collaterals including advertisements, brochures, sell sheets, website materials, and more. And in each case, Virtual Ticket is not only managing the projects, schedules and assignments, but is also cataloging the digital resources that go into these.

By cataloging the text content of these digital resources, the marketing departments can now use Virtual Ticket to perform the following (yes, these are real-world use-cases):

  • Find all the files that contain a specific product model number so that when that model gets changed, they know what files will need to be updated.
  • Find all the files containing a specific phrase: “the best ...”, “the only ...”, “#1 recommended”, etc. In this scenario if the phrase comes under question or needs to get changed, they can quickly and easily find all the files containing that phrase.
  • Let product managers, who in this case are outside the marketing department, search for any “approved” files for a specific brand or product line.

In each case, the text content can be used in the search process, allowing the Virtual Ticket user to quickly and easily find what they need and continue with their work from there. Additionally, this frees up the marketing department from having to spend time digging through the old projects, pulling files manually and compiling the list by hand.

Is capturing the text content of digital resources new to Virtual Ticket? No. But sometimes the long-standing features can provide just as much value to a customer as the latest and greatest innovation.