InDesign CS2 has functionality that allows you to take desktop publishing to the next level. InDesign’s XML capabilities allow you to repurpose content and layout, and set up a multi-channel publishing workflow. XML is also what drives InDesign CS2’s “snippet” feature, and it works in tandem with InCopy CS2’s capabilities in this area.

Repurposing is a hot topic. It enables you to reuse content and layout without having to go through the creation process for each different output medium. With XML, you can create content and then import that content in an InDesign file. InDesign allows you to set up links between XML tags and paragraph and character styles. But InDesign CS2’s XML support also works the other way around: you can export an InDesign file into XML and then apply XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation) to turn the file into a HTML document.

A snippet is basically an InDesign CS2 XML file, but it is not intended to be read by humans. Snippets are self-contained files that include content and instructions for InDesign CS2 to decipher what to do with the file as soon as you drag it to an InDesign document. When dropping snippets on a random place in a page, you will notice that the snippet will automatically place itself in the same location on the page where you dragged it from --if it involves frames, for example.

A snippet lets you reuse the content, formatting, tags, and structure of a document. You can store snippets in an Object library, and place them in other documents.

Snippets are based on the InDesign Interchange file format, which is the same format that lets you open a document in a previous version of InDesign. Snippets include an .inds extension.

To create a snippet, you must do one of the following:

• Using a selection tool, select one or more frames, and then choose File > Export. From the Save As Type (Windows) or Format (Mac OS) menu, choose InDesign Snippet. Type a name for the file, and then click Save.


• Using a selection tool, select one or more frames, and then drag the selection to your desktop. A file is created. Rename the file, but save it with an .inds extension.


• Drag an item from Structure View to your desktop.

If you want to add an object like a snippet or indeed a page to an InDesign library, you should do any of the following:

• Drag one or more objects from a document window to an active Object Library palette.


• Select one or more objects in a document window, and click the New Library Item button in the Object Library palette.


• Select one or more objects in a document window, and choose Add Item in the Object Library palette menu.


• Choose Add Items On Page As Separate Objects in the Object Library palette menu to add all the objects as separate library objects.


• Choose Add Items On Page in the Object Library palette menu to add all the objects as one library object.

If you hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while you perform any of the above commands, the Item Information dialogue box appears as the item is added to the library.

XML in InDesign CS2

InDesign lets you import and lay out XML content, as well as export documents to XML. XML by itself does not care about layout and design. It only cares about structure. If you were to create document in pure XML also having some decent looks, you would have to use XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language). InDesign obviously frees you from having to learn this difficult coding language (more difficult than CSS), but that doesn’t mean it frees you from setting up a structure that XML can work with.

Because the hierarchy and order of elements is so important in XML files, you will have to use the Structure pane and Tags palette frequently when working with XML content. The Structure pane displays all the elements within the document and their hierarchy. To help you identify the elements, InDesign displays the element tag and icons that represent different types of content, such as text or graphics. In addition, it can display the first words of any text within an element, called a text snippet --not to be confused with an InDesign snippet.

Before you tag your document’s content in preparation to export it to XML, or before you tag frames to create placeholders for importing XML content, you need to have a list of XML tags in the Tags palette. You can create these tags from scratch or you can load them from another source, such as a DTD file or another InDesign document.

Use any of the following methods to add tags to the Tags palette:

• Create tags using the New Tag command.


• Load tags from an XML file or another InDesign document.


• Import a DTD file.


• Import tags (and content) using the Import XML command.

To create XML tags, choose Window > Tags, to open the Tags palette. Choose New Tag from the Tags palette menu. Type a name for the tag. InDesign checks to make sure that the XML tag name conforms to XML standards. If you include a space or an illegal character in the tag name, an alert message appears when you click OK.

Specify a colour for the tag. You can use the same colour for multiple tags. The colour you select appears when you apply the tag to a frame and choose View > Structure > Show Tagged Frames, or when you apply the tag to text within a frame and choose View > Structure > Show Tag Markers. Tag colours do not appear in the exported XML file.