CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • March 17, 2023 at 11:20 am #14388498
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    My company has slowly been making the transition to InDesign as our primary layout software for making interactive ebooks and we are at the point where we are trying to figure out the best processes for developing books, allowing writers the ability to edit, and all the version control involved in that. We don’t use a shared network drive or server but rather Microsoft OneDrive for backups and sharing files with one another.

    For a little background, our current process has been to layout the ebooks in iBooks Author, which is no longer supported and crumbling beneath our feet, then save the .iba and export an .ibooks file (v0.1) to pass it back to the writers who make edits and request changes, they save and export their .iba and .ibooks as a new version (v0.2), and back and forth like that with clients for approval and changes, making a new version each time, and keeping all the old versions for archival purposes.

    Now that we are switching to InDesign and InCopy, using the Remote Work Flow method, we have done a tone a research for best practices, but every single instance we have found has shown the designer using the first version of their InDesign document through the entire process. Is version control not a thing among large companies or Designer/Writer/Editor workflows? We havent seen a specific unworkable issue crop up in our testing when renaming an InDesign file to a new version but there are some nuances that can be annoying.

    Any advice from other designers experiences would be appreciated, as it doesn’t seem like the writers are going to give up all the control of editing books, meaning some of the managers jumping into the InDesign files rather than just the InCopy assignments, any time soon.

  • March 17, 2023 at 2:54 pm #14388505
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    It’s okay to simply rename — not do a Save As or dupe it — an ID file (assuming no one has stories checked out of the layout for editing at the moment), but if you’re using an Assignments workflow, that’ll break the link to the Assignments. I personally don’t use that method nor teach it; I use use the INDD file (a “layout workflow”) as the central document and export the stories to the Unassigned Content category in the Assignments panel. One or more InCopy users can open the INDD file *in InCopy* and check out stories to edit even if the designer has the file open.

    The whole point of the workflow is to *not* use versions of the ID file. No versionitis, no dupes floating around, no checking v1 vs v2 etc. That’s what saves a ton of time. I’ve not had clients regret this as far as I know and I’ve been teaching/consulting on it for 20 years. The one layout that gets shared with the editors is ultimately going to be the same file that is output for final. You can export PDFs for archival/date stamping if you want. Editors rely on track changes if they need to keep track of what words they’re changing.

    That said, it *is* possible to do a Save As for these INDD files to change their names and make a new version of the file; but It’s not straightforward. You need to first open it in ID and be sure that all stories are checked in and up to date, then delete the links to them so they’re no longer editable. Then you can do the Save As, rename it, and re-export the stories to InCopy format in a new folder. If you neglect to do the unlink/rexport steps, you end up with a new INDD file linked to the same original stories, seldom what anyone wants/expects.

    Hope that helps! I have a chapter on using ID/IC in my InDesign Remote Workflows course on LinkedIn Learning, the first video in the ID/IC chapter is free:
    https://www.linkedin.com/learning/collaborative-workflows-for-editors-and-designers/incopy-and-indesign-workflow

    • March 24, 2023 at 6:30 pm #14388756
      Steven

      Member

      I will second this approach as it works, with Dropbox, for our magazine’s small editorial team. We use Slack to communicate the status of individual articles though I wish there was a way to do notifications.

  • March 20, 2023 at 6:27 am #14388515
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thank you for the reply! I believe we checked out one of your LinkedIn Learning Classes but i’m not sure we looked at this one so we’ll take another look!

  • September 13, 2023 at 6:39 am #14395752
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    I know this is an extremely late reply but hopefully someone sees this. We finally started production using InDesign, InCopy, and in5 (the plugin that helps export better html5 from InDesign) and we ran into a few issues involving the remote workflow but my question now pertains to packaging. What is the proper workflow with InDesign and InCopy when it comes to packaging a file after making content edits, specifically media and assignments?

    You had mentioned previously that the point was to avoid all versioning and duplicates, but if media is changed at some point in the editting process my instinct is to repackage my files to make sure all the content stays together. In the case of the layout workflow would you ever package your file? If so do you continue to use the original indd file or use the new indd file within the package folder? As far as i can tell packaging also moves all the assignment files to the packages links folder and the original indd file now has a bunch of broken links, so this doesn’t seem like the correct move.

    After an error during a compressed timeline where an indesign file associated with an incopy icap/idap disappeared and prevented us from incoporating the updated idap from the writer, the writing team abandoned InCopy for the rest of the project out of concern, so now i need to figure out how to assuage their fears and get back into using InCopy for the next pass, but ill be looking into using our OneDrive for the server/layout based workflow.

  • September 13, 2023 at 9:36 am #14395798
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    Hi Austin, well first of all I don’t know why you’re using Assignment files (IDAP). Not necessary and adds to confusion and frustration. As I said above, just use a layout workflow. All the InCopy stories appear in the Unassigned Content category in the Assignments panel.

    InCopy users then open the layout (INDD) locally from InCopy’s File > Open menu, because it’s in a shared, locally synced folder from OneDrive (or Dropbox or Google Drive). They scroll through the file in Layout view and check out the stories they need to update/edit. Multiple InCopy users can open and edit different stories in the same INDD file concurrently, even if the InDesign user has it open. That’s because the only thing they’re actually editing and saving changes to are the embedded InCopy stories in the layout, not the INDD file itself.

    The only time you package an INDD file is when the publication has been signed off by all the stakeholders (or at least, all the editors). Then, the designer, after making sure all stories are checked in and up to date, selects all those ICML files in the Assignments panel and clicks the “Delete Link” trashcan icon at the bottom, turning the shared InCopy stories into normal InDesign stories.

    Then they package it. And do with it what they will … archive it for example, or send it to their print vendor, or whatever.

    AM

  • September 13, 2023 at 9:44 am #14395799
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    “but if media is changed at some point in the editing process my instinct is to repackage my files to make sure all the content stays together”

    Okay, I get it. Well no need to Package to gather all the media in one place. Select ALL the linked media in the Links panel (excluding the linked ICML files) and from the Links panel menu, choose Utilities > Copy Links to… InDesign will move any selection not already in the location you want to that location … presumably the main Links folder next to the INDD file in your production folder.

    AM

  • September 13, 2023 at 10:05 am #14395800
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks for responding so quickly! Yes i am trying to move away from the assignment file workflow and into the layout workflow. originally we used the assignment workflow due to some of the book team managers insisting on heavy versioning (which shouldn’t be an issue now since OneDrive has a version history feature) and not having a proper server and only the OneDrive folders, which by default are not synced on each individuals machine (though we do have our own personal OneDrive folders synced) due to the the overall folder being massive, so ive recommended syncing the individual folders where the indesign files are to alleviate the issue.

    But what i’ve found is that once i package an indd file, while it does move copies of all the media and stories into the package folder, it does not change the link location in the indd file, which seems odd. if its copying all the content to the package, and changing the link destination in the copied indd file in the package, why does the original file retain the original link destinations?

    Another big issue is that at this particular company there can be multiple designers working on the same project which consists of multiple books, so if one designer needs to take over for another on a book they might open the file and find a bunch of missing links if it hasn’t been packaged.

    The final and i think biggest issue is the workflow this company uses. since the company started as a tech company making apps they use an agile workflow, and this goes for the books as well, which i’ve always seen as a big issue. there is a ton of back and forth from writer, editors, designers, managers, and clients. So a writer makes a draft, which is supposed to be signed off by the client, but that doesn’t prevent big client edits from happening after seeing the book for the first time. Obviously the preferred workflow would be that the layout happens at the very end but that is not even close to the case.

  • September 13, 2023 at 10:29 am #14395801
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    Note the Packaging an INDD file makes a *copy* of the INDD file in the Package folder. You are still left looking at the “original” INDD file in ID, wherever it’s located.

    So if you need to do this … can’t use Copy Links To … you should close the open INDD file and either archive it or delete it, then open the one in the Package folder.

    Austin, your questions are somewhat complicated for this forum. I empathize with your situation! I’m happy to consult w/you via Zoom and screen sharing. You can schedule a no-cost 15 minute consult here: https://calendly.com/senecadesign at your convenience, or contact me at amarie@senecadesign.com.

    AM

  • September 13, 2023 at 10:41 am #14395802
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks for all the help regardless!

• Author
  Posts