Learning the new approach

See the Getting Started help topic for a list of videos and resources.

See the Overview help topic for additional learning resources.

See the What’s new in this release help topic for a summary of the changes.

Working with existing structure

With the new folio, the source documents for articles can appear in different folders or different computers. But the old method of creating folio folders with stack subfolders still works great. You can import single articles or a group of articles.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the sidecar.xml file still populates the article properties. Unfortunately, once you import articles, you can’t use the sidecar.xml file to update the properties.

Acrobat.com

You can use the Folio Builder panel in InDesign to create folios and preview them using the Desktop Viewer or the Adobe Content Viewer on a mobile device. However, to publish folios, you need to sign in to the DPS Dashboard on the web and use the Folio Producer.

As you may have noticed, the web client appears on acrobat.com (http://digitalpublishing.acrobat.com). Knowing this, you may be tempted to use acrobat.com as a backdoor to your folio files. Well, don’t. If you try to edit folios or articles using Acrobat.com, you could end up breaking your folio.

There is only one reason to sign in to Acrobat.com and tinker with DPS files. If someone shared a folio with you and you no longer want it to appear in the Folio Builder panel, go into Acrobat.com and delete the workspace of the shared folio. (There should be an “Unshare” option in an upcoming release.)

Sharing

With the old tools, you could share a folio with other people by exporting a .folio file and sending it to them. Recipients could then double-click the .folio file to preview it on the desktop or sideload it to their iPads.

Sideloading .folio files is no longer supported in the new workflow. Instead, you share a folio with others. To preview the folio you share with them, recipients must have InDesign CS5 or CS5.5 with the Folio Producer tools installed. And, of course, a valid Adobe ID.

Linking to other articles

Now that folios and articles are stored on the web, the “navto” format is the only way to link to other articles. If you use the “Page” or “Hyperlink Destination” methods to link to another article, those links will be broken. When creating navto links, point to the name of the target article as it appears in the Folio Builder panel.

If you use the Import command to import multiple articles, the folder name of each article (previously called a ”stack”) is used as the article name. If your existing navto links point to the folder name, you shouldn’t have to edit your existing navto formats.

If your existing navto links point to a filename (such as navto://cycling_v), you either need to redo your navto links or rename the target articles. (The article name doesn’t show up in the viewer; only the article title appears in the viewer.)

Rearranging articles in a folio

Articles appear in the Folio Builder panel in the order in which they are added. You cannot use the Folio Builder panel to rearrange them. Instead, use the Folio Producer web client at digitalpublishing.acrobat.com.

Publishing a folio

With the Content Bundler, you uploaded your folios to the fulfillment server. As you did so, you set the status (Private or Public/Free or Retail). In the new workflow, you use the Folio Producer web client to publish the folio for commercial use.

HTML Resources

If you’re using a lot of HTML in your articles, you can use an HTMLResources folder to share content. In the old workflow, the HTMLResources folder needed to be on the same level as the articles in the folio folder. In the new workflow, the production person needs to upload an HTMLResources.zip file to the web client. Oh, and when you create the zip file, don’t create the zip based on the folder. Select all the files in the folder, and zip that.

That should be enough to get you up and running when you’re ready to experiment with the new workflow. More later…

What does it mean that the Professional Edition is launching?

If you’re a prerelease customer creating an app or folios for publishing…

Don’t install or update the tools until you finish your production work. Or at least don’t install the Folio Producer tools on the same computer as the Content Bundler. Installing the Folio Producer tools disables the Content Bundler.

If you’re a DPS subscriber or a prerelease/InDesign user experimenting with tools…

You have a whole new workflow to learn. Here are some resources:

Installing the tools – Go here to learn how to install/uninstall the tools.

What’s new in this release – This help topic provides a quick summary of the new tools. The Overview help topic is another good resource. So is Terry White’s video.

Authoring tutorials - The first tutorial is for people who already know how to use the DPS tools and want to learn the new tools. The next two tutorials walk through the basics.

Enjoy!