Operation Manual

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Out/Check In Selection button K. New Assignment button L. Delete Selected Assignments/Remove button

InCopy Assignments panel

A. InCopy content names B. Assignment Out Of Date status C. Assignment name D. Available And Text Up To Date status E. In Use And

Text Out Of Date status F. Editing And Text Up To Date status G. User name H. Update Design button I. Update Content button J. Check

Out/Check In Selection button

Assignment files

In InDesign, assignment files are containers for organizing collections of page items. For example, you might want to select all the items in a story

(headline, byline, copy, graphics, and captions), and then assign them to one InCopy user. Adding those items to an assignment provides a

convenient way for InCopy users to access only the content for which they are responsible. Assignment files (*.icma) appear in the file system, in

the InCopy story bar, and in status messages. Only InDesign users can create assignment files; only InCopy users can open them.

When you create an assignment, a folder is created in the same location as the InDesign document by default. This assignment folder includes the

*.icma assignment files and a content subfolder that contains any exported InCopy story files (in .icml format) that are part of images or other

resources. Once the assignment is created, store the project folder in a location where all users have access to it, or create and distribute an

assignment package. If content is exported before it’s added to an assignment, the files on disk are not moved to the content folder of the

assignment file.

Assignment files include the following:

Links or pointers to the associated page items, including placeholder frames. These elements let the InCopy user open a single file in InCopy

and have editorial access to multiple page items.

Any transformations on the graphics included in the assignment, such as moving, scaling, rotating, or shearing.

Page geometry, so InCopy users can see the layout of the frame and its content that they’re editing without opening the entire InDesign file.

Color-coding of assigned frames in the document.

Illustration of page in InCopy showing page geometry and color coding

Create assignments and add content (InDesign)

Only InDesign users can create assignments and add content to them. There are several ways to create assignments. The method you choose

usually depends on whether you have content to add at the time you create the assignment.

Create empty assignment files. From your InDesign document, you can create a series of empty assignments to act as templates for content

to come later.