Tagging Paragraph Styles with h1, h2, h3

[Gioyer07]

My styles haven't any tagging and workflow is running smooth building a yearly >1000 pages catalog.

Nevertheless I'm wondering if:

- tagging paragraph styles would slow down any operations or increase the size of the documents?

- tagging styles could be useful to make interactive documents?

- tagging styles in such a way that they reflect company's database (let's say it has 5 levels...so using h1 for first, h2 for second ...etc.) can be a good practice in case I go for an interactive html5 output (such as with IN5's plugin)?

- let me please add one more off-topic question (as it is CEOs or webmasters pertinent) : would rebuilding a corporate website benefit from adopting CSSstyles tagging that reflect database structure?

Thanks

[Mike Witherell]

You can have tagging. See Paragraph Style Options > Export Tagging and notice that you can either leave it at Automatic or choose an explicit tag. Either way, it will not slow your InDesign document nor increase its file size.

Tagging is useful for accessible documents; not necessarily interactive documents. These days, PDFs have minimal interactivity. It is mostly hyperlinks.

Question 3 is a qualified yes, but much more detail needs to be discussed. Same with question 4.

[Gioyer07]

Thank you for the reply. I infact take care of pre-press only, but noticed that the guys from another (web) Dpt. designed the new corporate website using h1 and Paragraph tags only.  So I still wonder if reflecting the database structure both for press documents and website is kind of a good practice.

[Mike Witherell]

XML tagging facilitates republishing data between different publishing mediums/platforms. In5 is leveraging this. New to InDesign 2025 is the ability to export to HTML5, but I have not yet worked with it. Maybe someone else can chime in on that.

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

You can, of course, tag any paragraphs you like in ID. In practical terms, this will have an effect only in two places: a slight accessibility assist in PDF, and slightly more organized structure in EPUB and HTML export. Accessibility is again most of the reason to do such tagging for the latter, but for HTML it can also make re/styling the output a little more streamlined and organized.

Unless accessibility is high on your list (and that spectrum varies widely), and unless you're exporting to EPUB or HTML, I'd say there isn't much value in tagging your styles, but then, it's more or less a one-time effort of a few minutes, so there's no good argument for not doing it, either.

As for what your company web designers are doing, everything in web layout is cyclical, from super-streamlined content that's either left to simple styling or passed to a platform for extensive reprocessing, to very elaborate, library- and platform-based coding for... reasons. If your work isn't going to the web, tagging won't make much difference; if the web team is using your export, I'd say it's up to them to ask for tagging and provide a compatible CSS file.

Short form, and IMVHO, there just isn't much connection between ID style tagging and most destination uses, other than as a first step in supporting accessibility.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Gioyer07

What kind of a Catalog?

1000+ pages is a lot... You should think about splitting it into "chapters" and then using Book feature. 

If you continue working on a single file and If you are not doing it yet - you should do Save As with a new name daily. 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-not-saving-files-one-day-to-the-next/m-...

[Gioyer07]

Out from the offset farm, some thousands of copies (3,5 kg each printed in several different languages, via substitution of K plate) need a huge truck infact. I can't imagine this process without Indesign's book function and the adoption of Easy Catalog plugin (for automation) that over the years showed to be rock-solid. Thanks for suggestions and for taking care.