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ANDREA MARCONI
Participating Frequently
September 14, 2022
Question

Import layers from other files

  • September 14, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 255 views

Good morning everyone. Today I am faced with a problem perhaps stupid for the most experienced, but for me it is something that drives me crazy.
I don't find a way that could be easy and painless to import layers of other languages ​​into the original file.

I create technical documentation of our packaging machines. I start from my mother tongue (Italian) I deliver the package to the translators who return the file to me with the dedicated level. What I would like to do is create within the original father the level of the language that is given to me. Having the same pages, the same styles, paragraphs etc seemed like an easy easy thing to me but I'm in serious trouble.

As you can see from the attached video, I also have a serious display problem. Entering the level (ROU) and working for example in the summary section the other two, even showing them, are not displayed. Is there an easier way to import the whole level without fuss? I don't want to create links to the file that came to me from our translation provider but directly upload the texts to those I will then assign the correct styles with the correct language. Can anyone help me please?

 

https://youtu.be/wfl-mThG7vo 

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Joel Cherney
Community Expert
Joel CherneyCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 14, 2022

I always tell people who are new to managing multilingual content to stay away from the idea of having all one's translations in a single INDD, with each language on its own layer. I really do not understand why this content management strategy keeps on popping up in people's heads (and workflows). 

 

However, the fact that the idea of one-layer-per-lanugage is a common one, it means that someone else has already made the tools that will make it work for you. That link leads you to an entire article about managing your translated content this way, including a script that will automate the copying and pasting of layers. 

 

That method works best if your translation supplier is delivering well-formatted INDD to you. Is that how your relationship works with them? You send them one Italian IDML, they send you multiple INDDs?

 

Lastly, maybe you can add some specific questions from your video here? At about the 2 minute mark it looks like maybe the text wrap from one of your hidden layers is affecting your visible layer? Just a guess. (And this is one of the approximately eight thousand reasons to not try to manage many translation in layers in a single INDD,) 

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ANDREA MARCONIAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 15, 2022

I understood exactly what you wrote to me. My translator gives me the same file with the addition of the required language level. To tell the truth, the formatting is not always correct and a lot of work is not done in fact I often have to put my hand to it and fix it. Now I understand what are the reasons why to stay away from managing multiple languages ​​within the same file. My idea came of its own by seeing many examples from some of our suppliers and customers. I saw their .indd files and they all had images loaded and turning the layer on and off made the correct language appear. I thought it was cool because for the amount of languages ​​I manage in every single manual it was perfect.
The reason for my choice (which you can very well overturn by illuminating me with another one) was that by creating the manuals from scratch (before InDesign they were in Office word), once I finished and it was correct in Italian I named it for example in the manual.indd_r00. Once released, I sent it to my supplier who in turn returned it to me with 10 additional levels (one for each language). From then on until a change was made I had a single file containing all the languages ​​of that machine. Then when I had to make the changes (maybe even just a page added or removed) I released the R01 version where I corrected in Italian and asked my supplier to fix things in the additional levels.
I thought about this working method because maybe I have the mentality of cad programs.
How can I best manage having languages ​​separate then changes? Do you have something to suggest to me?
Maybe you should get InCopy help? (Which I don't know at all)

Thanks and sorry if I've been too long in the details.

John Mensinger
Community Expert
John MensingerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 14, 2022

I may not understand everything you're attempting, but I will say that layers cannot be moved or copied from document to document.

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ANDREA MARCONIAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 15, 2022

Ok now everything is clear! What I thought was a foregone conclusion turned out to be something the program doesn't handle. I thought it was a smarter program.

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