WordsFlow

WordsFlow solves the biggest headache in InDesign production: automatically merging changes in placed text or spreadsheet files into already-edited InDesign stories. It spares you the pain, frustration and errors of manually merging in changes from the external document. What's more, it works entirely invisibly, with no user interface beyond the normal link handling you're already used to for graphics.

What is new in this release:

• Restores support for placing InDesign Tagged Text file links which was inadvertently removed in the 2.6.8 release.
• Fixes a problem where an Update of a Word or Excel link created without WordsFlow could result in an incorrect “damaged link” message.
• Exports numbering for lists that do not start at “1” or “A” correctly.
• Allows the export of stories with invalid bullet characters.
• Translates all of the formatting character codes when exporting numbered lists to a DOCX file.
• Fixes a problem where spanned cells in a table could cause an update to fail.
• Warns more aggressively about conflicts with deleted space characters.
• Generates more warnings for potentially conflicting edits.

What is new in version 2.8.3:

• Fixes a problem where blank lines were being appended to cells in docx file exports.
• Reports the actual error when the import of an OpenDocument (odt) file fails during a Place, Update Link, Export, or Relink rather than a generic error.
• Reduces memory used during an Export to a fraction of what was required before. Documents that used to fail to export because of their size should now work.
• Fixes a problem that could prevent a story from being imported from or exported to an OpenDocument (odt) file.
• Fixes a problem that could leave a frame badge on a story after an Unlink.
• Fixes a problem with Update Link and Relink that could corrupt the updated story and produce the dreaded “missing base snapshot” error.

What is new in version 2.8.1:

• Fixes a problem where the styling applied to text that was imported from a Word or Excel file as unformatted prior to the 2.4.1 release could change unexpectedly after an Update or a Relink.
• Fixes a problem where the styling applied to text that was imported from a Word or Excel file as unformatted could change unexpectedly after an Update or a Relink in documents opened from idml or stories retrieved from InCopy, snippets, or libraries.
• Fixes a problem introduced in the 2.6.9 release that was causing text and rtf exports to fail with an "import filter is not available" message.

What is new in version 2.7:

• Adds change marks to stories that have Track Changes enabled to make merge results from updating and relinking visible in InDesign's Story Editor.
• Adds a warning when updating from a linked document that's busy (open in Word, for example) instead of letting InDesign disable Update Link with no explanation.

What is new in version 2.6.7:

• Fixes a problem introduced in the 2.6.4 release that could cause InDesign to shut down when placing, updating, or relinking a story making use of a font with a short name (three characters or less, like "Sen"). (InDesign CC or later only)
• Fixes a problem where a WordsFlow icon/badge could appear on some imported InCopy/icml stories. InCopy files are now properly ignored.

What is new in version 2.6.4:

• Provides a warning when a Place that would normally create a link doesn’t (due to the active tool and/or selection).
• Works around an InDesign bug where deleting a placed Word story containing out-of-date cross-references can cause InDesign to shut down.
• Fixes a problem where a link update of a Word file containing hyperlinks or cross-references could cause InDesign to shut down.
• Fixes a problem where extra page breaks could show up in exported Word documents if Start Paragraph was set for some paragraph styles.
• Fixes a problem where WordsFlow might continue to manage a story (and display its badge) after a Relink to a text format not supported by WordsFlow (like icml).
• Fixes the export of cell styling that’s applied in the Cell Styles section of the the table’s definition.

What is new in version 2.6:

• Adds support for InDesign CC 2015. The CC 2015 plug-in requires a valid WordsFlow CC 2015-level license. Please contact our sales department to purchase an upgrade license from a pre-CC 2015 plug-in or to see if you qualify for a free upgrade.

• Abandons Adobe’s Extension Manager CC application as the preferred means of installing CC plug-ins. Because Adobe has deprecated Extension Manager, and, more importantly, because the latest Extension Manager update appears to break installation with zxp files altogether (not that it was ever all that reliable), we have decided to move away from Extension Manager and zxp-based installs.

  While we work on creating our own, custom installers, we will be providing our CC plug-ins as manual installations. What this means is that you will need to select the download link in the sidebar that’s appropriate for your OS Mac OS or Windows), expand the downloaded zip file, and then drag files out of the archive and drop them your InDesign app’s Plug-ins folder (for which you’ll need administrative privileges).

  Step-by-step installation instructions are included in the readme within the archive.

  On Windows, please pay particular attention to whether you’re installing into a 32- or 64-bit application as indicated in InDesign’s About dialog (it shows x32 after the version number for a 32-bit application, x64 for 64-bit). In the download, we’ve included both 32- and 64-bit plug-ins for CC, but only 64-bit plug-ins, the default, for CC 2014 and CC 2015. Please contact support f you find you need the 32-bit plug-ins.

What is new in version 2.4.2:

- Fixes a problem where updating a story containing anchored, linked pictures or text could damage the WordsFlow connection and result in a "missing base snapshot" error.
- Fixes a problem where updating a WordsFlow story would damage the connection of any WordsFlow-managed stories anchored within that story. With this fix, nested, anchored WordsFlow (or DocsFlow, for that matter) content is now supported. For example, an imported Excel sheet can now be anchored within a placed Word document such that both the sheet and the document remain updateable.
- Fixes an export bug which could produce corrupt docx files if any glyph fonts (like Webdings, Wingdings, etc.) were used as bullet characters.
- Cleans up tab translation issues with Word exports.
- Fixes a problem where numbered lists in exported documents were being reset by bullet lists.
- Fixes a problem where a WordsFlow-managed story placed from a snippet, library, or an IDML file would always have a Story Status of "Text Modified".
- Fixes a problem where the "damaged" WordsFlow frame badge would only display if the story hadn't been edited.

What is new in version 2.4.1:

• Patches an InDesign bug that could produce erratically-styled text when importing a Word or Excel file without first selecting the [None] character style. WordsFlow now automatically activates the [None] character style for any import initiated with Place with WordsFlow.
• Fixes a problem where the styling applied to text that had been imported from a Word or Excel file as “unformatted” could change unexpectedly after an Update or a Relink. Unfortunately, existing Word and Excel links will need to be re-Placed to take advantage of this fix.
• Works around a Word limitation that could cause styles with spaces, underlines, or symbols in their names to be lost when re-importing text that was previously exported by WordsFlow and then edited in Word.
• Fixes a situation where an Export with WordsFlow to an existing but busy file would fail without any notice. WordsFlow will now show a “…the file is already open by another application or another user on the network and cannot be replaced until it has been closed” alert.

What is new in version 2.3.1:

- Fixes the handling of InDesign's "Start Paragraph" attribute to start an exported paragraph with page, column or frame alignment on a new page in the Word document.
- Fixes a problem introduced in 2.1.2 where merged cells within tables could be split for no apparent reason.
- Fixes a problem with scaling and rotation values applied to exported images.
- Fixes a problem that was preventing the export of images and hyperlinks from within footnotes.
- Fixes a rare situation where a story update might never finish.
- Fixes a problem with exporting the "Arial Narrow" font. (Windows only)
- Fixes a problem where exported colors were not always accurate.

What is new in version 2.3:

• Introduces a new, fully functional Pro-product trial mode with a 15-day evaluation period to replace our old feature-limited (single link) demo mode.

  WordsFlow no longer asks for a license when InDesign is started; instead, WordsFlow now asks for a license only when it is first used. If no license is provided, your 15-day trial will begin. You’ll then have 15 days to try all of WordsFlow’s features in your fully functional, Pro-level trial.

  Your WordsFlow trial will provide you with an opportunity to purchase (Get License will take you to our online store) and enter a license code once per day. You can purchase or enter a license code at any time during the trial, without re-downloading or re-installing WordsFlow, using the trial’s License… menu.

  You can check on your remaining evaluation balance at any time by bringing up WordsFlow’s About dialog.

• Exports anchored text frames to docx files.
• Adds support for Relink-ing pictures directly to text documents.
• Fixes a problem where hidden text could be lost during story updates.
• Fixes a hyperlink export problem that could cause Word to complain about document corruption.
• Fixes a loss of cell styling during story updates in rare situations.

What is new in version 2.2:

• Adds scripting support for linked document updating and story exporting. (Pro only)

  (Note that WordsFlow’s non-Pro linking and updating features are invoked through the normal InDesign actions.)

• Fixes a problem where using Export with WordsFlow could cause InDesign CC to crash when quitting. (CC+/Mac only)
• Works around a rare InDesign bug that could prevent fonts from being applied to exported Word documents.

What is new in version 2.1.2:

- Includes the text's language attributes when exporting to a docx file.
- Fixes a problem where Export with WordsFlow and Update Linked Document could fail without reporting an error if the story being exported contained a table with spanned columns.
- Fixes a problem where Update Linked Document was disabled if the Links panel wasn't visible.
- Fixes a problem where updating a linked docx file could add extraneous elements (styles, colors, swatches, etc.) to the document.