CreateTOTALLY Docs

Welcome to this series of tutorials, which teaches you the basic tools and techniques of StudioCraft for InDesign.

To prepare InDesign files for use with CreateTOTALLY, you need to install our StudioCraft app. This can be downloaded here.

Document set-up

Before you start to tag your artwork for automation, make sure:

Document is set-up as single pages - the size of the document determines how it will re-size. Having your document set-up as a single page, will make sure it re-sizes from the centre of the document. If your document is set-up as spreads, go to document set-up and uncheck facing pages, then delete the 1st parent page.
There are no hidden characters in your copy - if you are testing your artwork or don't plan on changing the copy, always go to Type > Show hidden characters and check to make sure there aren't any hidden characters in your text. This can make automation behave unexpectedly

Tagging - Image

Tag Name
This is pre-populated with the page element name in the Layer panel. If you change the Tag Name it will update the object name in the Layer panel.

Tag Type
Image elements can be tagged as:

Image - This is the standard option for image automation

Dealer logo - If the image box is for a dealer logo, select this option

Tag Order

After the document re-sizes, there is an order with which each element of the artwork will re-size. This is important if elements need to re-size in relation to each other for example you may want the Logo to be positioned first and then the headline align to the new logo position.

You can effectively stack multiple tagged objects by assigning a number for each tagged object:

Resize/Scale By

Welcome to this series of tutorials, which teaches you the basic tools and techniques of StudioCraft for InDesign. This tutorial introduces you to Image Tagging - Resize/Scale By

Get files Sample file to practice with (ZIP, 1.4 MB)

What you learned: How to use Resize/Scale By to resize image frame and content

Learn how to resize images by using the Resize/Scale By tagging to resize images such as a logo.

Use Resize/Scale By to resize image frame and content

Open the Pages Items Panel (CreateTOTALLY > Pages Items Panel) and select the image on the page you wish to resize.
Click the New button at the bottom of the Pages Item Panel to open the Tags dialog box.
Choose Resize and Scale > Resize/Scale By.
Use the dropdown to select from the following resize options: Both, Width, Height and Area.
Use the dropdown to select from the following position options: Top, Top Left, Top Right, Bottom, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right.
You can also use the checkbox Fit Frame: which will fit frame to content after resize
Click the OK button to save your Tags and close Tags dialog box.

Behaviour: Snap to Margin

Welcome to this series of tutorials, which teaches you the basic tools and techniques of StudioCraft for InDesign. This tutorial introduces you to Image Tagging - Behaviour: Snap to Margin

Get files Sample file to practice with (ZIP, 1.3 MB)

What you learned: How to align content to margins

Learn how to align content by using the Snap to Margin tagging to position images such as a logo.

Use margins to position content

Open the Pages Items Panel (CreateTOTALLY > Pages Items Panel) and select the image on the page you wish to align.
Click the New button at the bottom of the Pages Item Panel to open the Tags dialog box.
Choose Behaviour > Snap to Margin.
Select from the dropdown the following options: Top, Top Left, Top Right, Bottom, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right Margins.
Click the OK button to save your Tags and close Tags dialog box.

Alignment

Welcome to this series of tutorials, which teaches you the basic tools and techniques of StudioCraft for InDesign. This tutorial introduces you to Image Tagging - Alignment

Get files Sample file to practice with (ZIP, 1.3 MB)

What you learned: How to align content to another object

Learn how to align horizontally or vertically selected image to another object such as a logo by using the Alignment tagging.

Use object to align content

Open the Pages Items Panel (CreateTOTALLY > Pages Items Panel) and select the image on the page you wish to align.
Click the New button at the bottom of the Pages Item Panel to open the Tags dialog box.
Choose Alignment > Vertical.
Select from the dropdown the following vertical options: Top, Middle, Bottom of select image frame and align to image or text frame of another object.
Choose Alignment > horizontal.
Select from the dropdown the following horizontal options: Left, Centre, Right of select image frame and align to image or text frame of another object.
Click the OK button to save your Tags and close Tags dialog box.

Alignment Pin (Snap)

Welcome to this series of tutorials, which teaches you the basic tools and techniques of StudioCraft for InDesign. This tutorial introduces you to Image Tagging - Alignment Pin (Snap)

Get files Sample file to practice with (ZIP, 1.3 MB)

What you learned: How to pin content to another object

Learn how to pin horizontally or vertically selected text to another object such as a logo by using the Alignment tagging.

Use object to pin content

Open the Pages Items Panel (CreateTOTALLY > Pages Items Panel) and select the text on the page you wish to pin.
Click the New button at the bottom of the Pages Item Panel to open the Tags dialog box.
Choose Alignment > Vertical.
Select from the dropdown the following vertical options: Top, Middle, Bottom of select text frame and pin to image or text frame of another object.
Select checkbox Pin (Snap)
Choose Alignment > horizontal.
Select from the dropdown the following horizontal options: Left, Centre, Right of select text frame and pin to image or text frame of another object.
Select checkbox Pin (Snap)
Click the OK button to save your Tags and close Tags dialog box.

How to Use InDesign Frame Fitting Options with StudioCraft App

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In order to prepare your InDesign artwork for the Automation Engine, you will need to assign the correct Frame Fitting options, as part of the Adaptation process:

Step 1

Open your InDesign document and use the Layers panel to select objects for automation tagging:

Step 2

To ensure the left of the slope on the snowboarder image aligned to the bottom right of the Snow Wave image we applied the following Frame Fitting Options to snowboarder image:

Auto-Fit was selected. Fitting: was Fill Frame Proportionally and Align From: was Bottom Centre.

Tip: Make sure Auto-Fit is selected.

Step 3

To ensure the bottom right of the Snow Wave image aligned to the left of the slope on the snowboarder image we applied the following Frame Fitting Options to Snow Wave image:

Auto-Fit was selected. Fitting: was Fit Content Proportionally and Align From: was centre.

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Fit objects to frames

If the frame and its content are different sizes, you can use the Fitting commands to achieve a perfect fit.

Frame alignment options apply to frames that contain either a graphic or another text frame (text frames nested within another frame), but they do not affect paragraphs inside a text frame—you control alignment and positioning of text itself using the Text Frame Options command and the Paragraph, Paragraph Styles, and Story panels.

Fit an object to its frame

Select the frame of the object.

Choose Object > Fitting and one of the following options:

Fill Frame Proportionally

Resizes content to fill the entire frame while preserving the content’s proportions. The frame’s dimensions are not changed. If the content and the frame have different proportions, some of the content will be cropped by the bounding box of the frame.

‍Fit Content Proportionally

Resizes content to fit a frame while preserving the content proportions. The frame’s dimensions are not changed. If the content and the frame have different proportions, some empty space will result.

Content-Aware Fit

Automatically fits an image inside the frame based on the image content and frame size. The frame's dimensions are not changed. To make this as the default frame fitting option, go to Preferences > General and select Make Content-Aware Fit the default frame fitting option

Note:

Content-Aware Fit removes the transformations, such as Scale, Rotate, Flip, or Shear, applied to the image. However, the transformations applied to the frame are not removed.
Content-Aware Fit is not available on Windows 32-bit.

Fit Frame To Content

Resizes a frame to fit its content. The frame’s proportions are altered to match the content proportions, if necessary. This is useful for resetting a graphics frame that you accidentally altered.

Fit Content To Frame

Resizes content to fit a frame and allows the content proportions to be changed. The frame will not change, but the content may appear to be stretched if the content and the frame have different proportions.

How to create a Master Crop - Alpha Channel

CreateTOTALLY can crop images dynamically based on a master crop selection during resizing using alpha channel saved with the file. When an imported graphic includes more than one path or alpha channel, you can choose which alpha channel to use for the clipping path with image tagging.

Create a screenshot of the master crop with all page items. See example below.

Create alpha channel mask in Photoshop image

How to create a master crop in a Photoshop image as an alpha channel.

Add screenshot of the master crop to the master image as a new layer. You can simply do this by dragging the screenshot of the master crop file from its saved location on to the master image in Photoshop.

If the screenshot of the master crop file is smaller than the original image you will need to resize using the Transform tool. A box will appear around the layer with boxes in the corner. Click and drag those boxes to change the size.

Resize, drag and drop your master crop image until it’s exactly the right size you want, and in the correct place, in relation to the original photo. Hit ‘Enter’ when you’re happy with its size and position. This will keep it locked in place.

Tip: To check the correct size and position of the master crop layer use blending mode: Difference

To save a master crop selection as an alpha channel. The Alpha channel stores the selection as an editable grayscale mask in the Channels panel.

Select the area or areas of the image you want to isolate.

Click the Save Selection button at the bottom of the Channels panel.

A new Alpha channel appears which is the master crop that will be used by InDesign during resizing. Please save document.

Tagging - Text

Tag Name‍

This is pre-populated with the page element name in the Layer panel. If you change the Tag Name it will update the object name in the Layer panel.

Tag Type‍

Text elements can be tagged as:

Text - This is the standard option for text automation

Rich text - If the text box is to be replaced with a separate document containing rich text styles, instead of plain text, select this option

Paragraph styles -

Tag Order

After the document re-sizes, there is an order with which each element of the artwork will re-size. This is important if elements need to re-size in relation to each other for example you may want the headline to be positioned first and then the sub-headline align to the new headline position.