Look for the link on the InCopy product page [edit: Adobe removed the link when InCopy CS4 was released], or cut to the chase and download the PDF here (4 MB).

On the InCopy product page, note that the official title of the PDF is “The Collaborative Editorial Workflow using Adobe InCopy CS3 and InDesign CS3.” They were paying me by the word so I was as verbose as possible … heh. I’m kidding, Adobe, just kidding!

Actually our aim was to reduce the jargon and verbosity, and make the workflow as clear as possible for users. Of course, it’s just an overview, so I had to continually cut, cut, and cut some more so as not to overwhelm the newbies.

But I am quite happy with the end result. There are many more screen shots of actual projects (from a “real” publication, not one created for Adobe demos), new information on using layout-based, remote, and XML workflows, and (with a tip of the hat to LensWork magazine, discussed in an earlier issue of InCopyFlow) a neat little sidebar about using InCopy in photo editing departments.

But, since the hidden characters are always the same color as the text (with a slightly lighter shade), long stories sometimes appear as huge blobs of undifferentiated text. Having more control over how much paragraph formatting Story/Galley can show is in my top five feature requests for the next version of InCopy.

Take paragraph indents, for example. I think it’d be easier to identify paragraphs in a long article in Galley/Story if the first line of every paragraph had the same indent as they have in Layout view. (Or if they don’t have a first-line indent, then Galley/Story would show the space above/below the paragraph.)

In the meantime, though, there’s a little-known feature in CS2 and CS3 that helps to visually indent the first line of every paragraph in Galley/Story. It doesn’t affect formatting — the lines aren’t actually indented in Layout view — it’s just for visual navigation.

Go to the View menu and choose Show Paragraph Break Marks. Nothing changes in Layout view, but in Galley/Story, you’ll see a new special character indenting the first line of every paragraph, even if the paragraph has no actual first-line indent. The special character looks like a double-right chevron and pushes the first line in approximately 2 em’s worth of space.

The next time you’re in InCopy, give it a try. I think you might like it.