Contents
- Introducing Typefi Designer
- How does Typefi Designer fit into a Typefi automated publishing workflow?
- What components make up Typefi Designer?
- Typefi Elements
- Typefi Frames
- Typefi Sections
- Typefi Fields
- Typefi AutoFit
- Typefi FileManager
- Typefi Designer Preferences
- Getting help
Introducing Typefi Designer ↩
Typefi Designer utilises Adobe InDesign—the world’s most-used professional publishing tool—to transform regular InDesign documents into files you can use in a Typefi automated publishing workflow.
When you start exploring automated publishing, you’ll hear, or have heard of, the term template. A template is a file that holds all the styling information to be applied to the raw content. The type of template file can differ, depending on the type of content being processed.
A Typefi-ready template is an InDesign document that contains Typefi markup for use in a Typefi automated publishing workflow. Typefi Designer allows publishers to quickly and easily upgrade existing InDesign documents to Typefi-ready InDesign templates, without requiring designers to learn new tools or complex coding.
NOTE A Typefi-ready template is not the same as an InDesign template file (.indt). An INDT file is a page layout template for designing pages in InDesign, which is typically used when creating multiple pages with a similar format. A Typefi-ready template is an InDesign document (.indd) that contains Typefi markup.
🔑 Key Concept: Typefi Designer is a suite of tools for Adobe InDesign. Designers and layout artists use Typefi Designer to create Typefi-ready templates to use in an automated publishing workflow.
How does Typefi Designer fit into a Typefi automated publishing workflow? ↩
There are four basic steps to use Typefi Designer in a Typefi automated publishing workflow:
- Start with structured content.
- Prepare a template for automation.
- Upload the prepared template to Typefi Server.
- Use the Create InDesign Document or Create InDesign Book Typefi workflow action to automatically generate an Adobe InDesign file based on the template.
TIP Quickly and easily write structured content with Typefi Writer in Microsoft Word.
Preparing a template for automation
You can base your template on an existing design or InDesign file, or create a template from a new document.
While the specific steps for preparing a template is unique to every project, the basic process is the same:
- Start with InDesign best practices.
- Analyse the design of the final output.
- Start working on the template.
At a minimum, each template should have the following components:
- a master page with a Typefi Main Story frame
- a Typefi Section with a master page containing Typefi Main Story frame
- a paragraph style
If these requirements sound confusing, don't worry. We'll explain each component in the next section.
What components make up Typefi Designer? ↩
When you install Typefi Designer, several panels, an additional tool, extra menu commands, and several Typefi preferences are added to InDesign. Each installed component plays an important role in creating a Typefi-ready template.
The following components are installed:
- Typefi Elements
- Typefi Frames
- Typefi Sections
- Typefi Fields
- Typefi AutoFit
- Typefi FileManager
- Typefi Preferences
Typefi Designer also includes two optional plug-ins for Adobe InDesign: Typefi AutoFit (free download) and Typefitter (purchase). You can download both from our website.
Typefi Elements ↩
Master items are items that are used repeatedly throughout a publication and are stored on an InDesign master page. Typefi Elements are master items that are commonly used for placing figure graphics, background artwork, sidebars, pull-quotes, and other repeating page items into a layout. They are similar to assets stored in an InDesign Object Library. Like a library asset, a Typefi Element is created once and then reused throughout a publication, with different content in each instance that is placed. Typefi Elements may also be different sizes depending on the content inside a Typefi Element, and if any AutoFit relationships are set up.
🔑 Key Concept: Typefi Elements are master items that are commonly used for placing figure graphics, background artwork, sidebars, pull-quotes, and other repeating page items into a layout.
Use the Typefi Elements panel to create and manage elements. Access the panel by choosing Window → Typefi → Elements.
Typefi Frames ↩
InDesign uses boxes, called frames, to hold the content on each page of the document. Frames are used as containers for text or other objects, such as graphics. Typefi Frames are InDesign frames with additional attributes that allow them to receive content dynamically during the automated page composition process. Use Typefi Frames as placeholders to receive text, graphics, audio, and video within a layout.
🔑 Key Concept: Typefi Frames are InDesign frames with additional attributes that allow them to receive content dynamically. Use Typefi Frames as placeholders to receive content.
Typefi Frame types
There are several different types of Typefi Frames:
- Element Audio
- Element Content
- Element Image
- Element Video
- Endnote
- Index
- Main Story
- Table of Contents
Some types of Typefi Frames can stand on their own, while other Typefi Frames can also be used as a Typefi Element. For example, a Main Story Frame cannot be used as a Typefi Element, but an Element Image Frame can be used itself or together to form a Typefi Element.
TIP You can quickly tell which types of Typefi Frames can be used to form a Typefi Element and which types cannot: Typefi Frame types that can be used to form a Typefi Element have the name "Element" in front of their name.
Turn an InDesign Frame into a Typefi Frame by choosing Object → Typefi Frame Type, and then select the type of Typefi Frame you want. Keep in mind that Typefi Frames are placeholders only, so any content within a Typefi Frame will be removed during the automated page composition process.
TIP To help distinguish Typefi Frames from InDesign frames, the borders of the frames are coloured by default with a 2.5 pt stroke (see Typefi Preferences: Borders).
Typefi Sections ↩
Typefi Sections define divisions within a publication that break it into logical chunks (such as chapters in a book). They specify which InDesign master pages to use during the composition process, and in what order.
Typefi Sections also specify the pagination settings—such as the style of the page numbering—and whether the section numbering starts at 1 again, or continues from the previous section. They may also contain Typefi Section Fields.
You can use Typefi Sections to:
- specify which master pages to use, and in what order
- specify right or left starting pages in a publication with facing pages (also known as a two-page spread)
- specify filler pages (for example, if a chapter starts on a right-hand page, the preceding chapter will need a filler page if it ends on a right-hand page)
- define the type of section content
- define the page numbering method
- insert content into a Typefi Section Fields (for example, you could insert the chapter title across the top of each chapter page)
🔑 Key Concept: Typefi Sections represent different "sections" of a publication. They define the order in which master pages will be used during automated page composition.
Use the Typefi Sections panel to create and manage sections. The Typefi Sections panel is where you define how a Typefi Section looks (for example, which master spread it uses and how it is numbered). Access the panel by choosing Window → Typefi → Sections.
Typefi Fields ↩
Typefi Fields are placeholders for metadata included in the document and do not have any formatting attached to them. They are commonly used for inserting text that repeats itself throughout a layout, such as a document title, chapter titles, and running headers and footers.
Typefi Fields take on the formatting of the context where they are used.
There are three different types of Typefi Fields: Project, Section, and Element. Each Typefi Field type has a different scope.
| Typefi Field type | Scope | Sample uses | Value supplied from |
| Project | Field value can be used across all pages and sections in the current project | Document title, author name, customer name, reference number, publication date, product name, part number | Edit Metadata action in Typefi Server or inserted in Typefi Writer |
| Section | Field value can be used across all pages in the current section | Part title, chapter title, section number, component name | Section Insert in Typefi Writer |
| Element | Field value can be used whenever a Typefi Element is used | Captions, copyright data, figure number, date | Element Insert in Typefi Writer |
Typefi Fields:
- are placeholders for text that automatically update when the author changes the value and runs the job through Typefi Server
- can be defined as a global field that is available to the whole document (Project) or limited to a Typefi Section or Typefi Element
- are made of two components: a definition set in the Typefi Fields panel and a text placeholder that is placed in the relevant InDesign or Typefi Element
- can be unlinked from placeholder text, renamed, or deleted
- cannot contain inline styling
- pick up the paragraph or character styling of their placeholder text
- should not be set in Main Story, Table of Contents, Index, or Element Content frames, as they’ll be deleted when the actual content is placed
🔑 Key Concept: Typefi Fields are placeholders for metadata included in the document, and do not have any formatting attached to them. Use Typefi Fields for inserting text that repeats itself throughout a layout, such as a document title, chapter titles, and running headers and footers.
Use the Typefi Fields panel to create, insert, and manage fields. You can access the panel by choosing Window → Typefi → Fields.
Typefi AutoFit ↩
With Typefi AutoFit, you can create dynamic page objects that react and respond automatically as content changes.
Two AutoFit components are added to InDesign: the AutoFit tool and the AutoFit panel.
Introducing the AutoFit tool
You can use the AutoFit tool to link objects into parent-child relationships—when the "parent" object is moved or resized, its "child" objects automatically adjust according to the relationship set by the AutoFit tool.
Access AutoFit by choosing Window → Tools and then selecting its icon near the bottom of the Tools panel.
Introducing the AutoFit panel
Use the AutoFit panel to automatically:
- resize text and graphic frames
- resize frames with existing AutoFit relationships
- balance columns (making text even at the bottom of multi-column text frames)
- enforce minimum and maximum frame size limits
Access the panel by choosing Window → Typefi → AutoFit.
For more information about AutoFit, see Getting started with AutoFit.
After creating your AutoFit relationships, the next step in creating a template would be to create a Typefi Element from the frames.
Typefi FileManager ↩
Use the Typefi FileManager to access your files and synchronise your InDesign documents and scripts on a Typefi Server (Workgroup or Cloud) directly from Adobe InDesign. You can check out InDesign documents, check them back in, or undo a check out. You can also delete documents, revert to a previous version, and upload new documents.
Access the Typefi File Manager panel by choosing Window → Typefi → FileManager.
Typefi Designer Preferences ↩
Typefi Designer adds five additional preference categories to InDesign’s Preferences dialog. To access the Typefi preferences categories, select Preferences from the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS).
Use Typefi Preferences to set preferences for:
- Typefi AutoFit
- Typefi FileManager
- Typefi Hyperlinks
- Typefi Borders
- Typefi Anchors
NOTE Most of the preferences affect the open document. If no document is open, then the preferences are stored as InDesign application-wide default preferences that apply to new documents.
Typefi AutoFit
The Typefi AutoFit preferences ensure that AutoFit relationships and resize settings work dynamically. AutoFit is enabled by default. For more information, see Configuring AutoFit preferences.
To access the AutoFit preferences: From the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS), select Preferences →Typefi → AutoFit
Typefi FileManager
Use the Typefi FileManager preferences to configure how you want to save your documents.
There are two ways to access the Typefi FileManager preferences:
- Select the Typefi FileManager panel menu and choose Preferences from the pop-up menu, or
- From the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS), select Preferences →Typefi → FileManager
Typefi Hyperlinks
Set the Typefi Hyperlinks preferences to choose the character style and set the appearance.
Cross-references are automatically hyperlinked. Hyperlinks enable a user of a document to jump from the hyperlink location to a source elsewhere in the document, and can be inserted as interactive links in a PDF created from InDesign.
NOTE The Hyperlink Character Style setting only affects cross-references that have hyperlinks associated with them and formats these cross-references with the attributes defined by the character style, not the style itself. This means that the character style is not actually applied to the text.
NOTE The Appearance settings only impact cross-references that are hyperlinks, not normal InDesign hyperlinks.
To access the Typefi Hyperlinks preferences: From the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS), select Preferences →Typefi → AutoFit
Typefi Borders
Typefi Borders are the visual appearance of Typefi Frames and Elements. Typefi frames are distinguished from InDesign frames through their border colour, width, and opacity.
For step-by-step instructions, see Typefi Designer Preferences: Borders.
To access the Typefi Border preferences: From the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS), select Preferences →Typefi → Borders
Typefi Anchors
Typefi Anchors are the lines and markers that connect a Typefi Element with their reference in the text. The Typefi Anchor preferences define the colour and weight of the lines and markers.
To access the Typefi Anchors preferences: From the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS), select Preferences →Typefi → Anchors
Typefi Preferences
The Typefi Preferences panel contains settings for the Counter Format Language.
To access the Typefi Preferences panel: From the Edit (Windows) or InDesign menu (macOS), select Preferences →Typefi → Preferences
Getting help ↩
Our Help Centre is full of step-by-step help articles. We also have a wide range of additional resources—such as white papers, articles, webinar and presentation recordings—on our website. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. We're happy to help.
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