User manual

2.1Creating and setting up a document

New publication appears on first launch and any time via New… The fields:

Document setup… reopens the same dialog for an existing document. One honest limitation: changing the trim size does not move elements already placed. The tool won't pretend it can reflow your layout – check your pages after a trim change.

Workflow statuses are also defined here, per document. The defaults are planned / copy in / proofed / approved, but you can add, rename, and recolour stages to match your own production line (at press, with repro, sent – whatever your workflow calls them).

2.2The flatplan view

The overview is the light table: every page as a thumbnail, paired into spreads, with page 1 alone as the cover.

Reordering. Drag any page; the blue insertion bar shows the landing position. Spreads re-pair automatically, so verso/recto stays correct no matter how much you shuffle.

Statuses. Each page carries a coloured status dot. Click the dot to advance to the next stage; right-click the page for the full status menu. The header's ✓ counter (e.g. ✓ 12/52) tracks approved pages live.

Colour coding. Entirely optional. Pages and elements each take a colour – none, one of seven named inks, or a custom pick. A page's colour shows as a tint and top bar on its thumbnail, which makes section runs readable at a glance.

Header stats. Filename and save state, trim dimensions, page count, approval progress, and ad share – calculated by area (actual mm² of ad elements against total page area), not by counting pages.

Adding pages. + 4 pages appends four blank pages, because saddle-stitched and perfect-bound magazines print in multiples of four.

2.3The page editor

Click any page on the flatplan to open it. Back (or closing the editor) returns you to the overview.

Adding elements. The + Add element menu offers ad fractions computed from your document's trim and type area – full page, ½ horizontal, ½ vertical, ⅓ vertical, ¼ page – plus text blocks, image boxes, and custom boxes. New ads and images arrive with a sensible default colour you can clear with one click.

Moving and resizing. Drag to move; eight handles resize. Arrow keys nudge the selected element (hold Shift for 5 mm steps). Everything is stored in millimetres – zoom changes what you see, never the document.

The sidebar. With an element selected it shows the element's properties: label, type, exact X / Y / Width / Height fields, colour, text content, and production notes (booking ref, materials deadline, copy status). With nothing selected, it shows page-level properties instead. The X/Y/W/H fields accept typed values and ignore snapping – use them when you need a deliberate off-grid position.

Notes. An element's notes render on the element itself (the ✎ line) and flag the page's thumbnail with a ✎ marker, so annotated items are visible from the overview. Notes also travel into the CSV exports.

Toolbar toggles.

Ruler guides. Drag out of the top or left ruler to place a guide, exactly as in InDesign. Guides are per page and saved with the document.

Snapping. With Snap on, the nearest edge of the element you're dragging jumps onto page edges (0 and trim), margin lines, column edges, and – when the Grid toggle is also on – grid lines. When resizing, the handle you're pulling snaps. With Snap off, movement is free and rounds to the nearest 0.5 mm.

Arrange menu. Right-click any element: Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward, Send to back, Duplicate, Delete. The same arrange actions appear in the sidebar when an element is selected.

Zoom. In, out, and fit. Fit recalculates whenever you open a page.

2.4Keyboard reference

About undo: it covers everything – moves, resizes, adds, deletes, arranges, colour changes, typed edits, page renames, reordering, page add/delete, and document-setup changes – up to 60 steps. A burst of typing in one field counts as a single step (Ctrl+Z reverts the whole edit, not one letter), and each drag gesture is one step regardless of distance.

2.5Saving and files

The .flatplan file is the document. Save early, save often; the filename indicator in the header shows a dot when there are unsaved changes, and the app warns before you close a window or open another file with changes pending.

• Save / Ctrl+S writes to the current file.
• Save As writes a new file.
• Open picks a file – or drag a .flatplan file from Explorer onto the app window.

Browser support. True in-place saving uses the File System Access API, available in Chrome and Edge. In browsers without it, Save falls back to downloading a copy – your work is just as safe, you simply manage the file versions yourself.

Crash recovery. The app quietly keeps the current document in your browser's local storage as you work. If the browser crashes or the tab closes, your latest state is restored on the next visit. This is a safety net, not a filing system – the .flatplan file remains the document of record.

Sharing. A .flatplan file is plain-text JSON. That makes it easy to email, archive, and version – and it means everything in it, including advertiser names and any rates in your notes, is readable by anyone who has the file. Treat it like any working document.

2.6Exports

The Export… menu produces three artefacts:

Flatplan file (JSON) – the complete document, for backup or sharing with another Flatplan Studio user.

Pagination list (CSV) – the editorial planning document, in book-map layout: one header row per folio carrying the page-level facts, then one row per element beneath it.

Ad schedule (CSV) – the sales handoff: one row per ad, with folio, label (advertiser), exact size and position in mm, share of page, colour, and the ad's own notes. This is the sheet to reconcile against the booking system.

Both CSVs open directly in Excel – they carry a UTF-8 byte-order mark so the × in "210×297mm" and accented names render correctly, and awkward advertiser names (commas, quotes) are properly escaped.

2.7Printing

Print opens a small dialog:

• Paper – A4, A3, A2, or A1, all landscape (a flatplan's natural shape). Your choice is injected into the print CSS, so the browser's preview preselects the right size.
• Layout – Fit whole flatplan on one sheet shrinks thumbnails just enough to fit (never below a legibility floor: very long issues paginate rather than print as confetti). Full detail – span sheets as needed keeps thumbnails at full size across as many sheets as it takes.

Every sheet repeats the masthead – issue title, filename, trim size, page count, approval progress, ad share, and the status/colour key – plus a "sheet n of N" marker when the plan spans sheets. No naked second page.

Bigger paper earns bigger detail: on A1, thumbnails print larger than they appear on screen, with every element label readable across the room.

Your settings are remembered for the session, and Ctrl+P prints with the last-used settings.

2.8Installing as an app

Flatplan Studio is an installable web app. In Chrome or Edge, use the install icon in the address bar (or the browser menu → Install Flatplan Studio). You get a Start-menu entry, its own window, and a taskbar pin – same tool, no browser furniture.

2.9Your data and privacy

There is no backend, no database, and no account. The app you download from flatplan.ctrlcopy.co.za is the empty tool; your documents live in your browser and in .flatplan files on your own disk or network share. Nothing you plan is transmitted anywhere.

The practical consequence: back up your .flatplan files the same way you back up any working document. There is no cloud copy to recover from, by design.

2.10Troubleshooting

An element won't land where I want it. Snap is being helpful. Turn Snap off for free placement (movement rounds to 0.5 mm), or type exact values into the sidebar's X/Y/W/H fields, which ignore snapping entirely.

My print came out tiny. The browser's print Scale is set to "Fit to page" or below 100%. Set it to 100% – the app sizes the layout to the paper itself.

Colours print grey. Set the print to colour: in the browser's print dialog, choose Colour rather than Black and white, and check the printer's own settings aren't forcing greyscale. If you're printing from a browser other than Chrome or Edge, also try enabling "Background graphics". (On a black-and-white printer, colours rendering as shades of grey is the print working as intended.)

Save downloads a copy instead of saving in place. You're in a browser without the File System Access API (e.g. Firefox or Safari). The downloaded copy is your saved file; Chrome or Edge give the in-place Save experience.

I changed the trim size and my layout looks wrong. Trim changes don't move placed elements – reposition anything now sitting off the new page geometry.

The app opened with an old version of my plan. That's the crash-recovery autosave from this browser. Open your .flatplan file – the file on disk is always the document of record.

2.11Licence

Flatplan Studio is provided free to use, as-is, under a proprietary public-use licence. It is not open source. Built by CTRL Copy for its own production workflow and shared because a good flatplan should not require a spreadsheet and a prayer.

© CTRL Copy (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.