Participant

Question

Any way to copy a document and have all text boxes linked to the original?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 18, 2022
3 replies
695 views

Hi!

I want to copy a document but have all the text boxes in the new document be linked to the original one.

Background is that the original document will be the Print-Version, while the new one will be the Digital-Version. With a new document, which text boxes are linked, I could easily switch out the character format through CMD+F.

Alternate Layouts don't work, because CMD+F always changes all of the characters, not defined by layout.

If you have any other suggestion I'm open for any ideas!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Frans v.d. Geest

Community Expert

Could the Content Collector maybe help you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBY90LHzDrw

BobLevine

Community Expert

What do you mean by linked? If you change the content in one, you want it changed in the other?

If so, you could probably get that to work by exporting everything to InCopy. Then just redefine the styles in the second document.

Geоrge

Legend

>> I could easily switch out the character format through CMD+F.

Don't do this! Use it different paragraph styles.

https://youtu.be/21oLhN9-_-M?t=46

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

jonathana50441191Author

Participant

Thanks! Im using character formats for a reason though (Background grid available, very different paragraphs etc.).

Any idea on the original problem? Im a bit helpless right now. Thank in advance!

jonathana50441191Author

Participant

Watch a video from the previous post. Changing formatting through search is a strange idea, use it styles!

Okay, maybe I wrongly described my problem. I have character style #1 which I want to switch out with character style #2. In the end I want to have 2 seperate documents/pdfs. One with all text formatted into style #1, one formatted into style #2. I can't go through the entire document and assign every text style #2 (over 200 different text boxes). I can't do it with an alternative layout, because if I choose CMD+F to replace style #1 with style #2 it changes it everywhere (on layout A and layout B // it is also not possible to CMD+F by pages or layout).

That is why I want to seperate documents, so I can switch out the styles as I like. To make sure the text between the seperate documents stays the same, I want to have them linked (see my original question).

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