Release: Xtags 6/7.1.3.1 for InDesign CS4/CS5

October 4, 2010 by

This release of Xtags for InDesign adds support for InDesign CS5 to that for CS4 (dropping support for CS2/CS3), adds tags for hyperlinks, cross-references and text anchors, adds support for Xtags import and export through the standard InDesign place/export dialogs as well as drag’n’drop, for above-line and custom positioning of anchored frames, for anchored frame position locking, and improves missing picture handling.

Notes

If you’re using CS5, updating to the latest version of Xtags is as simple as starting up Adobe Extension Manager, selecting Xtags and clicking Update.

With this release, the CS5 plug-in now requires a valid Xtags 7 (CS5) serial number.

These release bundles include the InFlow companion plug-in, which must be installed for Xtags to work.

Changes

  • Added native support for hyperlinks, cross-references and text anchors. The new tags are:
    • &Ys marks the start of a text hyperlink
    • &Ye(hyperlink name, page number, style name) ends a text hyperlink and creates a page reference
    • &Ye(hyperlink name, URL, style name) ends a text link and creates a URL reference
    • &Ye(hyperlink name, #anchor name, style name) ends a text link and creates an anchor reference
    • &Yb(relative box ref, ...same as any of &Ye parameters)
    • &Ya"anchor name" drops a named text anchor
    • &Yp"anchor name" drops a named paragraph anchor (for cross-references)
    • &Yx(xref name, anchor name, format name) creates a cross reference

    To put these into use, we would recommend creating some hyperlinks in a scratch document, generating their tags via Edit > Copy with Xtags and then modifying those tags to meet your needs.

    The <&Ya"foo">quick brown fox jumps <&Ys>over<&Ye("foo hyperlink", "#foo")> the lazy dog. will generate a text anchor named “foo”, then create a hyperlink named “foo hyperlink” to that anchor on the text “over”. (Note that text anchor references must be prefaced with a #.)

    The quick brown fox jumps <&Ys>over<&Ye(, "http://emsoftware.com")> the lazy dog. will create an anonymous URL hyperlink on the text “over” to our website.

  • Added support for the import of XPress Tags via InDesign’s Place dialog and drag’n’drop. To be automatically recognized as XPress Tags text, the placed or dropped file must begin with an XPress Tags signature constisting of a <vn.nn> and/or a <en> immediately followed by a line ending. There are currently no import options; instead, all current Xtags import references will apply except “include style sheets”, which will always be set. Importing unanchored box tags using the Place dialog or drag’n’drop will cause an error. To import unanchored box tags, use File > Import Text with Xtags.
  • Added support for the export of XPress Tags via InDesign’s Export dialog. Note that any text exported this way will use platform encoding (Mac-Roman or Win-Latin). To export with a different encoding, use File > Save Text with Xtags.
  • Missing pictures are now flagged by a proxy image (the red question mark) and the document is primed with a link to the missing picture’s path. See pages 39-40 of the Xtags Users Guide for details about the “picture type” parameter and picture handling.
  • Added support for above-line and custom positioning of anchored frames. In addition to A and B (see page 34 of the Xtags Users Guide), the “anchored alignment” parameter of an anchored box tag may now also contain the parameter sublist:
    • (O, flags, alignment, space before, space after) for “above line” positioning of the anchored frame, where alignment is one of L (left), C (center), R (right) or E (text alignment). If the S flag is specified (for spine-relative alignment), then R becomes “towards spine” and L becomes “away from spine”; or else
    • (C, flags, object refpt, position refpt, x relto, x offset, y relto, y offset) for “custom” positioning of the anchored frame, where flags may contain S (relative to spine) and/or P (pin to column boundaries), object refpt and position refpt contain one of L (left), C (center), R (right) followed by one of T (top), V (vertical center) or B (bottom), x relto is one of A (anchor marker), C (column edge), F (text frame), M (page margin) or P (page edge) and y relto is one of B (line, baseline), H (line, cap height), L (line, top of leading), C (column edge), F (text frame), M (page margin) or P (page edge).

    For example, <&pb2(36,36,,,,(O,S,R,.25",.25"))> creates a picture frame with above line positioning (O) towards the spine (S + R) and quarter inch spacing both above and below.

    And <&tb2(72,72,,,,(C,,RT,LV,F,0,H,2))> creates a custom-positioned anchored text frame (C), whose right-top corner (RT) is positioned relative to the left (L of LV) of the anchor marker’s text frame (F) and the vertical center (V of LV) of the marker line’s cap height (H) plus 2 points.

  • Added support for the position lock flag (L) for inline and anchored frames.
  • Fixed a problem where frame options like paragraph spacing limit and first baseline offset and minimum weren’t being applied to text frames created with the &tb family of tags.
  • Fixed a problem where importing a missing picture with a non-native path (a Mac-style path in the Windows plug-in, for example) would result in no link being generated for the missing picture proxy image.

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