Text Macro Tips
|
If you have a lot of text macros, it can become difficult to remember which code enters what. Double-click an entry (listed by code) in the Text Macros palette and you’ll see a preview of the full text in a scrolling window. Remember that you can include underscore characters in your code, so “Joe_bio” (for an author’s bio) might be easier to remember than “Joebio”. You can edit macro codes and keyboard shortcuts at any time in the same window that you see a preview.
InDesign users have a handy feature called Libraries, a palette that lets them store oft-used page elements and drag and drop them into new pages and documents. InCopy users can use Text Macros in a simliar way. For example, you could save an entire pull quote or “upcoming events” listing (with multiple paragraph styles already applied) as a text macro. Even though you might not ever use that same exact text anywhere else, inserting the macro text will at least give you a head start in formatting (if you remembered to turn on the Retain Text Attributes checkbox), and sometimes a head start in the content itself, as in stories that get minor updates in successive issues.
In fact, you could save a 5,000-word story as a single text macro. I’m not sure how that’d be useful, but I just tried it, formatting and all, and it worked. Even the footnotes survived.
Once you get enthused about text macros, the next thing you’ll want to know is how to share them in your workgroup. Unfortunately, InCopy doesn’t have a built-in way to do so. (Fingers crossed for next version!)
In the meantime, you could try sharing macro preference files. Each user’s text macros are saved in a single file in their home directory, wherever their other InCopy preferences are stored. If you can find this folder, look inside for the file called, surprisingly enough, “InCopy TextMacros” — that’s correct, no space between Text and Macros. Replacing a user’s anemic InCopy TextMacros file with a more robust one from another user’s computer should work.
 |