Permanently Enable Track Changes?
Speaking of tweaking default settings …
At least once a month, an InCopy user e-mails me and asks if Track Changes could be turned on by default for all stories. The answer is no, unfortunately.
While it seems at first that it is a customizable default — you can turn it on with no documents open — it only applies to documents you create from InCopy’s File > New command, not to layouts or assignments or the workflow stories they contain.
The only way for one of these stories to “remember” that Tracked Changes should be active is for an InCopy user to check it out, turn on Track Changes, and check it back in.
You can automate this somewhat, though:
- Before anyone checks out any stories, have an editor, a production manager, or a designer with InCopy open the layout (the .indd file) in InCopy and shift-click all the assignment names in the Assignments palette, including the “Unassigned InCopy Content” one if it has any stories. (If you’re not using Assignments, just select the Unassigned category).
- Choose Check Out from the palette menu (or press Command/Control-F9) to check out all the stories in the palette selection.
- Go to the Track Changes menu and choose Enable Tracking in All Stories.
- Finally, close the file, clicking the OK button at the prompt to check in all the stories.
So … doable, but not ideal. An “enable Track Changes” checkbox in InDesign, something the designer could turn on as they export stories, would be a great feature request for the next version (CS4) of InDesign; or even something in InCopy that would do the same thing. Take a second to fill out a Feature Request, the time is ripe! (And I know for a fact that the right people read these):
Adobe’s Feature Request Form
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
Submitted a related comment under “Layout View not available”, but on reflection my problem is probably not under this category and so I’m posting under Workflows.
I open an assignment file in InCopy CS3 (5.04). Edits to the stories in this file, immediately produce “out of date” icons in InDesign, if the file is also open in that program. I.e., the linked workflow is working fine, in both directions, if both programs are open.
The problem is that after editing a story in InCopy, the file status (in the InCopy Dialog box) remains Open, even after closing the assignment file. The File…Open dialog box shows the file as “Synchronized…Open”. So if I synchronize the content folder (or whatever folder the story is in) using the InCopy dialog box, I get an error stating that synchonizing failed, because the file is open. But in fact it is not. It’s as if the lock file is broken, and not communicating the true file status back to the server. I appreciate any feedback. Thanks
Chris
Submitted a related comment under “Layout View not available”, but on reflection my problem is probably not under this category and so I’m posting under Workflows.
I open an assignment file in InCopy CS3 (5.04). Edits to the stories in this file, immediately produce “out of date” icons in InDesign, if the file is also open in that program. I.e., the linked workflow is working fine, in both directions, if both programs are open.
The problem is that after editing a story in InCopy, the file status (in the InCopy Dialog box) remains Open, even after closing the assignment file. The File…Open dialog box shows the file as “Synchronized…Open”. So if I synchronize the content folder (or whatever folder the story is in) using the InCopy dialog box, I get an error stating that synchonizing failed, because the file is open. But in fact it is not. It’s as if the lock file is broken, and not communicating the true file status back to the server. I appreciate any feedback. Sorry if this qualifies as a duplicate post.
Chris
Chris, questions about how InCopy and InDesign work with VersionCue are beyond my experience, frankly. I’m so sorry! I’ve tried to meld the two many times and just encountered problem after problem.
They don’t get along in my opinion. VC was meant more for single image files or single INDD files, not for the special way that IC and ID work together with linked files. I’m positive that the VC engineers didn’t have InCopy on their radar at all during the product’s development.
That said, you’re obviously making it work, sort of … ;-) Maybe there are others around who can weigh in.
AM
Hi there. I’ve been reading voraciously trying to find a solution. Maybe you can help!
We are implementing InCopy in our office, and the first couple of trial runs (making assignments, checking them out, checking them back in, then updating content) worked beautifully and without trouble. Now that we are ready to assign the actual content (we are using an email-based workflow), when the assignments are checked in and returned to InDesign, the tracked changes (which are turned on in InCopy) will not show up.
I am opening the edited (and checked in) package via email and updating the content in InDesign. The changes are made, but I can’t see them, which is completely counterproductive. Can you help?
Thank you!
JB
InDesign doesn’t have a way to show tracked changes. After receiving the IDAP and updating the layout, you’d have to open it in InCopy yourself to see what they changed.
I know how you’d like to see them in ID before updating, but it goes against the point of the workflow … let the editors worry about the text, the edits they made are not the designer’s concern.
Here’s a suggestion. Ask your remote editors to export Story/Galley view to PDF (including tracked changes markup) right before they make the Return for InDesign package, and to send you both the IDAP and the PDF. That way you can use the PDF to see the changes.
Thanks, AM.
I will definitely use your suggestion. We have a tricky situation in that the designer (aka, me) is also the editor. So my remote workers are just updating content, but have no editorial skills whatsoever.
Thanks for your help!