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Create InDesign document

Toni Gonzales
  • Updated

Applies to the Adobe InDesign plug-in version 29 or later

The Create InDesign document workflow action automatically creates an Adobe InDesign document (.indd) from a Content XML (.cxml) file.

The Create InDesign document workflow action is divided into four tabs: General, Event scripts, Links, and Advanced.

You can also use workflow variables to specify input fields. To insert a workflow variable, click the lightning bolt icon Lightning bolt iconand choose a variable from the pop-up menu. 

General

Use this tab to specify the input, output, InDesign template, InDesign Server, and where the page numbering starts.

Create InDesign Document, General tab

Field Description
Input The file path to the input Content XML file (.cxml).
Click the Choose File icon Choose File icon to choose the input Content XML file. Alternatively, enter the file path—for example, /Input/my-input.cxml.
Output The file path to the output InDesign document (.indd). Enter a name for the generated InDesign document. Alternatively, click the Choose File icon Choose File icon to choose the output.

The default output is output-1.indb.
InDesign template The file path to the InDesign template (.indd). Click Choose File Choose File icon to choose the InDesign template. Alternatively, enter the file path.—for example, /Templates/my-template.indd.
Start page numbering at Specify the number that the document should start on—for example, 1.

The default value is 1.
InDesign Server Choose the InDesign Server or Blinkenlights queue.

Event scripts

Use this tab to add event scripts.

Create InDesign document, Event scripts tab

 To add a script to an event, click the Choose File icon Choose File icon to browse for a script file (.js, .jsx, or .jsxbin) on Typefi Server. Alternatively, click Browse within the Choose File dialog to browse for a file on your local computer.

Scripts are run in the order in which you see them. To change the order of two or more scripts, drag them around with the mouse. You can also add several scripts at once, and they will display alphabetically by default.

Use this tab to choose whether to preserve original paths or not, search for missing links, and specify how PDFs are cropped.

Create InDesign document, Links tab

Field Description
Preserve original paths (v31)

Preserve original links (v30 and earlier)		 Select the Preserve original links checkbox to preserve the original link to the image, audio, and video files in the output InDesign document. Deselect to have Typefi Server automatically rewrite links so that InDesign Server can use them.

Preserve original links is deselected by default.

To avoid broken links, only select Preserve original links if you want to take 100% control of the link paths yourself.
Search for missing links Enter an alternative relative path to search for any missing links—for example, path/to/folder/links. 

If you do not need to search for missing links, you can leave this field blank.
Crop PDFs to Choose which portion of the PDF page to place, as defined by six boxes. Options include:
  • Bounding box (Visible layers): Places the PDF page's bounding box, or the minimum area that encloses the objects on the page, of the visible layers of the PDF file, including page marks
  • Bounding box (All layers): Places the bounding box of the entire layer area of the PDF file, even if layers are hidden.
  • Art: Places only the area defined by a rectangle that the author created as placeable artwork, designated in Acrobat with the "Set Page Boxes" command.
  • Crop: Places the area that is displayed or printed by Adobe Acrobat.
  • Trim: Identifies the edges where the final produced page will be physically cut in the production process if trim marks are present.
  • Bleed: Places only the area representing where all page content should be clipped if a bleed area is present.
  • Media: Places the area that represents the physical paper size of the original PDF document.
The default option is Bounding box (Visible layers).

For more information, see Understanding InDesign's Place PDF Options.

Advanced

Use this tab for fine-tuned control over how the InDesign document is generated and presented. You can add soft styles, specify the binding direction, choose how floats are displayed, specify when cross-references are updated, and set a maximum runtime for a job.

Create InDesign document, Advanced tab

Field Description
Soft styles Select which local formatting—Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, All-caps, and Small-caps—to pass through to the InDesign document. Each button toggles a <style>.

Bold and italic default to off (white), which means they are not passed. Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, All-caps, and Small caps default to on (blue), which means they are passed.
Binding direction Choose the binding direction. Use Left to right (default) for languages that are written left-to-right. Use Right to left for languages that are written right-to-left (for example, Arabic or Hebrew).

 The binding direction also affects the float placement order, that is, for right-to-left jobs, the float placement will start from the right side.
Cross-references Choose when to resolve cross-references. We recommend keeping both checkboxes ticked.

 InDesign automatically resolves cross-references. However, during the automated page composition process, the cross-references might shift and move to different pages, so the reference might not be accurate. Choosing Update at section end or Update at job end updates the cross-references after pagination, making sure they are correct. However, if you know you want to manually edit the cross-references in the InDesign document (.indd), then you might want to untick both options to make your job run faster.
Update at section end Select to update cross-references at the end of a Typefi Section. Deselect for minor performance improvements.

Update at section end is selected by default.

If you deselect this option, the section's length may change when you update the cross-references, which means you could be left with blank or overset pages.
Update at job end Select to update cross-references at the end of the job. Deselect for minor performance improvements.

Update at job end is selected by default.
Use tighter float placement Select to allow floating elements to be placed out of order (when space is available). Deselect to force floats to be placed in order.

Use tighter float placement is deselected by default.

Blocker frames (areas of the template where floats cannot be placed) don't work with tighter floats. 
Use multi-column float placement Select to use the column height to evaluate the distance between a floating element and its anchor. Deselect to ignore column height.

Use multi-column float placement is deselected by default.
Maximum runtime (min) Enter the maximum runtime in minutes that a job should take. If a job takes longer than the maximum runtime, then the job will fail.

The default value is empty, which means the maximum runtime is 480 minutes (8 hours).

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