Viewing Structure

InCopy and InDesign both make use of an expandable/collapsible pane that displays the structure of your document.

Viewing the Structure of an InCopy Document

Sure, most of us look at the printed page and see form. It jumps out at us: the huge type for the headline, the smaller type for the body text, the pictures. How could we miss it? And for designers, the people who lay out these pages, in many ways, it's how they view the world: form. But don't miss the structure. It might be subtle in the printed page, but it's there. To view and manipulate the XML structure in your InCopy documents, you utilize InCopy's Structure pane. From the Structure pane you can create or delete elements, rearrange them, or associate them with items on the page. To open the Structure pane of your InCopy document choose View > Structure (Command-Option-1/Control-Alt-1).

Tagged frames

When working with XML, it is very helpful to see at a glance which frames are associated with XML elements. Before even looking at the Structure pane, enable View > Structure > Show Tagged Frames. Now any frame that's tagged will appear in Layout view in the same background color as its tag. You can also tell InCopy to show tag markers (View > Structure > Show Tag Markers) to see which text is associated with a particular XML element.

Viewing text snippets

In the Structure pane you'll see the XML elements associated with your InCopy file and be able to organize and rearrange them. Ultimately, the Structure pane is the best way both to understand how an InCopy document is structured and to maintain control over that structure. Want to know which piece of text is associated with which XML element in your Structure pane? From the Structure pane flyout menu, choose Show Text Snippets; now the first few words of any text associated with an element in your structure will appear to its right in the Structure pane (Figure 7.13). To turn off the snippets, choose Hide Text Snippets from the Structure pane flyout menu.

Figure 7.13. Toggle the option to Show or Hide Text Snippets to reveal or hide a short sample of tagged text in the Structure pane.

Controlling XML from the Structure pane

The Structure pane is one-stop-shopping for organizing the structure of your InCopy document. What follows is a brief list of tools available from the Structure pane:

• Adding XML elements: By definition, an XML structure starts with a Root element, and any additional elements become a part of an existing element. To add an XML element to your structure, select an existing element, from the Structure pane flyout menu choose New Element, and select an appropriate tag from the pull-down menu.

• Duplicating XML elements: Need that XML element repeated several times in your structure? Select it in the Structure pane, copy it (Edit > Copy), select the element you want to contain your duplicate, and paste (Edit > Paste).

• Moving XML elements: Drag an element up or down in the Structure pane or into another element in the Structure pane to move it.

• Deleting XML elements: To delete an XML element, select the element and either press the Delete key or choose Delete from the Structure pane flyout menu.

• Controlling attributes: Assign an attribute to an element by selecting the element and choosing Assign Attribute from the Structure pane flyout menu (Figure 7.14). The newly assigned attribute appears as a bulleted item below the associated element. To delete an attribute select it in the structure and from the flyout menu choose Delete.

  Figure 7.14. New attributes need a name and an assigned value.

  

• Inserting comments: Comments are a great way of making notes to yourself or to others who will go back through the XML later. Although comments don't affect the XML, they allow the person reading it to understand why the XML was structured in a particular manner. Put comments anywhere into an InCopy structure by selecting a particular element and choosing New Comment from the Structure pane flyout menu.

• Including Processing Instructions: A Processing Instruction will launch a particular action when the XML file is opened in an application that understands it. Choose New Processing Instruction from the Structure pane flyout menu, fill in the Target field with a name that identifies the Instruction to the application reading the XML file, and fill in the Data field with the actual Instruction.

Tip

Many of the commands in the Tags palette menu are also available in the Structure pane flyout menu.