InCopy on InDesign Master Pages

[Manoel Flesch]

I'm not exactly familiar with InCopy so here's the thing. I created several Master Pages for a magazine in InDesign and I want to make it a template so for every new issue I can easily create a new document from that template. Now is there a way to do the same thing with InCopy? Can I link InCopy to the Master Pages, for example, on the master page for interviews, and tell InDesign/InCopy to create a new InCopy Document whenever I use the Master Page on a normal page? What is the workflow here?

[BobLevine]

Layout must be done in InDesign. There is no way to do that in InCopy.

There might be third party of scripting solutions that will do what you want but I’m not familiar with any.

If you have an InDesign file that you want to use as a template for creating a magazine, then just save it as a template (.INDT file) in InDesign.

[Manoel Flesch]

Thats exactly what I've done. My question is how can I bring InCopy into this? Is the correct way to always create new InCopy Tasks for every new issue or can this be automated? So whenever I open the .INDT file not only a new Document is created, but also new InCopy Taks/Files. Example: I've created an InCopy task called "Interview" on a Master Page in the .INDT file. When I now create a new document with this template I think InDesign/InCopy won't create a new File that is linked to this task but instead tries using the one I created for the template. You see where I'm going with this?
Maybe this is not the way InCopy shall be used so what would be the correct way? After I created a new document I'll have to go and assign tasks for InDesign all over again?

[BobLevine]

You need to create new InCopy content with each issue. In fact, when you're done with each issue, I highly recommend deleting all InCopy links to avoid issues with new files being mistakenly linked to it.

[Chad Chelius]

What I've done for some projects, is create several blank documents with InCopy stories already created for each document. This gives the InCopy users the ability to start a new project if desired and they can check out the appropriate story to add text right away. Then you can do a bit of clean-up in InDesign after the fact if necessary.

Another option is to use what I call the "write-first" workflow in which the InCopy user creates a new InCopy file or one created from an InCopy template and writes the copy in that Story. They won't have page geometry but they will be able to enter content. Then later in the workflow, the designer can just place the story where appropriate and the content will be placed already formatted.