EasyCatalog training
A useful EasyCatalog training course is not a guided tour of the menus: it is putting one of your projects into production, explained while it is being built. That is the principle adopted here — we work on your data and your layout, not on an exercise file.
Who trains you
Stéphane Vauxion, agence MARGARET, trainer and EasyCatalog expert. More than twenty years of catalogue production and automation, in France and internationally, for advertisers and manufacturers — BUT, GIFI, LAFUMA / MILLET, PICTURE CLOTHING, CÔTÉ LAC, ADEO (LEROY MERLIN), MAISONS DU MONDE, MARJANE in Morocco — as well as for communication agencies that produce in-house for LECLERC, CORA, ALDI, SUD-OUEST, LA DÉPÊCHE DU MIDI or MIDI-LIBRE.
This dual position matters: the training does not come from a course handout, it comes from real production workshops, with their deadline constraints, their imperfect exports and their last-minute corrections.
Who it is for
Layout artists and studios
You build catalogues by hand and the volume is becoming unmanageable. The goal is to move from a typed document to a data-fed document, without losing control over the layout.
Project managers and publishing managers
You need to secure a schedule and data quality. The goal is to understand what the chain requires upstream so you do not suffer the corrections downstream.
Teams already equipped
EasyCatalog is installed but under-used, or the project was built by someone who has left. The goal is to regain control of what exists and make it maintainable.
What we work on
The programme is built from your situation, but it is almost always organised around the same steps: understanding and preparing the data source, defining the identifier that will enable updates, linking the source to the document, building the product-sheet templates, handling formatting according to content cases, paginating, then checking integrity before printing. The last step is often the most neglected and the most profitable: knowing how to prove that what is printed matches what was approved.
The starting point: your file
Even before a training course, a file can be diagnosed. The online assistant is free: it gives an EasyCatalog compatibility score and a correction path. It is a good way to arrive at the training already knowing where the difficulties lie — and, often, to find that the issue is not the plug-in but the upstream export.
Formats
Three formats, chosen according to the team and the project: remote, in screen-sharing work sessions, a format well suited to individuals and to gradual skill-building; at the agency, in MARGARET's offices; on site, in your own offices, the most suitable format when several people need to be brought on board and the project needs to be tested against the company's real files. The programme, duration and pace are adapted to the level and objectives; they are set after a preliminary discussion.
After the training
A training course cannot cover cases that did not yet exist on the day it took place. Two follow-ups exist: support and assistance, to resolve a specific issue during production, and project validation, to have a project checked before it actually launches. Many teams follow training with a validation a few weeks later, once the first real catalogue has been built.
Arranging a training course
The details of the training courses and the terms are presented on the agency's website: agence-margaret.fr/formations. For a direct enquiry, describe your project, the number of people to train and your deadline in a few lines: contact@easy-catalog.fr or 06 01 79 83 77. Tutorials in French are also freely available on the YouTube channel.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need to know InDesign already?
Yes, that is the only real prerequisite. EasyCatalog relies on InDesign's mechanisms — frames, styles, master pages, books. Someone comfortable with paragraph and character styles and with building a master page will progress quickly. Someone discovering InDesign at the same time as EasyCatalog will be learning two things at once, which considerably lengthens the journey.
Do you need to know how to code?
Not for everyday use. Being comfortable with spreadsheets helps more than programming knowledge, because most of a project's difficulties come down to the structure of the source file. Scripting needs only arise for specific automations.
Can we train on our own files?
That is the chosen approach. Working on a practice dataset gives the illusion that everything is simple; working on your real exports reveals from day one the points that would cause blockages in production. You simply need to send a representative file in advance.
How many people can be trained at once?
It depends on the format. Remotely, effectiveness drops quickly beyond two or three participants, because everyone works hands-on during the session. On site, a larger group is possible if the participants have similar roles. The point to settle beforehand is how homogeneous the skill levels are, not the headcount.
Is there a certification at the end?
No. This is professional training on a tool, geared towards production, not a certifying curriculum.