K4 Version 6 Allows the Creation of Alternative "Designs" for Layouts

"Designs" let production staff save multiple compositions of the same page, while keeping the articles linked to the K4 system.

Did you ever layout a page within InDesign and wonder, "What would this look like with more images? Should I try a completely different layout?" Designers and production staff within InDesign love to experiment with new and exciting designs. K4 version 6 is now shipping with a new feature called "Designs." This new feature allows InDesign users the ability to quickly and easily create multiple designs of the same layout. Once the final design is chosen, that design can be elevated to a preferred status, all the while keeping the link between the articles on the page, and InDesign layouts.

To understand why vjoon has added this new feature, we really need to take a look at what designers have been doing for years within InDesign, and how that process has been incorporated into the brand-new K4 version 6.

Layout designers are given stories and pictures, and asked to lay them out within a certain space in InDesign. As they work on the design process, they may be inspired to try a few different layouts. The way designers accomplish this task, is by using "Save As" each time they are finished re-designing a layout.

The first issue with performing a "Save As," is that all of the documents that are saved can take up a considerable amount of hard-drive space. The second issue is that if the story needs to be changed, each story within a layout must be updated on each of the different saved layouts. If the stories exist outside of an InCopy workflow, this could take up a tremendous amount of time. Even within a basic InCopy Live Edit workflow that does not contain K4, the process of updating stories could be quite time consuming, depending on the workflow. If InCopy stories are just placed into InDesign documents and those InDesign documents are edited by editorial, each newly saved design would need to be edited separately. The original story could be edited and it would update on each page. However, editing stories and not assignments is not the most ideal workflow. If Assignments were used with the Live Edit workflow, a new assignment would have to be made for each page.

If an editorial system such as K4 is in production, this task becomes complicated as well. Since each story is linked to an article that builds a preview of the page, if you connect one story to separate pages the question becomes: What will the InCopy article show? The first story it was connected to, or the last? It would almost be better to just delete the story from the system, but all of the article interconnectedness would be lost. If the connection to the original stories were lost, all changes would need to be copied and pasted manually on each page. Now K4 version 6 finally gives InDesign users a way to create multiple designs, and keep the link to the original story!

The concept of trying different "Comps" or compositions is not new. Artists have always wanted to try out different designs. Before I explain how "Designs" work in K4 version 6, you should be aware of what you can currently do with the Adobe products you may already own. Since CS2, Adobe has included a "Layer Comp" panel inside of Photoshop. If you have never heard of "Layer Comps," I strongly urge you explore this feature within Photoshop. Layer Comps are simply saved states of layer visibility and position. For example: Let's say you were designing a front-page composition inside of Photoshop. All your text and graphics are on different layers. After you finalized the design, you want to try out a few different layouts. You can save a "Layer Comp" that will remember witch layers were visible, and where the item was located on that layer. You can add new graphics, text, and even move items on layers, and save another "Layer Comp." When you are finished saving your Layer Comps, you can click on the visibility "eyeball" next to each to reveal the Layer Comps you have saved. The best part of this process is when you import this file as a Photoshop document into InDesign, upon import you can choose which "Comp" you want to place. After the image has been placed you can also change the "Comp" by choosing Object > Object Layer Options. Just imagine your Editor is standing behind you and they ask you to show them what you've designed on the front cover. You can check the preview box in the Object Layer Options dialog box and literally show them countless different designs that are all contained within one Photoshop file! Because all of the designs are in one file, there isn't any need to reposition the image inside the frame.

If you think about it, even if you had separate images, you could put each image on a different layer inside of InDesign, and accomplish the same task. But Layer Comps make this process much easier.

DTP Tools sells a plugin that does the exact same thing inside InDesign. The Layer Comps plugin for InDesign works the exact same way that it does in Photoshop.You can check out the DTP plugin here: http://www.dtptools.com/product.asp?id=lcid. If you are using K4, or the Live Edit workflow, this plugin would only further complicate matters. You would still need to update the stories separately, but instead of updating the stories on a document basis, you would need to do it by layer.

The way vjoon designed this new feature in K4 version 6, addresses all of the issues I have previously mentioned. And they do it in a really ingenious way! K4 version 6 allows users to save different designs, and promote the correct design to the article preview as necessary. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Finish your first Design
After your first design is finished you'll be ready to make additional designs. You can place stories and articles from K4 into your layout, and then complete the design.

Step 2: Start a Workflow for a different Design
Choose the document you want to make an alternate design for inside a K4 Query panel. From the drop-down menu in the top-right of the panel choose "Start Workflow for new Design." You can also use the contextual menu to accomplish this task.

Starting a new Design Workflow in the K4 Query panel.
When you start a new "Design" workflow, you get a new "second field" that you can fill in to make it perfectly clear which design you are checking out, or working on while in K4.

The name of your document doesn't change. But you can add a second name to your new design.

Step 3: Accept the task of the new Design
You can now re-design the new K4 page. All of your stories will remain connected to the same article that was attached to the first design. That means that if an article is connected to a "Design" it will update. This brings us back to the original question: What page previews will the InCopy user see in Layout mode? The answer: InDesign user can choose which layout is seen by InCopy users.

Checkmarks appear next to the "Preferred Design" in the Query panel. The checkmarks indicate which layout will be seen by an inCopy user who is editing the attached article.

Step 4: Promoting a Preffered Design
Once the final design has been agreed upon, the InDesign user can promote the preferred design so that the editor in InCopy can copy edit, and fit the current stories to the new design. To promote a design to "Preferred" status, you only need to click on the drop-down menu in the K4 Query panel.

Setting a new Preferred Design in the Query panel.

The ability to make additional designs within the K4 system is yet another important tool that vjoon has released within K4 version 6. Because you no longer need to break the link between the article and the separate InDesign documents, K4 has developed a simple process of promoting "Preferred Designs." Both designers and editorial staff will love this newfound freedom inside the K4 system. The feature itself promotes experimentation and creativity of design, while still giving users the structured database system they need.

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May 04, 2010

K4 Version 6 Allows the Creation of Alternative "Designs" for Layouts