Adobe InDesign CS3 - Manual (Page 612)

INDESIGN CS3
User Guide
605
Compose content entirely in InCopy
You can create content in InCopy that isn’t associated with an InDesign file. In these stand-alone documents, you
can type text, assign fonts and styles, and import graphics from other applications (such as Adobe Illustrator and
Adobe Photoshop) to enhance the text. You can also assign tags for future XML use. This approach is a good option
in an editorial workflow where the content precedes the design. You can also set up and modify the text area, page
size, and orientation for stand-alone InCopy documents. But if the story is later linked to an InDesign document,
the InDesign settings override the settings used in InCopy.
See also
“Export content as separate InCopy files (InDesign)” on page 613
Managed files
For a file to be managed, it must be added to an assignment file, exported from InDesign as InCopy content, or
placed as InCopy content into InDesign. Managed files communicate both content status and ownership. With
managed files, you can:
• Lock and unlock stories to help preserve file integrity.
• Notify InCopy users when the associated InDesign layout is outdated.
• Identify the user working on a file.
• Notify users when an InCopy content file is outdated, being used by someone, or available for editing. Notification
methods include alert messages, frame icons, status icons in the Links panel, and status icons in the Assignments
panel.
Read-only files
Once a content file becomes managed, it’s read-only to all users in the workflow at all times, except to the person who
has checked it out. The software creates a lock file (*.idlk) when a user checks out a content file, giving that user
exclusive editing control. Read-only files have the following characteristics:
• An InCopy user cannot manually format the text in it. However, if text has been assigned character or paragraph
styles, an InDesign user can change the definition of those styles, thereby changing the formatting of the text even
when the file is checked out to someone else. These style definition changes are reflected in the text once the
InDesign user updates the file.
• In general, neither an InCopy nor InDesign user can change objects, such as text and applied styles, in locked
InCopy content. Some objects, such as character and paragraph styles, are only used by the content. For example,
you can’t change how a character style is applied to objects in locked content, but you can change the character
style itself, thereby changing the appearance of the text.
• An InDesign user can change the margins and columns of the text content as well as the shape, location, and
number of text frames the story occupies.
• An InDesign user can change the geometry and formatting of a graphics frame without checking out the graphic.
An InCopy user cannot change a graphics frame or any formatting on the frame. However, both InDesign and
InCopy users have to check out the graphics frame in order to modify the graphic itself (for example, to rotate or
scale it).