Automatic Content and Formatting Updates in InDesign

Report · Aug 23, 2023

Hi everyone,

I would like to use InDesign to automate our user guide maintenance process. Is it possible to have several section/chapter templates created that are linked to 300+ user guides, and when one of these templates is updated and saved, it automatically updates all users guides it is linked to? I know InDesign can send changes to linked documents, but I would like for the documents to automatically update without someone having to pull up each document and manually approving the change(s) before updating. I would also like to have one document or master page that controls the formatting of all these user guides, instead of one master page per document. Is this possible? If so can someone provide me with instructions of what to do or point me in the direction of what I need to look for? I appreciate any assistance you can offer. Thanks you!

Best Regards,

Tim

Report · Aug 23, 2023

For simple things - you could use a Book option - then you can synchronise MasterPages - but I would be very cautious - if you make too many changes / updates to the layout - it may "crash" at some point ...

If you need it to be really dynamic - you would need to look for some CMS.