Whether you are beginner in Adobe InDesign or you are already expert. There will always be a time when you would want to import the content from one project to another InDesign project. Obviously, you must be thinking about traditional copy paste method. In this tutorial, I will uncover an effective way of importing the content from one layout to another without copy paste. Keep watching to find out.
I am using this green technology science book to show you how this works. Let’s take this content collector tool. Shortcut key is B. If the conveyor does not appear at the bottom of this interface. Press ALT B. See, the conveyor belt just appeared. For now, I am going to use this content collector tool to add all the images in this conveyor panel. Keep in mind, this tool works when at least two InDesign documents are opened at the same time. Now, I am going to create a new A4 size document. BTW if you want to learn all these InDesign presets, the tutorial link is here.
With Conveyor belt opened, select the content place tool from the toolbar. Shortcut key is B. select the images from the panel, and paste them anywhere on this page. click anywhere on this page. See, all those imported images had been pasted over here. Notice that when I paste the content on other document, that content disappears from the conveyor. Its because the conveyor only holds the information until it is pasted in other document. If you want to add this image back to the conveyor belt, just use Content collector tool, and you will get this here.
So the summary is that Content Collector tool collects the information from one InDesign layout and Content Place tool places that information to other InDesign layout.
Tip of the Day
You must be thinking, Why do I even need these tools when I can simply copy and paste? Well, I have an answer. Let’s say you want to copy this content and paste to other document. All you will do is copy all this text and paste It in the blank layout. What if, you accidentally copied something else. Then you will need to copy this paragraph again and paste here.
With the help of conveyor, your imported information is stored. It works a clipboard that is reserved for InDesign users. No matter what other things you copied, you can simply use the conveyor belt panel to paste the data into other layout. Now go and copy whatever you want.
Once you get comfortable using these tools, you will keep using them for rest of your life. It is a useful tool and a simpler method of moving content across layouts without having to copy and paste.
I hope this tutorial helped you learn about two amazing tools that can make your information sharing easier than copy paste method.
English Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OIF-z9_pD4
Sindhi Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhG_dT8oeos
Urdu Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fyPgbAJiSY&t=185s