Hi David,

I think your problem stems from the fact that in your InDesign file, what you want to appear as several inline bullets, is actually one single paragraph. I’m assuming you’re doing this to save space? Which is fine, however bullets are applied at the paragraph level in InDesign and therefore you will only get one bullet per paragraph which is exactly what you have. At a glance I see that you have two choices:

1. In your XML, actually insert a bullet character followed by a space in front of each ingredient. I don’t know the unicode value for the bullet off hand but it should be easy enough to find.

2. Organize your ingredients in the InDesign file as individual paragraphs stacked on top of each other.

I hope that helps!

Hi Todd,

This is one of the most common questions that I field from users who user/are looking to use an InCopy workflow. It’s also often one of the biggest hurdles due to IT policies etc. To quickly answer your question… Yes, the InCopy workflow at this point in time, works best with a local server that all users have access to. This facilitates working in either a linear or collaborative workflow, and it’s simply the most reliable solution in my opinion.

I’ve worked with companies who have been able to get InCopy to work with DropBox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc. but in my testing, I’ve seen issues with latency where edits get lost with this type of workflow. Again, I’ve seen users use this method and get it to work, but there are variables to consider and I just don’t like implementing workflows that leave things to chance.

Another fantastic solution to the server problem, is TruEdit make by MEI. TruEdit takes care of the server for you and provides a means to use InCopy and InDesign from virtually anywhere. Something to consider if the server is a challenge for your company and especially if you have any remote users.

I hope this helps Todd. Please let me know of you have any other questions.

Unfortunately, InDesign cannot do this natively. That being said, I’m positive that this can be accomplished via scripting. I’m not a scripter myself but the genius scriptures out there could probably accomplish this with no problem at all.

Hi Allan,

I have to say that it seems you’ve discovered a considerable hole in the InCopy workflow! I spent a little bit of time working through the various scenarios that you described above thinking I could trick it somehow, but sure enough I couldn’t make it happen. I even used the place and link command to isolate the problem to InDesign. When you create a “child” story, I noticed that the frame has the square in the upper-right corner that lets you anchor it (this isn’t available with an InCopy story), and as soon as I anchor that story, the link for that story in the links panel disappears. So it appears to me, that there is an inherent problem with anchoring linked frames in general and it appears to not be specific to InCopy.