InCopySecrets

Exporting Final PDFs from InCopy: Yes, With Gotchas

Many users want to know if editors — the InCopy users — can use the program to create “final” PDFs of the InDesign layouts they’re editing. I don’t mean press-ready PDFs for a commercial printer (they’ll leave that up to the InDesign users); but the “straight to DVD” ones that are going to be distributed [...]

InCopy Templates: Page Size and Content Area

A hard-working staffer asked for help with InCopy templates: We are a simple mass market paperback company and would like to create InCopy templates that mimics our final book. I do not seem to be able to create an InCopy document that has a proper Text area. E.g. Document Setup: Text Area should be 23p [...]

InCopy CS5 Workflow White Paper Now Available

Have you been to the InCopy product page on Adobe.com lately? If so you’ll note that they just posted a 20-page white paper explaining how the basic InCopy and InDesign workflow happens, updated for CS5: (Click the cover image to download the 3.3 MB PDF, or go to the InCopy product page and download it [...]

Q&A from the InCopy Tips Webinar, Part 2

Picking up where I left off, here are some more great questions (and my answers) that the attendees of my InCopy Tips & Techniques webinar had during and after the main presentation. Q: Can you only create packages in InDesign? A: I know you’re referring to e-mail-based Assignments, aka InCopy packages (INCP in CS3, or [...]

Q&A from the InCopy Tips Webinar, Part 1

We had a great crowd at last month’s webinar, InCopy/InDesign Tips and Tricks! People logged in from all over the world and with all sorts of publishing backgrounds. Since no one dropped out during the 90 minute session, and everyone rated the session “good” or “great” in the poll at the end, I’d say it [...]

InCopy and InDesign 6.04 Update Now Available

This morning, Adobe released the “6.04″ updater, a significant bug fix for the Mac and Windows versions of InDesign CS4 and InCopy CS4. You can download the updater application directly from within either program — look for the “Check for Updates” command — or go to Adobe’s Download > Updates section of their web site [...]

Join me during one of my InCopy/InDesign seminars!

September 2009 is Learn InCopy month at InCopySecrets.com! Whether you’re a newbie wondering if InCopy could possibly work at your company; or you’re a veteran InCopy workflow team member in need of higher-level training, tips, tricks and troubleshooting help, I’ve got something for you. Full-day InCopy seminars First, I’m really excited to be able to [...]

Using InCopy to Clean Up Word Files

Tom, a journalism professor and InDesign/InCopy user, e-mailed me about his interesting use of InCopy as kind of a “Word cleaner plug-in:” Because I like and understand InDesign and have had quirky problems using Word files, I’ve come up with a new workflow that puts InCopy in the middle. Quickly: I edit in Word then [...]

Stealth Glitch: Accidental Accents in Filenames

When Mac users and Windows users need to share the same files, it’s important to use “lowest common denominator” types of filenames to avoid platform-specific problems with special characters. The Mac is perfectly fine with, say, a “greater than” symbol (OurLayout>v2.indd), while Windows most definitely is not. And when files are saved to and opened [...]

InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide

Great news! Adobe has given me permission to post the InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide, a 38-page PDF that I wrote for them last year, on the InCopySecrets.com blog. This is essentially the same guide they gave to software reviewers right before CS4 came out, to help get them up to speed with the new features, [...]