- Layout View
- Structure Pane Close-up
- The Tags Panel Close-up
- Tags vs. Structure
- Using DTDs
- InDesign's Story Editor
- InCopy
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InDesign’s Story Editor
The Story Editor often gets overlooked or regarded by many as an afterthought by Adobe, but Story Editor is a fully functional word processor and a handy tool. We love it. We use it frequently for a host of tasks, especially when stories span multiple pages or when we’re working in a complex XML workflow. In this section, we look at the XML features provided by Story Editor.
Accessing Story Editor
Open xml_interface_8.indt. Using the Selection or Text tool, click on or in the main text frame. Select Edit in Story Editor from the Edit menu or press Cmd-Y (Ctrl-Y). If you’re used to the hubbub and clutter of Layout view, Story Editor will appear Spartan, almost severe. The interface is geared for writers and editors, not designers (Figure 2.62).
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Showing the XML Interface
Because Story Editor is designed to work only with text, its XML functionality is basically limited to assisting in tagging and structuring text.
To show the XML interface, see Figures 2.63 and 2.64. Select View > Structure > Show Tag Markers to display the tag markers. Select Window > Tags to display the Tags panel, if it’s not visible. Story Editor has no access to the Structure pane, so the only XML tools you have to work with are the Tags panel and the tag markers, which appear as colorful five-sided polygons.
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Identifying Text Elements Using the Tags Panel
To identify text elements in the Story Editor, see Figure 2.65. Identifying XML elements within Story Editor is pretty straightforward compared to Layout view.
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Identifying Inline/Anchored Elements in Story Editor
Although it’s true that you can’t see or edit the content of a graphic within Story Editor, we discovered a way to at least check what element is supposed to be represented in an inline/anchored object. This trick only works with objects inline or anchored within the frame being edited. We assume for the purpose of this lesson that the inline/anchored object (Figure 2.66) is a graphic, but it could just as easily be an anchored text frame instead. Select the Anchor icon that appears after the text North America by dragging your Text cursor across it.
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Tagging Text in Story Editor
Figure 2.67 shows how to tag untagged text in the Story Editor.
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Retagging Text in Story Editor
Figure 2.68 shows how to retag text in the Story Editor. Select the number 9631418, which is tagged incorrectly as Population.
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Adding Tags to Text in Story Editor
At times, you need to nest one XML element within another, or wrap an element around another. By default, InDesign wants to retag the text when you click on a different tag name in the panel. To facilitate nesting and wrapping, the Tags panel provides the Add Tag radio button. By selecting this button before you tag an element, InDesign leaves any existing tag(s) in place and then adds the new tag in the manner you designate (Figure 2.69). To add, or insert, one element within another, first select the number 9631418.
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To wrap a tag around an existing element, see Figure 2.70. To add a tag outside, or wrap, another element, select the number 295734134 and the opening and closing Population tags surrounding it.
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NOTE
The Retag and Add tag functionality works identically in Layout view as it does in Story Editor. We prefer to use Story Editor when we need to nest multiple elements, because the element tag icons are so much easier to identify, as you can see in Figure 2.71. Note how easy it is to identify the elements and how they are nested in Story Editor.
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