Columns and ruler guides when editing a library item

[Andover Beacon]

I need to be able to edit CC Library items in InDesign with all the features available for editing any other document. I've worked out some of the kinks I've found, but I'm stuck on a couple more. I'm creating this rather detailed post to 1) check my emerging understanding of the nuances of editing a Library item in ID, and 2) get some suggestions on the parts that are still stumping me. 

Here’s what I believe I’ve learned so far:

When you double-click a Library item to edit it in InDesign, ID quickly creates a “new” document for you to edit and drops the Library item into that document. And for some reason, it disables File / Document Setup for the “new” document. There are some important implications to this:

• The Units and Increments of the “new” document will be based on the settings in Edit / Preferences / Units & Increments. So be sure that you’ve got those set appropriately before you start editing Library items.
  
  
• The Document Setup of the “new” document will be based on the default Document Setup settings. You can control those settings by doing File / Document Presets / Define… / [Default] / Edit. Whatever settings you pick at that point will be the immutable settings in effect when you edit a Library item.
  
  
• When you save and close the edited Library item, only the objects in the document you’ve been editing are saved in the Library … the underlying “new” document (and its ruler guides ... see #3, below) is thrown away.

So my question #1 for the forum is this: Is what I wrote above correct and complete? And is there documentation somewhere that would have saved me from figuring it out on my own?

Now, on to question #2 …

I’ve set up my [Default] Document Preset just the way I want it: Tabloid, some slightly odd margins, and four columns with .125” gutters. When I use File / New to create a new document using [Default], I get exactly what I asked for.

When I then edit a Library item, it opens in a document that’s Tabloid with my odd margins as defined in [Default]. But it has only one column, not four as defined in [Default]. Question #2: Is the lack of four columns a bug in edit-a-Library-item, or have I misunderstood something about how edit-a-Library-item works, as explained above?

Question #3 is probably a feature request …

I need ruler guides to edit my Library items efficiently and accurately. So I open the Library item for editing, set up my ruler guides, and save it. But next time I open the Library item to edit it, the ruler guides have disappeared. Is there a way around this problem, or do we need a new feature that stores ruler guides as part of the Library item? 

[Ancillary request: Ruler Guide Presets, analogous to Document Presets, would be a very useful new construct in ID! Set up your complex ruler guides once and apply them effortlessly anywhere, even to a "new" document in which you're editing a Library item.]

I appreciate any feedback you can give me. Library items are awesome for many uses, but would greatly benefit from column guides and ruler guides for many additional uses.

[Mike Witherell]

1. Library items are .idms snippet files that describe content in a document; but not the document

2. and 3. It sounds like what you really want is to place an InDesign document as art in another InDesign document. In this case you would have both the content defined as well as all the rest of the page structure. Did you know you can place ID files into ID files?

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Andover_Beacon,

CC Libraries unfortunately cannot store ruler guides.

An idms snippet file is able to store them. Also InDesign library files.

So if your workflow allows to switch from CC Library libraries to InDesign libraries you are good to go.

FWIW: Column guides and margins guides cannot be stored with idms technology because they are part of a page.

Best do a feature request that CC Libraries should be able to have ruler guides as assets:

https://indesign.uservoice.com/

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )