Converting to ISBN-13

Need a fast track to converting your ISBN's to ISBN-13? Here's how you can do it with Couplet and Publishers' Assistant.

Starting with V4.2v, Couplet contains a new ISBN conversion tool. It will process through all of your titles and convert the ISBN's for you. Even if you are not a current PubAssist user, you can download Couplet to try it out. You'll be able to import your titles from a .CSV file. You might want to try out the ONIX export while you are at it!

Here are the steps for current PubAssist users:

  1. Download a copy of Couplet: Click here to download Couplet now.
  2. Install Couplet on your machine.
  3. Run Couplet. Go to "File", "Locate Database" on the menu. You'll be presented with a Database Update window. This will add many new fields to your title table. Click on Continue.
  4. You'll also be asked to identify your owner contact in the next screen.
  5. Use the navigation tools to find or move to your owner contact. Usually, the owner contact is contact number 1. The contact number appears in the upper, right-hand corner of the screen. When you have identified the owner contact, Click on the "X" or hit "ESC" to exit the screen without saving changes.
  6. On the "Tools" menu, select "Convert ISBN-10 to ISBN-13".
  7. Select the hyphenation you want and click on "Convert".
  8. When completed, you will now have an ISBN-13 field in your PubAssist database, and your valid ISBN-10's will have been converted and saved as ISBN13. They will also be saved in the EAN13 field. You can use the Title option on the toolbar (the top icon) to navigate through your titles, see the new fields that are available, and verify that you now have ISBN13's.

Once you have converted your ISBN's, you can install new reports for Publishers' Assistant. These new ISBN13 reports are updates to several of the standard invoice, packing slip, and customer return reports. Theyinclude both the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 identifiers.

Note that these reports will OVERWRITE your existing reports with the same name. If you have made customizations to any of these reports you should COPY those report definitions and give them a new name. If you have modified any of the standard report forms, you should rename your modified report forms to a new file name before installing this kit!

These recommendations really apply to any reports that you customize. If you don't follow these practices, you're likely to have your customizations overwritten the next time you install a new version of Publishers' Assistant.

To install the ISBN13 reports kit:

  1. Download the new reports kit: Click here to download ISBN-13 reports now.
  2. Extract the contents of the zip folder to your PubAssist folder--usually c:\program files\pubassist\. Epic users need the contents of this kit on each computer running PubAssist.
  3. Use windows explorer to navigate to your PubAssist folder.
  4. On one computer, find and execute the file, ISBN13rpt.exe. This will update the report definitions in your database.
  5. If you get the prompt to overwrite the existing report definition, choose, "Yes".
  6. Store this kit in a safe place in case you need to reinstall.

Your invoices, packing slips, and customer return memos will now print out both the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 digit identifiers if they are available. This should get you through the transitional period when some of your trading partners still need the ISBN-10. In 2007, you'll be able to remove the ISBN-10's from these reports and work exclusively with ISBN-13's.