Adobe InDesign CS3 - Manual (Page 523)

INDESIGN CS3
User Guide
516
2 Open the Structure pane. (Choose View > Structure > Show Structure, or click the splitter button at the
bottom of the document window.)
3 Choose File > Import XML (or choose Import XML on the Structure pane menu) and select the XML file you
want to import.
4 Select Show XML Import Options.
5 Select Append Content, and then click Open.
6 To link the XML content to the original XML file, select Create Link.
InDesign will list the XML file in the Links panel and display a yellow alert triangle in the panel if the XML file
changes.
7 Click OK.
See also
“Link or embed imported text files” on page 121
“Import and merge XML” on page 522
Lay out XML manually
You can manually place XML content in your document layout by dragging elements from the Structure pane to the
page or to existing frames. When you place an element, its child elements (and all child elements below those, if any)
are placed as well.
In the Structure panel, a structure-specific blue diamond appears on an element’s icon if the element has been placed
in the document; elements that haven’t been placed show an unplaced icon.
Note: If you imported XML using the Merge Content option, some elements may already be laid out. When you merge
imported content, InDesign automatically flows elements into existing frames if they are identically structured and
tagged.
1 Open the Structure pane (View > Structure > Show Structure) and select the element that you want to lay out.
2 Do either of the following for each element you want to place in your document:
• Drag the element onto the page. InDesign creates a frame for the element.
• Drag the element onto an existing frame. If the frame contains content, it is replaced by content from the XML data.
3 To format the items you lay out, do any of the following:
• Map XML tags to paragraph and character styles.
• Apply styles to elements.
• Format the selected content manually by choosing text options in the Control panel.
Map XML tags to styles
XML tags are merely data descriptions; they carry no formatting instructions. As such, you need to format XML
content after you import it and lay it out. One way to do that is to map XML tags to paragraph, character, table, or
cell styles. For example, the
Byline tag could be mapped to the Author character style, so that all imported and
placed XML content that is tagged Byline is automatically assigned the Author character style. Mapping tags to
styles makes formatting imported XML content easier and less time-consuming.