Date: September 17th 2007

---

*** InCopyFlow ***

---

Tips and techniques for Adobe InCopy/InDesign Workflow Users

In this Issue:
-- Versioning Stories and Layouts
-- Palettes to Toolbars and Vice Versa
-- A Hidden Game in InCopy CS3

Issue 7, 9/17/07
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion ... for her InCopy workflow clients, colleagues, and interested subscribers

(c) 2007 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.

---

Versioning Stories and Layouts

---

Designers, editors and writers have itchy trigger fingers, born out of bitter experience working with computers. We like to periodically do a "Save As" to files we're working on so we can safely revert to previous versions in case something gets messed up.

But when a designer does that to a layout file with linked InCopy stories, only the layout file is versioned. They end up with a new version 2 layout that's linked to version 1 stories.

While that can be useful on occasion; a lot of ID/IC workflow users need something more complete. They want a way to back up everything -- the layout, the assignments, and the linked InCopy stories in their current state. Sometimes, Track Changes is just not enough!

(Those of you with ID/IC workflow management systems like SoftCare's K4, Woodwing's SmartConnection, or Van Gennep's PlanSystem don't have to worry about this, since they all come with solutions for automatic back-ups and versioning. Small and mid-size publishers going "commando" with InCopy, like most users, need to figure this out on their own.)

Maybe you've tried doing an end-run and simply duplicating a project folder on the server. If you haven't tried that yet, let me save you the effort: It doesn't work. The duped layout file still links to the original stories in the original folder, ignoring the ones that are right there in the same folder.

Or, you could use the one method that always works: the Do-Over. Open the layout, Save As with a new name in a new folder, then unlink (embed) all the managed InCopy content. You're left with a normal InDesign file with normal stories. Then you re-export the stories to InCopy format again to the new folder, and re-associate them to assignments. It's painfully tedious, but if you get paid by the hour, think of all the money you could make! ;-)

But, guess what? It is possible to save versions of managed stories in InDesign/InCopy without having to re-invent the wheel, without any additional software or dedicated features. You just have to know how to work the clutch.

In the remainder of this article I'll explain how the designer can back-up/create a new version of an entire project, including the managed InCopy content. In the next issue of InCopyFlow I'll present some ways editors can create versions of individual stories they're working on. (And if you're wondering about Version Cue, I'm currently testing it with IC/iD. I'll let you know how it goes.)

---

Let the Designer Do It

---

The easiest way to make a new version of a layout and all its linked InCopy content in one fell swoop is from within InDesign. Here's what the designer needs to do:

1. Open the layout, and check the Assignments panel to make sure that all stories are checked-in (available) and up to date. This is a critical step -- don't proceed until all InCopy links show a happy globe-and-paper icon, and nothing else.
2. Choose File > Save As, and give the layout a new name (like "Acme Brochure v2.indd") and location. To prevent massive confusion, save it in its own folder (e.g., "Acme Project v2") outside of the original project folder.
3. Open the v2 layout's Links panel and select all the entries that end in .incx or .incd, representing the linked InCopy files. (This is easier in CS3 because the Links panel fly-out menu has a new Sort by Type command. When you choose that option, all the linked InCopy stories are grouped together, making it easy to shift-click them all before going on to the next step.)
4. Choose Copy Links To from the Links panel menu. That tells InDesign to copy the selected links to the location you're about to tell it.
5. In the resulting Open/Save dialog box, choose a new location for the linked InCopy content files. You don't get a chance to rename these. So, again, to prevent confusion, it's best to create a dedicated folder to hold them -- call it "Stories-v2" or "Content-v2," something like that -- as a subfolder inside the new project folder. Navigate to your new stories folder, then click the Save button.

That's it. Since the Copy Links To command not only duplicates the selected linked files, but also re-links them to the current layout, the original story files are left behind. (They're still linked to the original layout, just not the new one.) You can safely archive the old layout and its linked InCopy content. Originals of any linked images remain where they were; presumably elsewhere on your server.

By the way, another way to do this, which designers might find easier than the Copy Links To method, is to simply choose File > Package. Yes, the same command normally used to collect all the files necessary to send the job to a commercial printer. But you don't have to send the results to the printer, of course; you can use Package for anything you want.

For our purposes there's no need to have InDesign package the fonts, so you can leave that unchecked in the Package dialog box. But be sure to turn on the checkboxes for "Copy Linked Graphics" and "Update Graphic Links in Package," because that way InDesign copies and updates the links to the InCopy stories too, in the same "Links" folder it creates to hold the graphics. Since you can't rename the layout file (the copy of it that InDesign puts in the Package folder) during the process, you'll need to do so manually in the Finder/Explorer.

---

Updating the Assignments

---

What I described is all that's necessary if you're using a layout-based workflow; that is, if the editors are opening the full .indd layout. A little extra work -- just a little -- is necessary if you're using Assignments (.inca) files in your workflow.

Assignment files aren't really linked to the layout (they don't appear in the Links panel); they're more like an attribute, or "children," of the layout itself. So the .inca files won't get copied to your new folder regardless of which method above you use, and the new version of the layout will report that the Assignments are missing.

Not to worry, it's normal, and you'll fix it in a minute. Please don't try moving or duplicating the old .inca files into the new folder or anything, that'll lead you down the rabbit hole.

Instead, do it the easy (and correct) way. In the new layout, right-click on a missing Assignment in the Assignments panel and choose Change Assignment Location (or choose the command from the Assignments panel menu). The usual Open/Save dialog box opens up.

While you could change the name of the .inca file here; don't! The Assignments panel itself won't update (a bug?) to show the new assignment name, and people will get really confused. Trust me. Leave the name as is, but definitely choose a new location to save it in -- you'd want to target the new (v2) project folder for this, of course. Click the Save button, and InDesign makes a new copy of the same .inca file, in the location you specified, and the "missing" stop sign icon in the Assignment panel disappears.

Everything else about the assignments are retained -- what InCopy content belongs to them, the type of assignment they are, and so on, so you don't need to recreate them from scratch. And in case you're wondering, the old assignments in your original project folder are untouched. Thus the command "Change Assignment Location" might be more accurately named, "Recreate the Same Assignment in a New Location."

Personally, I think the command should be called, "Resurrect The Lost Assignment From Thy Loins, Oh InDesign." Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I'll submit it as a feature request.

---

Palettes to Toolbars and Vice Versa

---

Microsoft Office is a toolbar-centric set of programs. Adobe Creative Suite has a palette-cenric philosophy.

And InCopy is a mash-up of the two. It's an Adobe Creative Suite program designed to appeal to editors most familiar with Microsoft Word. That's why it has horizontal toolbars at the top and the bottom along with the usual side palettes at the right.

You've probably already discovered various ways to rearrange the palettes ... converting the side ones to floating palettes, opening new palettes from the Window menu, docking palettes on the left side as well as the right, saving palette arrangements as Workspaces, and so on.

Did you know that you can also convert the toolbars to palettes, and the palettes to toolbars? It's a feature uniquely InCopy.

---

Toolbars to Palettes

---

To turn a toolbar into a floating palette, press and drag on its "grab bar" -- a tiny, rectangular vertical strip at the left end of it. In CS2 the grab bar looks like it's textured, in CS3 it's a flat, dark grey color. As you drag the toolbar over your main window area you'll see its outline appear. Release the mouse button and voila, it's a palette.

Some of the toolbars look quite different when they're a palette -- try it with the CopyFit toolbar to see what I mean. These types sprout a Close box and can be docked to the sides of the monitor just like the other palettes.

Other toolbars aren't so flexible, such as the Command Bar (the one with icons for Open, Save, Print, etc.). These can float, so you can drag them around the screen and tuck them into a corner or something; but they can't be collapsed into side palettes. To close them completely, choose their name from the Window menu. (And choose it again to re-open it.)

---

Rearranging Toolbars

---

All toolbars, though, can be relocated to either the top or the bottom of the screen. You can even change their order (maybe you'd like the Track Changes toolbar at the far left?), and add additional toolbar rows.

To do any of this, just drag from their grab bar and drop them where you want them in their new toolbar position. They pop right in like they've lived there for years.

You can drop them anywhere in the toolbar area -- to the left or right of another toolbar, into the empty gray area, or directly above or below an existing toolbar, if you want to make multiple toolbar rows a la Microsoft Word.

---

Palettes to Toolbars

---

To turn a palette, like the Paragraph Styles palette, into a toolbar, hold your mouse button down on its "sensitive area" and drag and drop it on the top or bottom toolbar well. In CS2 the sensitive area of a palette is its tab, the tab containing the name of the palette. In CS3 you can drag the tab or title bar at the top of the palette (err, panel).

Not every palette can be turned into a toolbar. The Table palette, for example, will just sit there overlapping the toolbar when you drop it, no matter how gently you drag its sensitive area. (ahem.)

The ones that convert with aplomb are Paragraph, Paragraph Styles (very cool to have a dropdown or pop-up list of styles in the toolbar!), Character, Character Styles, Swatches, and Change Info.

To turn them back into palettes, drag from their grab bar at the far left and drop them anywhere in the main window area.

---

Save Your Work

---

When you're done rearranging the furniture, remember that you can save your new look by choosing Window > Workspaces > Save Workspace. That way you can always recall it instantly, even if someone deletes your InCopy preferences (often a first troubleshooting step). Workspaces aren't deleted when preferences are rebuilt, but the palettes are reset to their default positions. Choose Window > Workspace > [name of your workspace] to get it back the to way you want it.

---

A Hidden Game in InCopy CS3

---

When Adobe released CS3, many users (especially designers) were aghast at the change in the branding. Instead of butterflies (InDesign and InCopy), flowers (Illustrator), and feathers (Photoshop), now our program icons and splash screens were simple colored squares with initials, evoking a Periodic Table of the Elements theme.

But butterflies still exist in InCopy (and InDesign) CS3. They're hiding in an Easter Egg -- a hidden image, animation or game that programmers include in software; and that can only be seen if you know the secret keyboard combination.

To see the butterfly game in InCopy CS3, open the About InCopy screen. (Which is in the application menu in Mac OS X, or from the Help menu in Windows). Then when the splash screen appears, type the word "butterfly" (no quotes) in lowercase.

Instantly you're surrounded by floating butterflies. You can even click on them to pin them -- ouch! those programmers have a mean streak -- but if you wait a while, they escape their pins and fly again.

It's not really a game, there's no points involved or anything. But it's a little bit of fun I thought you'd enjoy. You can press the Escape key to end it.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* NOW IT'S EVEN EASIER TO GET HERGEEKNESS TO YOURSELF!

Do you like what you read in InCopyFlow? Find anything useful? Here's a thought: Set up a remote training session for your users via our web-based classroom -- we share screens and a phone line, and it's amazing how much we can cover in an hour or two. All you need is a browser and an Internet connection. (Of course, I'm also available for on-site training, anywhere in the U.S. or beyond. Not the Moon, though. I get airsick.) All training comes with three years of 24/7 follow-up support for each student by phone or e-mail.

To learn more, or hear what other clients have to say, contact us or fill out the no-obligation "Request a Training Quote' form on Seneca's site: http://www.senecadesign.com/training/request.html

Recent InCopy/InDesign workflow training clients in Chicago and parts beyond include Peer Direct (medical study guides); General Learning Communications (textbooks); McGraw-Hill (textbooks); Advanstar Media (trade magazines); Marquette University (collateral and catalogs); Perfection Learning Corp. (textbooks); and St. Mary's Press (book publisher). *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

---

InCopyFlow is a free publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a design studio owner, software trainer and publishing consultant. She's an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in InDesign and InCopy and an independent Adobe Certified Instructor specializing in helping workgroups master the InDesign/InCopy workflow. Anne-Marie owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).

Don't hog this all to yourself! Pass it on to your hard-working colleagues so they can learn some tips too, they'll thank you for it.

This part is for them: To subscribe to InCopyFlow, send an e-mail to me at amarie@senecadesign.com with "Subscribe InCopyFlow" in the Subject line. You don't have to include anything in the body area of the message, but if you don't mind, I'd love to know your company, title and city/state, and anything else you'd like to add. Anything you send is kept confidentially by us and is never shared with third parties.

To unsubscribe, follow the link at the bottom of this page.

Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or e-mail at info@senecadesign.com

Copyright 2007 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc. Please forward without cutting. Please contact Seneca for reprint permissions. We don't guarantee accuracy of articles. Company or product names mentioned in InCopyFlow may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.

---