CATALOG BUILDING METHOD AND SYSTEM

Systems and methods are described which produce a catalog from a previously existing database. The method defines catalog data fields and links same to the data fields of the database. In one embodiment, the method scans the database for its dat fields and automatically uses same as the catalog data fields. This improves the efficiency of catalog production because a publisher need not be trained as to what data is in the database. The method further automatically formats the data from the data base into a catalog. In another embodiment, the method automatically produces a table of contents and an index. The present method can produce the catalog in multiple formats, including electronic, portable document format, rich text format, and printed.