Welcome to this demonstration of CtrlCrossTalk for Adobe InCopy. In this demonstration we are going to show you the key features of the CtrlCrossTalk plug-in and how it is used. We will also explain how the collaboration between an InDesign and an InCopy user functions, and how CtrlCrossTalk really simplifies this process. If you are not familiar with Adobe InCopy, the application can in simple terms be described as a powerful text editor for InDesign documents without the layout capabilities of InDesign. InCopy is an ideal tool for copy editors, journalists or any other content writers working in a group that has InDesign documents as their focus. The InDesign user has full control over the document, while InCopy users are assigned to edit specific portions of the text.

We are now going to edit an InDesign document in InCopy, with the CtrlCrossTalk plug-in installed. We take a normal InDesign file and open it in InCopy. Before the file loads, we are prompted with a dialogue asking if we want to convert the document to CrossTalk. This is actually the only interaction with CtrlCrossTalk the user experiences. We click Yes, and the document opens. We select the text frame we want to edit, make our changes, and then save and close the document.

Very simple. So — where is the benefit of CrossTalk? We have now uninstalled CtrlCrossTalk, leaving InCopy with all the default settings and plug-ins. We take the same file as in the previous example and attempt to open it using InCopy alone. We are greeted with the message that the document contains no InCopy stories, and the stories are not available for editing. We choose the text we want to edit and start typing — and nothing happens. The reason why InCopy users are not able to edit the text is because the InDesign document needs to be prepared with assignments. This is something that needs to be done from InDesign, by the InDesign user, manually. Each InDesign text box needs to be designated as an assignment, and an InCopy story file must be created. In order to make this entire document editable using InCopy, the InDesign user needs to create almost fifty InCopy story files, selecting and assigning them one at a time. What once was a single file is now almost fifty-five files.

CtrlCrossTalk bypasses all these files and assignments, and enables InCopy users to edit the InDesign file without any of the preliminary processes otherwise required. We simply open the InDesign file in InCopy, select Yes when asked to convert it to CrossTalk, and then choose any text we want to edit, make our changes and save and close the document. That is the benefit of the CtrlCrossTalk plug-in.