I'm looking for some advice please as I'm sure there has been improvements since I last created a large publication and I've only used InCopy a little previously. Here's my workflow:
I'm creating a 70 to 100 page publication which I'm going to create as an InDesign Book with the chapters as separate InDesign documents
The content text will be supplied to me as 1 Word document
Proofing will done in the following ways: by PDFs which stakeholders will comment on (both whole book or separated in chapters), and by supplying a Word document for larger-scale copy editing
It is not an option to share an InCopy document with the stakeholders to make the larger-scale copy editing
When I work with copy to ensure consistency/grammar/spelling I find it easier to view just the text in the Story Editor
The advice I'm looking for is:
I know you can import PDF comments into INDD files. But how does this work if I've created a PDF of the whole book, do I need to extract the pages from the PDF into separate documents which replicate the INDD files?
For my workflow is there any benefit using InCopy, rather than InDesign and Story Editor, when it's just me viewing and using this? For example if I use InCopy, is it easier to export to a Word document?
If InCopy is the way to go would there be different InCopy documents for each chapter/INDD document or even INDD story?
Thank you in advance for any advice and recommendations you can give
When you import comments from a BOOK-PDF, you have to import them into the single INDD file. Upon import you are asked which pages are relevant for this import. InDesign detects the number pages relevant, so you have to insert the starting page and it will calculate the span from the comments.
If you work with InCopy, each story will be an independent document as multiple people can work on it at the same time.
I use InCopy very often even in cases when I am the only one. In my case the reason is that the stories are used in different documents, and text editing in InCopy is faster and easier than in InDesign. You have more text tools in InCopy, like Thessaurus, than in InDesign.
I would not (normally) use the InDesign Book feature for a 100 page document.
PDF is a finished format – I suggest you use InDesign to create your book.
Unless you, and your contributors, know InCopy well, I suggest to stick to Word for your MS.
Get the text approved and more or less finalised in Word by your contributors first, subsequently you can circulate a PDF of your InDesign document for "final" approval to the contributors.
Check with your Printer what kind of PDF they want normally it would be a PDF/X-4, single pages (not spreads), tick Use Document Bleed Settings and Crop Marks.
Thank you Derek, as an experienced Designer I will of course be creating my publication in InDesign as you say a PDF will be the finished format but also used for proofing.
The reason for using a book for this is to keep the chapters separate, keep file sizes down and allow two designer to work on different chapters simultaneously if necessary.
I always aim to get the text approved before design starts but in reality this doesn't always work and MS Word is requested for unforeseen content change.
I would still use the InDesign book file for management and organization. But create PDFs of each InDesign file of the book separately. That way you can import the comments from each PDF into each individual InDesign document.
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