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• • May 1, 2015 at 9:09 am #75107
    Anne Mahoney

    Member

    We are moving to a Digital Asset Management system called censhare. During a demo of this system, the consultant mentioned that we have to use a drag and drop process to place assets into InDesign and not the File/Place method. This would apply to both icml and any image assets that already reside in the censhare DAM. There’s a navigation window in censhare where you find them then drag and drop to ID.

    The problem is that by using this method, since we are not using the Place command, we don’t have the opportunity to use “Show Import Options.” I know some of the settings can be found after drag and drop, such as Object Layer Options. My question is does anyone know of a way to mimic the Place command with ALL THE FULL SHOW IMPORT OPTIONS using a drap and drop method? Holding down a certain key, a script? Anything? Or is there a way after the dropped files are placed that within the menu options of ID, all the same options of Place can be found, somewhere?

    This is going to be a huge problem and I really need help. Thank you.

  • May 3, 2015 at 1:07 pm #75117
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    I don’t know if there is a way, especially since you are using censhare and dragging and dropping. What did the consultant say about it? I’m curious.

  • May 4, 2015 at 5:08 am #75129
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    This sounds like a showstopper to me, unfortunately. I’ve found that few CMS and DAM manufacturers understand InDesign (and InCopy).

    When you Place, you can use the Shift key to show the Options dialog box if you forgot to turn on the Show Options checkbox. Have you tried that when dragging? Maybe a friendly engineer included that feature.

    AM

  • May 4, 2015 at 8:12 am #75142
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Nothing perfect, but a couple of options:
    https://creativepro.com/swap-out-placed-pages-with-relink.php

    There is a script mentioned in the comments there, but I can’t find the script anywhere. Hm.

  • May 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm #75163
    Anne Mahoney

    Member

    Thank you all so much for your ideas. I’ve looked at everything, here’s some answers.

    Dwayne: The consultant didn’t know about File/Place and that it had any different features than drag and drop. When I said, it has so many features you wouldn’t believe, that it would be an extremely huge loss to lose that level of functionality overnight. The consultant stated there was probably another way to replicate File/Place options after the image was dragged in. The only one I can find is Object Layer Options, so at least we can maintain our layer and layer comp on/off process with Photoshop intact. But that is only one small workaround fix. Without File/Place we would be losing so much more as you all already know.

    Anne-Marie: Showstopper, I love it! That’s exactly how I felt when he said it. Like I got punched in the stomach, when I even think about losing that feature. While my jaw dropped to the floor, my non-designer colleagues on the implementation team all wondered what I was making such a big deal about. Meeting again tomorrow and hope to bring up on agenda again. By the way, I am on a PC, but no combination of any keys seems to bring up the options box. Any other suggestions?

    David: Thank you so much for finding that link, I had high hopes until… disappointment again. When I try to relink, the path is to my local machine where the censhare DAM is placing temporary files. What is in there? Only the indd file and an xml file called info.xml. So I don’t think there is any way around the database to relink the image.

    I’m really not too hopeful at this point and I am at a total loss that they can design a system while completely ignoring this feature.

    To be honest there are also many issue with InCopy in this system too. For example as we write feature and benefit bullets and statements for our products each statement is to be kept track of in the database, as an asset ready for any collateral, digital or print. To make this happen they are saying that each and every statement (barely a sentence) must be a separate text frame to then be converted to a unique IC text asset. So to layout a paragraph with three feature statements and three benefit bullets each, they are proposing we create (9) separate text frames. And that’s only the left panel! Goodbye line and paragraph spacing… I even tried to copy the text frame and paste in a table, but after doing that, the censhare option to create text asset is grayed out!

    I know this is not a problem for most of your readers, but I really appreciate you trying so hard to find out any solutions.

    • May 5, 2015 at 3:57 am #75171
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      Wow–that sounds like a terrible way to work. Sounds to me like it’s going to make your job harder, instead of easier.

  • May 5, 2015 at 4:33 am #75173
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    Oh jeez … does the consultant work for you or the DAM developer? Because if they work for you then they need to look for a different solution.

    You need to immediately show them (your boss?) that moving to this solution will cost them X amount of money and time for your workflow (estimate it with a few examples of before/after for losing all the Place options, and having to redo the layout whenever a single bullet adds or removes a line for example), that it will cost X in difficulty in training (how long will it take to teach the InCopy users how move from single line frame to the next), and working with freelancers, and proofing, and losing track changes, etc.

    You might extract some of the relevant pages, sections, or chapters from InDesign or InCopy Help pdf (like the whole section on Import Options) and say “we use this feature 40-50 times a day, if we go with censhare, we lose this feature and there is no workaround.” Ditto for other heavily-used features (like IC/ID workflow) that wont be tenable. The powers that be might not be aware … they’re only concerned with Office files, probably.

    And hiring is another cost! Because if they go through with this, and InDesign is a big part of your job … they may need to find someone new, after you fly the coop. ;\

    AM

    • May 5, 2015 at 4:48 am #75174
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      ^^I totally agree, Anne-Marie. I can only imagine the extra time that will be required. In this day and age, we need to get things done faster, or say good-bye to any profits.

      This thing sounds like a total nightmare.

  • May 10, 2015 at 8:59 pm #75208
    Chris Thompson

    Member

    Seems odd that Censhare can’t do this – their own website promotes applications in the publishing industry (https://www.censhare.com/en/industries/publishers), with some heavyweight companies as customers.
    AND Censhare even have a page on InDesign (https://www.censhare.com/en/insight/overview/article/file-placement-via-drag-and-drop) where it says “Use case: Same behavior of Adobe InDesign desired or required with censhare and working locally”

    Maybe the consultants need to read the manual?
    Don’t know.

    Good luck,
    Chris.

  • October 13, 2015 at 5:33 am #78726
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Here is that script: https://creativepro.com/script-show-options-files.php

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