German developer SoftCare announced on Thursday that version 5.0 of K4 Publishing System, their professional publishing workflow solution, is now available in the U.S. through Managing Editor, Inc., their distributor in North America. This upgrade offers support for Adobe InDesign CS and Adobe InCopy CS, as well as a host of other features and enhancements.
New features in K4 include new workflow capabilities for other file types, such as word processing documents and spreadsheets and support for ads, images, and multimedia objects. In addition, K4 offers better use of XML to organize content and arrange it hierarchically. It takes advantage of InDesign and InCopy’s native XML abilities to allow a specific workflow for such elements as movies and audio, which can be embedded in InDesign CS layouts.
Other new features include a Java-based File Manager client that allows you to check any file type in and out of the K4 database and route it through the customizable status workflow. It allows everyone involved in the production process to manage such documents as Microsoft Word manuscripts, Excel spreadsheet tables and schedules, and other files. K4 version 5.0 also includes enhanced metadata handling, revised palette interfaces, and new security features that revise the handling of user logins and enforce password encryption and changes.
On the Mac, K4 Publishing System runs on Mac OS X and its TCP/IP-based SQL database runs on Mac OS X Server. Contact Managing Editor, Inc. for pricing information.