The Adobe® InCopy® CS2 Book [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Improving Efficiency with Assignments

In previous versions of InDesign and InCopy, you had to choose between opening entire InDesign layouts with copyfit calculations or tiny InCopy files without copyfit statistics. The new assignments feature gives you the best of both worlds: speed and copyfit statistics. Instead of opening the entire InDesign file, an assignment file (.inca) is a relatively small snapshot of the page geometry, which is just enough information for an InCopy user to see the InDesign layout related to his story and to view the copyfit statistics, but doesn't include anything that isn't needed.

Tip

Page geometry refers to the position and size of text frames, graphic frames, text wrap, layers, and how various page elements interact in the layout.

Assignments help solve the features vs. performance dilemma that arises when multiple contributors are collaborating on a design-intensive publication, but that's not the only purpose of this exciting new feature. Another annoyance in previous versions of InDesign/InCopy was that if the designer used separate, unthreaded text frames in InDesign for different story elements such as headline, story, and caption, then the InCopy user had to open a different InCopy file for each story element. Now with assignments, the InDesign user can bundle separate text threads into one assignment, which makes it much easier for the InCopy user to participate in the workflow (Figure 8.14). Instead of opening separate InCopy files for the headline, story and caption, or a large InDesign file, the InCopy user just opens the InCopy assignment file (.inca), which provides faster access to all the necessary elements in one window.

Creating Assignments with InDesign

Now that you understand why InCopy assignments are the greatest thing since sliced bread, let us show you how a designer using InDesign creates them. It's important to remember that assignments are just a snapshot of the page geometry of the InDesign layout. This means that if an InDesign user creates an assignment and then changes the page layout or adds stories to the assignment, she must update the assignment before InCopy users can see the changes. The nice thing about the assignment being a snapshot of the layout and stories is that the InDesign user doesn't have to push design changes until they're relevant to the other contributors using InCopy.

In this chicken-and-egg cycle, the InDesign user should first export the InCopy stories that are supposed to be a part of the managed, collaborative workflow. After the InDesign user has exported the InCopy stories, she should select the stories in the layout that she wants to assign as a logical group (assignment) to a writer or editor. When she has all the pieces of the story selected (headline, body, photo captions, and maybe even graphic frames) she chooses Edit > InCopy > Add Selection to Assignment > New. When she's prompted to save the assignment file (.inca), she should save it in a different location than the exported InCopy stories, such as a folder reserved just for assignment files. You can name the assignment file whatever you want, but give it an understandable name and always use the .inca file extension, as in weekend_dining.inca. Saving the assignment file with the .inca extension and in a specific folder helps keep InCopy users from accidentally opening the wrong files.

Tip

Only InDesign can create InCopy assignments (.inca), and only InCopy can open them.

After the InDesign user names the assignment file and chooses where to save it, she still has a few more decisions to make in the New Assignment dialog that appears (Figure 8.15). The first field is for the Assignment Name, which defaults to the name of the .inca file she specified in the previous dialog. She can change this to be different from the .inca file name if she wants, but if she's chosen a useful filename for the .inca file, then changing this here is only going to cause confusion. In fact, we've even heard from InCopy users who wish that InCopy required that the assignment name always match the .inca file and didn't allow users to change it.

In the Assigned to field, the InDesign user can type the name of a particular person, a department, a role, or leave it blank, whichever makes sense. The Assignments palettes in InDesign and InCopy reference the value of the Assigned to field, but don't necessarily prohibit other users from accessing the assignment. It's more of a reminder note for you and your co-workers as to who is expected to work on that assignment.

The third option in the New Assignment dialog is the Color pop-up menu, where the InDesign user can choose from a list of dozens of different colors. It's technically not necessary to choose a different color for each assignment, but it's helpful when dealing with complex publications that have several contributors. The color of an assignment is used both as a visual reminder in the Assignments palette and as the frame tint and border color when the Assigned Frames option is enabled in the View menu.

The last option in the New Assignment dialog determines how much detail is included in the assignment file. The three options are:

Placeholder Frames: Includes only the pages or spreads needed for the assigned stories and renders all unassigned frames as empty placeholder frames. This option results in the smallest .inca files and the fastest performance in InCopy, but if the editor would benefit from a more complete view of the rest of the layout, consider one of the following two options.

Assigned Spreads: Includes only the pages and spreads needed for the assigned stories and includes all text and graphic frames on those pages. This option is the best compromise of speed and visual information, and is the ideal solution for most users.

All Spreads: Includes all the spreads in the InDesign document with all text and graphic frames visible. This is the most complete way to create an assignment but also results in the largest .inca files and therefore slower performance in InCopy. This option is overkill for most users, but can be useful if a writer or editor needs to cross-reference other stories in a longer document.

If you use assignments in your InCopy/InDesign workflow, make sure all placed images are linked to a file server instead of the designer's hard drive. If the images aren't available on the server, InCopy users will see gray boxes instead of image previews when they open an assignment file. If InCopy users open InDesign files instead of InCopy assignments, they don't have to have access to the file server to see the image previews because the .indd file stores low-res image previews.

Managing Assignments with InDesign

After the InDesign user creates assignments in InDesign, she might need to make changes to the layout, stories, or organization of the content. For example, if she decides to add a sidebar to a story, she'd start by adding a new text frame to the InDesign layout and exporting it as a new InCopy story. This new frame is itself a story, and she'll probably want to add the new story to the related assignment. To add new content to an existing assignment, the InDesign user follows these steps:

Altered assignments show a small yield triangle icon in the Assignments palette. The InDesign user can choose Update All Assignments from the Assignments palette menu to refresh all the affected assignments (Figure 8.16).