Synchronize Multiple InDesign Documents
MT wrote:
I have a document set up and need to create a 2nd doc with the same information. Is there anyway to link the two docs so that if I make any changes in the first document they will get picked up in the second?
It all depends on what kind of “changes” you want to make. For example, if you want to synchronize text across multiple documents, check out this post (and be sure to read the comments that follow). If you want to synchronize the document size (so that if one file changes size, the other will, too), you’re out of luck — I can’t think of any good way to do that, though I suppose someone will come up with a script to do it sooner or later.
But there are lots of other things you might change about a document. For example, the definition of color swatches; or definitions of paragraph, character, or object styles; or of text variables; or of the layout on a master page. All these things can be shared across multiple documents… if you put those documents in a book panel.
Watch Out for Page Numbering
Most people use book panels for books (or other multi-file documents that have chapters or sections or whatever). But you can use a book panel for any set of documents that share some attribute. For example, you could use a book panel for all the documents you’ve made for one of your clients — even if the files have nothing in common with each other. In that case, you’re using the panel as a simple project manager that gives you double-click access to any of the files quickly.
However, when you use a book panel in this way, be sure to turn off automatic pagination, or else InDesign will spend forever trying to update the page numbers in your documents. (Which, at best, just wastes time, and at worst will screw up any page numbering you did need there.) To disable pagination, choose Book Page Numbering Options from the book panel flyout menu, and deselect Automatically Update Page & Section Numbers. Do this before you start adding documents to the panel!
Synchronize Across the Book
Once you’ve turned off pagination and added documents to the book panel, you can synchronize various attributes of the document throughout. Which attributes? Choose Synchronize Options from the book panel menu to see (and choose):
Once you’ve made your choices and clicked OK, you need to set which document in your book panel will be the “master” file — the file that InDesign will refer to when it’s synchronizing. By default, it’s the first file in the book panel. To set it to a different document, just click in the left column next to the file in the book panel.
Next, choose which documents you want to synchronize. If you want all the files to be in sync, then either choose them all, or deselect them all by clicking in the blank area at the bottom of the panel. (If none are selected, InDesign assumes you want to sync them all.) To choose some, but not others, use the Shift key (for contiguous selections) or the Command/Ctrl key (for discontiguous selections).
Now click the Sychronize button in the book panel (or choose from the panel menu). InDesign pushes all the selected attributes from the master file to the other files:
- A style, color swatch, variable, numbered list, or master page that is defined in the master file but not in another document gets added to that other document.
- If a setting is named the same in both the master file and another document, the definition for that setting in the master file overrides the one in the non-master document.
- If a setting is not defined in the master file but exists in some other document, it’s left alone. (This means you can have “local” settings that exist in one document that don’t have to be copied into all the others.)
If your sync is just a one-time deal, you could remove the documents from the book panel. But most folks will likely want to keep these files in sync. InDesign doesn’t “auto sync,” so each time you make a change in once place, you’ll need to open the Book panel and click the Synchronize button again.
I wish there were more ways to make documents “sync” to each other. For example, I think it’d be cool if you could link an InDesign document to an external “style sheet” file — perhaps just a text file written almost like a CSS file. Then you could change that style sheet file and the next time you open a document, it looks different! Who knows… perhaps in CS8?
Nothing to do with the post; just wanted to vent. Recently I designed a PDF presentation on InDesign. It had good reviews, and now it’s become the standard presentation we use. Now one of our clients asked for it, but they specifically determined it has to be a PPT document. No PDFs, no anything, just Power Point. Can anyone imagine the hell I’ve been through since?
David wrote: “at worst will screw up any page numbering you did need there”.
InDesign can also completely screw up your documents by forcing them to start on an even page — and turning all the left pages into right pages and vice versa. Watch your step…
@Alexandre: I’m sorry to hear about that. Did you see this article by Anne-Marie at CreativePro.com? It might help (though it’s focused on Word).
well copying a document, [when document closed] will copy the document size too… duh, well that’s what I do.
Thanks, David. I tried some stuff very similar to that, but unfortunately Power Point is even worse than Word (yes, something is worse than Word!) in dealing with many design elements I have been working with, not to mention the default fonts I have to work with and converting at least the titles to images (I usually am wary of unnecessarily converting fonts to outlines, but this is even worse!). Most of my layout can’t be converted to images, so I have to design with the primitive Office tools again. And some of the elements I just had to leave aside. Other highlights: three clicks for aligning, Ctrl instead of Alt for duplicating elements, no pathfinder panel and no pen tool. At least I can safely say I’m going where no “InDesigner” has gone before!
@Alexandre:
If you have converted titles to images, the clients cannot edit the text, can they?
Perhaps you could just convert every page to an image and place these in the PPT.
There are a few PDF to PPT converters, but i never tried one of these.
Another way: Use an OCR tool to convert PDF to PPT.
I have problems with Powerpoint the other way: I sometimes get PPT and I have to print them. If transperency is used the fun starts. Usually I open these PPT in OpenOffice Impress, which can export PDF including transperency. Most of the time this works quiet good.
A much worse problem: If the client chooses A4 as papersize, then the actual size of the document is SMALLER (at least in Powerpoint 2003). And you even can’t resize it proportionally, because the aspect ratio is changed, too. GRRR.
OK, enough venting, back to syncing.
Florian, crazy as it sounds, I really considered the possibility of exporting the whole pages as images. The only thing that deterred me was the size of the presentation. As for the titles, fortunately the client doesn’t need to edit anything, but some colleague might have to, so I have to be there to prepare eventual new titles if the presentation changes. Maybe a converter would be a good idea, but I don’t really trust them, even though I never tested them. Not to blame who built them, of course: MS Office structure is too messed up for me to think some sort of automatic conversion is possible.
Oh, and as soon as you mentioned your first problem, the first solution that popped on my mind was the exact one you cited. As for the second, I can’t really think of a solution.
Great post! I’ve been wondering about something like this for a while and I never would have worked it out on my own. Thanks!
Alexandre, if someone insits on using PPT, (s)he has to be punished. A least with some really big files.
I really would try to use a converter. Perhaps the current beta of OpenOffice will do the job. It includes PDF-Import.
Thanks for this post! Very helpful once again, of course. also, I like the re-design of the comment boxes!
does anyone know how to save paragraph styles for use in other documents? i have 5 books i want to all be alike. don’t want to risk the odd-even mess mentioned by sander. thanks.
@Patricia: Sander’s problem is easily fixed by choosing the correct setting in the Book Page Numbering Options dialog box (see image in the post above). InDesign doesn’t randomly add pages; it just does it when it’s repaginating, based on those options.
For example, if chapter 1 ends on page 29 and you have “start on next odd page” selected, then ID has to add a new blank page 30.
However, if you have “Continue from Previous Document” selected (which is the default), then InDesign makes the first page of chapter 2 start on page 30 — a left-hand page! Suddenly, chapter 2’s pages are all flipped (what was a left-page turns into a right page). But only because “you asked for it.”
If you disable Automatically Update Page Numbers, then this will not happen.
Of course, another alternative is to simply use the Load Styles feature in the Paragraph Styles panel menu.