Review: Adobe InDesign CS6

Mike Rankin

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In addition to using one of the four Liquid Page Rules on each document page, you also have the option to set a rule on a master page and have it apply to all document pages based on that master. Not surprisingly, this setting is called Controlled by Master, and it can save much time and effort, especially with pages that have consistent, standard designs.

All in all, the Liquid Layout features represent a huge leap forward in the degree of control InDesign can provide you for adapting layouts to new page sizes. This is not to say they provide a huge leap in automation for everyone. The simple rules are easy to use and understand but don’t get you anywhere near a finished job in many scenarios. The more complex rules require thought, planning, and testing, but can yield a big payoff when you have a slew of alternate layouts to create in a small amount of time.

And speaking of alternate layouts…

Where did you plan to keep all those different versions of your design? Previously, you’d have to save separate versions of each document and be careful to keep each one handy and up to date. “Herding cats” is the phrase that comes to mind. Well, InDesign CS6 includes a built cat herding feature called Alternate Layout.

Alternate Layout allows you to store all the versions of a layout within the same InDesign file. When you create alternate layouts, you can also apply liquid page rules, create new styles and style sets to reformat text, and link the content of stories to the original layout, so when the text changes you can simply update it to synchronize the layouts.

Creating an alternate layout is simple. Just go to the Pages panel, and choose Create Alternate Layout. In the dialog box, you have the option to choose the source pages for your new layout, the new size and orientation, as well as the options I mentioned in above.

For navigating your multi-layout document, you can now view pages in the Pages panel by alternate layout.

This is essential to keep things organized, and it’s well executed. The one gripe I have about this feature is that it’s an application wide preference. So if you create a new alternate layout in any of your documents, then all of your documents will be set to View Pages By Alternate Layout in the Pages panel. A minor thing perhaps, but I find it somewhat obnoxious.

There’s also a semi-nifty new feature that allows you to split a document window to view alternate layouts side-by-side for comparison. Why only semi-nifty? Because the split views are fully independent, and don’t scroll in sync. This feature would be so much more useful if you had the option to lock the views so you could see the same content in each layout. Like many of the new features devoted to mobile publishing, this one’s unfinished, but a solid step in the right direction.

Primary Text Frame

Another feature built to help in the creation of alternate layouts is the new primary text frame. It’s a replacement for the old master text frame, and it’s a clear step up. The primary text frame acts the way old master text frame should have but never did. It allows you to apply different masters to document pages and always have the text flow through the correct text frames.

Content Collector tools

Sometimes there’s just no way to create a new version of layout automatically—you just have to build it from scratch. With a truly complex layout, you might spend hours copying, pasting, and transforming objects from one document to another. With InDesign CS6, the folks at Adobe have attempted to re-invent that copy-paste workflow and enhance it with flexible options for re-using content both within and across documents.

The Content Collector, Placer, and Conveyor tools represent an ambitious approach to rethinking copy-paste. The Content Collector tool allows you to select content for reuse by clicking or dragging over it. When you do this, another tool appears called the Content Conveyor. The Conveyor is an odd thing until you get used to it. It feels like a foreign body lodged inside InDesign. It’s like a mash-up of the clipboard, a traditional library, and Mini-Bridge.

Content you grab is arranged in sets that you can place together, or as individual items with the Content Placer tool. Furthermore, you can transform content as you place it, resizing it, and applying style mapping to instantly reformat text. There are also different modes for placing content once (like traditional copy-paste), or multiple times (like a snippet or library).

There is a lot that could be done to improve the content collector tools, both in terms of user interface and capabilities. At some point, you’ll likely be frustrated, trying to place content with no result because you forgot to switch from the collector to the placer. Or you’ll have the conveyor in the wrong mode and content will disappear when you want to keep it in the conveyor (or vice versa).

It can also be hard to tell which content you’re about to place, since the preview of text is usually unreadable, and unlike snippets and libraries, you can’t name or tag collected content in any way. Another limitation is that collected content isn’t persistent, meaning that it goes away when you close the document you collected it from. You can’t save it or share it with your co-workers. But even with these limitations, the content collector tools are a bold step toward bringing one of the most fundamental production tasks, copy and paste, into the 21st century.

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