Seattle InDesign User Group Meeting Notes Archive
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
InCopy® CS
with Chad Siegel
InCopy CS is a dedicated copy editing application that works with InDesign® CS. An InCopy CS user opens an InDesign CS file and can edit the stories from the InDesign file. The user gets to focus on the words but doesn't get to mess with the geometry of the page. Great news for both the copy editor and the designer.
The general workflow can start over in the InDesign CS document: You export stories for use by InCopy CS. This is important, because InDesign CS (by default) doesn’t create links to Word, RTF, TXT, or spreadsheet files. Exporting for InCopy creates InCopy CS files (.incd) for the copy editor to use.
The InCopy CS user opens the InDesign CS file and has three view modes for the document: galley, story, and layout. The galley and story views are text editing environments: What you see doesn’t look like the actual text in the layout (the font and color are preferences for InCopy, just like the InDesign story editor). The galley view shows the actual line ends and text wrap from the layout. The story view is just the text. Both of these views have copy fitting information and allow you to work with notes tools. The layout view shows all graphic elements and how the text looks in the InDesign document.
Check-in/Check-out
Both the designer and the copy editor can work on the document simultaneously. When you create the InCopy CS stories, InDesign also creates links to these new external files. In both applications you can check files in and out: The copy editor can check a file out to edit and the designer can see that someone else has the file (and that he or she should not edit the text). Likewise, the designer can check a story out and the copy editor can see that he or she should not edit the copy until the story is checked back in.
InDesign CS PageMaker® Edition and the PageMaker Plug-in Pack
with Colin Fleming
On January 5, Adobe announced the InDesign CS PageMaker Edition and the PageMaker Plug-in Pack and announced that no new feature development would be done for PageMaker. The rough translation: InDesign is the future, and PageMaker users should start using InDesign CS. The PageMaker Edition is a special offer to PageMaker owners. It’s an upgrade path from any version of PageMaker to the full version of InDesign CS (and it includes the PageMaker Plug-in Pack). The PageMaker Plug-in Pack is a set of features that are important to PageMaker users that haven’t been part of InDesign in the past. Colin gave a demonstration of the new features.
The Plug-in Pack includes a template browser, a PageMaker toolbar, bullets and numbering features, a new pointer tool, data merge capabilities for text and graphics, and InBooklet SE (an imposition plug-in from ALAP similar to what Build Booklet offered). The PageMaker Plug-in Pack also allows you to open PageMaker 6.0 to 7.0 documents (without the new plug-ins you can only open PageMaker 6.5 to 7.0 files with InDesign).
The following features are available only with the PageMaker Plug-in Pack and work only with InDesign CS. The InDesign CS PageMaker Edition sells for $349, and the PageMaker Plug-in Pack can be purchased for electronic download by current InDesign users for $49.
Template Browser
Similar to the file browser in Photoshop® (but less mature than the one in Photoshop CS), you can resize the preview area and see detail about the template, including font and color use. The included templates come from professional designers. You can click on the Designer field for these supplied templates to open an included PDF that describes how the templates were created. Browse your templates by either publication type or visual themes. The visual theme idea is that all the collateral for a client is a theme and you’d want to see all the collateral templates together. You can add your own themes and add your own templates (both InDesign and PageMaker templates).
What’s particularly nifty about the template browser is that you see high-quality previews and you can look at each page in the template.
Data Merge
Whether you want to make mailing labels or form letters, the new data merge feature lets you create these variable data documents with InDesign. But this goes a significant step beyond the mundane data merge of the past. We can also use variable graphics and change the image used in each data record! You use the Data Merge palette and select either a tab or a comma-delimited file for your data source. Add the data marker by clicking into your document either in text or in a frame and then clicking on the data marker in the Data Merge palette. You can preview the data merge, and eventually you’ll create a merged document from the Data Merge palette. InDesign creates a new, merged document with each data set as a new page or set of pages.
PageMaker Toolbar
This new toolbar gives you one-click access to common InDesign features in a more PageMaker-like format. I particularly appreciate the one-click access to bullets and numbering.
Bullets and Numbering
You can apply automatic bullets and numbering to paragraphs with this new feature. You can apply these through the Paragraph palette as part of a paragraph style, or with the buttons in the PageMaker toolbar. Feel free to control which bullet is used, add your favorite character for future use, and control the numbering scheme as well. (Secret: Opt/alt click on either the bullet or the numbering button in the PageMaker toolbar for a shortcut to these controls.)
Pointer Tool
This is a new, hybrid selection tool. It combines features of both the selection tool and the direct selection tool.
- Hover over an image and the pointer tool works like the direct selection tool: Click to select the image and you can move or scale the image and leave the frame untouched.
- Hover over the edge of a frame and click to access the frame: Now you can move the frame (and contents) or manipulate the frame (change the crop). Hold the Cmd/Cntrl key to scale the frame and the content.
- Hover over a text frame to auto-toggle to the type tool.
InBooklet SE
This is a special edition of ALAP Software’s imposition plug-in for InDesign. The plug-in will reorder the pages of your document as you print, or it will create a new document for you. Watch it if you have crossovers!
Questions From the Group
by Colin Fleming
These questions were great. They helped fill in the space while we fought with the new A/V system and helped add a new element to the meeting. We want to keep doing this. Please bring your InDesign questions (written) to the meeting, or send them ahead of time to colin@octothorp.net. We’ll answer as many as possible at each meeting.
We collected about 17 questions, and, as I look back, we actually answered most of them! I’m pleasantly stunned. I’ll recap some of the questions and answers (some very briefly) below.
| Q. |
What are some compatibility issues between InDesign 2.0 and InDesign CS? |
| A. |
The big one is that you cannot save a CS document back to use in InDesign 2.0. Outside of that the crowd wasn’t running into compatibility issues. If you open an InDesign 2.0 file with InDesign CS, the file is converted to a CS version. If you’re working with book files, you should also be aware that the Book palette has an automatic document conversion option. Look at this option carefully!
[Related question: How do you save an InDesign CS
document to use in InDesign 2.0?]
|
| Q. |
How can you do a word count? |
| A. |
With InDesign 2.0 you’d need a script to do this; they’re out there on the web. Check out the Adobe user-to-user forums and ask about this in the “InDesign Scripting” forum. If you’re working with InDesign CS, use the type tool and the Info palette. If you select text (and show options in the Info palette), you’ll see character, word, line, and paragraph counts for your selection. If you only click into a story, you’ll get counts for the entire story |
| Q. |
How do you delete unwanted colors that have been imported from another document? |
| A. |
Make sure that the color isn’t used in any object, in any character, or in any paragraph style (including paragraph rules) and that it’s not set as a default; then drag it to the trash in the Swatches palette. (Also consider using the Swatches palette command Select Unused Colors). Note: There was a bug involving deleting unused colors from outside sources; this apparently has been fixed in InDesign CS. |
| Q. |
How do you access Pantone metallic colors in an InDesign document? |
| A. |
Some of the basic metallics are part of the Pantone libraries already. Knowing the Pantone number will help you find these ink swatches. If you want to browse a Pantone metallic swatch library, you’ll want to cruise over to Illustrator® CS and open the library there. Use the color in an object and copy/paste it from Illustrator CS to InDesign CS. (It appears as though the Illustrator CS libraries are not saved in a format that InDesign CS can understand directly). |
| Q. |
How does InDesign work with third-party software, especially Microsoft Word and AdCreator? |
| A. |
Short answer: pretty well. Save the AdCreator files as EPS and place them into your InDesign document. When you use Word files with InDesign CS, there are a couple of new options/features to be aware of. By default, InDesign CS does not create a link to the original Word (or Word-like) file or spreadsheet file; control this in Preferences. Another default setting in Preferences for InDesign CS is that the formatting is not carried over when pasting text with attributes from the Word file to InDesign CS. Great news! |
| Q. |
What options does InDesign have for dummying pages or creating mockups (i.e., printing multiple pages on a single sheet of paper)? |
| A. |
Use the Print dialog box. Go to the Setup category, and near the bottom of the dialog box, check the Thumbnails option. Then choose how many pages you want on the sheet (2x2, 4x4, etc.). Consider that in the General category you can also turn Spread on and print multiple up-facing spreads!
Followup question: How can you dummy-up text content if you don’t have it?
A. InDesign has a ?lorem ipsum? function to do this. Create a text frame and then use the Type > Fill with Placeholder Text command; your current type and style attributes are used to fill the frame.
|
| Q. |
Is there a view or some other way to see the font names in that font (ala Word or Illustrator CS)? |
| A. |
No. A couple of members recommended a couple of font management applications that will do this, but not within InDesign. Illustrator CS has this as a preference, so maybe someday in the future we’ll have this for InDesign. One workaround: Make a text frame and put a bit of text in it. Use the selection tool and click once on the frame, and then open the Character palette and change the font name. (You can even click into the font name and use the up/down arrow keys to move through the font list too.) |
| Q. |
How do I change the arrangement (stacking order) of objects that are already grouped without ungrouping them? |
| A. |
Use the direct selection tool (white arrow) to select an object that’s part of a group, and then use one of the Object > Arrange commands to change the arrangement of objects. Also new to InDesign CS is the select function from the Object menu, which helps you select through objects.
Furthermore, don’t forget that there’s a SECRET selection tool too! Use the direct selection tool, and then hold the Opt/Alt key to toggle to the group selection tool: Clicking an object in a group selects the object; clicking again selects the group that includes the first object. This repeats as you move “up” through nested groups.
Even furthermore, InDesign CS has buttons in the Control palette that help you make selections in a group as well.
|
| Q. |
Is there a way to outline fonts (convert to paths)? |
| A. |
Yes! Select the text you want to convert, and then use the Type > Create Outlines command. Now the type is vector art and you can do what you want with the paths. |
| Q. |
Can you export all stories to RTF files easily? |
| A. |
You’ll want to use a script to do this. There is a link to an AppleScript (below) that does this. It’s from the InDesign Scripting Guide, so there’s a VBScript version in the guide for Windows users. You’ll need to copy the text out and paste it into your script editor. Read the comment in the script that tells you how to choose the export format! |
Thanks for the Prizes!
Thanks to Total Training, Adobe, and Adobe Press, people walked away with some great books and training resources. That old copy of InDesign 1.5 was snapped up pretty quickly. And some wonderful software is headed for a couple of new homes.
Thanks for the Ideas!
We’ve looked at your ideas and we’ll see if we can incorporate your topics in future meetings. And I’ll be contacting those who volunteered to help out with future meetings. We appreciate the help.
And Thanks for the Help!
Thanks to Samuel, Sheila, and David for helping out with the meeting. This help is really important in making the meeting easier to run and organize. We also thank Adobe for the facility, the pizza, the support, and the incredible InDesign resources we have here in Seattle — we’re really lucky! Anyone interested in helping out with the meeting, or anyone with an idea for a future topic, send an email to our chapter representative.
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