Comments on: Who’s Using Snippets?

By: Luiz Vicente

Luiz Vicente — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:10:34 +0000

Anne-Marie,

Thank you for the information. I live in Brazil and this site has exactly the information that i needed abou Indesign Snippets. Now everything is clearer.

I am studying for the Adobe official exam and snippets are the first item.

Thank you again.

Luiz.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:37:23 +0000

Which leads me to another question—are these snippets and XML related in any way? Seems like both have great possibilities, just trying to figure out which is more useful.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:13:28 +0000

Jakob: This is a preference in CS3.

Jessica: Great question! Another instance of Adobe using the same word for two totally different things. In the Structure pane, the snippet is just “a small piece of the text inside the XML element,” to help you identify what that tag is.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:10:25 +0000

How do snippets in this discussion differ from what InDesign’s structure (XML) pane calls snippets (”show text snippets” in the flyout)?

By: Jakob

Jakob — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:30:59 +0000

Do any of you know, how to place snippets on a page WITHOUT the snippet to be places at the excact same spot as it was created?

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:42:28 +0000

Maia, use the black arrow tool (the Selection tool) and click on the first thing you want to select, then hold down the Shift key and click on the other things you want to select to add them to the selection. You can only select multiple objects in the same spread (can’t select a text frame on page 1 and then shift-click an image on page 5).

When you have a multiple selection, choose File > Export and choose the InDesign Snippet file format from the dropdown menu, or just drag the selection to the desktop, to an open Bridge window, or to any folder in Finder/Explorer.

Shift-clicking to make a multiple selection is probably more of a “Mac/Windows 101″ issue than an InDesign issue, as shift-clicking is possible in most programs and in most computer OS’s (You can shift-click multiple folders in a Finder window, for example) and so the RWID book might assume you know this already and not spell it out step-by-step. I have the book but I can’t recall.

Anyway I’d suggest you grab a copy of The Missing Manual for whatever computer OS you’re using (Windows or Mac); they’re great for beginners. You can see the full catalog at http://www.missingmanual.com/.

By: Maia

Maia — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:39:08 +0000

Thanks, David. But how do I select both text and graphic? If this is too much of a beginner’s issue, I’ve just ordered “Real World Adobe InDesign” which I hope will clear up a lot of things for me. I am putting together a book and am trying to organize styles and elements in a sensible manner. Would be nice if masters could be stored as library items.

Thanks again.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:33:50 +0000

Maia, you should be able to create a snippet of any number of objects on a spread — no matter what they are. Just select both the graphic frame and the text frame, choose File > Export, and pick the Snippet format.

By: Maia

Maia — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:38:43 +0000

Good tip! Is there a way to “snippet” a text frame along with image? I only seem to be able to save image and text separately.

Cheers,
Maia

By: Edward Ramsey

Edward Ramsey — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 22:03:34 +0000

Wow,
I love and use InDesign library items. Obviously they are great for anything one will be using continually on a regular basis. I create library items for magazine layouts, my clients branding elements, etc. I am embarrassed to say I have not used snippits yet.