StoryTweaker

Intro

StoryTweaker is a tool that allows people who don’t have InDesign or InCopy to edit the text content of an InDesign document, no matter which platform it was created on.

The StoryTweaker system does not actually work directly with InDesign files. Instead, in order to allow editing, StoryTweaker will export any InDesign file into a special editable format. After the edits are done, StoryTweaker will import the edited text back into the InDesign file.

There is a very clear delineation of responsibilities: the user of StoryTweaker can only influence text content. No layout changes can be made, no new text styles can be created… – those responsibilities remains with the designer.

Installation

Download the appropriate version of StoryTweaker above by choosing Mac OS X or Windows.

On Mac OS X you will have downloaded a .dmg file. Simply open it and drag the StoryTweaker.app file into your applications folder.

On Windows you will have downloaded a .zip file. Extract the contents and double click the StoryTweaker.msi. Click through the various installer screens. Once the installation is finished, you should end up with a StoryTweaker.exe shortcut on your desktop.

Usage

StoryTweaker has two usage modes. a simplified mode, and an enhanced mode for more complex multi-user documents such as translating.

StoryTweaker can be used in it’s simplified mode for straightforward text edits. The user can export a StoryTweaker assignment from an InDesign document, send it to an editor and then import the text changes back into the document.

Click here for a more detailed explanation and diagram
Click here for a detailed example

StoryTweaker can also be used in it’s enhanced mode for more complex multi-user documents such as translating. The user can create a StoryTweaker TweakSet from an InDesign document. This TweakSet will contain multiple StoryTweaker assignments where for instance each assignment is a translation of the document. The user can then generate multiple documents from the TweakSet for each assignment.

Click here for a more detailed explanation and diagram
Click here for a detailed example

Limitations

There is currently a bug in StoryTweaker 1.2.7b which sometimes prevents an assignment from being imported back into the Tweak Set.

It will be fixed in the next version of StoryTweaker but in the mean time you can hold down the <option>/<alt> key while you import the assignment. This should prevent StoryTweaker from refusing to import an assignment.

More Info

To better understand how StoryTweaker ‘thinks’ you should read these articles:

• Using AssignmentTweaker on Mac OS X
• Using AssignmentTweaker on Window