Plings to InDesign

From Plings Info

Contents 1 Using Plings XML with InDesign 2 Setting up 3 Importing the XML 3.1 Step One 3.2 Step Two 3.3 Step Three 3.4 Step Four 3.5 Step Five 3.6 Step Six 3.7 Step Seven 3.8 Step Eight 4 Customizing the Layout

Using Plings XML with InDesign

Setting up

Get the relevant InDesign package for either CS3 or CS4. If you’re using CS5 use the CS4 file. Unzip the files and open the InDesign file.

• Plings CS3 Indesign Package

• Plings CS4 Indesign Package

Importing the XML

Step One

Open the structure pane. This is accessible via View | Structure | Show Structure.

Step Two

Select the ‘activities’ element in the structure pane.

Step Three

Click the dropdown menu at the top right of the structure pane and select Import XML.

Step Four

Select a Plings XML file and click Open, making sure that “Show XML Import Options” and “Import Into Selected Element” are checked, and “Merge Content” is selected.

Step Five

In the XML Import Options Dialog, make sure the following options are checked (everything else should be unchecked):

• Apply XSLT
• Clone repeating text elements
• Only import elements that match existing structure
• Do not import contents of whitespace-only elements

Step Six

Before clicking OK, make sure an XSLT file is selected in Apply XSLT. If “Use stylesheet from XML” is showing, click this text and select Browse. Select the .xsl file from the packaged InDesign folder and click Open.

Click OK to import the XML. A number of warning messages may come up about DTDs and sorting, but these can safely be ignored.

Step Seven

Switch to Normal screen mode (View | Screen Mode | Normal) and select the text frame on page 1. A red plus should be visible at its bottom-right corner.

Step Eight

Add a new page to the layout (Layout | Pages | Add Page). Click the red plus on page 1, go to page two, put the cursor at the top-left corner of the purple column guides, hold down the shift key and click to autoflow the rest of the text into the layout.

An extra blank page may appear at they end of the layout after XML import; this can safely be deleted.

Customizing the Layout

Any changes can be made to the InDesign master page as long as they don’t affect the page margins or the main text box. Changes to the text design should be made through the paragraph and character styles. The paragraphs in “At a glance” use a nested style to apply the Bold character style. Changing the order or number of elements in the layout requires changes to the .xsl file.