InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide
Great news! Adobe has given me permission to post the InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide, a 38-page PDF that I wrote for them last year, on the InCopySecrets.com blog. This is essentially the same guide they gave to software reviewers right before CS4 came out, to help get them up to speed with the new features, but with added content for new users.
Download the InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide (5 MB PDF file)
Download the Sample Files (153 MB ZIP file)
InCopy for Editors Webinar: Two New Dates, Same Discount Code
As I mentioned in a previous post, Copyediting magazine asked me to present a webinar for their subscribers and the general public called InCopy for Editors. Unfortunately, it took us too long to resolve some initial technical difficulties (oh you gotta love them computers—but we figured it out) during the originally-scheduled presentation, so we had to cancel it and reschedule.
To make it easier for those companies to find a compatible date, we’re going to do the exact same webinar twice over the next two weeks. That means there are more seats available for any new attendees; and happily, the $50 discount code they gave me is still valid for either of the new sessions. Read more
New Plug-in Saves Versions of Workflow Stories
One of the most frequent questions I hear from new InDesign/InCopy workflow users (or publishers considering moving to it) is, “How can we save a version of a story we’ve checked out?”
Mainly it’s editors who ask the question, but designers too would appreciate the ability to occasionally save a version of the contents of a text frame being shared with InCopy. Well, I now have a solution, but need your help. More on that further down.
As InCopy users know, versioning is not built in to the workflow. When you check out a story in a layout or assignment, even the Save As command is dimmed. You can only do a Save As with standalone InCopy files. So editorial users make do with Track Changes, or with some manual workarounds. (Note that K4 and SmartConnection systems have a versioning feature, I believe, but I’m talking about the “normal” InCopy workflow here.) And in InDesign, even if you do a Save As to the layout, the text frames are still linked to the first version’s InCopy stories.
So last year I joined forces with a couple InDesign/InCopy developer geeks (and I mean that as a compliment), Peter Truskier and Jim Birkenseer, to address the issue. Last month we released the first beta version of InVersion. It’s a low-footprint plug-in for InDesign and InCopy that lets you save and restore versions of each story in your publication, whenever you want. Read more
Discount Code for “Editing in InCopy” Webinar
Copyediting magazine has asked me to present a 60-minute live webinar (plus an optional 30 minutes for Q&A) to its subscribers and interested attendees on Adobe InCopy. The session is this coming Tuesday [will be rescheduled due to technical difficulties! Oh those pesky computers. I’ll announce the new date(s) here when they’re confirmed] but I was recently able to wrangle a discount code from them so I thought I should broadcast the news.
I’m assuming most people visiting this blog are already using InCopy, but maybe not, or maybe you have a colleague who’s still suffering under the yoke of paper mark-up and would appreciate the info I’ll be presenting. Please send them this URL.
Editing in InCopy, a 60-minute interactive webinar
- New date/time to be announced shortly (likely end of March/early April)
- You just need a web browser and an Internet connection to attend.
- Details/registration at the Copyediting webinar page
- Discount code: Please enter the word “GEEKNESS” in the field marked “Promo Code” on the registration form, or call McMurry (the publisher) at 888-0303-2373, to register at the special rate of $179 (a $50 savings) per dial-in site. The regular price, $229, will be reflected on your online receipt, but your card will be charged the lower rate.
I’m aiming the content at editors and writers (as opposed to designers), to introduce them to InCopy and the InCopy/InDesign workflow and how IC compares and can work with Word. About 1/3 the presentation will be me explaining how it works via slides and purty pictures, 1/3 will be me showing it “live” by sharing my screen while I take a pub through InDesign and InCopy and back again, and 1/3 will be for Q&A. from the audience.
Participants will receive a PDF handout of the slides/key points afterwards.
Jump Stories Between InDesign Files
Sumil wrote:
How can two newspaper pages (in two InDesign files) share a common InCopy file. So that one half of the story flows in the first page and rest in the second page.
These are called jump stories in my part of the world. Is such a thing possible without using any additional plug-ins?
Sumil’s question reminded me of the ingenious solution that Russell Viers, InDesign trainer/newspaper expert extraordinaire, came up with recently for this exact situation. Read more
Fixing Links to Missing Stories
Theoretically, if you’re doing everything right, you should never see this icon appear on one of your workflow stories:
If you see a scary red stop sign icon (it’s a hexagon, I checked) on a workflow story, instead of the usual globe or pencil, it means the story’s link is missing — neither InDesign nor InCopy can find the external InCopy file that is linked to the text frame. Which means that no one can check out or edit the story. Read more
3 Often Overlooked Features in InCopy
I really enjoy recording videos about InCopy, and writing articles about it, because I can luxuriate (yes, luxuriate) with the practically unlimited amount of time and space I have to get across what I want to get across.
But when I’m on-site, training a company’s publication staff in the IC/ID workflow, I’m hyper-aware of the clock. These are busy people I’m training, and our time is limited to the day or two we set aside to work together. So I’m always keeping an eye on the time display on my computer, adjusting the content on the fly, to make sure I cover the material most critical to this particular company’s success with their first projects.
Here are three features that I’m often forced to skip during training. They’re not critical to anyone’s success, but they’re useful nonetheless. (I console myself with the thought that users really can’t appreciate their utility until they have a few InCopy projects under their belt, anyway.) Read more
The Strange Case of the “Editing and Out of Date” Status
I get a lot of screen shots of InCopy UIOs (Unidentified Interface Objects) sent my way. “What does this thing mean?” is the usual message in the e-mail. Here’s one that I get at least once a month — you may have encountered it yourself — and at first glance, it seems impossible:
Now, how could a story be out of date (the triangle icon) if you’re editing it (the pencil icon)? No one has a more up to date version of the story than you, right? And no one else could have saved changes to the story while you were working on it. So the icon makes no sense. Yet there it is, staring at you. What gives? Read more
InCopy CS4 Gets 4 Stars from Macworld Magazine
It’s always a welcome surprise to read about InCopy in a trade magazine, especially when you can tell the author actually uses the program (as opposed to recasting a press release as an article). (As if Adobe ever writes press releases about InCopy.)
Such is the case with Macworld magazine’s review of Adobe InCopy CS4, just published on their web site. Reviewer Sally Zahner is the assistant managing editor at the magazine. Macworld themselves moved to an InDesign/InCopy workflow earlier this year, so Sally’s excitement over being able to track changes in table text rings true. As does her disappointment that Adobe didn’t add any new Notes-related features (other than the ability to embed them in tables) to CS4, among other still-missing enhancements she says she’s been pining for. We’re with you, Sally!
These frustrations aside, she was upbeat about the new version, expounding on how useful the redesigned Links panel and conditional text features will be for editors and publishers.
(Full disclosure, I was the technical editor for this review. However, Macworld tech editors are limited to pointing up factual errors or overlooked major features in reviews and have no sway over mouse ratings or anything else.)
Working with a Mixed CS3 and CS4 Workflow
On October 14, 2008, Adobe released its CS4 versions of all of its Creative Suite software, including InCopy. And as they always do when they release a new version of the suite, they removed all previous versions from their store shelves at the same time.
So if you’re using an InDesign/InCopy CS3 workflow, and you need to get another copy of ID or IC for a new hire or to bring a new publication into the workflow, you’re a little bit stuck. (Unless you’re ready to move everyone—designers and editors—to CS4 at the same time.) That’s why one of the most frequent questions I’ve been getting lately is, “Can InDesign CS4 work with InCopy CS3?” while the second-most frequent one is, “Can InDesign CS3 work with InCopy CS4?”
The answers are “Yes” and “Yes” … but because of new file formats and extensions, you might have to modify the way you work.