CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • May 2, 2012 at 9:48 am #62113
    Frederick Yocum

    Member

    We have just begun to use an InCopy workflow and pretty addictive it is. But we have run into a problem.

    In the last issue there was one article which we could not assign. Select the text frame and all the assignments are greyed out. Drag to the Assignments panel, an assignment is created, but the story is not added. So, unable to assign a story to an assignment

    In our current issue almost a third of the stories are affected. It appears not to be a related to pages because on the page where there is a frame/storys that are assignable, there are others that are not.

    Specs. InDesign CS5.5, OSX 10.7,

    TIA

  • July 29, 2012 at 12:52 pm #62712
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    Did you ever get this figured out? Sounds intriguing.

    I'm not sure about this: “Drag to the Assignments panel, an assignment is created, but the story is not added. So, unable to assign a story to an assignment” … not sure you're using the terminology. Are you dragging a text frame on top of the New Assignment icon?

    I almost always recommend users not bother creating assignments, just let the InCopy stories stay in the Unassigned Content category, and then everyone (including InCopy users) opens the INDD file and works on the same layout. Keeps things *much* simpler.

    AM

  • July 30, 2012 at 6:08 am #62722
    Frederick Yocum

    Member

    I think I meant dragging the story to an existing Assignment in the palette. The issue was never figured out. We are now into a new proofing cycle and we will see if the problem reappears.

    … not sure you're using the terminology. Are you dragging a text frame on top of the New Assignment icon?

    I get nervous when people simultaneously edit a document, but perhaps we are talking about a conceptual problem on my part. What the InCopy editor is actually editing with the content in an icml file of the individual story instead of icma one which contains all the assigned stories?

    I almost always recommend users not bother creating assignments.

    It has taken a long time for us to shift to including InCopy into the workflow. There was resistance on the part of the editor (“I am going to have to devote more time to editing.” ”I have to learn a new program.”) and ambivalence higher up the chain. Your humble designer needed to do the research, set up the system, and hold the editor’s hand while she found her feet. But, it has paid dividends in a smoother workflow. The little complications we have experienced are eclipsed by the benefits. The designer does not need to fiddle with small word changes and the editor knows exactly how the text will fall in the design as she edits.

  • July 31, 2012 at 5:39 pm #62729
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    Yep you're absolutely right, InCopy is usually a godsend to workflows.

    If your current workflow is working, fantastic! Don't change a thing. It's just that you're using assignments, which I thinks complicates things. So the rest of this is for *other* users :D …

    When I said “I almost always recommend users not bother creating assignments” I mean the ICMA file — those are Assignments — not the ICML files – those are shared stories.

    When you share a story from an InDesign file, you export it to ICML. This means that an InCopy user can open up the *layout* file (the INDD file) … which should be on the server in this scenario … and check out that shared story. The end. Multiple InCopy user can open the *same* INDD file simultaneously, even while the ID user has it open. The check in/check out prevents more than one person from editing the same *story* simultaneously.

    The vast majority of my clients use this workflow. They do not bother creating that third type of file, an Assignment file (ICMA), and then adding/moving ICML files to it. Instead, all their ICML files live in the Unassigned InCopy Content category in the Assignments panel. (I think they should change the name of the Assignments panel to “InCopy Workflow” … because people keep thinking that the ICML files are Assignments, and that actual Assignment files are necessary to make this work.) You can just drag and drop stories (text frames) from the layout right on to top of that category name in teh Assignments panel. Or you can use Edit > InCopy > Export > All Stories.

    Hope that helps!

    AM

  • August 1, 2012 at 5:49 am #62731
    Frederick Yocum

    Member

    Thanks for the very fulsome reply Anne Marie. Our workflow isn’t is necessarily working the best way, see top of this thread.

    I am sure I heard what you wrote in your lynda.com series but needed more nudging to trust the world will not explode if more that one person opens an InDesign file at the same time. We will take assignments out of the equation the next time around.

    If your current workflow is working, fantastic! Don't change a thing. It's just that you're using assignments, which I thinks complicates things. So the rest of this is for *other* users

• Author
  Posts