Getting website data into Adobe InDesign

Question

I'd like our magazine team to be able to download website data in a file that Adobe InDesign can read. They can then import/open the file, make a few tweaks, and cut out a vast deal of repetitive manual labour (they currently use copy&paste for a few hours).

After a brief Google I note that v2 of InDesign can import/export XML so perhaps that is my best bet? Are there any alternatives, and can anyone offer any advice on them?

I am using a PC, and the magazine team are on Macs; testing will be tiresome I fear.

The data we wish to format is fairly simple - a title followed by a short chunk of text (repeated about 50 times, say). I'll ask about importing images later.

Thanks for your help. I will return to Google now, but it would be great if anyone can point me in a more specific direction first!

Answer 1

There is a xhtml to idml (indesign markup language) xsl template in the latest indesign sdk. You can start with that to help you format your idml output.

Here is a link to the sdk: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/indesign/sdk/

Download the "products" version. The xsl file is in this path in the zip file: devtools/sdktools/idmltools/samples/icmlbuilder/xsl/icml.xsl

Because of the mac issue, you can have them 'save' a xhtml file to a shared directory, you can then create a utility program to watch that directory and transform the saved files to an output directory.

Otherwise, there is a firefox add-on to transform xml files called XSL Results: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5023

I have not used it myself but it appears it could do the job of transforming the xhtml to idml for you on a mac...