CatBase Reviews

CatBase Review

Comments: CatBase is a best application for data publishing. User friendly, easy to access, overall it's a superb tool. I have few suggestions: (if possible) 1. We have using this in daily basis for data entry. If we have a option to choose multiple themes (background color), ie: if we choose rose theme then all project window will be pink color, it's maybe a funny idea. WHY I'm thinking is, data entry operator entering data for whole day. If we had a option for change theme they will be happy and good mind to entering data. 2. If possible, open different projects on time in separate window. (currently we can able to open multiple window for same project) 3. Login window also little bigger and new design would be looks great. Production wise: 4. Overall design output preview in style-sheet area. 5. Any kind of document upload into records, for future reference. like emails (.eml/.msg, .pdf, ...etc) 6. Record change history (last 5/10 saves) in the same window. however, overall it's really great and awesome. thanks!

Pros:

User friendly and modification access.

Cons:

Scripting? we don't know... LOL. No Cons!

Digital Directory Publishing

Pros:

This is a brilliant and flexible product that allows us to maintain a huge database of business information that is then published digitally creating a search engine of over 18 000 business listings and marketing profiles across 328 industry categories.

Cons:

There is nothing I don't like - the issue is trying to get to grips with its full usefulness and potential!

CatBase Review

Comments: Overall this program has been quite a lot of trouble compared to how it is advertised. I would not recommend it for a small team. The customer support is responsive, but either unwilling or unable to fix problems that arise. Whoever implements this at your company will likely have to fix any problem that arises or find a work-around. The learning curve, aside from the basic things that the program can do, is very steep.

Pros:

CatBase does some of what our company needs it to do. We needed CatBase to be able to take user created classified ads, organize them by publishing date and calculate a cost based on line count with a specific font. It is able to do this, but with some hiccups along the way.

Cons:

CatBase has had quite a few hiccups over the past 11 months we've been using it. Entries will change their data without a user prompting it. When we publish data we get garbage (for our purposes) characters such as "&" instead of just an "&." This is not a copy and paste issue because it shows up on entries that are completely hand typed. There is not a print option as in most programs. We had the CatBase team create custom scripts because, even though advertising the product as capable of handling classifieds, it was not equipped to do so. This custom scripting calculated the amount of issues that a classified ad would run and then retrieve a price from a lookup table. The calculation would always end up being over by 1. This is a basic programming mistake.

Flexible software - Excellent customer service

Comments: We have been using Catbase server version for a few years now. After a proof of concept, we were able to successfully implement our workflow. As mentionned by other users, IT staff can't write or edit scripts but Catbase staff will be happy to help you build custom scripts ( they are 4D scripts) to fit your workflow. The are bugs in the software but most of them are in the admin sections -( These sections of the software are not used often) and the Catbase staff gives EXCELLENT customer service - if you submit a bug they will usually fix in a few days.
The software is very easy to use for day to day operations ( keep data up to date) but the reporting tools are not flexible and outdated - In our case, we export the tables in a MySQL database and use Microsoft Office tools for queries, forms and reporting using a ODBC connection.
If you have a separate production system you can import your data in Catbase for publishing purposes - this works fine.
My last comment: Catbase offers an excellent customer service and the overal pricing ( licences and support) is very reasonable. This product is excellent for relatively simple workflows, such as printed business directories and production catalogs, which are not published very often. The strenght of the software resides in the ability to apply styles to any part of the published content - What they call Publishing Style Sheets is very detailed - you can publish your data in any possible way.

Powerful, but tricky

Comments: Our intention is to use CatBase to remove the need for our xTags files to be hard-coded by a developer. Instead, they will provide XML and CatBase will sit as middle-ware.

Pros:

This software is really powerful. Combined with xTags, it really does seem to be the only product on the market that can take data, and give non-programming staff the ability to output huge databases of content in the correct flow for their design. It has great barcode support, style support and ingest/outputs the data nice and quickly.

Cons:

It can be buggy, and the setup/learning curve is very steep. However, the main issue is that the UI is clunky, dated and the naming of options can make it very hard to know what to do next.

Good Software

Comments: Its a while since i used it but I will be using it again soon as i am starting my new silver jewelry website and i will want to be able to create a catalogue with similar layout as my rattan in a matter of mins without any hassle. So the program to me is excellent providing i remember how to use it!

Pros:

Just saves hours of time putting together a simple catalogue. My catalogue is quite a simple layout so i dont know how easy it would be to use with a more complex layout with different size pictures, text etc.... Because mine is a rigid layout was excellent. Customer service was excellent.

Cons:

Im not the greatest person at taking on new products and reading long manuals. It felt a bit scary from the start with unpacking and putting the exe file (or what ever it was) into the correct folder. I was a bit afraid of doing something wrong and not being able to easily undo it. For what i needed it just felt like there were to many buttons and to many things which i could have messed up. I realise for designers the features are necessary but i did feel if some how there was a much easier stripped down version it would have been easier.

First time user

Comments: we are in experimental stage - but it looks very positive that we will be producing all our YP and telephone directories from CatBase once we can complete a Proof of Concept with representative.

Pros:

As a first time user it is actually difficult to describe what I like most about this software. But I guess it is the ability to define character styles prior to exporting into In Design, as well as the ability to merge the graphics with the export. I will be able to provide more feedback once i officially roll out this into my entire department - towards the end of August 2019

Cons:

Initially table setup and export was a nightmare, with a version upgrade this appears to be sorted out. From a Yellow Pages perspective we are having difficulty with setting our "group listing" so perhaps this could be looked into?

Making Catalog Production Easier

Pros:

It makes it much easier to produce a document with hundreds of products included.

Cons:

When you make changes to a template, it often causes errors to show up elsewhere.

The service and support at Catbase is the best I have ever experienced with an enthusiastic.

Comments: The service and support at Catbase is the best I have ever experienced with an enthusiastic, helpful and knowledgeable team always on hand when you need them. I thoroughly recommend Catbase to help with your publishing requirements.

Pros:

Catbase is a fantastic program that is easy to use from the first. There are plenty of great features that make life easier and it is compatible with leading industry packages such as Quark & In Design. We use Catbase to produce both our Catalogue and website because it offers such flexibility. We are able to update our website with great ease at any time, adding new products, pictures, technical data and news items and we can now produce our 108 page Catalogue in next to no time - all thanks to Catbase.

Cons:

I have been using Catbase since 1998 and I honestly don't have any negative comments.

The program is an effective back-end database.

Comments: The program is an effective back-end database. Product support is always available within 24-48 hours, by phone or by email. The program is applicable to a variety of needs and uses, and can be modified to meet quite specific requirements.

Pros:

- It's easy to adapt the program as our needs change and grow. - Pat Bensky is very knowledgable in CatBase, and has taken the time to understand our particular needs, which makes working with the program much easier. - The online tutorials are very useful, as are the specially tailored instruction manuals.

Cons:

- Though they are always quickly fixed, there are a fair number of bugs in the program. - The one-to-many and many-to-one relationship tables and data are sometimes hard to completely understand.

While we only scratch the surface of using all of CatBase's capabilities, my recommendation is.

Comments: While we only scratch the surface of using all of CatBase's capabilities, my recommendation is very high. One must consider CatBase's superb functionality when shopping for a database publishing tool. The Customer Service is excellent! You don't need to write and test code for months; style sheets get the job done.

Pros:

CatBase takes the labor out of creating huge, customer specific catalogs with photos. Our page layouts still require a fair amount of manual manipulation, but the sku inclusion and product classification/order are flawless.

Cons:

The IT person doesn't like that the scripts can't be written/modified by him exclusively.

I have produced a number of publications using CatBase.

Comments: I have produced a number of publications using CatBase far more efficiently, accurately and cheaply than would have been the case without it.

Pros:

The after sales service is fantastic.

Cons:

It is a little advanced for me but the after sales service has more than compensated for my lack of computing knowledge

Wonderful software!!! Produces your catalog in a flash.

Comments: Saved money and got a catalog produced faster

Pros:

It gets the job done! It is just amazing how it takes all the info we throw at it and just produces a nice professional catalog. Price is fair and customer service is great.

Cons:

Can take a bit of time to set up all the parameters but I have to admit that we did have a lot of custom requests. However the customer service is impeccable and leads you through any problems you may have.

Totally transformed our report production

Comments: Using Catbase has totally transformed production of our annual Who's Where in Auto Retail report, speeding up the process, giving us a more accurate final product and saving us bucket loads of time. Product support is good if we get a glitch and they helped us set up our templates. Highly recommended

Good solution and great results - can be a challenge to get it working right.

Comments: Requires a fair bit of commitment to get some grasp of the way the the system works. There is a lot of settings and features and is quite complex for a casual user. What it is a able to do is very useful and has some great potential. The templates really need to be set up by someone with experience.

Great product, would definitely recommend for any creating a directory.

Comments: Great product, would definitely recommend for any creating a directory that doesn't want to build their own application.

Pros:

Very easy to use, only problem I had was that I hadn't defined what I needed to do well enough in advance

Cons:

Can't write your own scripts

Our company uses this for very specific publications and have a tailored solution to meet our needs

Comments: Our company uses this for very specific publications and have a tailored solution to meet our needs. Works very well for us.

Pros:

Bespoke changes for our particular requirements are no problem.

Cons:

Some of the window displays a bit quirky

need it to be easier to use for a once a month user.

Comments: need it to be easier to use for a once a month user.

Pros:

End result is very nice

Cons:

I find it hard to alter a table layout. I'm sure it is because of the lack of time studying the product. But I use it once a month.

Excellent product

Comments: Excellent product

Pros:

Automates many time consuming tasks and is very customizable. Catbase took the time to help write scripts and talk us through meeting our needs. A + indeed.

Cons:

can't think of one yet.

Overall an excellent product - a powerful system which can manipulate multiple sets of data.

Comments: A few frustrations over software updates - but we recognise our needs were very specific and some of our products didn't easily fit within the standard framework.
When data does fit within the framework, the system is efficient and effective.

Great tool for large layout projects

Comments: Catbase enables us to automate the importing and styling of large quantities of text and images, saving us time and streamlining a process which can otherwise take many hours. It's a great product which is invaluable to our business.

Hard to believe

Comments: Its hard to believe how great this program really is. I highly recommend it for anyone that has struggled with the layout of directories or catalogs.

3 1/2 years building and managing a complex directory and publishing to web

Comments: Once the bugs had been ironed out the software has done all we could ask of it, and more. Support has been peerless throughout