🚀 go-pugleaf

Matt, some of what you're describing is confusing to me, i'm not sure if you're really doing what you say you're doing or if you're just getting the file extensions confused.

For example: 

      The Editor tried making changes to an INCX file while the INCA file was
      open on the Designer�s computer.




The designer should not be opening an INCA file. The editor should not be opening an INCX file.

InDesign layout = .indd file
ID/IC assignment = .inca file
IC story = .incx file

If your designer is actually opening an INDD file, and your editor is actually opening an INCA file, that's how it should be (and it's probably a network issue as Adam said) so you can ignore the rest of this.

But if people are opening the wrong types of files, or you suspect they might be, then let me just go over how the workflow works with assignments (for you and for lurkers I guess).

The designer opens the .indd file (the layout) and from within it, creates an assignment (an .inca file) which I'll call Assignment_1.inca and saves it to the server. Then the designer selects text frames and chooses Edit > InCopy > Add Selection to Assignment > Assignment_1. He makes sure that these subsequent .incx stories are *also* saved to the server, preferably in a "stories" folder at the same level as the .inca file.

The designer never opens ... never needs to open actually ... the .inca file. Always opens and works on the .indd file, creating one or more assignments from it, exporting stories to IC format on the server and allocating them to assignments in his Assigments palette.

Then the editor. From InCopy's File > Open menu, the editor navigates to the server and double-clicks on the Assignment_1.inca file. That opens the assignment (probably a spread or two of the layout) containing the stories the designer added to it. They appear as text frames in the layout in the editor's Layout View and of course in Story/Galley views.

The editor never opens ... never needs to open .. an .incx file in this workflow. Always opens and works on the .inca file (the Assignment) in the workflow you describe.

With the assignment open in InCopy, the editor selects stories from his Assignments palette and checks them out. Checkiing out the stories doesn't open any new files, just makes previously-uneditable stories editable in the Assignment file. (Their icons change from the "available" globe/paper to the "editing" pencil.)

The editor works on the checked-out stories within the Assignment. He can Save Content as he works without checking them in, just as people normally hit Save periodically as they work. (If he does Check them In without saving changes, IC will save the changes for him automatically at the same time he checks them in.) Checking stories in does not close any files or windows ... just changes the stories' icons in the assignment file back to "available.".

Whenever the editor saves ... hits Command/Ctrl-S ... if the designer has the layout file open, the designer will be notified that that particular story has been modified and can update that story. If the designer doesn't happen to be working on the layout, the next time he does so, he'll get the usual alert "Some things have been modified. Automatically update?" as he would with changed images.

So I'm wondering if your editor might be mistakenly opening the .incx files .. the exported stories ... instead of the Assignment file (.inca). A common error with new users.

If he is, he might also be choosing Save Content As (instead of Save Content). Save Content As is only available when you're working on a stand-alone .incx file in InCopy, it's greyed out when you're working on an Assignment file.

If he chooses Save Content As, he gets a dialog box asking where he wants to save/name the new .incx file, just like choosing Save As works in every program. This creates a copy of the story (not linked to the layout) whereever he saves it. I'm wondering if this might be the cause of his changes not getting communicated to the designer ... the Saved As story is not linked to the layout.

AM