Prepare InDesign files

Creating InDesign templates for automatic preproduction requires background knowledge of how InDesign Server works and how it interacts with Multichannel Publishing, depending on the complexity and desired level of automation.    

General structure

To create a layout template, you can create a new layout file in your local InDesign. What and how much content you can automatically place in the layout depends on the number of text and image frames and the tags assigned to them. : new window

The tags on frames and the tag markers in text sections define what content is placed where. The tags and structure of the XML to be used in InDesign are explained in the next chapter.

The InDesign file should also contain any character and paragraph styles you want to apply to the content or set automatically via the mapping.json file.

XML structure

To make the structure available to you for tagging the frames and placeholders in the layout template, you can copy the indesign_structure.xml into a text editor as attached below and save it as an XML file. Via the InDesign structure view, the option "Import XML" is available, which you use to transfer the basic structure into your document.

Now you have the tags available which you can assign to the frames and tag marks as follows.

• xmls
  For each XML document you want to place in the template, you must create an xml node under the xmls node. The content of the XML is linked to a frame via the content tag. The order of placement follows the order in the structure tree within Multichannel Publishing. Images referenced in the XML are placed in the text flow.
  Note: You can also link elements from the XML into your own frames. To do this, you must create the XML structure below the content node and can then assign the individual sub nodes to the frames like e.g. a headline or an info box.
• words
  For each Word document you want to place, you can create a word node in the structure. When you link this node to a frame, the Word files are placed according to their order in the structure tree of the mutlichannel publishing. InDesign natively supports Word file placement with some limitations.  
• images
  For each image you want to place from the structure tree into an image frame, an xpubimagedata tag is needed in the InDesign structure. You can assign this tag to frames of type Graphic, e.g. to place decorative images according to the sequence in Multichannel Publishing.  

Special use cases

Template for table of contents

Layout templates can also be created for special uses. Here it is possible to define a layout template that is to be filled with a table of contents.

The entries required for this are automatically determined from the structure tree of the product and made available as XML. It is possible to pre-process this XML using XSLT in order to optimally prepare the data for the desired table of contents. In addition, the schema and the mapping of the style sheets for the table of contents can be defined via JSON files. To store the above information, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to the list of layout templates in the publishing configuration.
2. Create a new template or edit the "Properties" of an existing one.
3. In the “Adobe InDesign Layout Template” form, you can choose between the following options in the "Table of Contents Type" field:
   1. None
      Does not create a table of contents XML and is the default setting for normal layout templates.
   2. Overall
      An XML document containing a list of all Xeditor documents in the structure tree is automatically generated during placement. It also returns the start page number of the document in the layout.
   3. Partial (Print Part)
      During placement, an XML document is automatically generated that contains a list of all Xeditor documents of the print part in the structure tree. It also returns the start page number of the document in the layout.
   4. Partial (Section)
      During placement, an XML document is automatically generated that contains a list of all Xeditor documents of the section in the structure tree. It also returns the start page number of the document in the layout.