|
******************************
*** DesignGeek ***
******************************
Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- Synchronized Text in InDesign
-- Huge DesignGeek Discount for London CS Conference
(Pay attention, UK! It's coming up Sept. 26th!)
-- Huge DesignGeek Discount for AppleScript Pro Sessions
(Expires Sept. 30!)
Issue 44, 9/20/05
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
(c) 2005 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
==========================
Synchronized Text in InDesign
==========================
QuarkXPress 6.X has an interesting feature called Synchronized Text, useful for keeping the contents of multiple text frames in synch with each other. When you modify the text of one of these boxes, all the other boxes you tagged to "synch to it" update automatically with the same text modifications (but keep their own formatting intact).
It's great for those times when you need more flexibiity than a master page text box affords, since a synched text box can be placed on any page on the fly, in different locations with different formatting, even in multiple layouts in the same project (file). No need to go to a master page to edit it, just edit the text in any of the frames and the ones in synch with it immediately update to match.
Surprisingly, everything you need to add a Synchronize Text feature to InDesign CS and CS2 is sitting right there in your program installation CD. They're called the InCopy Plug-ins. Look inside the program CD for a folder called Technical Information and you'll find them.
Everyone thinks of the InCopy plug-ins as something only useful for InDesign/InCopy workflows, but it's not true. A lone designer or design department can gain some new, useful InDesign features (such as Notes) just by using the plug-ins themselves, no editors need be involved.
With the InCopy plug-ins loaded (put them in a folder called InCopyWorkflow in InDesign's Plug-ins folder, then restart InDesign), you can create multiple instances of the same text frame in your layout and keep their contents -- text *and* formatting -- in synch by just modifying one of the instances.
-----
How to Synch Text in InDesign
-----
Set up: Assuming you've got the plug-ins loaded, go to File > User (a new menu item courtesy of the plug-ins) and give yourself a user name. Any name will do, it's not important if you're not actually sharing the layout with InCopy users.
Then anytime you want to create a set of synchronized text frames, do this:
1. Drag out a regular text frame and enter your text, formatting it as you wish. Leave your cursor in the frame, or select it with the Selection tool.
2. In InDesign CS2, choose Edit > InCopy > Export > Selection (in CS1, choose Edit > InCopy Stories > Export Selected Stories). You can also do this by right-clicking on the text frame and choosing the command from the contextual menu, or you can make a custom keyboard shortcut for the command.
3. In the resulting dialog box, choose a name/location for the InCopy story it's about to export, and click OK. You might want to give the story a meaningful name, like "house ad" or "return address," but keep the file extension intact (it'll be .incd for CS1, .incx for CS2).
If you're in Normal View mode (not Preview) with Frame Edges showing, you'll now see a little icon (a globe on a piece of paper) appear at the top left corner of the text frame, indicating the story is linked to an external InCopy file. You can still move the frame around and change its size, stroke, fill color, number of columns, etc. as with any other frame; but you won't be able to edit the text unless you check it out first. More on that in a bit.
Also take a look at your Links palette: You'll see an entry there for the story you just exported, ending in .incd or .incx. This is key, that the content of the text frame is linked to an external file. Don't worry about not having InCopy to edit the external file, you won't need it.
4. To create "instances" of this text frame elsewhere in your layout, copy/paste the entire frame with the Selection tool, or choose File > Place, select the story file that you saved and place it as you would any text file. Note that each text frame instance carries the same InCopy icon in its upper left-hand corner, and each instance gets its own entry to the same InCopy story in the Links palette, just as when you're working with placed images.
As with the first frame, you won't be able to edit the text content of these frames initially. However you can apply different fill colors, strokes and the like to one or more of them. Those frame properties aren't synched... you'd have to use CS2's Object Styles for that. Only the contents of the frames are synched, as in QuarkXPress.
5. To edit the synched text, select any of the instances you created in the layout, or the original one, and choose Edit > InCopy > Check Out (or press Command/Ctrl-F9). The icon on the frame changes to a Pencil indicating it's in editing mode. Go ahead and make any textual or formatting changes to the copy you wish.
6. When you're done, check the story back in by choosing Edit > InCopy > Check In Story (or press Command/Ctrl-Shift-F9), which automatically saves your changes to the story. Now save your document as well.
Unlike the Synchronized Text feature in Quark, checking in/saving your edits to a synched frame in InDesign doesn't automatically update all instances of it -- boo, hiss, feature request. At least you're notified that you have to take one more step, though, by the little yellow triangle icons that sprout on their frames, the same "out of date" icon you're used to seeing in the Links palette. And indeed, the same warning triangles appear next to their entries in the Links palette. (If you're not seeing the triangles in the Links palette, close and open it again to refresh it.)
7. To synch up the other instances of the story to match, do it the same way you'd update a modified, placed image. In the Links palette, Shift- or Command/Ctrl-click all the stories with a yellow triangle, and choose Update Link from the palette's menu or icon. All the synched frames redraw and show the changes you've made to the one you edited, formatting intact.
That's it!
By the way, if you ever want to "un-synch" a frame, just select its entry in the Links palette and choose Unlink from the Links palette menu. That turns it into a regular InDesign text frame, and it loses its InCopy icon.
-----
Better/Worse than QuarkXPress?
-----
In many ways, the Synchronized Text feature in QuarkXPress is better -- obviously because it's an actual feature complete with its own dedicated palette, whereas in InDesign we're using plugins meant for a different purpose. But let's talk about it a bit.
First, in Xpress, each synched text box can have its own formatting ... what's actually synched is the literal text string inside the text box, and that's it. In InDesign, the formatting of the text is synched as well as the text itself. You can't have two synched frames with the same text but different styles applied in InDesign.
The other big advantage in Quark is the Synchronized Text palette itself. Naming synched frames, tracking them and synching/unsynching them is straightforward with the help of the palette. InDesign's Links palette (and the Assignments palette in InDesign CS2, which is dedicated to linked InCopy stories) do the job but they're far more complex, since each palette does much more than just synch text frames in the same file.
But using the InCopy plug-ins for synched text in InDesign offers a feature Quark's Synchronized Text does not: You can synch the same text across multiple documents. Quark can do this with multiple layouts in the same file, but not across multiple files, as in a Book project, where it'd really come in handy.
You can understand this crucial feature better if you think of that external InCopy story -- the one you created when you exported the first frame -- as an original image that can be placed into multiple files. If you open a document that has a link to it, and the story has been modified, you can update any instances of that text frame just as you would for an image.
And how does that external story get modified if you don't have InCopy? From InDesign! You just did it in steps 5 and 6 above. When you check out a story, you're saying "let me edit this external file." When you check it back in, you're saying "save these edits to the external file."
I think it's pretty cool.
|| top ||
==========================
Huge DesignGeek Discount to London CS Conference
==========================
The Creative Suite Conference is coming to London next week, and I've got a deal for last-minute registrants:
http://www.creativesuiteconference.com/
All-day QuickStart classes on InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop are on Monday and Friday (Sept. 26th and 30th), and the full three-day conference with multiple sessions is Tuesday through Thursday (Sept. 27th through the 29th).
As with the inaugural CS Conference in July in Las Vegas (remember ... me at Caesars Palace?), this conference is the largest non-Adobe gathering of Creative Suite workshops, experts, and users in one place anywhere in the world. It's amazing how much you can learn about every program in the Suite, and how best to have them work together, in such a short time.
Conference chairman David Blatner will be on hand during the keynote as well as his own sessions, and other presenters include Sandee Cohen, Steve Holmes, and European luminaries like Martin Evening, Branislav Milic and Jon Bessant (among others ... check the site's speaker list and session descriptions for the full skinny).
And yours truly will be there, doing a session on web features in the Suite, if they can drag me away from the scones table. I think I'll also be manning an "Ask the Geek" booth during the show -- no kidding! Bring me your most troublesome Creative Suite problems, and I promise to stop chewing for a few seconds to patiently explain why it's all your fault.
-----
The Deal
-----
After weeks of non-stop wheedling from me, Barry Anderson, Conference Chair, is allowing me to offer a last-minute deal for DesignGeek subscribers who'd like to attend. Presumably this is mostly of interest to those of you who are already in the UK, but as I told Barry, lots of DesignGeek readers hail from there ... in fact, three new geeks subscribed just in the past couple days. (Shout-outs to Paul, Julian and Ray -- do you guys know each other?)
You need to register for the London CS Conference at the URL above before the show, and enter this code in the registration form: [sorry, the code was just for e-mail subscribers].
If you do so, you'll get these discounts:
For any 1-day QuickStart Class, £99 (instead of £149)
- 3 day Conference Pass, £595 (instead of £795)
- 2 day Conference Pass, £395 (instead of £595)
- 1 day Conference Pass, £200 (instead of £350)
These prices are all in pounds ... if you get some bizarre character instead of the L-squiggle (British Sterling? I should know this), it means pounds, not dollars. And, of course, it's your mail program's fault, not mine.
Hope to see you there!
|| top ||
==========================
Huge DesignGeek Discount to the AppleScript Pro Sessions
==========================
So often on any of the design- or prepress-related listservs and forums I participate in, when someone posts a question, someone else answers, "You could probably script this," especially if the questioner is using a Mac. It can get quite aggravating after awhile.
AppleScript is purportedly so easy for normal people (non-programmers) to learn, it sometimes feels like software developers leave off features on purpose, knowing that the user can write a script for it if they really want it. And I am so jealous of those that know how to do this ... I've never been able to get AppleScript to sink in my poor brain, though I've sat down with tutorials more than twice.
Tiger's Automator is supposed to help end users figure out AppleScripting, and it already has many adherents, especially among left-brained designers. For example, the top download on the Automator World web site is Photoshop CS Automator Actions (a CS2 version is also available):
http://www.automatorworld.com/?p=56
Besides its relative ease of use and English-like language (a typical line of "code" might be "Tell InDesign to copy this frame") AppleScript's advantage over cross-platform scripting (e.g., JavaScript) is that you can include many programs in the same script. For example, you can have a single script import data from a MySQL database into InDesign, format it, export each page according to predefined PDF settings, and e-mail or FTP them somewhere.
Well, this was the example that Ray Robertson, one of the two hosts of the AppleScript Pro Sessions, told me on the phone yesterday. He went on about all sorts of ways that AppleScript can take over repetitive monkey work that designers, publishers and pre-press pros have to deal with every day, and all the free and low-cost tools (and free scripts!) that are available. I immediately thought back to all the clients I've taught InDesign, InCopy, Acrobat, etc. to, and all the ways scripts could've been the answer to some of their thorniest production problems they brought up.
I met Ray at the Creative Suite Conference in Las Vegas, where I sat in on his AppleScript QuickStart session. It was just a tantalizing taste of what's possible, but I needed more.
Good news -- Ray said he and Shane Stanley (well known to anyone who's already done any sort of AppleScripting, he's the friendly poster giving all the answers on the listservs and forums) are bringing their twice-yearly, week-long AppleScript workshop to Chicago for the first time! Baby, I'm there.
-----
When and Where
-----
Ray and Shane's AppleScript Pro Sessions (the official name of the 5-day seminar) will be in Chicago -- actually, Indian Lakes Resort in west suburban Bloomingdale -- from October 31 to November 4, 2005:
http://www.scriptingmatters.com/aspro.php
If it's not snowing (probably won't be), you should know Indian Lakes has a great golf course and a marvelous pool (I've stayed there before ... the resort is a nice local getaway).
Go to the workshop's URL (above) to see a day-by-day breakdown of workshop content ... but to summarize, Day 1 is an introduction to AppleScript, Days 2, 3 and 4 cover scripting different programs, mostly design ones like Photoshop, Quark, and Acrobat (and a full day devoted to scripting InDesign!), and Day 5 covers OS X/database stuff like Automator, XML, Terminal, and AppleScript Studio.
You can sign up for any 3, 4 or all 5 days of the Sessions. The more days you sign up for, the cheaper the per-day cost is. There are lots of extra bennies -- surprise guest speakers, software, free scripts, access to a private listserv -- read through the web page to learn more. But the biggest bennie is getting taught by the masters of AppleScript themselves (and they're very friendly, low-key guys), and sharing what you know with your fellow students.
-----
The Deal
-----
For DesignGeek subscribers only, Ray and Shane have extended their early-bird discount from the original cut-off date of Sept. 15 all the way up to Sept. 30.
Ray says to enter [sorry, the code was just for e-mail subscribers] in the Referral field of the registration form and be sure to complete the online registration by Sept. 30 to get the DesignGeek discount.
Hope to see you there, too!
|| top ||
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
MASTER THE NEW CS2 APPS WITH HERGEEKNESS!
Do you like what you read in DesignGeek? Find anything useful? Bring me or any of my hand-picked Associate Geeks in for a session or two of hands-on training for your workgroup; here in Chicago or any other city near an airport, and you can have this level of expertise all to yourself. 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 training clients in Chicago and throughout the U.S. include Great Books Foundation (InCopy); Key West Citizen newspaper (InDesign); Edwards & Kelcey (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator); Quill Corporation (InDesign); Group Publishing (InCopy); American Legion Magazine (InCopy); ST Media Group (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator); Playboy Enterprises (InDesign) (no, we didn't hold class in the grotto -- I tried though); and Loyola Press (InDesign, InCopy).
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
|| top ||
--------------------------------
DesignGeek is a free bimonthly publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a cross-media designer and authorized Adobe and Quark training provider. She owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).
To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/
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 2005 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 DesignGeek may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.
--------------------------------
If you had received this by e-mail instead of reading it on my web site, your unsubscribe link would appear right here.
|
