From Adobe
InDesign CS2 to
InDesign CS5, the ability to work with
XML content has been built into every version of InDesign. Some of the useful applications are importing
database content into
InDesign to create catalog pages, exporting
XML that will be useful for subsequent publishing processes, and building chunks of content that can be reused in multiple publications.
In this Short Cut, we'll play with the contents of a college course catalog and see how we can use
XML for course descriptions, tables, and other content. Underlying principles of
XML structure, DTDs, and the
InDesign namespace will help you develop your own
XML processes. We'll touch briefly on using
InDesign to "skin"
XML content, exporting as XHTML, InCopy, and the IDML package. The Advanced Topics section gives tips on using XSLT to manipulate
XML in conjunction with InDesign.