Download the InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide (5 MB PDF file)
Download the Sample Files.zip (150 MB) from my Acrobat.com share

Although the introductory section gives newbies an overview of the InCopy/InDesign workflow itself, the main focus of the guide are the new features in InCopy CS4. You become familiar with each of these new features — like cross-references, conditional text, the new Links panel, and so on — by downloading the accompanying sample files and following along with the step-by-step exercises in the guide. Instructions for installing the sample files and setting up your preferences are in the beginning of the Hands-On Guide.

If you’d like a peek, here’s my “anatomy of the Assignments panel in InDesign” illustration, from the introductory section:

The sample files used in the hands-on exercises are the same ones that Adobe sales staff use in their own demos, so if you’ve attended any of these, you may already be familiar with the fictional Check magazine.

[I still insist that this guy who's profiled in the magazine's feature story (he's supposed to be the lead actor in an upcoming feature film) is a lost Baldwin brother! But Adobe says no, he's just an actor the design firm hired for the shoot. I don't know — you tell me:]

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.

For example, here’s a screen shot of part of the contextual menu you see when you right-click on a story you’ve checked out:

Unlike VersionCue, InVersion doesn’t require a database or anything special like that, it just uses your existing project folder to store and track versions of InCopy stories. Also, InVersion only saves a version when you specifically choose the Save A Version command, instead of every time you save a story or check it in, which we think makes the most sense.

It works the same in InDesign as it does in InCopy.  In fact, InDesign users could use InVersion even if their company isn’t using InCopy. They’d just need to use InDesign commands to export the story to InCopy format first (kind of like exporting the story to RTF format), and from then on they could use InVersion to save and manage iterations of main stories or sidebars, without having to do Save As’s to the full layout.

We Need More Testers

For the past month we’ve had a small group of InDesign/InCopy users download the beta and the PDF how-to, use it, and give us feedback to a private forum we’ve set up. The very first bit of feedback we received was so great to hear:

“I’ve done some testing in an InVersion installed InCopy and a standard InDesign without the plug-in, and it works fine. [...] I deleted the Versions folder to see what would happen and if the workflow still works using the latest incx file – it works fine. I can see the most use on the InCopy side where editors needs versioning (without the hassle of Version Cue). It’s simple, elegant, it works. Me Like! ”

But before we release it into the “wild” commercially, we need many more InCopy and InDesign users to try it out and tell us what works and what’s missing. There’s not much to test, it’s actually quite straight-forward and simple, and it would help us immensely (plus, active testers get a free copy of the final release!).

Right now the InVersion beta is only available for CS3 (Mac and Windows), but CS4 will follow shortly.

So if you’d like to join the fun and you’re using either CS3 or CS4 of InCopy or InDesign, please e-mail me at amarie [at] incopysecrets.com with INVERSION in the Subject line and I’ll get you signed up. Thanks!

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?

After having been on the receiving end of this question one too many times, I sent it in to my friends on the InCopy workflow team at Adobe. Hallelujah, they weren’t laid off, and answered me promptly with one easily reproducible reason the icon might appear. But before I explain it, it would help if we first reviewed the normal workflow statuses.

A story’s status starts out as “Available,” signified by the globe and paper icon.

When you check it out, its status changes to “Editing” (a pencil icon) for you:

And “In Use By” (pencil with a slash through it) for anyone else on your team working on the same document:

As you edit the checked-out story, nothing changes, icon- or status-wise, for anyone. It’s only when you save changes to the story  (File > Save Content in InCopy, or File > Save in InDesign, if you’ve checked it out in ID) that the story’s status changes. Saving changes to the contents of a file also changes the file’s last modification date and time — aka its timestamp — as is true for any file on a computer.

On your end, the story you’re editing should still show a pencil icon and nothing else. After all, you can see your changes that you just saved, so it’s not out of date.

For anyone else working on the document, your story’s status changes to “In Use By and Out of Date,” usually within a few seconds of your save action, depending on how fast the network is.

How does it know when the story is out of date? During its periodic checking of the linked files on the server, your colleague’s copy of InCopy or InDesign detected a new timestamp for the story, newer than when they first opened the layout or assignment. When the timestamps don’t match, the workflow adds the yellow triangle icon to the story, cautioning users that what they’re seeing is not the latest version. They could ignore it, or they could choose to Update Content if they want to see those changes you’ve just saved, as I’ve done below.

So, Update Content means, “Get me the current contents of the InCopy file linked to this frame.” Or if you want to get technical about it, “Synch the timestamp of the file on the server to my preview of it.”

The Mystery Icon Revealed

Now that we’re all experts on InCopy status icons, let’s take another look at this bad boy:

You know that the out of date icon means that your preview of the InCopy story does not match the timestamp of the story on the server. But you’re in control of the story, you’re editing it. What you see as you edit should always be up to date. Assuming the server and our computer’s clocks are synched, how could this happen?

Here’s what Adobe said: It can happen because you saved changes, then chose Edit > Undo, bringing the preview to a state prior to the Save. You may not even be aware that’s what you did, but chances are likely that’s the culprit. Try it for yourself!

Some people think that choosing Save “clears the decks,” and so the Undo command only applies to things you did after you saved. That used to be true, but not for most design and editorial programs these days.

After you check out a story in InDesign or InCopy, every one of the edits you make to the file is noted behind the scenes. Choosing Save Content (or Save in InDesign) writes those changes to the linked story on the server, but it doesn’t erase the history of your changes during the active session. You can still Undo your edits, even if you were saving every five minutes, all the way back to the state the file was in when you first checked it out.

It’s only when you check a story back in (note the “Can’t Undo” alert) or close the file (clicking Yes when it offers to check the stories in) that the Undo history gets erased. Your editing history also gets erased when you choose Save As to an InDesign layout or a standalone InCopy file.

As you know, choosing Save also changes the timestamp of the file on the server. As soon as you Undo to a state before the most recent Save, your preview is of a state prior to the one on the server. The timestamps are out of synch, and you get the yellow triangle icon on the story — even if you’re currently editing it.

Fixing It

It’s not something to be overly concerned about, actually. As soon you once again choose Save, the out of date icon goes away. Where people get in trouble, though, is when the try to update the story — out of force of habit, I’m thinking, in reaction to seeing the Out of Date yellow triangle. Choosing Update Content is fine for stories that are out of date and Available or In Use By someone else, but not for stories you’re editing.

For example, let’s say you’re working on a story that’s overset, looking for something to cut. You spot a not-totally-necessary subhead and delete it. Then you save your changes with File > Save Content, and look for something else to cut.

If you change your mind — Oh, let’s keep that subhead in, find something else to cut — and choose Undo, the subhead reappears as expected. But now the story carries the Editing and Out of Date icons, because you’re at a state prior to the most recent save.

If you choose Update Content, InCopy or InDesign will obligingly replace what you see in the frame with what’s on the server; which, if you haven’t been paying close attention, could be quite different than what you were looking at. What’s on the server is what you last saved — in this simple example, the story without the subhead. Imagine if you had been doing some heavy editing after your Undo-before-the-Save, and an hour later noticed hey, why’s the triangle here … guess I’ll Update Content … yikes! All your edits would get wiped out as soon as you chose Update Content.

Luckily, Update Content is also undoable.

So when you see the Editing and Out of Date icon, what should you do? Simply choose File > Save Content (or in InDesign, File > Save).  Your most recent edits are saved to the file on the server, and the Out of Date icon disappears from the story. Nothing changes on screen.

It can get confusing, I know. The basic thing to keep in mind when you’re editing a story is this: Do you like what you see in front of you? If yes, choose Save. If not, choose Undo, as many times as necessary to get back to your starting point. If you’re not sure, keep the file open and checked out to yourself while you mull it over.

But very seldom, if ever, should you choose Update Content for a story you’re currently editing.

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.

InDesign CS4 with InCopy CS3

In layout-based workflows, editors open InDesign layout files (INDD) and edit the workflow stories within them. Even though InDesign CS4 files have the same INDD file extension as CS3, InCopy CS3 cannot open InDesign CS4 layout files. If you try, you’ll get an error:

The only way to allow InCopy CS3-using editors to continue working with CS4-using designers is to provide them with Assignment files instead of having them work directly on the layout.

Even if you’re already using an Assignment-based workflow (editors open INCA files instead of the actual INDD layout), InDesign CS4 users will need to pay attention, as Assignment files have changed file extensions and formats in CS4.

You must be careful to make assignments and their stories compatible with CS3. Otherwise, they’re created and exported in the new CS4 formats—ICMA (assignments) and ICML (stories)—which InCopy CS3 cannot open. (Adobe changed the file formats to make them more accessible to XML editors outside of the programs … a topic for another post.)

You make assignments compatible with CS3 when you create them, by choosing that option in the New Assignment panel in InDesign CS4:

If you had selected frames in the CS4 layout file at the same time you created the new assignment, the external InCopy files that InDesign CS4 exports and includes in the assignment will also be compatible with InCopy CS3. That is, InDesign will export them with an INCX (InCopy CS3) extension instead of ICML (InCopy CS4). Otherwise, creating “Optimized for CS4″ assignments automatically exports stories to ICML format.

If, on the other hand, you export stories as a separate step (dragging them from Unassigned InCopy Content to the Assignment name in the panel afterwards), when you export them you need to make sure to choose the InCopy CS3 format in the Export to InCopy dialog box:

So, let’s say you have just one editor who’s working on a publication. Assignments, which help you split up a large publication into editor-specific layout files, don’t make much sense in that workflow. To keep things simple, all you need to do is to create a single assignment that is the entire layout. You could choose Edit > InCopy > Add All Stories to Assignment > New, for example, being sure to specify Compatible with CS3 in the New Assignment dialog box as shown above. Tell your editor to open the INCA file instead of the INDD file, and you’re good to go.

In fact, even if you do have two or five editors working on the same publication, you could still create a single assignment that is the entire layout and have them work on it concurrently. It’s a little-known fact that multiple editors can open the same assignment (INCA or ICMA) at the same time, just as they can with INDD files. After they open it, all workflow stories within it will be accessible to them, and the usual rule of “one user per checked-out story” still applies.

By making the Assignment compatible with CS3, you can be assured that any email-based assignment packages you create can be opened by remote editors using InCopy CS3. (Yes, packages also got new file formats in CS4.)

InDesign CS3 and InCopy CS4

It’s a lot easier to work with this combination. InCopy CS4 can open InDesign CS3 layouts (INDD) and the InCopy files that InDesign CS3 exports: stories (INCX), assignments (INCA), and packages (INCP). When the InCopy CS4 user saves changes to these files, they’re saved in the same format they were opened in automatically, without them having to choose any specific format. That means that other InCopy CS3 users and InDesign CS3 users on the team should have no issues working on files that the InCopy CS4 user worked on.

The one time that InCopy CS4 users might have to be careful is when they’re working on a stand-alone InCopy file, one that they’ve created (File > New) or one that they’ve opened directly from a publication’s “content” or “stories” folder. After editing the file, when they save their changes (or close it with unsaved changes), InCopy will put up a “Save As” dialog box. This is because it wants to save the document in the new InCopy CS4 format.

Assuming the InCopy user doesn’t want to do that, they  should be sure to choose the “InCopy CS3 Interchange” format in the dialog box before hitting the Save button:

Doing so saves the standalone document in CS3-friendly INCX format instead of the new ICML format.

Are you using a mixed-version workflow? I’d love to hear how it’s going for you … add your comment below!

The Alert box they’re referring to is this one:

(Now, if you’ve been using the workflow for a while, don’t jump to conclusions about the frustrated users who ask about that message. Don’t you remember how confusing the whole system appeared to you at the start? We were all beginners at some point!)

Frustrated users, the simple explanation is this: The layout (.indd) or assignment (.inca) you’re opening in InCopy cannot find the external InCopy stories (.incx) that are supposed to be linked to the file — they’re missing, or they were never created in the first place. (You’ll be able to *see* the document’s stories in the one view you’re left with, Layout, but not edit them.)

Since Galley View and Story View only show the content of linked InCopy stories, there is no reason for those views to be available.

Actually, I’m not sure why Adobe’s InCopy team made that decision — to completely remove the views in the absence of linked stories, and to put up that alert. It just freaks people out. Why not keep the views available, but leave them devoid of content? Instead of an alert, InCopy could add a line of static text to the top of each view that said “There are no InCopy stories in this document.”

Identifying the Cause and Fixing It

The root of the problem is this: Either the InDesign user neglected to export stories from the InDesign layout to InCopy format (a required step for the workflow); or she did, but those exported .incx files are not where your document expects them to be (they’re “Missing”).

Unfortunately the Alert doesn’t tell you which of these situations is the cause. But you can find out for yourself. Just click the OK button in the Alert so that the file opens in Layout view.

Now open your Assignments panel, part of the default set of panels on the right side of the screen. The Assignments panel lists all editable stories — the linked InCopy files — in the document you have open, and their statuses (available, being edited by someone else, out-of date, and so on).

In a “healthy” file with editable stories that the document can find, the Assignments panel should look similar to this:

Those entries with the blue globe-and-paper icons? Each one represents a linked InCopy file in the document you have open in InCopy.

In contrast, the Assignments panel of a InDesign file with no linked InCopy stories at all would look like this (the arrow next to Unassigned InCopy Content is grayed out because there’s nothing to reveal):

The lack of entries here tells me that I’ve opened an InDesign layout (.indd) that hasn’t been prepared for the InCopy/InDesign workflow yet. It’s actually the default state of all the layouts at your company — without preparation, InDesign files are read-only to InCopy users. Which can be quite handy, since it means that with InCopy, you can open any InDesign file you can get to, even ones from last year (and from there, print them out, export them to PDF, or select text to copy and paste elsewhere). It’s an “InDesign Reader” similar to how Adobe Reader can open any PDF file.

But if you were expecting to be able to edit this file in InCopy, then it’s not so handy! The bitter truth is that stories can only be made editable for InCopy from within InDesign — it’s the only program with an Export to InCopy command. So go back to your designer and ask them to prep the file for you. If they don’t know how, have them open their InDesign Help file (from their Help menu) and read the section called “Sharing content between InCopy and InDesign.”

By the way, it’s also possible to open an assignment file (.inca) in InCopy that has no stories. This would be the case if the designer created an assignment in InDesign’s Assignments panel but forgot to add InCopy stories to it, or hasn’t had a chance to yet.

Missing InCopy Files

As I said earlier, you’ll also get the “Galley and Story View are Not Available” alert if the linked InCopy files do exist, but InCopy can’t find them. In that case, your Assignments panel will look like this:

The stories are listed, but the red stop sign icon tells you that InCopy can’t find them. It looks for the linked .incx files with the same name and in the same location — the same folder path — that the designer saved them to when he first exported them from the layout.

So, one cause might be that someone used the Finder or Windows Explorer to manually move the folder of .incx files to a different location, or they renamed them. (It’s okay to rename the stories by editing their names in Assignment panel, but not anywhere else.)

The more common reason, though, is that you (the InCopy user) moved the layout or assignment file from its original location to a different one, like from the server to your desktop, or from the designer’s computer to the server, or to your own. None of that is kosher in the workflow. Unless you’re using CS3’s remote workflow (e-mailed assignment packages), all assignments and exported .incx files need to be on a central file server, and everyone opens the files directly from there. If you’re using a layout-based workflow, the .indd file needs to be on the server too.

There are ways for either the InDesign or InCopy user to fix missing stories — to correct the path information stored in the layout or assignment — but that’s for another (future) post, as it’s a little complicated. Better to just manage the workflow files correctly in the first place!

You Might Find This Helpful

If you’re a newbie at this whole InCopy/InDesign workflow stuff, and you’ve encountered the “No InCopy Stories” alert and wondered why, now you know (she hopes).

But I would bet that you’d feel a LOT more comfortable with the process if you read the paper I wrote for Adobe’s InCopy marketing team, “Collaborative Editorial Workflow with InDesign CS3 and InCopy CS3.” I made sure to include lots of diagrams, screen shots and step-by-steps, so new users could gain an essential understanding of how the files work together — what goes where and who opens what.

You can download the 16-page PDF from the InCopy product page on Adobe’s web site, or you can click this link to download it directly (5 MB — all those screen shots).

Here’s an example, from an art director who e-mailed me last month:

“I want to make several templates of pages, with, e.g. 3 news and 2 photos, 4 news and 1 photo, 6 news, and so on; so the editors can choose the template they need, edit it and send it to me telling me that this should be page number 13 (for example).”

So we’re not talking about InCopy templates — .inct files — which allow editors to “write ahead” one story at a time. Users want the whole shebang. They want to give the editors layout templates, with placeholder frames for the all the elements (stories, .incx files) in an article.

The thinking is that an editor could open this layout template, save it with a new name, fill in the empty frames with new copy, and turn it over to the designer, who would copy over the finished pages (or place the.incx files of the individual stories) to the InDesign file when they get to it. InCopy users could open that same template over and over for subsequent uses, each time filling it in with new copy for different pages or issues of the publication.

That would be great, but there are some fundamental limitations in InCopy that prevent this from working as most people hope. Even the third-party publishing systems that run on top of InCopy and InDesign need to use proprietary file formats to achieve the same goal.

Let’s get the fundamentals out of the way so we can figure out a workaround.

InCopy and Templates

Did you ever wonder why InCopy’s Save command under the File menu says “Save Content” instead of the usual “Save”? It’s because InCopy can only save InCopy stories — .incx files — that are contained in a layout’s frames.

When you’re working with InCopy in a layout or assignment and have made edits to a story you’ve checked out, it may “feel” like you’re editing the layout or assignment, but you’re not. You’ve actually editing the content of the external .incx file that is linked to the active frame, the one you’re editing. Look in your Links panel (Window > Links) and you’ll see the name of the .incx file you’re actually working on is highlighted.

The program can’t make a dent in an .indd (layout) or .inca (assignment) file itself. As far as it’s concerned, the layout or assignment is just a portal” to the linked story files — it allows you to edit .incx files through the .indd or .inca window.

We’re clear on that now, yes? Let’s return to the issue at hand: Can we create a layout template for InCopy users?

Since InDesign templates (.indt files) open as untitled InDesign (.indd) documents that need to be saved, they’re not in InCopy’s repertoire, and in fact are greyed out (unavailable) in InCopy’s File > Open dialog box. That’s strike one for the InCopy layout template idea. And there is no way for an InDesign user to create a template of an assignment file; the file format simply doesn’t exist — strike two. Strike three is the fact that InDesign cannot import native InCopy template files (.inct); so you can’t create a layout or an assignment with template placeholder stories. Argh!

The game is not over, however. For example, InCopy templates (.inct files) may work just fine for at least some of your “pre-layout” content needs. Just create a new standalone InCopy document (File > New), set it up for a particular type of story, and choose InCopy Template (.inct) as the format in the File > Save As dialog box.

Opening an InCopy template file (.inct) in InCopy creates an copy of it as an untitled .incx file. Now, when you choose File > Save Content, InCopy actually saves the entire document as an external .incx file. You can name it and save it where ever you like. When they’re ready for it, designers place the .incx file into a layout just as though it was (were? help me out here, editors) a Word document.

While you can’t save page layout geometry in an .inct file, you can include boilerplate text, and set a default column width that matches the column width into which the story will ultimately be placed. You can even choose a target word count or column inch count for preliminary copyfitting. Most importantly, the InCopy template can include all the text and table styles the writer might want to use. With the template document open, choose Load Styles from any Styles panel menu and select an InDesign or InCopy file that has the styles you want to import. When files created from that template are placed into an InDesign layout, styles are retained.

Consider Layout Shells

Handy as they are, standalone InCopy templates are nonetheless quite limiting — you can’t even specify the number of columns the lone text frame should have. When editors need an honest-to-goodness layout template, then the designers have to create layout shells for them.

A layout shell is what I call an InDesign (.indd) layout file created just for editorial layout template purposes, not for publication. It’s a small file with placeholder text frames linked to one or more external .incx files, which start out devoid of content. A magazine article layout shell might contain empty InCopy frames for the title, the captions, the body copy, the pull quotes, and the sidebar; arranged in a generic fashion for that magazine but equipped with the correct column widths for each element and maybe a stand-in image around which the body copy wraps. A newspaper reporter’s shell might be just one page long but contain a frame for the headline and a 6-column body text frame underneath, pre-set to use the right paragraph styles.

A writer or editor opens the shell layout — the .indd file — in InCopy and checks out the stories to write copy from scratch, or to place text from Word files. It doesn’t matter if the actual publication is ready for their stories or not. After the InCopy user has checked in the stories and closed the shell file, the designer places those now-full .incx files into the actual layout, whenever it’s ready to be produced, and they should get a close fit.

Further editorial work on the same stories is done in the usual collaborative workflow fashion, with the editors opening up the live layout or assignments created from it. The “shell” layout left behind can be deleted at any time. It’s the stories, the .incx files, that matter.

Shell Creation and Management

To create the shell layouts, the designer creates an InDesign document for each page type (or article type, or section type) he wants to make a layout shell for, using empty placeholder frames for text or images the editors will fill in later. These should be “normal” InDesign frames, not yet exported to InCopy format. He can include other artwork or text, such as folios and rules, that aren’t necessarily editable. For easy re-use, he saves the file as an InDesign template (.indt) and closes the file.

Then he turns the template into an InCopy layout shell by re-opening it in InDesign (which creates an untitled copy of the file), saving it as a layout file with some sort of generic name in its own folder on the server. Finally, he exports the placeholder frames to InCopy format as usual: In CS3 you can just drag and drop the frames onto the Unassigned Content entry in the Assignments panel, otherwise choose one of the Edit > InCopy > Export commands.

If he needs 10 copies of a basic one-page shell, enough to tide a busy editor over for awhile, the designer will have to do this 10 times; opening the template in InDesign, saving as into a new folder, and re-exporting the frames to InCopy each time. Or he can .zip the folder of the first completed shell (layout with linked .incx files), duplicate the .zip file a bunch of times, then unzip (expand) each one on the server. There are other solutions for duplicating a layout with linked InCopy files, which I covered in this post a couple months ago.

I know it’s tempting, but don’t create an InDesign template with its frames already exported to InCopy in order to save a bunch of steps. That will not work.You’ll find that as you open the template in InDesign and Save As over and over, you create multiple InDesign docs linked to the same exact stories. It would be the same as creating a template with a placed image. Every time you save a copy of the template as an .indd file, the .indd files are linked to the same external image file.

Since you’re exporting frames to .incx format anew each time you create a layout shell, you’re going to end up with a lot of .incx files. If your one-page template had three stories, and you make ten shell layouts, you’ll end up with 30 .incx files; each folder containing one .indd file and its three linked .incx files. Hey, it was going to end up as 30 .incx files at some point anyway, right? Might as well generate them now.

What about naming these files? Since every company and workflow is different, I don’t have any specific advice, other than recommending you come up with a plan — you have to be able to tell which shells the editors have “completed,” at least. Perhaps the designers, as they create them, could name the shell layous and exported .incx files for the publications they will belong to, and as they complete them, the editors could move the entire shell folder into a special “ready for layout” location on the server. Or, if you need the shells to be more generically named (article1.indd, article2.indd), the InCopy users could manually rename the .indd file in Windows Explorer or the Finder before they open them (June08Acmefeature.indd, July08BehindTheScenes.indd).

Upon completion, having the editors rename the linked story files themselves (from story1.incx and story2.incx to pg13-head.incx and pg13-body.incx, and so on) and moving them to a “Ready for Layout” folder in the Finder or Explorer is also an option, if you don’t care that doing so breaks the links in the shell file. Again, you might not care because after placing the stories into the live layout, no one will ever open that shell file again.

Assignment Shells?

I’m assuming everyone knows that InCopy can open InDesign layout (.indd) files just as easily as Assignment (.inca) files, since I’ve said it a bazillion times in InCopyFlow. The shell files I’ve been talking about are small ones meant for a single editorial user, thus I don’t see a need to go the extra step of creating an assignment file from it. Just make shell .indd files with linked stories, and have the editors open the .indd files, checking out the stories they contain to edit them, as usual.

The only reason to create a shell assignment would be if an InCopy user needed to open a layout template remotely, off-network. The remote workflow feature in CS3 requires that you start with an Assignment (.inca) file. So, follow all the steps I’ve outlined above, but instead of dragging the shell’s frames to the Unassigned Content entry, the designer should drag and drop them onto the New Assignment icon at the bottom of the Assignments panel. This both creates the Assignment file and exports the frames to InCopy format in one step, Then select the Assignment name in the Assignments panel and choose one of the Package for Remote commands from the panel menu.

If you need to create 10 .incp (InCopy assignment package) shells of the same layout, follow the same instructions as above: Create the InDesign template with normal placeholder frames. Then open the template in InDesign, save it with a generic name in its own folder, and only then create your assignment and package it. Rinse and repeat another nine times, each time varying the name of the assignment slightly.

I wouldn’t attempt any of the “duplicate the shell” methods, as assignment packages are more tricky — they’re internally linked to the layout file that created them, and so opening the .indp (InDesign assignment package) files the editors return could result in stories overwriting themselves.

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.

Adobe released an update, 5.0.1 (CS3 = version 5) in the middle of October for both programs on both platforms. The InCopy update fixes “key issues” with text and fonts, dictionaries, and other things. To see exactly what’s fixed in InCopy; you can download the PDF:

Adobe InCopy CS3 5.01 Read Me
http://www.adobe.com/go/ic5_readme

InCopy, like all the Adobe software, is set by default to periodically check the Adobe web site for updates, and to alert you if one exists. It uses the little utility program, Adobe Updater (installed along with the main programs) to do the checking. Updater will reveal itself if it finds any updates and offers to download and install them. At this point you can tell it to go away without doing anything; or to download them but don’t install them. To invoke the Adobe Updater on your own, just chose the menu item “Updates…” from the Help menu.

If you don’t have admin access to your computer then you probably can’t install updates. In that case, have your IT people log on as an admin, then start up InCopy or InDesign and choose Updates to kick start the Adobe Updater. Or, you can download and install updates manually from Adobe’s web site:

Adobe – Latest Product Updates
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/

It’s critical in an InDesign/InCopy workflow for everyone to be using the same version, especially if you’re encountering problems. (When clients contact me to troubleshoot something, it’s the first question I ask — “What version is everyone using?”.) So design and editorial should coordinate with each other to make sure everyone has downloaded and installed the patch to both InDesign CS3 and InCopy CS3.

I don’t mean to scare anyone; if some users are on 5.0 and others are on 5.0.1, everything will still work. It’s just that things will work better if everyone is at the same patch level. And, of course, you may be struggling with some issues that the patch fixes!

You may remember that the methods I explained, while do-able, entailed somewhat convoluted manual workarounds because the stock InDesign/InCopy workflow doesn’t come with any back-up or versioning features. (And so far, I’m sorry to say, Adobe’s free Version Cue CS3 appears broken for InCopy/InDesign workflows, per user reports on the Adobe forums.) To gain these features you need to move to an expensive publication management system like K4 or Smart Connection Enterprise, which are beyond the reach — and often, overkill — for many publications.

We’re left with the simple fact that when you’re working “commando-style” in InDesign and InCopy, everyone is locked into working on a single version — technically, the final version — of each story’s contents. There is no Save Story As command when you’re editing content in a layout or assignment.

It’s not a deal-killer, obviously; since thousands of companies are getting along just fine without it. And in many respects, it’s-a-feature-not-a-bug to always be working on the final version of a story. Still, it would be nice to have options.

The designers had their turn, now the editors are at bat.

Track Changes … Up to a Point

Editors can get some control over content changes in text stories by turning on Track Changes (Changes > Track Changes in Current Story) and keeping it on. That allows a user to change their mind on each edit made to the story by anyone who worked on it, even after saving the file. Choosing Reject Change reverts an edit back to its original state before Track Changes was enabled. Printing out (or PDFing) a Galley or Story view of the file offers the option to include Track Changes markup, useful for documenting edit history.

But, Track Changes has limitations. For one thing, if more than one user edits the same instance of text without accepting or rejecting their predecessor’s change, InCopy gets confused as to what is the original text.

Also, to do any sort of roll-back operation like “Reject all changes made since last Friday,” or “Accept all Mary’s changes but reject John’s” — options that Track Changes doesn’t offer — will require tedious manual work, vetting every change with the Change Info panel before making an accept/reject decision for each one.

Roll Your Own Versions

For these reasons and others, InCopy users have found it helpful on occasion to make their own back-up versions of critical stories, even though it does take a little extra work. (Note there’s no way for an InCopy user to save a version of a layout itself or even an assignment; only the individual stories contained within.)

Following are three ways for editor to make a version of a story.

Method 1: Copy/Paste into a New Document

I think the simplest way is to select all of a story’s text (Edit > Select All), copy the selection (Edit > Copy), create a new InCopy document (File > New, default settings are fine), and in the new empty InCopy file, paste in the text (File > Paste). That’s Command or Control-A-C-N-[Enter]-V, one after the other, if you’re a keyboard shortcut type. (The mnemonic “All Children Need [Extra] Versions” works well.)

Other than track changes markup — which is lost; the changes get accepted during the trip — all the content comes through in the new file, including formatting, styles, inline notes, tables, even text with XML tags. (A way to create a version that includes tracked changes markup is covered further down.)

Note that you can Select All and Copy text from any story in a layout or assignment, even if someone else is currently working on it; even if the story was never made editable by the designer. The only limitation is that you can only do one story at a time. But if a story spans multiple threaded frames, don’t worry, the Select All step gets all the text in all its frames.

Save this new InCopy document with a useful filename (”FeatureStory_v1.incx”) in a folder on the server that you maintain just for that purpose.

Now, let’s say that back in the “live” document, you continue to work on that feature story. You make some changes and check it in. Then — horrors! — you realize you accidentally deleted an important section that had taken you hours to write. Since you checked it in, it’s too late to Undo or Revert.

FeatureStory_v1.incx to the rescue! Just open that .incx file directly in InCopy (File > Open), select the section’s text and copy it to the clipboard. In the live document, check out the story, turn off Tracked Changes if it’s on (to avoid a huge swathe of “Added Text” markup from what you’re about to do) and paste the text where it should go. Turn Track Changes back on, save changes and check the story in again. Saved!

If you ever need to roll back — completely replace a story with a saved version — you might find it easier to simply Place (i.e., import) the .incx file into the document instead of copying and pasting from it. Remember that the external .incx file has no tracked changes markup, so consider printing out a Galley/Story view (with change markup) of the current story before proceeding. Also think about making a external version of the story in its current state before rolling back.

To do the rollback you’ll need to check the current story out first. Then turn off Track Changes, select all the text in the story, choose File > Place and in the Place dialog box, select the .incx file of the version you saved. When you click the Open button, InCopy replaces the selected text with the previous version of the story. Note that if you don’t select all the text first, the older version is added to the current story (starting at your cursor position) instead of replacing it. If that happens, just Undo.

Method 2: Export to RTF or Tagged Text

If you’re not using (or don’t mind losing) inline notes or XML tags as well as tracked changes, you could export a story to Rich Text Format or Adobe InDesign Tagged Text instead, which saves a few steps compared to the “create a new InCopy file” method above.

With your cursor blinking in the story, go to File > Export and choose either of these formats in the Export dialog box’s Format menu. Name the file and select the folder where you want InCopy to export it to, preferably a folder dedicated to that publication’s versioned stories on the server. When you click the OK button, InCopy exports a copy of the current story as an RTF or Tagged Text file and you’re returned to the live document, good to go.

Either format retains all the tables and text formatting, including styles. The difference between the two is that RTF files are generic, and can be opened by virtually any program (including Microsoft Word) that works with text files; while Tagged Text (which refers to formatting tags, not XML tags) is for InDesign and InCopy only because it’s a plain text file with proprietary text codes that only those programs understand and can convert back to formatting instructions. Either format is fine for our purposes; they both retain the same info.

Like standalone .incx files, InCopy can open RTF and Tagged Text files directly (converting them to .incx in the process) allowing you to cherry-pick text to copy and paste into your live document. You can also Place them as described above, for wholesale rollbacks to previous versions. In either case, though, you should turn on the Show Options dialog box when opening/placing these, and in the Options dialog box, specify that formatting should be retained, before clicking OK.

Method 3: Dupe the Linked .incx File(s)

It’s a little tricky, but there is a way to create a version of a story that retains everything, including tracked changes. And even if you don’t care about tracked changes, you may end up using this method because it can be applied to many stories at once, instead of one at a time.

You know that every story listed in your Assignments panel exists as a distinct .incx file on your server, yes? Just use Windows Explorer or the Finder to navigate to the file server, find the project folder containing the publication and all its .incx files (probably in a subfolder), and physically duplicate the live, linked .incx document — the one you want to make a version of.

Rename the duplicate file to something you’ll remember with a version number (Feature_v2.incx) and move it to a special folder you created to hold these. You could even shift-click multiple .incx files from the server’s project folder and copy/paste them in one fell swoop to your versions folder, then rename them there.

The tricky part is finding these .incx rascals. InDesign buries them a few subfolder levels deep on purpose so users don’t have to see how the sausage is made.

So here’s a tip: The fastest way to locate a story’s .incx file is in InCopy itself, with its Links panel (Window > Links). Go to Layout view and click inside a story. Now look at the Links panel, and you’ll see the name of the .incx file belonging to that story is selected in the panel. Keep it selected while you open the Links panel fly-out menu and choose Reveal in Explorer (or Reveal in Finder, on a Mac).

The Finder/Explorer obligingly comes to the front, drills down to the correct subfolder on the server, and selects the .incx file that was highlighted in the Links panel. That’s the one you want to duplicate, move and rename to make a version out of. And maybe its brothers and sisters too, which likely live in the same location.

Be sure to rename the files after you duplicate them, otherwise things will get messed up (recoverable, but a pain). It’s okay to rename the duplicate ones because they aren’t linked to the layout any more; they’re free agents.

When you open one of these free agents directly in InCopy (File > Open), you’ll see all the tracked changes are still intact, along with everything else — formatting, etc. However, if you copy and paste from it, or import (Place) the file into a layout story to roll back, you lose the tracked changes markup, just as with the other methods. The only way to keep them during a rollback is to check in the story, and then ask the designer to Relink the story in InDesign’s Links panel; so the frame in the layout links to the older version (the duped .incx file) instead of the current one.

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.