Basics -- CopyFlow Gold for Adobe InDesign CS3 batch exports and batch imports text in separate or single RTF, Adobe tag, or plain text files. In short, the textual contents of an entire document are easily round-tripped.

CopyFlow Gold is often used to quickly extract formatted text from an InDesign document for translation purposes and to return the content after translation.

CopyFlow Gold (CFG) is built to round-trip text. CFG for InDesign CS3 exports and imports text to and from named InDesign text frames. The exported file format and encodings are established by setting the CFG preferences as described below.

To export and then re-import text content, the text frames are named. This can be done automatically.

CopyFlowGold for InDesign is compatible with InDesign CS3 for both the Macintosh and Windows platforms.

CopyFlow Gold for InDesign CS3 is scriptable using InDesign scripts written in Javascript.

After installation (see: How To Install), CopyFlow Gold adds a menu to the InDesign menu bar as shown below. The CFG Tool is a floating palette which contains the buttons to begin exports, imports and access to CFG settings.

New: Instruction on batch processing folders of InDesign documents can be found here.

SDL Trados users should use the Tagged XML or Single RTF export formats. See below.

 

Naming Frames

Text frame (an InDesign story) naming can be done for an entire document automatically or frame by frame by selecting either: Autoname Frames to name all frames in a document in a numerical sequence or Name A Frame to name (or unname) only the currently selected Frame. UnName All Frames - does just that -- un-names all the frames in a document.

Frame names are saved in the InDesign document when the document is Saved. It is a good idea to save the document after the naming step is complete.

The frame (story) names are used to match the exported text to the text frames at re-import time.

The screen shot below shows the CopyFlow Gold floating palette. The Prefs are used to select the Import/Export format and the details for each format (e.g., encodings, typographic quotes, style conflict resolution, etc.). CopyFlow Gold extends the filters built into InDesign for import and export.

The Export button will export all named text stories to a single or multiple files as set in the preferences. The Import button imports text into named frames. The Flush button clears the contents of all named frames. The Find button lists all the named frames, and shows an abstract of their contents, word and line counts, and beginning page sequence numbers. This list is sorted by page and position, showing the export order. The Clear button clears the mid-palette display. The Info button displays the current settings in the palette log. The Prefs button opens the Preferences dialog. The Help button opens an HTML page with help, tech support, and purchase information. The Register button displays a dialog used to register the product with the keys emailed after purchase. Registration converts a CFG demo into a fully functional product. At the bottom of the palette, the version and registration status are displayed.

CFG Preferences

	CopyFlow Golds Preferences Dialog establishes the export file format, its encoding and other options. Checking the Remember Import/Export folders options will cause CFG to look for its import files in the last specified Import Folder and put exports in the last specified Export folder. Turn this option off to chnage the folder locations. The Tagged Text Prefs button sets the encoding and other preferences for the Adobe Tags fomats and the Tagged XML format. These options are the same as for an InDesign Tag file Place or Export -- see InDesign help for more detailed information. The RTF Prefs button establishes the RTF file format import/export options. These options are the same as for an InDesign RTF file Place or Export -- see InDesign help for more detailed information. The Include Master Page Items checkbox either allows or disallows the naming and export of text in frames on InDesign Master pages. The Do Not Export Empty Stories checkbox either allows or disallows the export of empty story callouts. For translation use - set as checked. The Do Not Name Empty Stories checkbox either allows or disallows during subsequent AutoNames, the labelling of empty text frames. For translation use - set as checked.
	The Export Filter popup menu sets the import and export file format types. Plain Text - plain text - 1 file per named story - no fomat tags Adobe Tag Files - 1 file per named story in Adobe tagged file format. RTF Files - 1 file per named story in RTF file format Single Adobe Tag File - 1 file per document in Adobe tag format with stories separated by NAPS story tags. Tagged XML File - 1 file per document in Adobe tag format, but syntactically reformated as an XML file. This format is primarily used to make Adobe Tags compatible with SDL Trados Tag Editor (see also instructions on how to Configure the Tag Editor for Tagged XML.) INX Special Export - 1 file per document in Adobe Interchange format .inx, but with modifications to support anchored (inline) text items when read by SDL Trados Tag Editor.

 

A Translation Workflow

If you are using CopyFlow Gold for language translation, the workflow is:

1.) Open a copy of the document to be translated. Use the "Autoname Frames" menu item to name the text frames. The names are assigned automatically to any frame that contains text. A series of linked text frames (a story) is named as a single item. The story names are established by taking the prefix you enter in the dialog and appending a number.

2.) You can clear any boxes you do not wish to export by unnaming them using the "Name A Frame" menu item. You can also use this same item to interactively name or rename other stories.

3.) Open the CFG Tool palette from the menu and use the Prefs button to set the format you wish to export to and its options.

4.) Use the Export button to begin an export. You will be asked to select a folder to export into, after which the program will export all the named stories with content to individual files (or a single file) in the export folder. As part of the export process, a file extension signifying the export type is appended to the frame name to produce an output file name (e.g., Adobe Hist 2006.rtf).

5.) Save the copy of the document you began with; this preserves the frame names within the document.

6.) Translate the text.

7.) Place the translated file into the folder you wish to use for import and open the InDesign document, re-open the CFG Tool palette, and use the Import button to begin the batch import process. You will be asked to select the folder where the text file resides. CopyFlow Gold will then examine each named text frame and, if it finds importable text of the currently selected format in the selected import folder, the file will be imported into the document. If there is no file matching the name and format in the selected folder, no change will be made to the story.

Using Single Tagged Text File Format

An export/import option is provided to produce a single file of Adobe Tagged Text from an entire InDesign document.

To export to a single tagged text file, use the preferences to select the export filter "Single Adobe Tag File", then click "Establish Tagged Text Import/Export Preferences" and then the Export button on the CFG Tool palette to start the export. You will be asked once to locate the folder you wish to export to. If you have the Remember Folders preference set, CFG will continue to use this folder as the export folder.

The exported file will be named docname.tag . Each story's tagged text is delimited by a line which begins with a '#' mark, followed by "storyname=", followed by the frame name. For example: #storyname=story_25. The hash mark is the first character on a line of text. The frame name is followed by a carriage return. The tagged text for the story follows this line and runs until the next frame tag. (Note: Avoid translating the frame names or Adobe tags.)

With the InDesign file still open, to import a single file of tagged text, with the preference still set to "Single Adobe Tag File," click the Import button. After a few seconds, the import process should begin. The import process looks through the InDesign document for each of the named frames and tries to find the tagged text with the same frame name within the .tag file. If it cannot find text for a particular frame, it begins to look for the text for the next named frame in the document.

How To Install CopyFlow Gold

Quit InDesign. The zip file should be expanded. The NAPS folder should be dropped within the Scripts folder immediately within the Adobe Application folder. Then start InDesign.

If you plan to use the Tagged XML fromat with SDL Trados follow the additional instruction to Configure the Tag Editor for Tagged XML.

CopyFlow Gold Log File

A detailed log file of operation is written for each session. The log file is named "CFG_LogFile.txt" and is stored in the user's My Documents (Windows) or Documents (Macintosh) folder.

Configure the SDL Trados Tag Editor for Tagged XML

1. A folder named "other files" in the CFG CS3 distribution contains two files a .ini and .dtd. Copy these 2 files to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SDL International\Filters or another shared location.

2. Then in SDL Trados Tag Editor ->Tools menu select Tag Settings.

3. Click Open button and open the NapsXml.ini file moved into the Filters directory in step 1.

 

- To check Tag Editor settings for NapsXml:

1. Tag Settings . Select napsxml. (included in delivery)  Click Properties.

2. Then select Elements and click the Advanced button.

3. Keep All Line Breaks - should be checked