If you have specific content that you need to use in different parts of a project, either within a layout or across several layouts, you can synchronize it so if it’s modified in one place, the changes are automatically applied to the same content throughout the project. Synchronizing content helps you keep things such as mastheads, legal copy, or prices consistent throughout a project.
Synchronized content expands upon the concept of synchronized text, which was introduced in QuarkXPress 6. As the name implies, synchronized text applied only to text; now shared content can include text (with and without formatting), pictures, boxes, lines, and composition zones.
Synchronized content is kept in a virtual storage bin called the shared content library. The Shared Content palette is your window into the shared content library . When you add an item to the Shared Content palette, the Shared Item Properties dialog box opens, allowing you to choose which attributes of that item are shared.
Here are the basics, in brief:
To create a shared content entry, you add an item to the Shared Content palette.
When you insert a shared content entry into a project, it’s called an “instance.”
When you edit any instance in a project, your changes are reflected in other instances of the same shared content, depending on which shared item properties you’ve chosen for that entry.
Things that are eligible to become shared content include items (boxes, text paths, and lines) and contents (a picture; or all the text in a box, on a path, or in a table cell). You can also synchronize a composition zone, which is discussed in Chapter 23. You can’t synchronize groups, entire tables, or anything on a master page.
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Control-click/Right-click the item in your layout and choose Share.
Note: The settings chosen here can’t be changed, so think carefully about how you want the selection to be synchronized. For text and pictures, you can check any of the following:
Synchronize Box Attributes to keep all the box attributes (size, frame, background color, etc.) the same, except for the location of the item in the layout.
Synchronize Content to synchronize the text or picture content and keep the words or picture exactly the same.
If you check Synchronize Content, you can fine tune how it works by clicking Content & Attributes to preserve the attributes of the picture and/or text, or Content Only to keep the words or picture the same but allow the attributes of individual instances to be edited.
When you synchronize text, all the text in the item is synchronized, so in some cases you may need to break up text into different boxes.
Locked content remains locked, even if you add it as shared content. For example, if Item > Lock > Story is checked and you check Synchronize Content when you add a text box to the palette, all instances of that story will be locked when added to the layout. Similarly, if Item > Lock > Position is checked and you check Synchronize Box Attributes, all instances of the text box will also be locked in a layout. Changes to the locked/unlocked status of one instance of shared content will be reflected in the other instances.
The synchronization options selected when an entry is created determine how you create instances of that entry. If Synchronize Box Attributes or Synchronize Attributes is checked, you can drag the entire entry into a layout. If only Synchronize Content is checked, you have to add the entry to an existing box in the layout.
To replace a synchronized picture, click a picture icon in the palette, then click the Browse button. All instances of that picture will change.
You can unsynchronize one instance of shared content at a time or you can unsynchronized all the instances of a particular entry. All the former instances remain in the project, but the link to the Shared Content palette and any other former instances is broken. The entry remains in the Shared Content palette and can be added anew to a layout.
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Or Control-click/Right-click the item and choose Unsynchronize.
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Control-click/Right-click the entry on the palette and choose Unsynchronize All.
The entry will remain on the palette, so you can still use it to add new instances to the layout.
If the Shared Content palette starts to fill up with entries that you no longer have any use for, it’s time to weed some of them out. If you remove an entry from the Shared Content palette, any former instances of that entry will remain in the project, but they will no longer be synchronized with one another and can be edited independently of one another.
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Control-click/Right-click the entry on the palette and choose Delete.
Deleting a layout that contains shared content has no effect on entries on the Shared Content palette or instances in other layouts.