InCopyFlow 08: Styles in Story View; Versioning for Editors; Update Released

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Date: November 1st 2007

*** InCopyFlow ***

Tips and techniques for Adobe InCopy/InDesign Workflow Users

In this Issue:
-- View More Font Styles in Galley/Story -- Versioning Stories, Part 2 (Editors' Turn) -- CS3 Update Available from Adobe

Issue 8, 11/01/07
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion ... for her InCopy workflow clients, colleagues, and interested subscribers

View More Font Styles in Galley/Story

I just received an e-mail from an InCopy user (an ME for a publication in Iowa) asking a common question:

"We're using fonts that don't have their own built-in bold, italic, bold-ital. We're using Franklin Gothic Demi for boldface. In Story view, this font doesn't display as bold � which is very annoying to writers. Any ideas on how this problem could be solved?"

I certainly do. As the ME found out, the editing typeface you choose from the Galley and Story Appearance toolbar (at the lower left of the window) is limited to showing Plain (aka Regular, or Book), Bold, Italic and Bold Italic variations of any and all typefaces that text is actually formatted with in the document, as seen in Layout View.

So if the text is formatted with a Demi (equivalent to a "Medium" or "Semibold") font style, InCopy has to make a decision: Should it show up in Galley/Story as Plain or as Bold? It always opts for Plain. It has to make similar mapping decisions for styles like Condensed, Heavy and Black.

Clever InCopy users will think, "A-ha! I'll just choose the same font used for the text as my Galley/Story view display face!" But alas, it's fruitless. For some reason, InCopy refuses to display any style in a Galley/Story Display font other than the usual regular, B, I and BI of the one you chose. Franklin Gothic Regular and Demi look the same: Regular. Only text formatted with Franklin Gothic Heavy will show up as Bold. You have to switch to Layout view to see that Demi is bolder than Regular, and Heavy bolder than Demi.

It's a real pain when you're using a non-standard style like Demi for, say, bold lead-ins to plain body text. You can't tell in Galley/Story view where the bold lead-in ends, or even if it's there in the first place, at least not by eyeballing it. (You can always select text and get an accurate readout of its formatting by looking in the Character or Character Styles panels.)

The Fix

InCopy users, the solution lies in a secret "extra" typeface you can specify for Galley/Story:

Make sure that your Galley/Story Display font -- the one you choose from the toolbar -- is set to a different typeface than the one you're trying to see the different weights of. In other words, leave it at the default Letter Gothic typeface or whichever you prefer. Of course, the one you choose here should come with the usual Bold, Italic and Bold Italic style variations -- if you choose one that doesn't, InCopy alerts you.
Open the InCopy Preferences dialog box (from the Edit menu on Windows or the InCopy menu on Macs) and go to the "Galley and Story Display" section.
Click the checkbox next to "Override Preview Font" to turn it on, and from the dropdown menu of installed fonts choose the typeface that has all the variations you need to see. (In the ME's situation, he should choose ITC Franklin Gothic from this menu. If your story is set in Myriad Pro, choose that one, if it's using different weights of Futura, choose that, and so on.)
Click OK in Preferences and look at the text in Galley/Story. Hallelujah! Demi looks darker than Regular and lighter than Heavy!

It turns out that in addition to your single chosen display font, you can have InCopy show one other font in Galley/Story. It will only display that font if text is actually formatted with it; and if so, it displays ALL the style variations as needed.

You can change the "extra" font on the fly -- perhaps another story in your document uses a different chock full 'o styles typeface -- just by going back to Preferences: Galley and Story Display and selecting a different font.

Woo-hoo!

Versioning Stories, Part 2 (Editors' Turn)

In the last issue of InCopyFlow I wrote about a couple ways that designers could create back-ups and/or versions of an InDesign layout and its stories while it was in the middle of an InDesign/InCopy production cycle. You can refresh your memory here:

InCopyFlow Issue 7
http://tinyurl.com/2f3d44

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, there's no way to "re-change" your mind. Once you accept or reject a change to a bit of text, as soon as you save the story that bit of text's edit history is cleared forever. Also, 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.

Finally, 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--V, one after the other, if you're a keyboard shortcut type. (The mnemonic "All Children Need 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.

CS3 Update Available from Adobe

CS3 users, are you up to date with the latest version of InCopy and InDesign? Look at your About screen (choose About InCopy or About InDesign from the program menus) to see the version. If it says "5.0" with no extra numbers then you're out of date.

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!

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InCopyFlow is a free publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a design studio owner, software trainer and publishing consultant. She's an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in InDesign and InCopy and an independent Adobe Certified Instructor specializing in helping workgroups master the InDesign/InCopy workflow. Anne-Marie owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).

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Copyright 2007 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 InCopyFlow may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.