Reno InDesign User Group

Meeting Notes Archive

Thursday, May 24, 2005

Though we had a modest turnout for the first meeting on the beautiful University of Nevada, Reno campus, the subject matter was well worth the effort for attendees.

Jim Cooper started us out with a session focused on the InDesign’s unique capability to handle text that originated in other programs like MS-Word® and Excel®. Thankfully, the days where we needed to open a spreadsheet to evaluate the cell structure or examine the content are gone. If you want to see what is in a spreadsheet, just (Cmnd/Ctrl+D) Place the file in an InDesign document. If you elect to Show Import Options, you can control which spreadsheet, and even which subset of cells, you can display.

We also saw how we could set our text options to create a link to the original spreadsheet file. Jim mentioned that this feature proved important for his clients that created annual reports. The production artist was free to create the original draft document, with the existing spreadsheet in place to help determine how many pages would be required in the layout. When the spreadsheet is updated, the Links Palette displays a warning (just like we expect with our images) that allows us to refresh the data without cutting and pasting or re-typing from a “markup” printout.

Without missing a beat, we took this concept a step deeper with a sample ‘Word text import. What if our imported content contains a combination of text and tables or charts? In the past, that situation had the potential for countless data-creation and styling headaches, but that is no longer the case, thanks to InDesign. We can confidently Place a ‘Word document and expect the tables to maintain their exact structural integrity. In other words, if cells are “merged” or if a cell has multiple lines of text (even multiple paragraphs of text), InDesign displays them exactly as they were constructed.

Bottom line conclusion as Jim explained, “Don’t fret about pre-evaluating ‘Word or Excel files in their native format. You can count on InDesign to give you exactly what the author intended.”

We then went into some styling capabilities that are not even possible with any other publishing software, other than InDesign. After a brief review of Stylesheet basics that could appeal to both novice and veteran users, Jim showed us some marvelous features relating to the InDesign Nested Styles feature and Open Type. Jim gently helped us focus toward the second part of the presentation: empowering InCopy users to quickly apply all of the styling needed for the “final” print version, without having to return the document to a Layout Artist, even for things that used to be difficult, like creating genuine “fractions” in text.

We saw sample text from a catalog page that originated in ‘Word, with a combination of descriptive paragraphs and items represented in a price chart, created as a Table. Jim showed us how each stylesheet was created, with the main objective being easy and consistent application. The most fascinating of these was the ability to create genuine fractions in the “dimensions” table column with a single click. Even when he reviewed the steps combining Open Type and Nested Style features, the logical steps still seemed to create magical results.

He modestly backed away from calling this the “Jim Cooper” method, though he did say that the client that he primarily developed this for did not want to be named, because they feel that this formatting capability gives them the edge over competing catalog creators, by radically reducing formatting time for “raw” data.

Next we saw a brief review of InDesign’s fantastic table features. At the risk of proceeding too fast, Jim showed us how to:

Replace the more conventional “tabbed text” formatting of something like a catalog price chart with a powerful “unruled” table. (This became more apparent when we saw his plug-in demonstration.)
Adjust column and row sizes, individually and by applying the same adjustment to each column and row in a table.
Designate Header Row(s) and have them automatically repeat, should a table “break” across columns or pages.
Specify the “stroke” of table cells for an entire table and for a single “border” of a single cell, if necessary.
Apply a fill (even a gradient) to a selected cell or series of cells.

Now for more “sorcery,” as Jim referred to it, related to unspeakably fast formatting: We were introduced to SmartStyles, available from WoodWing Software, the very first developer to see that InDesign would emerge as the industry standard and focus on a suite of plug-ins exclusively.

• Learn more about WoodWing in the Plug-ins section.

Jim set aside the example frame and showed us “raw” input for an entire catalog page, with Product Name, Description, and the Price Chart appearing multiple times in succession in a single frame. With a single application of a SmartStyle (dragged from a “library” palette) over the frame, all of the formatting we reviewed was applied to every paragraph and every cell of each table simultaneously!

As Jim put it, “We can apply fantastic styling to a single table, but who wants to repeat the process the dozens, or hundreds of times needed to create an entire catalog?” He then showed us how to create an alternate SmartStyle for the Tables, and apply it to every table within a single frame. Some pretty heady stuff, before the feature presentation, Adobe InCopy.

After a short break, we reviewed a sample workflow constructed around the synergy created with InDesign and Adobe InCopy. Jim began with a template for a simple article created by one of his magazine clients. He immediately began reinforcing his references to “editor friendly design” by showing us the construction of the article template.

“In the past, we would have constructed the article with independent text frames for Title, Byline, Pullquote, Body and Author Bio,” he began. “To get a ‘Word-authored document to resemble the finished product, we subjected ourselves to lots of cut-and-paste. Now, not only are we turning the placement of the original text over to the editors, we are eliminating many of tedious operations as well. This makes editor participation in the new process much easier.”

In the time available, here’s what we saw:

An InDesign template constructed with text flowing through “threaded” text boxes. Each stylesheet specified to begin in a new frame.
An InCopy Article created by the designer in the InDesign application. This operation made designated text frames “editable” by the InCopy user only.
The InCopy user tools that had exactly the same typesetting capabilities as the InDesign user (without any of the layout tools).
The InCopy user able to access the Article document and (Ctrl+D) place a ‘Word file that “may have come from an outside contributor” into the assigned frames.
The InCopy user choices of viewing an article in Galley or Layout views to allow editing “for fit.”
The InCopy use ability to Track Changes, review changes by other editors, and imbed notes in the InCopy document for “permanent” record.
Dynamic spell checking, search/replace, and quick application of style and review of stylesheet usage in Story view.
Refresh of the InDesign page with the latest text version (basically a link between the InCopy and InDesign documents).
Refresh of the InCopy document with updates to the layout.
Check out (and resumption of full control of layout and text) by the InDesign user.

As our time wound down, Jim mentioned that the new collaborative publication model would allow designers to concentrate on layout only and leave all other typesetting operations, like application of style and even “fraction building” to the editorial team.

The evening concluded with (thanks to Adobe) a raffle for some great prizes.

Congratulations to Laura Lea Evans as the first Reno member to win Adobe InDesign CS2!

Sincere thanks to Kirah Van Sickle and Bill Oberding (University of Nevada, Reno) for their help and hospitality.

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