Working with Dossiers in Studio for InDesign and InCopy

Dossiers form the basis of creating a story. In Studio for InDesign and InCopy you can work on Dossiers in the following ways:

• Accessing a Dossier and its contents
• Creating a Dossier
• Adding files to a Dossier
• Removing files from a Dossier

About Dossiers

In Studio for InDesign and InCopy, a Dossier represents a story. All files that are related to the story are collected in the Dossier. These files include reference material such as articles and images as well as the files that are needed to publish the story. In a print workflow these are the InDesign layouts, InCopy articles and images.

A Dossier is represented by a blue folder and can be expanded or double-clicked to view its contents.

Figure: The Studio panel showing 3 Dossiers, one of which is expanded to view its contents.

In a typical workflow, a Dossier is the starting point for locating the file that you want to work on in InDesign or InCopy. However, you can also create Dossiers from scratch and add files to it.

This article describes how to work with Dossiers in Studio for InDesign and in Studio for InCopy.

Accessing a Dossier and its contents

Accessing a Dossier and its contents can be done in various ways, using either the Studio panel or the Dossier panel.

Each method has a different outcome and choosing which method to use depends on what you want to do at that time. To explain these methods, we will show them twice: once grouped by action and once grouped by result.

By action

The following table shows the results of performing a particular action.

#	Action	Result
1	When choosing Window > Studio > Studio	The Studio panel appears, showing all files in Studio Server, including Dossiers. For more information about using the Studio panel, see Using the Studio panel in Studio for InDesign or InCopy.
2	When choosing Window > Studio > Dossier	The Dossier panel appears, showing the Dossiers that the currently viewed layout is part of. When switching to another layout, the Dossiers are shown that this layout is part of. When the layout only belongs to one Dossier, just the content of that Dossier is shown. This feature is only available in InDesign. The panel is named 'Dossier'.
3	When double-clicking a Dossier in a panel or when right-clicking a Dossier and choosing Open	The Dossier panel appears, showing the content of that Dossier. The name of the panel is the name of the Dossier.
4	When right-clicking a layout in a panel and choosing Show Dossiers	The Dossier panel appears, showing all Dossiers that the layout is part of. The name of the panel is the name of the layout followed by [Dossier] to indicate the relation with the Dossier. Example: 'My layout [Dossier]'.
5	When (in a panel) right-clicking a file that can be placed and choosing Show Dossiers and Layouts	The Dossier panel appears, showing all Dossiers that the file is part of and all layouts on which the file is placed. The name of the panel is the name of the file followed by [Dossiers/Layouts] to indicate the relation with the Dossiers and layouts. Example: 'My image [Dossiers/Layouts]'.

By result

The following table shows which action to perform to get a specific result.

#	Result	Action
1	To see all files in Studio including Dossiers	Choose Window > Studio > Studio to open the Studio panel. For more information about using the Studio panel, see Using the Studio panel in Studio for InDesign or InCopy.
2	To see the Dossiers that the currently viewed layout is part of	Choose Window > Studio > Dossier to open the Dossier panel. The panel is named 'Dossier'. When switching to another layout, the Dossiers of which that layout is part are shown. When the layout only belongs to one Dossier, just the content of that Dossier is shown. This feature is only available in InDesign.
3	To open a particular Dossier in its own panel	Double-click it in a panel or right-click it and choose Open to open it in the Dossier panel. The name of the panel is the name of the Dossier.
4	To show all Dossiers that a layout is part of	Right-click the layout in a panel and choose Show Dossiers to open the Dossier panel. The name of the panel is the name of the layout followed by [Dossier] to indicate the relation with the Dossier. Example: 'My layout [Dossier]'.
5	To show all Dossiers that a file is part of and all layouts on which the file is placed	In a panel, right-click a file that can be placed and choose Show Dossiers and Layouts to open the Dossier panel. The name of the panel is the name of the file followed by [Dossiers/Layouts] to indicate the relation with the Dossiers and layouts. Example: 'My image [Dossiers/Layouts]'.

Workflow

As can be seen from the above overviews, various panels can be opened in different ways. Depending on what you want to do and what you are currently working on, open one or more panels at the same time to have quick access to the files you need to work with.

Viewing Dossier content

To view the content of a Dossier in a panel, make sure that Show Hierarchically is enabled in the panel menu.

Panel examples

The following images show examples of the various panels and their states as described above.

• Dossiers viewed in the Studio panel. The content of the top Dossier is expanded.

• The Dossier panel showing the Dossiers that the currently viewed layout is part of. The name of the panel is 'Dossier'. Here, the layout is part of 2 Dossiers.

• The Dossier panel showing the content of a specific Dossier. The name of the panel is the name of the Dossier.

• The Dossier panel showing all Dossiers that a layout is part of. The name of the panel is the name of the layout followed by [Dossiers]. Here, the layout is part of 2 Dossiers.

• The Dossier panel showing all Dossiers that a file that can be placed is part of and all layouts that the file is placed on. The name of the panel is the name of the file followed by [Dossiers/Layouts]. Here a file is placed on one layout and part of one Dossier.

Filtering the Dossier panel

The content of the Dossier panel can be filtered by using one or more filters. These work as follows:

• The Issue list only shows those Issues that have been assigned to the Dossiers displayed in the panel. Even though files that are part of the Dossier can be assigned to a completely different Issue than the Dossier; it is not possible to filter on those Issues.
• Editions for an Issue are only shown in the list when that Issue is chosen in the Issue list; when no specific Issue has been chosen yet, the only entry in the Editions list is [All].
• Regardless of the filter settings, Dossiers are always shown, even when the content of a Dossier is not displayed because of the currently active filter settings.
• Filtering is done based on data stored locally on the system; to retrieve the latest data from the Server, click Refresh.

Dossier panel behavior

When a Dossier panel is created, it is not added to the Window menu or the panel menu. When closing the panel it is also removed.

Creating a Dossier

Creating a Dossier can be done in the following ways:

• When saving a file to Studio Server:
• In InDesign: When saving the layout to Studio Server or when creating an article or an image
• In InCopy: When saving the article to Studio Server

• Based on one or more selected files in a panel

Creating a Dossier when saving a file to Studio Server

Step 1. Do one of the following:

• In InDesign:
• Bring up the Check-in dialog box or the Save Version dialog box for a layout.
• Convert an image frame to an Studio Server image by selecting the frame and choosing WoodWing Studio > Create Image...
• Convert a text frame to an InCopy article

• In InCopy:
• Bring up the Check-in dialog box or the Save Version dialog box for an article (see Closing or saving an article using Studio for InCopy).

The Check-in dialog box appears.

Step 2. Enter a name and set the properties for the file.

Note: The file name may not contain characters such as “ ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * \ | ; : ’ < > / ?. For a full overview, see Invalid file name characters in Studio Server.

See also: Using duplicate file names in Studio Server.

Step 3. From the Dossier list, choose New Dossier.

Figure: The 'New Dossier' option in the Dossier list.

Step 4. Click OK.

The file is saved in Studio Server and added to the Dossier.

Creating a Dossier based on one or more selected files in a panel

Step 1. Select one or more files in a panel such as the Studio panel or the Dossier panel.

Note: The selected files can be of any type except other Dossiers. It is also possible to select files that are already part of another Dossier.

Step 2. Right-click any of the selected files and choose Create Dossier... from the context menu.

The Create Dossier dialog box appears.

Step 3. In the Name box, enter a descriptive name.

See also: Using duplicate file names in Studio Server.

Step 4. Set the rest of the properties for the Dossier and click OK

.The Dossier is created and the selected files are added to it.

Adding files to a Dossier

Adding a file to an already existing Dossier can be done in the following ways:

• By using the Studio panel
• When saving the file

Using the Studio panel

Do one of the following:

• In the Studio panel, drag one or more files onto a Dossier
• Select one or more placed files on the layout and drag them onto a Dossier in the Studio panel

Note: Make sure that the files that you are dragging are all stored in Studio Server, otherwise the file cannot be added.

• Open a layout (in InDesign or InCopy), right-click a Dossier and choose Add Current Document to Dossier

Saving the file

Step 1. Do one of the following:

• In InDesign:
• Bring up the Check-in dialog box or the Save Version dialog box for a layout.
• Convert an image frame to an image stored in Studio Server by selecting the frame and choosing WoodWing Studio > Create Image...
• Convert a text frame to an InCopy article

• In InCopy:
• Bring up the Check-in dialog box or the Save Version dialog box for an article (see Closing or saving an article using Studio for InCopy).

The Check-in dialog box appears.

Step 2. Enter a name and set the properties for the file.

Note: The file name may not contain characters such as “ ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * \ | ; : ’ < > / ?. For a full overview, see Invalid file name characters in Studio Server.

See also: Using duplicate file names in Studio Server.

Step 3. From the Dossier list, choose an existing Dossier.

Figure: Various existing Dossiers in the Dossier list.

Step 4. Click OK.

The file is saved in Studio Server and added to the Dossier.

Removing files from a Dossier

Step 1. Display the Studio panel in List View mode (as opposed to Thumbnail View mode).

Step 2. Click the expander in front of the Dossier from which the file needs to be removed so that all files in that Dossier are visible.

Figure: A Studio panel viewed in List View mode with one Dossier expanded.

Step 3. Select one or more files.

Step 4. Right-click any of the selected files and choose Remove from Dossier.

A message appears, asking to confirm the action.

Step 5. Click Yes.

The selected files are removed from the Dossier.

Step 6. (Optional) Click Refresh to update the content of the Dossier.

Revisions

• 22 December 2020: Re-written section 'Accessing a Dossier and its contents'.