MarketTime offers the ability to upload a PDF catalog and through OCR technology, automatically link the items shown with the items you've uploaded in your MarketTime data file for a new ordering experience.
This feature is designed to be used after items have been imported via Excel into MarketTime.
Video Overview
Things to Know about using the OCR Feature
NOTE: The OCR feature only scans for the product's Item Number at this time. UPCs, Descriptions, and Images will not be used to tag an item.
For best coverage of automatic OCR tagging, we recommend the following:
- Black text over a white background.
- High-quality, legible fonts.
- No obstructions to the Item Numbers.
- Ensuring the catalog contains Item Numbers that exactly match what products have been imported into MarketTime (e.g. an Item Number of PE-1001 will not be tagged if the product you've uploaded is 1001).
- In the rare event that no items are picked up during the OCR process, the catalog will need to be manually hotspotted as described below.
Uploading a Digital Catalog for Hotspotting
To upload a digital catalog, navigate to the “Items” section on the left-hand navigation, and then select, “Documents”
Click on Publish Digital Catalogs to begin.
Once selected, the PDF catalog will appear, and you will be presented with the next steps:
1. Click on the OCR icon to have the system automatically match possible items found in the PDF and your data file.
After clicking the OCR button, it will search through the products uploaded in MarketTime for this Manufacturer, and search the document for matching Item Numbers.
Once the process is complete (time will vary depending on the document size, amount of products, etc.), you will be presented with the amount of products MarketTime was able to automatically tag:
Items that have been successfully tagged via OCR will be highlighted in light blue:
2. Manually tag any remaining items or add any additional URL links as desired.
This can be done with Rectangle Mode found at the top of the screen:
Simply highlight the area of any missing item or promotional image you wish to tag:
3. When you're satisfied with your work and are ready to save your progress and publish the catalog, use the Save icon in the top right corner of the window:
During this last step, you'll be asked to name your file (1), provide an optional brief description of the file (2), and choose whether or not this catalog should appear for your Retailers on your B2B Website (3).
MarketTime automatically grabs the first page of the PDF you've uploaded and assigns it as the catalogs thumbnail image that appears for all. Should you desire to change it, simply use the Choose File button to do so!
When all is complete, click Save and Publish to complete your work!
The process of saving may take some time depending on the size of your catalog and amount of hotspots.
Editing a Catalog after it's been Hotspotted
In cases where you've previously hotspotted a catalog, or saved your progress to continue at a later date, MarketTime offers the ability to continue working on the catalog.
To do this, navigate to the Documents tab within the desired Manufacturer and click the "Edit" button while in Grid View.
This can also be done while in List View:
Use the Edit Digital Catalog button in the resulting window to continue your work.
You may proceed with using OCR, manual hotspotting, or editing as needed.
When finished editing the catalog, click the Save button in the top right corner as you normally would.
By default when saving an edited catalog, MarketTime attempts to create a new version of the catalog, to leave the original untouched. If this is what you desire, click Save & Publish to create this new version.
NOTE: You will need to delete the old version should you no longer desire to use it.
If you do wish to overwrite the file you were editing so this new version is the sole version remaining, use the Overwrite the existing file toggle to do so: