Updating Assets or Studio files placed on a layout using Assets for InDesign

Working on a publication is team work and involves many different people performing many different tasks. As a layout designer using InDesign, you could be working on the design of the layout while other members of the team are editing the files that are placed on it.

It is obviously important to know that the files you are seeing on the layout are the latest versions of these files so that you can make sure that they are displayed correctly in their frames.

In this article, the process is described of updating placed files that are stored in Assets Server.

Note: It is assumed here that you are logged in to Assets Server in InDesign.

Summary

Various ways of updating the files exist. Depending on the method chosen, the content is automatically updated or needs to be updated manually (note that manual updating is often preferred because this gives better control and visibility over any changes that are made).

A summary is shown in the following table, see the rest of the article for a more detailed explanation.

Workflow for files in Assets Server

When the files that are placed on the layout are stored in Assets Server, updating them to their latest version is done in various ways.

Refreshing the links

Instead of updating the placed files, you may just want to know which links are outdated so that you can take appropriate action on a file-by-file basis.

To do this, choose WoodWing Assets > Refresh All Elvis Link States. The status of all placed files stored in Assets Server is checked and where needed updated. The actual files are not updated. To update the files, choose WoodWing Assets > Update All Content, or use the options in the Links panel.

Updating files when the layout is opened

Scenario:

• The layout is stored in Assets Server
• The layout is opened from Assets
• You are logged in to Assets Server in InDesign

In this scenario, a check is done to see if a newer version of the file is available than the version that is placed on the layout. If this is the case, a message appears informing you that updates are available:

"This document contains links to sources that have been modified. You can update the modified links now, or update them later using the Links panel."

When clicking 'Update Links', the latest versions of the files are downloaded and the links are automatically updated.

When clicking 'Don't update links', the linked files will not be updated. However, the updated files will be downloaded in the background from Assets Server to your local system. This makes them readily available should you choose to later update the links manually by using the options in the Links panel.

Manually updating files

When working on a layout on which files are placed that are stored in Assets Server, it could be that a newer version of the file is available in Assets Server. You may not be aware that such updates exist because of various reasons:

• You have opened the layout from InDesign but are not logged in to Assets Server. Assets for InDesign can therefore not connect to Assets Server to check for any updated versions. When subsequently logging in to Assets Server, changes to updated files are not detected.
• Another user has edited the file while you are working on the layout. Such changes are not automatically detected.

For these scenarios you can manually update the content by choosing WoodWing Assets > Update All Content.

All outdated files (stored in Assets Server, Studio Server, or elsewhere) are automatically updated.

Workflow for Assets files stored in Studio Server

When Assets for InDesign is used together with Studio for InDesign, the files in Assets Server can be used for producing publications such as newspapers, magazines, books, and more.

One of the ways of using files from Assets Server in Enterprise is by storing a reference in Studio Server to the original file in Assets Server. This is known as a 'shadow object' in Studio Server.

The states of these files is automatically updated. The content of these files can be manually updated by choosing WoodWing Studio > Update All Content or WoodWing Assets > Update All Content.