How To

Getting started

The AG Guide lives at rbmarketingautomation.com/agguide and runs entirely in your browser; there is nothing to install. Sign in with your work email. Accounts are invite-only: a new teammate is added to the allowlist first, then signs up at that address with a one-time email verification (the link arrives in their inbox). Forgot your password? The reset link on the login page is fully self-serve.

Once signed in, the top navigation is the whole tool: Generate is where pages are built, Changelog lists what is new, How To is this page, and Usage shows who has been using which tool on this site, day by day. Admin appears for administrators and manages the allowlist and access levels.

The Generate page at a glance

The left column is the page you are building, top to bottom: Template, Photos and the Sale write-up (with the additional consignors and the auction URL right under its Auto-fill button), then the sale's fields in the order of the Supplement & Auction Event Page, so a filled-in contract can be typed in from top to bottom: Auction details, Seller contact, Marketing information, the Territory Manager and, at the bottom, the Asana push questions. The right rail stays in reach while you scroll: Generate Press PDF and Finalize to Asana with the PDF preview under them, and Save progress & rollback for builds and checkpoints.

A typical page takes a few minutes: pick the template, drop the photos in, paste the write-up and auto-fill, choose the Territory Manager, generate, check the notes and the preview, save a checkpoint, and finalize to Asana when the page is right.

Photos

Each box on the Generate page is the shape of the printed photo, shows the crop the page will get, and prints exactly as arranged.

1. Pick a template first. One-page templates hold 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 photos; two-page templates hold 12 to 18. Choose by the number of photos you have. Every template is one of the approved guide layouts, at the guide's exact page size.
2. Add the photos. Use "Add photos in bulk" to choose several at once or drag files onto it; they fill the open boxes in order. Or click any empty box to fill it alone. The ⟳ on a filled box replaces its photo, the × removes it, and more photos than the template holds are reported, not silently dropped.
3. Name the files the SOP way before you add them: the equipment code, an underscore, then the name, for example COM_2019 John Deere S780.jpg. The code sets the category order and is stripped from the print; the rest becomes the printed name under the photo, in house style (MacDon casing, "w/", the stacked ± sign). Edit the name in the box if it needs a change; names are never cut off, they wrap to a second line instead. A box marked in red with an empty name means Windows shortened the file's name (to something like FWD_20~2.JPE) because the photo's folder path is too long, as OneDrive and SharePoint folders often are. Copy the photos to your Desktop and replace the marked ones with ⟳, or type the names; the page waits to generate until every marked box has a name.
4. Order. Photos print in the standard equipment category order, and the boxes are numbered in the order they will print. Drag a photo onto another box to take manual control (the page switches to "Custom order"); "Reset to category order" puts the standard order back.
5. Feature two photos. Star (★) up to two photos and they lead the page and print large in the top row, on any template whose top row holds two photos. With the top row cut to one box (see Resize the photo boxes), one star picks the photo that goes across the top.
6. Mark a secondary consignor's item. The * on a box prints an asterisk after that photo's name and beside the secondary name line in the header, so the reader can tie the two together. Set the secondary name in the sale details or the tool tells you the asterisk has no referent.
7. Framing. The tool finds the equipment in each photo and zooms toward it as far as it can without cutting anything off. The small readout beside a box's zoom pill shows the factor it expects to print at (worked out from a reduced copy of the photo, so it can differ from the page by a hair). To take over, press + or −: the thumbnail changes as you click, the percentage prints exactly as shown, and clicking the percentage returns to Auto. A single − from Auto sets 100% by hand, which prints the full frame; the notes under Generate name any photo left that way.
8. Move the photo inside its box. The arrows beside the zoom pill (◀ ▲ ▼ ▶) shift the crop a step that way, on Auto or on a manual zoom. See Move a photo inside its box.
9. Colour. Photos get the same levels lift the designers apply (dull skies to white, mid-tones up) and ship as sRGB with the profile attached, the way the designers' finished pages do. Uncheck "Auto-brighten dark photos" to print every photo as shot.

Resize the photo boxes

Make one photo bigger and the others give way. The page itself never changes size, so a bigger box always means smaller neighbours.

• Drag the corner grip. Every box has a small grip of two orange stripes in its bottom-right corner. Drag it sideways and the box gets wider while the other photos in its row get narrower; drag it up or down and its row gets taller or shorter while the other rows give way; drag it diagonally and both happen at once, which keeps the photo's shape as it grows.
• Drag the lines. The gap between two photos and the gap between two rows are handles too: the line turns orange when you hover. Dragging one moves only that pair of photos, or that pair of rows, and leaves everything else where it is. With a line selected, the arrow keys nudge it.
• Size − / +. Under each photo's zoom pill, the Size buttons step the box larger or smaller, and the readout between them is the size the box will print at, in inches.
• Limits. A box cannot get narrower than about 1.2 in or a row shorter than about 0.8 in, so every name still fits and every photo keeps room. The framing preview follows each new shape.
• Reset box sizes appears under the order controls once anything has moved and puts the template's own boxes back.
• Empty boxes resize too, with their printed size shown, so a page can be laid out before the photos go in. The arrangement is saved with checkpoints and Finalize, and the page prints exactly as it looks on screen.
• Remove a box (one photo across the top). Every box has a ⊟ Remove box button: on a photo it is at the right of the Size row, on an empty box it is beside the size. Click it and that box is gone; the other photos in the row spread out to take its room, and if the removed box held a photo, that photo moves to the next box. To get one photo across the top, add the photo to the first box of the top row and click Remove box on the empty box beside it (or, with both boxes filled, on the second photo). A photo left without a box is held under the grid with its name, not deleted; the ⊞ at the right edge of the row puts a box back and the photo returns, as does Reset box sizes. A row always keeps at least one box. Hover over either button for a reminder of what it does.
• Stack two photos on top of each other. The line between any two photos in a row carries a ▤ button. Click it and those two photos go one above the other in a single column as wide as both were, which suits two long, low machines; the other photos in the row stand beside the pair at the row's full height, and in a row of two the pair takes the whole page width. The row grows to make room and the rows below give way. Drag the line between the two stacked photos to give one more height than the other, and the lines beside the pair to make it wider or narrower. The ▥ button on the line inside the pair puts them side by side again, as does Reset box sizes. A row of four can hold two pairs. The stack is saved with checkpoints and Finalize and prints exactly as shown.

Move a photo inside its box

Zoom decides how much of a photo the box shows; moving decides which part. A machine that sits off to one side, or a tall photo whose interesting part is low, can be framed by hand.

• The arrows. Beside each photo's zoom pill (the − Auto + control) sit four arrows, ◀ ▲ ▼ ▶, and a target mark, ⌖. Each arrow moves the crop one step that way: press ▶ to show more of the photo's right side, ▲ to show more of its top, and so on. A step is a tenth of the room the photo has to spare, so ten presses take the crop from one edge to the other. The thumbnail moves as you click, and the page prints exactly as shown.
• Greyed arrows mean no room that way. A photo that is the same shape as its box fills it at 100%, so the sideways arrows are grey until you zoom in with + and there is something to move. A tall photo in a wide box has room up and down at 100%, so only its sideways arrows are grey. An arrow also greys when the crop has reached that edge of the photo; hover any arrow for the reason.
• Moving and Auto. Moving does not change the zoom. On Auto the automatic zoom stays and only the position changes, which is the usual case: the machine sits a little off centre and one or two presses put it where you want it. Once you move a photo, the tool no longer keeps the machine inside the frame for you; the preview shows what will print, so check the box before you generate.
• The target mark. ⌖ lights orange while a photo has been moved by hand, so a restored checkpoint shows at a glance which photos were moved. Click it to put the crop back where the tool had it: the centre, or in a narrow four-across box the vertical position the tool chose for the machine.
• Saved with everything else. The position is saved with checkpoints and Finalize and comes back on restore. It is remembered as a fraction of the room, so a photo moved "a quarter from the left" stays there if its box is later resized. Photos you do not move print exactly as they always have.

Sale details

1. Paste the sale write-up from the Word doc or Wrike into the Sale write-up box and click Auto-fill fields from text. The auction fields below fill themselves, and bulleted equipment lines become the printed Equipment Highlights. Always review the filled fields before generating.
2. Auction details follow the first page of the Supplement & Auction Event Page from top to bottom: the location and the sale name, the secondary name, the main auction date and the equipment viewing, the sale number, whether there is another auction in the same town, the auction type (unreserved retirement, farm, major realignment, inventory reduction, estate or complete dispersal), the legal land description and GPS, and the directions to the yard. The same-town question is a Yes or No; Yes opens a box for the URL of the other sale. The sale number and the same-town answer go to the Asana task and are not printed; the note under each says so.
3. Optional lines. A secondary name to be advertised prints under the sale name line. Additional consignors, one per line or comma separated, go in the box under the Auto-fill button and print in the page footer (the photo grid gives up a little height to make room for them).
4. Equipment viewing. Type the date range; the standard tail "from 9am–6pm OR by appointment only" is added for you, spelled-out months become three-letter ones, and the line under the field shows exactly what will print.
5. Legal land description and GPS print in the footer beside the viewing dates.
6. Auction URL. The page carries a QR code to the sale. Until the URL is filled in, a placeholder QR prints and the notes under Generate remind you to add the real one before press. The contract has no line for it, so it is the last field of Auction details.

Seller contact

Up to two consignors print in the page footer, each with a name, a phone number (and an additional one if needed) and an email. Leave the block blank to use the sale name line instead. Phone numbers are printed in the guide's 1-XXX-XXX-XXXX format. This is the contract's Contact Details block, so it comes straight after Auction details.

Territory Manager

• Search the library by name to fill the name, title, phone and email in one click, along with the headshot. The library holds the creative team's colour-corrected headshot for every Territory Manager, framed as it is on their TM block, and it prints as it is.
• Add or update a TM. Type new details and click "Save TM"; edit a picked TM's fields and save to update the library for everyone. A headshot you upload yourself is cropped face-aware so the head sits correctly in the portrait slot.
• A second Territory Manager can be added for the Asana task. The printed page carries one TM block, so the second does not print.

Generate and check

1. Generate Press PDF. The status line shows the upload as it goes. Photos restored from a saved build, or already saved in a checkpoint, are not uploaded again (the page sends a reference), so a re-render takes seconds. A dropped connection is named as such and retried once.
2. Read the notes. The list under the button is the tool telling you what it noticed: empty photo boxes, a photo below ideal print resolution, a photo printed at a manual 100%, a box or row held at its minimum size, a placeholder QR, a secondary-consignor asterisk with no name to point at. Fix what matters and generate again.
3. Inspect the preview at fit-width or up to 200%, then download the PDF.
4. What you get. A press-ready PDF at the guide's exact 8.25 × 10.75 in trim with bleed, in the guide's Inter typeface, with type and brand colour set for the press and the photos in sRGB with their profile attached, so the page matches the rest of the printed guide.

Save progress and roll back

• Builds and checkpoints. A build is one sale's page; a checkpoint is a named snapshot of everything on it (photos, names, zoom and box sizes, every field, the TM and the Asana answers). Save one whenever you reach a state worth keeping ("before reordering photos"), and restore any earlier one if something goes wrong. Checkpoints live on the server, so they survive a reload and follow you to any device.
• Shared with the team. Anyone can open a build, restore a checkpoint and save new checkpoints onto it; each checkpoint shows who saved it. Only the creator can delete a build.
• Find saved work by sale name, town, people on the sale, auction date, checkpoint name, save date or teammate. The line under the search box says how many saved pages it covers, including the ones teammates saved; the matching checkpoints show underneath. Select one to open its build, then choose Restore when you are ready. "New build" starts a fresh, unsaved page.

Finalize to Asana

1. Fill in what goes to Asana. None of it prints. The fields the contract has sit where the contract has them: the sale number and the same-town answer are in Auction details, and the number of pages, the hero image question, the estimated GTV and the collected dollars are under Marketing Information. The rest is at the bottom of the left column, under Asana push: search for the guide's Asana project (for example "Fall 2026 Ag Guide"), then fill the hurricane banner, the CSM and the Regional Sales Managers.
2. Hero image. Answering Yes to "Do you have a Hero Image ready to upload?" opens an upload box. The image is not printed on the guide page; it is attached to the Asana task for the auction web page build. It saves with your checkpoints, and switching the answer back to No clears it.
3. Choose which pages Asana gets. "Asana gets", above the Finalize button, reads AG Guide page, Tradeshow quarter page or Both pages. Each page you generate is added to it, so generating the AG Guide page and the tradeshow quarter page puts both PDFs on the sale's task, with the photos they show. Both pages of a sale go to the same task. Set it by hand to leave a page off; it is saved with the build, and each page you generate has its own download under Output.
4. Click Finalize to Asana. The task is created in the chosen project with the sale details, the press PDF, the photos, the hero image and the blueprint subtasks, and the sale is saved as a build (a "Finalized: …" checkpoint appears under Save progress).
5. Finalizing again updates the same task in place, replacing its notes, PDFs and photos, instead of creating a second one. The build is what links the sale to its task, so after a reload open the sale's build from the list first; the button then reads "Update Asana task". The task then holds the pages chosen under "Asana gets": a page left out comes off it. Later edits to key details also post a change notice on the sale's task whenever you save a checkpoint.

Good to know

• If a fix looks missing, the tab is probably running an older version. Look for the orange bar at the top and click Reload now; a tab with nothing on it updates by itself.
• Two people, one sale. Builds are shared, so a teammate can pick up a page from the last checkpoint. Save a checkpoint before you hand it over.
• Print sharpness. The notes under Generate say when a photo, or a zoomed photo, is below ideal print resolution for its box. A larger original or a lower zoom prints sharper.