Working with Editions in Studio for InDesign

A publication such as a daily newspaper can have a release in the morning and a release in the evening and may be published in multiple regions of the country.

Part of the content will be identical for each release (such as the main news stories and adverts from major companies), while other content will be specific to the edition itself (such as local news stories, adverts from local businesses, and so on).

Instead of creating a layout for each publication in which the content that is the same for each edition is created from scratch and has to be individually managed, the Editions feature of Studio for InDesign makes it possible to create a single layout that contains both the content that is shared across editions as well as the content that is specific to each individual edition.

This article describes how to work with Editions in Studio for InDesign.

How it works

In short, the process is as follows:

• Setting up Editions. When the system is set up, the Editions that should be available for a Brand are defined.

• Assigning Editions to a layout. In InDesign, a layout is created and saved to a Brand. During this process, the Editions of which the layout should be part are selected.

• Assigning Editions to frames. Frames are created on the layout and assigned to one or more Editions.

• Viewing the layout. When viewing the layout, the content of only one Edition can be displayed. This is the content that is going to be exported, for example when creating a PDF for printing purposes.

Each step is explained in more detail in the following sections.

Managing Editions

Creating new Editions, renaming or deleting existing Editions can only be done in Studio Server; it cannot be done from within InDesign.

Assigning Editions to a layout

Assigning Editions is initially done when first saving the layout or the Layout Module to Studio Server.

The Editions list in the Save As dialog box will always display all Editions that are available in the Brand that the layout is being saved to.

When Editions have been set up in a Brand, any layout or Layout Module that is saved to that Brand needs to be assigned to at least one Edition.

Initially, all Editions will be selected by default in the Save As or Check In dialog box, but they can be selected or deselected as needed, as long as at least one Edition is selected.

Note: Changing Editions through the Save As workflow dialog box is only possible when you have been given sufficient privileges.

Unassigning Editions

Once a layout or Layout Module is saved to a Brand, the assigned Editions can be changed when performing any of the following actions:

• Check In
• Save As
• Copy To
• When changing the properties of the file

For more information about these actions, see:

• Closing or saving a layout using Studio for InDesign
• Working with Layout Modules in Studio for InDesign

The dialog box that will appear will always display all Editions that are available in the selected Brand. Unassigning Editions is then similar to assigning them: select or deselect the appropriate Edition(s).

Note: Changing Editions through any of the workflow dialog boxes is only possible when you have been given sufficient privileges.

Assigning Editions to frames

With the layout saved to a Brand for which Editions have been set up, any of the frames on the layout can be assigned to one or more Editions.

Notes:  A frame needs to be assigned to at least one Edition. Layout Modules may not contain content that is assigned to Editions.

Editions are assigned to a frame automatically but can be changed manually if needed.

Assigning Editions automatically

Editions are automatically assigned to frames when:

• A layout is saved for the first time to a Brand for which Editions have been defined. All frames will automatically be assigned the same and all Editions that have been selected for the layout that they are part of.

Note: This is not the case for frames on a Layout Module; frames that are part of a Layout Module cannot have any Editions assigned.

• Creating a new frame. This is done by using any of the InDesign tools or by placing a file on the layout. The frame will automatically be assigned the Editions for which the Assign check box has been selected in the Editions panel (see Manually assigning Editions).

Note: The only exceptions are article templates or articles created in InCopy based on an article template; these preserve the Editions assigned to its components as specified during their creation.

• Linking a text frame. When creating a new text frame and linking it to an existing frame that has already been assigned one or more Editions, the newly created text frame will automatically be assigned the same Edition(s) as the frame it is being linked to.

Manually assigning Editions

This is done by using the Editions panel. It can be accessed through Window > Studio > Editions.

To manually assign one or more frames to an Edition, select the frames on the layout and in the Editions panel, select the check box(es) for the Edition(s) of which the frames should be part while clearing the check box(es) for those they should not be part.

Note: Changing the Editions for a text frame to which other text frames are connected also changes the Editions for these other text frames.

Viewing Editions

To view the content of an Edition, select its View icon in front of the Edition name in the Editions panel. Doing so automatically deselects the currently viewed Edition; only one Edition can be viewed at a time.

Notes: When a frame is selected which is not assigned to the currently viewed Edition, the content will disappear from view but the selected frame will still be visible until it is deselected (unless this behavior is configured to work differently, see Maintaining the Edition selection). The Assign check boxes will automatically be set to the selected Edition. This ensures that a newly created frame is automatically assigned to the Edition that is currently viewed. When frames are selected which belongs to the currently selected Edition and to other Editions, the Assign check boxes for those other Editions will also be selected.

Editions and text wrap

In case text wrap has been applied to one or more frames that have an Edition assigned, viewing or hiding these frames might affect the appearance of other items. Be careful therefore with applying text wrap to frames that overlap other frames with different Editions assigned; the text may not be displayed as expected.

In the following example for instance, two text frames are created that overlap each other. One text frame with text wrap applied is assigned to Edition North, while another text frame with no text wrap applied is assigned to Edition North and South.

When Edition North is displayed, the text in the other frame is wrapped.

Figure: A frame with text wrap applied affects the underlying frame.

When Edition South is displayed, the text in the other frame is not wrapped because the frame with the text wrap applied is now hidden.

Figure: When hiding the frame with text wrap applied, the display of the other frame is affected.

Viewing Edition information in panels

To easily see to which Editions an article or layout is assigned, view the Editions column in the Studio panel or the Elements panel.

Editions and page numbering

In some scenarios, a whole page is made part of an Edition. When this is the case, the page numbering also needs to be adjusted per Edition.

Step 1. In the Pages panel, select the first page of which the page number should be changed.

Step 2. In the Editions panel, select one or more Editions to which the page needs to belong.

Step 3. Change the page number by doing the following:

1. From the Pages panel flyout menu, choose Numbering & Section Options... .

The 'New Section' dialog box appears.

2. In the Start Page Numbering At box, enter the page number that the page should have for the selected Editions.

3. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Step 4. In the Editions panel, select one or more Editions to which the page also needs to belong.

Step 5. Repeat Steps 2 to 5 to change the page numbering for other Editions that the page needs to belong to.

When now selecting an eye icon for each Edition in the Editions panel, the page number changes for each selected Edition (assuming that not all Editions were checked in steps 2 and 4).

Note: Only the page numbering can be varied this way; other options found in the New Section dialog box — such as starting a new section or applying a different page numbering style — cannot be controlled per Edition.

Tip: The applied page numbering per Edition can be viewed in the Page Range column of the Studio panel and the Elements panel.

Maintaining the Edition selection

When working with the Editions panel, the system can be configured to control what should happen when selecting the eye icon for an Edition (that means: switching views between Editions):

• Selected frames stay selected or are deselected.
• The Assign check boxes remain checked or are cleared.

Check with your system administrator how this option is set:

• Option disabled:
• Any frames that were selected are deselected.
• The Edition that is viewed will be the only Edition for which the Assign check box is checked; if any Editions had their Assign check box checked then these check boxes are cleared.

• Option enabled:
• Any frame that is selected remains selected as long as it is assigned to the Edition that is viewed. If not, then the frame is deselected.
• Any Assign check box that was checked remains checked as long as the Edition that is viewed also has its Assign check box checked. If not, then the Edition that is viewed will be the only Edition for which the Assign check box is checked.

Troubleshooting the Editions panel

When working with the Editions panel, the following can occur:

• The panel is empty. This happens when:
• The layout is not yet saved to Studio Server.
• The layout is saved to a Brand for which no Editions have been defined.

• The options in the panel cannot be changed. This happens when:
• Working on a Layout Module (these cannot contain Edition-specific content).