InDesignSecrets Videocast #4: Table Feature Enhancements
If you work with tables in InDesign, you know that editing text can be a hassle. In Episode 4, learn how the Story Editor and Notes features in CS4 have been updated to work with tables, helping make you more efficient in your work! This is the fourth of six videocasts in which we’re talking about some of our favorite time-saving features in InDesign CS4.
(This is also the episode in which David is surprised out of his chair by getting something wrong! He is so embarrassed. Fortunately, Anne-Marie corrected him and didn’t even tease him too mercilessly.)
You can watch the videocast by clicking on the video below, or — if you want a larger version of it — go directly to our channel at indesignsecrets.blip.tv. These videos are also available on Adobe.tv (though it usually takes a few weeks for each episode to be posted there). Alternatively, you can watch (or even subscribe) to the video podcast on iTunes with this link.
Thank you to our videocast sponsor, Adobe Systems Inc.! To take advantage of these time-saving features we’re showing you in InDesign CS4, check out their web site or to your nearest retailer and spring for the upgrade. More info at http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/
Note that Adobe is offering $100 off the cost of the upgrade to CS4 until August 1!
Comments? Special features you’d like us to cover? Please chime in below!
Oh, this column/row “switcher” in the story editor is great!
Thanks
Martin
So what’re you guys going to videocast after you’ve finished the 6th one? Don’t say it’ll be over…
I don’t get why you need to edit overset text in the story editor?
Surely if the text doesn’t fit then you have to adjust either the width or height of the cell, or make the text smaller inside the cell.
Sure you can see what text is overset, it might not be that much – but simply dragging the cell down to see what’s in there is quick. And then a simple undo restores the cell back to it’s previous size?
No?
Any good stuff about being able to put notes inside a Table Cell. I love Notes and I use them a lot – because sometimes I will be asked to remove some text and then 2 days later be asked to put it back in.
I find it very handy to collapse notes so the text does not appear. Then when needed again I can expand the note.
All I need to do is put a small text board on the pasteboard saying what I’ve done for other users who may need to edit the file.
So notes work inside tables – so do footnotes now work inside tables?
Roland … not to worry, we have tons to talk about/show after these 6 initial videocasts. And we are always open to suggestions, too!
Eugene … of course you can always edit overset text in that manner (in the layout). But it’s a nice alternative if you don’t want to change anything about the cell’s current formatting, which often involves many more steps than what you describe. (Drag row divider down to reveal all text, undo, drag a guideline to mark the divider’s position, re-drag row divider down, edit text to fit, drag row divider up to ruler guide.)
Re notes in table cells … I think that was the 2nd half of the videocast, all about that. Or am I hallucinating.
Unfortunately, we still can’t include footnotes in tables.
When you undo, you undo the text edit. The next undo undoes the change in cell size. But by the time you get back to there, you’ve already undone the text edit!
@Roland: No, we’re gonna’ keep truckin’! We love this video format.
@Eugene: I find Story Editor’s “neutral” editing mode far easier to work with in many cases. As for seeing overset text, it’s not uncommon to find a lot more text hidden in there (especially when copying and pasting). Or, often, all the text in the cell may be overset. In these cases, Story Editor is just faster and easier, especially if you want to cut the text out without affecting the cell’s size.
And no, unfortunately, footnotes still, mysteriously, do not work in tables.
Well I haven’t moved to Cs4 yet, so I guess I don’t know what I’m missing.
I guess it’s nice that you can see the overset text in the table without having to drag the table about.
I always thought it would be neat that when you edit a text in a cell that the text would show up, even if it was overset, like excel (oh I went there) does. You know. Just a mini-preview of the cell contents.
But it doesn’t, and I guess this brings it one step closer.
I don’t think I would have bothered checking the Story Editor in CS4 for table content, as mentioned they don’t show up in CS3 or earlier versions, so I wouldn’t have thought about it.
So thanks for tip on that. I suppose it come in handy when I’m on Cs4 and everyone else is on Cs5
The videocasts are quite cool too. Very interesting addition to the arsenal of knowledge you are gathering up here.
@David, I suppose you have a point about the neutral editing mode. That is true. But most of the time I wouldn’t use it.
Horses for courses I suppose.
The ability to edit tables in the Story Editor is especially cool for InCopy users, who can now access table content in Story and Galley views. Because they can do so, it means editors can finally track changes in tables, something not possible in earlier versions of InCopy.
Ah – now that’s a good point
Not that the other points weren’t good, just that one is my fav.
Document well? I can’t figure that one out. Can you explain that please, because I don’t seem to have a document well – but I must, so please tell me how to get to it.
Hi Ginni!
The Document well is the horizontal region in CS4 apps that hold document tabs… similar to tabs in a browser window. If you drag a tab out of the well, it turns it into a separate floating window; if you drag a window’s title bar into the well (as I did for the Story Editor window), it turns into a tab.
hope that helps!
I wondered why you hid the Style Name Column by dragging. So I checked and if you right click you get a contextual menu to Hide the Column or the Depth Ruler. So I closed it…
Then if you right click you don’t get the Column again. This was not in your book David (or video)! Is that why you dragged the Column over to hid it?
Anyway, I did find it under View>Story Editor and got the Column back after hunting around a bit.
I’m going to write a book, 101 InDesign Annoyances and 102 will be that Real World InDesign CS4 left this out!
@Mark: Sorry that tidbit got left out of RWIDcs4. We try to be as comprehensive as we can, but there’s always something that slips out. Good luck with your book! As much as I love ID, there certainly are at least 101 annoyances to choose from. (Believe it or not, that was the original title of the book that Anne-Marie and I wrote, which later turned into InDesign Breakthroughs.)
Hi Guys,
Sweet! very helpful. nice job….
Looking forward to more videos,
Thanks,
Ben
Hmmm – feel really dumb because I still don’t see a “document well”. Maybe it’s because I have individual apps and not the CS suite?
I have the document & pasteboard, the ruler guide, and the gray title bar. What am I missing!?
I am self-taught in ID … plunged in feet first with a 56 page tour guide a year and a half ago, strait from working with Quark for years – and I’ve never looked back. Love ID
The story editor isn’t even something I’ve explored but I see how useful it can be, and I know there’s lots more to learn – but this well thing has me stumped … maybe you can do a “close-up” video of it, because I just can’t see it well enough to see what you’re doing.
@Ginni: The other thing is that you will only see tabbed documents in CS4 when you have two or more documents open. Also, the Enable Floating Document Window Docking checkbox must be on in the Interface pane of the Preferences dialog box.
I never call it a “document well.” I just call it “tabbed documents.” But to each our own!
What I call the “document well” is the area below the Control Panel in CS4. I guess “tab area” would be okay too. David I’m referring to a location in the interface, not to a thing … so “tabbed documents” doesn’t work.
I heard the phrase “document well” somewhere and it made sense to me. I looked in the online help and it’s not there; the closest they get is the “document dock” (as in “To undock a Document window from a group of windows, drag the window’s tab out of the group.”)
Anyway it’s the area in CS4 that highlights when the title bar of a floating window is dragged over it, indicating that it will convert the floating window into a tabbed window if you release the mouse while it’s hovering there. It’s also the area that holds the tabs themselves.
You only see the “document well” when two or more documents are opened. When there’s only one document, it look (more or less) the same as CS3 and earlier…
Maybe it’s something different in our Prefs, Harbs. On my Mac, the document well appears even if there’s only one tabbed document. It’s the area that holds the tab of that document and the dark grey strip to its right.
In the videocast above, you can see the document well light up when I drag the story editor window (which is floating by default) into it, to turn it into a tabbed window. It’s about 6:50 into the vid.
The “document well” only appears with a single doc if the app frame is enabled. (I personally dislike the app frame.) If you use the app bar (and certainly if you disable both — which is the way I normally work with my tiny MacBook screen), the document well will only appear when more than one document is grouped together.
Thanks for identifying the preferences settings, Harbs!
I’ve become a big fan of the app frame and the app bar, even on my 15″ Mac laptop.
Oh man – that preference you mention (Enable Floating Document Window Docking) doesn’t even show up in my interface preferences … I must have a rogue edition of ID!
But I appreciate everyone’s help.
I’ll keep looking around to see if I’m missing something obvious.
@David
I’ve been giving the story editor more screen time. And you’re right. Editing in the story editor is very useful. I can’t believe I’ve under used this little puppy.
Thanks
The Story Editor is essential for any work with XML tags. I look forward to the day when Adobe gives the Story Editor power to “see inside” anchored objects as CS4 does with tables.
@David
“@Ginni: The other thing is that you will only see tabbed documents in CS4 when you have two or more documents open. Also, the Enable Floating Document Window Docking checkbox must be on in the Interface pane of the Preferences dialog box.”
Maybe someone can explain why I don’t have “Enable Floating Document Window Docking” show up in my Interface Preference window?