I've had a behind-the-scenes sneak peek on the development of this new plug-in and DTP Tools has done a great job with their Layer Comps plug-in for InDesign. If you've ever used the Layer Comps feature introduced back in Photoshop CS then you'll know exactly how this plug-in works in InDesign.
Lots of folks will get good mileage out of layer comps for InDesign, and I suspect folks doing lots of design variations for ads, circulars and magazines with regional variations will love it the most. A few tidbits from their press release that sum it up better than I can:
- Layer Comps allows to save different settings of layer visibility, lock state, order, printability, guide visibility and lock state.
- Comps can be also exported into all formats supported by InDesign. You can export a single comp into .inx as a snapshot or multiple comps into PDF to show your clients layout alternatives.
- All documents created with the Layer Comps can still be opened and edited without this plug-in. The layer settings will remain the same.
How can I see what objects a layer contains in InDesign? I only get the layer names, but in both Photoshop and Illustrator, I see even previews of the contained objects.
[The color of an object's handles corresponds to the layer it's on, just like in Illustrator. Also, you can Option/Alt-click the eye icon in the Layers panel to temporarily toggle off all other layers. -A]