Insider Software (San Jose, CA) has unveiled Expo, a new Digital Asset Manager (DAM) software program that centralizes creative assets and streamlines workflow. The technology “redefines” how web, creative and marketing professionals discover, manage and utilize assets in their projects – including images, fonts, icons, multimedia and application documents. By supporting their creative workflow, Expo helps them develop better designs, websites, documents, presentations and other materials. Expo’s unique, user-customizable stock-site manager and built-in browser can find free and commercial assets quickly on the Internet. Users can visit several assets sites with a single click, select new assets, and drop them into Expo – which then imports the assets and their contents, properties and tags into its catalogue.
Users can import a wide range of assets including documents, images, presentations, fonts, icons, music, audio and video files. Expo automatically organizes them into customizable smart folders based on the assets’ attributes and metadata. Users can also drag assets into project, product, client, source or other user-defined folders to organize them any way they want – so the assets are easier to find and deploy. As Expo imports asset files, it auto-tags them to preserve their Mac OS folder associations as well as any tags already assigned by asset vendors and associates. Users can add their own automatic, manual and batch tags at any time. Later, users can search those tags to find matching assets in just seconds.
Expo includes a Mac OS Spotlight-style search that examines tags, file names, file types, sources, dates, licenses, image specs and more. Users instantly see assets matching their search criteria rather than waiting for pages of unhelpful or irrelevant search results. With a simple click, Expo users can view all their fonts, see font previews in customizable text, size and colour, and activate and de-activate selected fonts. Users can also drag assets out of Expo directly into Mac folders and applications from Adobe, Quark, Apple, Microsoft and others. Or, they can use the patent-pending ExpoExpress menu widget to quickly select the right assets – even when the Expo app window isn’t visible.
Expo tracks asset licenses so users know their rights and restrictions, and can avoid usage fees and penalties. The software comes pre-configured with standard license terms and allows users to enter new license text and cost information on a batch or individual-asset basis. Expo also allows users to add ratings and notes to assets to detail sources, projects, versions, alternates, colour adjustments, usage instructions – whatever they need to remember. Since notes are often the most important part of asset metadata, Expo indexes and includes their contents when users search for assets. Expo technology runs on Macintosh computers running OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion, Mavericks or Yosemite) or later.
Insider launches Expo Asset Manager for web, creative and marketing pros
