Alternative to Crosstalk plug in?

[peterw65194735]

Hi,

We find Adobe InCopy very effective for our editors in editing article text for our magazines. However, we find it only usable with the Crosstalk plug in which effectively removes the complexities of assignments and the check in/check out process. We can't work without it as it makes the whole process so much more complex and time-consuming when we don't need the workflow benefits that it brings.

However, the last Crosstalk update was for CC and since their website hasn't been updated since July 2015 I fear that this will no longer be an option for us which puts us our 15 InCopy users in danger of going back to manual editing.

My two questions are; does anyone know of an alternative plug-in to Crosstalk or (preferably) can a simple version of InCopy be used without assignments and checking in/out, etc.?

I appreciate any help.

Peter Watkinson

KHL Group

[BobLevine]

Have you asked CtrlSoftware about their plans?

There is no way to use InCopy on its own without first going through the export process from InDesign nor without the check in/check out process.

If you’re looking for an alternative you might want to look into Truedit from MEI. If you need contact information, let me know.

[AnneMarie Concepcion · Accepted solution]

You don't need assignments with InCopy. Just have the editors open the layout (the INDD file), which InCopy can open readily. As long as the designers exported the content to editable InCopy format (Edit > InCopy > Export All), they'll be able to check out and edit stories. To check them back in they can just close the layout, that's the lazy man's way. 😉

Honestly it's just a little bit of work upfront that takes about a minute.

AM

[peterw65194735]

Hi AnnMarie,

Thanks for your response. We've tested your suggestion but it still adds a huge workload to the text editing process primarily due to the editors having to check in and check out to edit every text box in the magazine. We don't use production editors and the editors edit the whole issue in one (or two) sessions. Hence having to check in and check out for every single text box is very tedious and time consuming and I'm not sure why it's even necessary at such a granular level. But thanks for trying nonetheless.

Peter

[BobLevine]

You don’t have to check them in or out individually. You can select the top level in the assignments panel (might even be unassigned InCopy content) and check out everything in one click.

[peterw65194735]

Hi Bob,

When we looked into doing as suggested there was still a lot of checking in and out for editors. It is still very time consuming and inefficient for our needs (which are pretty simple). Luckily, CtrlSoftware have just released a latest version compatible with the latest InCopy so we are OK for the time being. It's a shame that Adobe won't produce a simple version of InCopy. Perhaps there isn't the demand.

Thanks for your help.