Great news! Adobe has given me permission to post the InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide, a 38-page PDF that I wrote for them last year, on the InCopySecrets.com blog. This is essentially the same guide they gave to software reviewers right before CS4 came out, to help get them up to speed with the new features, but with added content for new users.
Download the InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide (5 MB PDF file)
Download the Sample Files.zip (150 MB)
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:]
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on May 29, 2009
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