TIP 175: Automatically Converting Just the Text into a Web Page

Sometimes users ask for a quick and easy way to export just the text of an InDesign layout into a Web-friendly text format. Using an InDesign Package, this is really easy trick to do in GoLive.

Open the Package in GoLive, switch to the Assets view, and select all the files in the Stories category (Figure 175a). Now drag and drop all the stories into a Web page in GoLive and you've converted all the text from the entire InDesign document with one click!

Figure 175a. Drag and drop all the stories from the Package window into a Web page to convert the text into a Web-friendly format.

By default, GoLive places the text stories as XML components. If you want to edit the text after it's been placed in GoLive, you'll want to convert the components to editable text. Choose Special > Component > Detach All Components (see Tip 176) to break the link between the InDesign Package and the Web page layout so that you can edit or copy the text as much as you want.

If you find yourself doing this frequently, you can force GoLive to place the stories as plain text from the very beginning. Select all the stories in the Package window and set the Insert As option in the Inspector palette to Editable Text (Figure 175b). You can also control whether the text is formatted using internal CSS, external CSS, or nothing at all.

Figure 175b. Control text-conversion options in the Inspector palette before you drag and drop the stories.