InDesign users have a handy feature called Libraries, a palette that lets them store oft-used page elements and drag and drop them into new pages and documents. InCopy users can use Text Macros in a simliar way. For example, you could save an entire pull quote or “upcoming events” listing (with multiple paragraph styles already applied) as a text macro. Even though you might not ever use that same exact text anywhere else, inserting the macro text will at least give you a head start in formatting (if you remembered to turn on the Retain Text Attributes checkbox), and sometimes a head start in the content itself, as in stories that get minor updates in successive issues.

In fact, you could save a 5,000-word story as a single text macro. I’m not sure how that’d be useful, but I just tried it, formatting and all, and it worked. Even the footnotes survived.

Once you get enthused about text macros, the next thing you’ll want to know is how to share them in your workgroup. Unfortunately, InCopy doesn’t have a built-in way to do so. (Fingers crossed for next version!)

In the meantime, you could try sharing macro preference files. Each user’s text macros are saved in a single file in their home directory, wherever their other InCopy preferences are stored. If you can find this folder, look inside for the file called, surprisingly enough, “InCopy TextMacros” — that’s correct, no space between Text and Macros. Replacing a user’s anemic InCopy TextMacros file with a more robust one from another user’s computer should work.

If you’re not using InCopy’s Text Macros feature to share the workload, you’re missing out. By storing long names or phrases as entries in your Text Macros palette (Window > Text Macros), you can have InCopy automatically insert the entry’s full text in any story whenever you type the short code or keyboard shortcut you assigned to it.

Be kind to your typing muscles: Make with the macros.

Creating Your First Macro

Take a look at the stories you’re editing in InCopy right now, and with your Type tool, select a phrase or name that’s bothersome to type but will have to be entered again at some point. It can be just a few words long or even a few paragraphs long.

Now, with the text selected, add it as a text macro. Open the Text Macros palette from the Window menu if it’s not already open, then click the New Macro icon at the bottom of the palette (it looks like a dog-eared page). If you prefer menus, you could choose New Macro… from the palette menu instead, or if you’re a keyboard shortcut fan, just type Ctrl-Alt-F8 (Command-Option-F8 on a Mac) right after you select the text. Any of these three methods will add the selection as a macro and automatically open the New Macro dialog box.

New Macro Decisions

There’s just a couple things to do in the New Macro dialog box. First, enter a Macro code in the field at the top … a short sequence of letters and/or numbers that you’ll enter in the text flow whenever you want InCopy to insert the full text from the macro (what you had selected), replacing the code. Note that the code can’t include spaces, tabs, or punctuation (except for an underscore) because that’s what InCopy will be waiting for as its trigger to replace the code with the expanded text. Usually, an acronym makes sense.

For example, if you made “Republican National Committee” into a macro, you might use “RNC” as the macro code. Macro codes are case sensitive; so typing “rnc” in the story wouldn’t invoke the macro in this case. You’d have to enter RNC (all caps, just like you entered it as the code) to get InCopy to replace it with Republican National Committee.

Next, decide if you want the macro text to retain its original formatting (the formatting used in source text you selected) whenever InCopy enters it. If so, turn on the Retain Text Attributes checkbox. Otherwise, leave the checkbox disabled, and the macro text will come in with whatever formatting is currently in effect when you type the code.

Finally, you can add a keyboard shortcut to this macro if you want. Why would you need a keyboard shortcut if you’ve already entered a macro code? While it’s a convenient alternative, the main reason is that if you disable the “automatic swap text for code” feature (in the Text Macro palette menu) the keyboard shortcut will be the only way to enter the macro text from the keyboard.

Note that you can always insert macro text with the mouse: Highlight a macro entry in the palette and click the Insert Macro Text button (that weird x-arrow-z icon at the bottom of the palette), or press the command’s keyboard shortcut, Shift-Alt-F8 (Shift-Option-F8 for Macs), and the text is inserted at the cursor position.

Click the OK button to close the New Macro dialog box and give it a spin. Just start typing in a story and at some point, enter the code you assigned (be sure to precede the code with a space). As soon as you enter a space or punctuation mark after the code, InCopy replaces the code with the full, expanded macro text, and you can continue typing. Neat!