XML Publishing with Adobe InDesign

Advanced Topics: Transforming XML with XSL

Many of the topics in this section of the Short Cut deal with CS3's new features for dealing with XML, and the more painful ways to accomplish the same work using CS2's features.

An Aside Regarding Scripting InDesign and XML Rules-based Publishing

There is a lot of potential hidden in the phrase "XML Scripting", most of which applies to InDesign CS3. The power tools are Scripting (AppleScript, Visual Basic and JavaScript) in CS2 and CS3, and rules-based XML publishing (CS3 only).

Scripting InDesign promises to be another hacker's delight—for hackers who like publishing. If you want to get a better idea of what can be done, see the O'Reilly Short Cut publications, such as Scripting InDesign with JavaScript by Peter Kahrel.

You can get started with the scripts by visiting the Adobe web site and looking for "scripting reference" documentation in the InDesign Help and Forum sections of the site. Online searches will reveal more InDesign scripting references.

XSLT for Wrangling XML; XML Scripting for Automating XML Publishing

Here's what I think are the key differentiators for which process to use and why:

If you need to change the XML itself as it is being imported or exported into InDesign, use XSL transforms. I provide some examples in this Short Cut. Anyone can write XSLT^[4] with a text editor and one of the good XSLT books; the trick is to know when to "speak InDesign" and how. InDesign has its limitations in transforming XML on import and export. ...