External Linked Text

[beanland]

Is there a way to link external text content into the layout, so the layout person working in Publisher can keep doing layout of the magazine whilst the writers / editors are still editing the content?

Rather than the editor having to send the changed text to the layout person, then the layout person has to copy and paste the next text over the previous text. If the text body was to be referencing its content from elsewhere. And the writers could be working on that text 'elsewhere' and the Publisher document could then pick up / update / sync the text at pre-dertimed intervals or when it is saved?

I believe InDesign and InCopy worked that way. So design and copywriter teams could both work independently but the content was linked.

We are a Training Organisation.

We output 6 different student study booklets that are created out of the same shared 'set' of eg 100 content pages.

Of the 100 assorted separate documents/pages, some are just 1 page of text (eg Introduction), or 1 page image (Cover or Back Page), others are 2 pages of text with images on a certain subject, whilst others are much longer. Many of these content documents will appear in multiple booklets (eg the page containing our Policies). Certain sections contain chapters with content that is specific to only that one course and that content may only appear in 1 of the booklets.

I want to be able to edit the basic text or content in its original 'content' document and have it then be changed in all other linked output booklets. I do not want to have to open and change the same content over and over in every single final output booklet.

Sometimes just one or two words need to be changed in a content area, but we don't want to have to then find and change and edit all 6 booklets.

I want to allow writers to be able to open the separate content/text document and edit it - and I want this edit to then appear in the final output of ALL the final compiled complete publication booklets that are output.

Each item of 'content' is on a separate document that gets compiled into a final output document.

Eg (This is just an example, not the actual page numbers.);

Booklet 1 includes content document 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16

Booklet 2 includes content document 1,2,7 only

Booklet 3 includes content document 1,2,3,41,52,63,77,82,93

Booklet 4 only includes content document 1,5,9

and so forth.

You will see that some content documents, such as document 1 (introduction) are in all of the final output booklets. We want to be able to make changes to individual small content documents, and have the final output automatically updated. At the moment we just output to PDF which we print and bind, in house.

We want to regularly edit and improve the individual single small content documents, chapters, pages of text or even images etc ONCE in one place - and don't want to have to go into every single output Booklet and change them all. We also don't want to have to re-compile every single time there is a change to one document. One change in one document will result in every single final output booklet being changed.

We have tried many different workflows over the years - We thought we could do it via Compilations in Scrivener and that works - but Scriverner is not so good for final output and layout is limited. An expert in InDesign and InCopy said she could do it with Booklet compilations being assembled in InDesign and the separate documents being the ‘stories’ as they are called, in InCopy. 

I wonder if Affinity has a smart way to do this?

I see Publisher lets you embed, or alternatively choose to just link to image 'resources' that are external images, so perhaps the same external link system can be used to apply to 'resources' that are text?

[GarryP]

If you want to create booklets that are sub-sections of an existing document, you can use the Pages field of the Export function to specify which pages are exported, e.g. 1,2-5,7,9,11-14.

[beanland]

Thanks Garry, however we want the opposite, the final output will be a compilation of smaller ones, not the other way around. It is easy to output smaller docs from a larger one - I am wanting to have a number of stories, articles and pages, and then work on those separately, but all the while have a central compilation where the final output can be seen and worked on and sent to print.

[oJames]

This sounds very similar to the workflow I am interested in.

We're looking at improving how we write instruction manuals for equipment which is made to order and there are often changes that need to be made to the manuals both big and small for each job.

Being able to link separate text files, like you can with images, is something I would like to be able to do from an organizational point of view, so edits are made to sections, rather than trying to manage a single monolithic file.
 

Composing a single document from sub-documents is probably the more important thing for us though, as we could then pull in sections depending on what features are or aren't present. I see that there is a "sections" feature for organizing pages, although I haven't explored it much yet, I wonder if being able to effectively link other publisher documents as separate sections into a "master" document could be a way forward...

[beanland]

Yes James, it would make a lot of sense for writers to be able to be editing content (text) while the layout people are laying out a magazine or any document that requires workflow of content providers and final layout people. There already exists teh possibility to link external media (images) and then those images can be changed / updated and then those media images that are referenced in all compiled final documents, will all be updated with the new image. I am surprised that this isn't in here, as InDesign and InCopy work that way and web design works that way. Hopefully one day it will happen. 

[dominik]

7 hours ago, beanland said:

I am surprised that this isn't in here,

If you word it 'I am surprised that this isn't in here yet' you have an answer. They just can't do everything from the start 

 

Quote

Hopefully one day it will happen

That's what I expect, too.

d.

[000]

Have you guys taken a look at "RagTime"? It's the only software I know that can assemble documents from external snippets of text – the text can be saved as bot RTF or Ragtime-text file and linked to textframes, similar to linked images in InDesign. If you're assembling documents while people still work on the text, this is what I'd use.

[GarryP]

Interesting, but 729 Euros + VAT - plus 399 Euros + VAT for each(?) upgrade - is a bit outside of my price range.
I think I’ll stick with Publisher, when it comes out.

[voronwe]

I want to push this into front, I started now with Publisher (coming from Scribus, so it is much more convenient).

This would be indeed a nice feature, to have text updated like you have it with pictures.

However, is there a text editor inside Designer, where you can look only at your pure text no matter what font you are using? Scribus has such a thing.

[000]

No text editor yet, but some users asked for it. 

[XaviCG1]

I'm really interested in this feature. Link external texts files, like images, would be a really nice option to fast and intuitive workflow

Best regards

[andrewsimper]

External text file linking for content would be brilliant. This would not only make focusing on written word content easier for authors, but also allow for revision control systems like git to be used to track changes. I understand it's not exactly trivial, but if the scope was limited to a highly structured text format then some easy wins could be had. I'm not sure if there are any industry standard structured text file formats to use as input to a page layout tool, but a wiki like markdown type language may be enough, it has basic heading / subheading, paragraphs, and lists all covered in an easy to edit way with enough structure to pin formatting changes to in Publisher. There are also a few extensions to markdown that add citations and cross referencing like multimarkdown: https://fletcherpenney.net/multimarkdown/

[jigglesworth]

I completely agree with the need for this feature. 

Separating the production of text content and it's placement in a document is a workflow I've used many times to collaborate with writers. Otherwise the designer is required to constantly copy paste text from contributors into the Publisher document every time there is a change. 

Bare minimum, externally linking text files to text boxes is a must. I was able to do this as a Designer in Quark Express. 

In a modern software, I'd like to see some movement towards the following features:

* Hot Reloading of text files that have been changed. History of changes.

* Support for reading text from cloud file types (Like google sheets)

 

My dream workflow would involve

1) using Google Sheets to allow contributors to save their work into a google drive.

2) Linking google sheets files from Publisher into Text Boxes directly

3) Having some place within the Publisher software that versioned the text content every time the content updates (so that it's easy to see changes and undo if necessary)

 

[nachoserrano]

Aquellos de nosotros que venimos de Indesign sabemos muy bien lo que significa vincular archivos de texto o bases de datos para crear documentos. Es simplemente esencial tener un flujo de trabajo adecuado. La falta de esta característica es decepcionante.

Indesign le permite colocar contenido de una tabla de Excel dentro, por ejemplo, una hoja de producto y crear una página por producto con su información (incluidas imágenes) automáticamente. Solo tiene que crear la plantilla y decirle de qué celda tomar cada parte del contenido. Indesign crea automáticamente pestañas y páginas, por lo que su trabajo se reduce considerablemente. Sin esta característica, tiene que diseñar página por página, siendo muy improductivo. Así que no puedes decir que es una aplicación profesional. Aunque por el precio es más que prometedor.

_______ Español_______

Los que venimos de Indesign sabemos muy bien lo que es vincular archivos de texto u bases de datos para crear documentos. Sencillamente es imprescindible para tener un flojo de trabajo adecuado. La falta de esta característica es decepcionante.

Indesign permite colocar contenido de una tabla de Excel dentro de por ejemplo una ficha de producto e ir creando una página por producto con su información (incluidas imágenes) de forma automática. Solo tienes que crear la plantilla y decirle de la celda tiene que ir cogiendo cada parte del contenido. Indesign crea automáticamente fichas y páginas, con lo que tu trabajo se reduce muchísimo. Sin esta característica tienes que maquetar página por página, siendo muy improductivo. Así que no se puede decir que sea una aplicación profesional. Aunque por el precio que tiene es más que prometedora

 

[peacenjoy]

This is not a reply but actually a call for help. It seems you do booklets? I can't for the life of me create a booklet. I can create greeting cards because it's only one page. If you or ANYONE can make a template for a booklet - (even standard 8.5 X 11" is fine, I can always change the size) - PLEASE would you share it with me? I still, and only, use PagePlus because I've not found a way to use Affinity Publisher, though I've had the program since it came out. Thank you so much. If you have a template, my email address is peacenjoy@gmail.com  - Sister Regina Dierson