Skip to main content
Inspiring
April 20, 2020
Answered

Create "Prefab", reusable object

  • April 20, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 966 views

In Unity, you can create prefabs, an object that can be loaded anywhere in the project, once you edit it, it will update all its occurences. Is there something similar in Indesign?

Example: I want to create an info box, which consist of a couple of shapes, an image and a text body. Now I want to place that box at some places in my book and when I decide that I want to change anything (let's say the images dimensions or position) I want it to update all existing info boxes. Is that possible?

The conveyor looked promising, but it doesn't link items, it just places a copy somewhere, not an instance.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer responsible_Fountain5E9C

OK, the conveyor works after all. For anyone interested:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/linked-content.html#main-pars_header_1

tick "create link" in the conveyor and make sure to select keep in conveyor and choose an option (F) that keeps the object in the conveyor.

However: You have to save your doc or update the links manually, is there a "live-link" option, so it updates on the fly?

And: Where do I keep the original? If I edit one of the linked ones, it separates. And I don't really want a page that I have to hide, where all my prefabs are stored.

Can't I declare all of them the master and when I edit any of them transfer the changes to all links?

1 reply

responsible_Fountain5E9CAuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
April 20, 2020

OK, the conveyor works after all. For anyone interested:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/linked-content.html#main-pars_header_1

tick "create link" in the conveyor and make sure to select keep in conveyor and choose an option (F) that keeps the object in the conveyor.

However: You have to save your doc or update the links manually, is there a "live-link" option, so it updates on the fly?

And: Where do I keep the original? If I edit one of the linked ones, it separates. And I don't really want a page that I have to hide, where all my prefabs are stored.

Can't I declare all of them the master and when I edit any of them transfer the changes to all links?