WordsFlow vs InCopy
InCopy is a great solution if you need your authors and editors to work with exactly what’s going to be seen in the final InDesign document. However, working with WordsFlow does have some serious advantages.
Still get “wysiwyg” results
WordsFlow (and DocsFlow) have a preference to turn on auto-PDF generation after any link update, creating or updating a PDF file adjacent to the source document.
The PDF file includes all the pages that the linked story touches, so your authors/editors can see how their story will look once published. Just not as they’re actually working—see “Keep your editors out of the layout business,” below.
Avoid retraining
If your authors/editors have used Word all their lives, there’s no need to change their work habits or learn something new, using WordsFlow. They can stay productive in their long- and hard-earned knowledge of Word, with all its editorial power.
InCopy is basically “baby InDesign,” and is a completely foreign world to Word users.
Keep production invisible to your collaborators
In fact, your Word users don’t even have to know you’re using WordsFlow for layout and production—it’s entirely invisible to them. It just makes you, the production user or team, look a lot faster, smarter, and more accurate. (No more botched manual merges.)
Work in parallel
WordsFlow enables InDesign production to proceed in parallel with editing in Word. InCopy stops all other work on a story while it’s checked out.
Use more general document formats
ICML—the native document format that InCopy uses—can really only be used to feed InDesign. WordsFlow allows you to link document formats that can be used for other purposes.
Keep more formatting control
WordsFlow is more “production proof” in that you can control the formatting on the InDesign side and review changes made by the editors before accepting. When an InCopy story is checked in, that’s it.
Keep your editors out of the layout business
With WordsFlow, your authors and editors don’t need to be burdened with all the styling and other layout details in the InDesign story. It’s well known that dealing with the details of text formatting while writing is a huge distraction from the real job at hand.
And, your InDesign production folks will be glad your authors and editors don’t get to meddle with those details.
No licenses needed for every author/editor
Each of your authors and editors needs an InCopy license, while only your production (InDesign) users need a WordsFlow license — most companies already have widely-available Word/Excel access.