DOCSFLOW REVIEW INSTALL
DOCSFLOW REVIEW UPDATE
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Paragraph styles named to conform to style names in the Google document.

Document was also downloaded as Microsoft Word (docx)Ī template was created in InDesign for the final document.Document was downloaded as Web Page (html, zipped).Below each image in the Doc, the name of the image file was entered between square brackets as in:.fonts designated for the styles were installed on my computer.paragraph styles are used exclusively for styling.Make sure the Google Doc is formatted correctly:.Short of this, it is possible for a small shop to put together a fairly nice workflow using a script or two. (Maybe this person also has the tools that will spot and fix the errors.) Even for those who know HTML, I don’t think finding where character 4574 in the third line of text would be something even the most astute HTML jockey would want to tackle. Getting a message like “Expected end of tag ‘meta’ Line:3, Column 4574” makes this process look a little unfavorable. Problem is, File > Import XML… will probably raise an error. According to many articles you find on the web, it should just “work.” It would be nice if you could just change the file type designation for the file downloaded (change HTML to XML XML) and simply import it into InDesign. But, of course, the user most likely did not optimized the images (resampled to the correct dpi, cropped, or prcessed otherwise). So, no matter what you do next with the document, you have the images.

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The neat thing about the HTML download is that all of the inline images get downloaded into their own separate folder. But with patience, and a mental filter that blocks out the “spans” before you go blind, you can get an idea of how Google Docs does it–at least for HTML. This is not for the “Learn HTML in 24 Hours” student. Unzip the download and open the HTML file in a text editor. If you have the opportunity, export a document (File > Download as Web Page > HTML, zipped). That is the fun part: You never “save” your document. It looks like Google Docs is HTML (or XML) pure and simple and it’s live. In the process of working on the book, I experimented with a few ideas to automate processes with scripts. Recently I had the opportunity to work on a book that was written in Google Docs. And, believe me, I’m still working on it and don’t pretend to have all the answers.

So I decided I had better ramp up on this side of the publishing equation. But over the past year or so, I have been presented with a number of workflow situations that involved Google Docs.Google Docs is cool and it’s free.

I love its workflow options with InDesign. Or, you can click the edit original icon in the palette to immediately edit the linked story in Google Docs.I have always been an avid supporter of InCopy. After each update, if you open the story editor with change marks showing, you can see who changed what. You can view or edit the original story at any time by using “edit original” (or “without auto-update”). DocsFlow merges any changes on the Google Docs side into the linked InDesign story, even if the latter has been changed.

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When the Google Docs document is edited, you’ll see the link’s status change to “modified” (a yellow alert icon), and you can update the story from Google Docs with a double-click on the icon.

DOCSFLOW REVIEW INSTALL

And getting started couldn’t be easier: download and install the plugin, select Place from Google Docs…, log in, and start placing dynamically-linked documents, later merging with a double-click when the remote document is edited.ĭocsFlow’s second breakthrough is serious technology that enables you to edit both the InDesign story and the Google Docs document independently. Using DocsFlow means you need no special resources to build, maintain or learn the editorial side (which is just Google Docs), and means no learning curve on the design side (since DocsFlow builds on the native InDesign story linking and story updating machinery). So you can format, layout, and make minor edits in InDesign, while you and others edit story content together in real time on Google Docs, without losing any work.ĭocsFlow’s first breakthrough idea is to connect the freely-available and popular web-based Google Docs editing tools to InDesign, giving you a zero-cost-per-seat editorial workflow solution that is extraordinarily easy to manage. And, much more importantly, DocsFlow maintains a dynamic link so it can intelligently merge Google Docs document changes into the InDesign story contents on each link update, rather than just replacing the story. DocsFlow lets you place online Google Docs documents as InDesign story contents, just like normal text files. DocsFlow marries the collaborative editing power of Google Docs to the layout power of InDesign.

Docsflow review