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• • April 13, 2010 at 7:19 am #55499
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hello! I am relatively new user with Indesign and have a dilemma that some of you more advanced professionals may have some advice on…

    I'm creating a user manual for a product my company sells. The product comes in at least two models (for now). We've had 2 seperate manuals and I am in the process of merging them into one MASTER copy. The content is for the most part the same throughout the manual. I've already used Conditional Text to tag text that is different per model. My decision now is with regard to graphics/images. The models look identical except for a few LEDs and screenprinting. Basically one is a 2 channel model and one is a 4 channel model. My graphics now are mostly all seperate jpegs. I really want to anchor the images within the text thread to keep them where they should be in relation to the manual text, but when I anchor the object it becomes part of that layer. Thus I can't create a “2CH Graphic Layer” and a “4CH Graphic Layer” and use the simple show and hide function in mass.

    Option 1:

    Re-create all of my images in Photoshop and create a 2CH layer and a 4CH layer within Photoshop. Insert and anchor those photoshop images into my Indesign manual and manually show and hide layers for each image. The Pros are less files to insert and anchored images. The Cons (that I see) are having to re-do all my images and that I will have to manually change the layer on EACH image when needed. Is this correct? Please correct me if I'm wrong in that assumption.

    If I go the route of Option 1, how should I save my photoshop files. With layers obviously, but what format is best for size, resolution, etc?

    Option 2:

    Forget about anchoring objects and use current images. Create a layer for 2CH and a layer for 4CH within Indesign. Pros are that I have all images ready and can show and hide ALL images in mass at one time. The Cons obviously are my images aren't anchored.

    If anyone has any experience with this type of scenario I'd greatly appreciate any input you may have.

    Thanks!!

  • April 13, 2010 at 5:23 pm #55507
    Somerset Walmsley

    Member

    Maybe you can trick ID. Have all your photos named with the same with the same dimensions, but in two different folders (a 2ch folder and a 4ch folder). Place the images for 2ch product with anchors in the copy, export/package file when the design is complete.

    Then rename the 2ch folder to something else, and rename the 4ch folder to what the 2ch folder was. Open the file in ID again and it should ask you to update the images. Update the images, change the conditional text and export/package the 4ch manaul. Alternatively, instead of renaming the folder, just replace the contents, making sure you have back ups somewhere.

    Haven't tested, but should give you a quick option to try.

    Or after a quick test, it looks like anchored objects and be conditional text! Just a matter of selecting the invisible anchor character, apply the desired condition, then swtich back and forth like normal. That's pretty cool! I just tried with a paragraph of text and two images with two conditional text settings.Test it out and let us know if it really works on a large scale project. Although I'm thinking this means all photos of these items would need to be anchored to have them all change with a click of the button throughout the manual, so maybe my first idea would work better if you have images placed indpendently on the page?

  • April 14, 2010 at 7:26 am #55510
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    thanks vasha!

    As soon as I read your post I remembered that I saw that new feature in CS4 with conditional texting. I had completely forgotten about it. It would appear that anchoring is the best option and then using the conditional text to tag the image as either 2ch or 4ch. IF it not for the conditional text feature I'd probably use layers and forget about anchoring as this is about a 100 page manual and I didn't want to have to go in and change the image layer for each image throughout everytime I wanted to print a version.

    if anyone else has experience to share with regard to this issue I'm all ears!

    thanks!

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