INTRODUCTION. Custom Built Online Marketing That Works For You VERSION 2.5 FEBRUARY 20, 2009

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1 I N K S W I T C H M A R K E T S P A C E Custom Built Online Marketing That Works For You INTRODUCTION VERSION 2.5 FEBRUARY 20, 2009 info@inkswitch.com P. O. B o x # , S F C A

2 Table of Contents What Is Inkswitch MarketSpace?! 1 What Can MarketSpace Do?! 1 How Do I Get Started?! 1 Setting Up for MarketSpace Configuring Your Computer! 2 Step 1) Update Your Operating System and Web Browser! 2 Step 2) Get the Latest Flash Plugin! 2 Step 3) Set Your Web Browser s Security Level! 2 A Word About Pop-Up Blockers! 2 Dealing With the Unexpected! 2 Getting Familiar with MarketSpace More Than Just Tools! 3 A User Focused Approach! 3 The Basic Workflow! 3 Conclusion Learn More! 4 Stay Up To Date! 4 A Final Reminder! 4 Glossary Inkswitch MarketSpace! i

3 What Is Inkswitch MarketSpace? MarketSpace is a web based marketing content publication system designed specifically to meet the needs of Real Estate professionals in today s competitive information environment. It combines three key elements of Real Estate marketing into a single, tightly integrated on-line environment which is available from anywhere, 24 hours a day. What Can MarketSpace Do? The core of MarketSpace is its ability to produce print and web ready content by combining your listing information and property photography with advanced, custom designed templates. From property flyers and postcards to multiproperty display ads and full color, full bleed luxury marketing brochures... you can produce them all, beautifully and consistently, with advanced, visual editing tools and then go directly to print. MarketSpace also produces animated photo tours, web newsletters and HTML s which you can use to get your message out quickly and effectively... all with just a few button clicks. Editing with the Visual Studio Viewing your Photographs Placing an Order MarketSpace s powerful publishing capabilities combine with your listing information and property photographs to keep everything neatly organized and easily accessible at all times. Your personal and property information is applied to both your print and web content where it s needed and MarketSpace automatically resizes and crops your images to suit any type of output so your documents come out perfectly every time. And finally, MarketSpace provides you and your colleagues with the ability to share your information with each other as well as order services such as high-end printing and property photography. Outside photographers and print shops can work directly with MarketSpace to deliver your photos to you or download your print ready documents, making it quick and easy to get professional quality results at every step along the way. How Do I Get Started? The following sections of this will first help you to make sure your computer is set up properly and give you some general information about how MarketSpace works and what it can do for you. Once you re done with the, we recommend you move on to the Basic User Guide for a walkthrough of MarketSpace s basic workflow and then, once you ve become more familiar with how things work, you can move on to the Advanced User Guide for a more in-depth look at some of MarketSpace s more powerful features. 1

4 Setting Up for MarketSpace Configuring Your Computer MarketSpace is designed to work best under Internet Explorer on WindowsXP and Safari on MacOSX but should work fine with any modern web browser under any operating system. Because every individual s computer is a little bit different, there are a few simple steps you may need to take in order to make sure your computer is set up properly to use MarketSpace and to keep your web browsing experience both secure and trouble-free in general. Step 1) Update Your Operating System and Web Browser Operating system and web browser developers are constantly updating their software to defend your computer from annoyances and attacks from advertisers and malicious websites. It is recommended that you enable automatic updating of your operating system and regularly check for new and improved versions of your web browsing software to guarantee yourself the best performance and least troublesome experience possible. Step 2) Get the Latest Flash Plugin MarketSpace uses the Macromedia Flash player browser plugin and so requires that you have the latest version of the Flash plugin installed. As of this writing, the current version of the Flash Player Plugin is 9.3. If you have an earlier version, you may be able to see MarketSpace in your browser but some portions of it may not work. To guarantee the best possible performance and full use of MarketSpace, you can get the most recent version of the Flash Player plugin at Step 3) Set Your Web Browser s Security Level Most web browsers allow you to determine the level of security that you feel is most appropriate for your personal needs and computing environment. The default security setting for Internet Explorer version 6, for example, is Medium. This gives you the optimal combination of hassle free web browsing and security. In addition, a few advanced web browser capabilities such as Active-X Controls, Browser Plugins, Automatic File Downloading and Browser Scripting are required to be active in order to enjoy the full range of features of MarketSpace. For more information on how to set these options on your computer, please see your web browser s documentation or contact your company s technical support staff. A Word About Pop-Up Blockers One of the most common problems with web browsing is the proliferation of unwanted and annoying pop-up windows. There are many solutions for blocking pop-up windows and since MarketSpace does not produce or require any pop-up windows, you can feel free to leave your pop-up blocker of choice in effect. Dealing With the Unexpected From time to time, your operating system or web browser developer may release a new update which could have unexpected effects on your ability to use MarketSpace or other web sites and applications. While these types of occurrences are rare, The MarketSpace development team is constantly testing and updating to make sure that you have the best possible experience at all times. In the event you should encounter such a situation, please report the problem to your company technical support team for the fastest resolution. 2

5 Getting Familiar with MarketSpace More Than Just Tools While MarketSpace has a wealth of powerful features and capabilities to help you produce professional quality marketing materials, it s more than just a collection of tools. MarketSpace is a tightly integrated set of applications that work together to collect, organize and apply your information in the best and most efficient way possible. Because of this, many of MarketSpace s capabilities depend on each other and on you as an aware user to get the most out of the system as a whole. By familiarizing yourself with MarketSpace s features and workflow, you will be able to achieve optimal results with the least amount of time and effort. This Guide will show you how. A User Focused Approach Rather than describing each section and feature of MarketSpace in the order that it appears in the menus, this Guide will direct you through the process of using MarketSpace using the steps you should take from the start to get the best results in the end. By taking a User Focused as opposed to Tool Focused approach, this Guide can help you to have everything well prepared and organized from the start so that you can avoid having to backtrack or duplicate your efforts. Of course, you can skip around the Guide as you wish, but by following the path laid out here, you re sure to have all of the information you need in the order you need it. The Basic Workflow Although the options of the Main Menu appear in the order in which you are most likely to use them once you have created some content and become more familiar with the layout and capabilities of MarketSpace, during your first few logins the particular task you need to perform may not always occur in this order. For example, after your first login, you may want to proceed directly to creating a Document just to see how it works but in order to successfully create and publish a Document, you will first need to create a Property listing and upload photographs for that Property as these are the elements which, when combined with an Inkswitch Document Template, make up your Document. It is also recommended that you take a moment to review update your personal information which includes your telephone number, address and Personal Portrait, as this information is also automatically included with most types of Documents. There are four basic steps you will need to take to go from your first login to successfully creating and publishing your first Document. In the Basic User Guide, we ll look at each one in detail.! Step 1) Log In to MarketSpace! Step 2) Update your personal information in Account Settings! Step 3) Create a Property listing in Properties! Step 4) Upload some photos for that Property in Images! Step 5) Create and publish your Document in Marketing 3

6 Conclusion Learn More We hope this will help you to understand the basic principles behind MarketSpace and get the most out of your experience with it. Your next step will be to read the Basic User Guide which covers the basic workflow of Creating Property listings, uploading Images and producing a Document. To become familiar with some of the more advanced features that MarketSpace has to offer including Image Downloading and Media Ordering as well as many others please see the additional documentation available in the Advanced User Guide. Stay Up To Date Since MarketSpace is a highly customized and dynamic application under constant development and improvement, there will always be something new to see and learn about. As improvements are made and new features become available, this Guide and the other documentation produced for MarketSpace will be updated regularly and made available on our website at Please be sure to check often to get the most recent versions so that you can stay up to date on everything that MarketSpace can do for you. A Final Reminder If you should have any questions or comments about MarketSpace, including feature requests or bug reports, please direct them to your company technical support department or marketing specialist who has been assigned to support MarketSpace for your company. This individual is responsible for answering any questions you may have about your account, the Document Item templates that are available to your company or any other issues regarding MarketSpace that may not be covered in User Guides or the supplementary MarketSpace documentation. 4

7 Glossary Property A record of information about a home, condominium, building, store, plot of land or other piece of Real Estate listed for sale. The Property is the basic unit of organization in MarketSpace. All Images and Documents are typically related to a Property. Image A digital photograph, illustration or other type of graphic that can be uploaded into MarketSpace, assigned to a Property and then used to build a Document. Document The combination of a Property listing plus one or more Images which, when combined with one of MarketSpace s Document Item templates, can be edited and published to produce a print or web-ready file. Template The layout information for a print or web document which can be used to create multiple finished copies of that document which contain different information but all share the same basic fonts, colors and design. Print or Web-Ready File The final output of a Template which contains the information from a Property plus one or more Images and is ready to be printed or posted on the web for general use. Document Type A category of print or web based content such as Post Card, Flyer or Photo Tour. Each Document Type contains one or more Document Items which share the same basic traits but have different designs. Document Item A specific design for a piece of print or web based content. Each Document Item has some unique features such as variable layout, animation or the ability to add additional pages. Visual Studio MarketSpace s unique editing environment in which you can see an actual representation of your Document and edit the Property information, Images and variable layout elements right on the Document itself before publishing a print or web-ready file. Log In To connect to a web site, software program or computer system by entering a unique user name and password. User An individual who has an account with MarketSpace and can log into the system to create their own Property listings, upload Images and produce Documents. Company Two or more Users who wish to share the information that they create in MarketSpace. A Group may consist of two Real Estate Agents who occasionally wish to produce co-listed marketing materials or a Brokerage with hundreds of individual Real Estate Agents plus staff members and administrators. 5