Manage layout elements

Get an overview of planned and places assets inside one layout. Place content directly from the Layout Elements widget into the layout.

Context

The workflow is carried out in censhare Web. It refers to the Layout Elements widget which is part of the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents.

Prerequisites

A layout asset must be opened in an asset page, with the "Editor” tab selected.
The currently opened layout must have assets related to it, with a planning or placement relation.

Introduction

Left: Editor for Adobe InDesign documents with layout preview and preview bar
Right: Layout Elements widget with table of placed (blue) and planned elements

The Layout Elements widget lists all content elements that are planned or placed for the current layout. Child assets are displayed as well. You can see at a glance which assets have been placed, how often they have been placed and where they are located in the layout. For example, as you can see in the graphic above, a product containing two images is placed once in a layout group of the layout.

From the Layout Elements table, you can edit the elements or place them in the layout. When the layout is rendered, the table is updated according to the edits and synchronized with the preview.

Key steps

On the Layout Elements widget, you are able to

browse the table of planned and placed content
check which elements have been planned or placed
check how often any element has been placed
locate where an element has been placed
carry out general actions on any asset on the table
drag elements from the table and drop them into the layout

Get an overview

The Layout Elements widget lists all content elements that are planned or placed for the current layout. Asset structures such as products are displayed on the top level of the table, with their assigned content elements shown on the lower levels. Child assets are displayed as well.

The standard Layout elements widget provides the following details:

Column	Value	Description
Asset	icon asset name	icon indicating asset type asset name
Placed	none	element planned but not placed
		asset structure placed with all child assets
	number	asset placed <n> number of times
Placement type	e.g. "master file"	type of data placed
Asset ID		asset ID

There may be more columns depending on your configuration.

To browse the Layout Elements table:

Scroll through the table to find the elements you are looking for.
Click any arrow next to a top-level node to expand or collapse the list showing or hiding the content elements contained.
To check where a placed element is located in the layout: select the element in the Layout elements table on the right. The page where the selected element is located in the layout is displayed in the preview on the left. The respective layout box/group is highlighted.

Place elements

You can place elements by dragging them from the Layout elements table into the layout preview. You can place whole asset structures such as products with title, images and texts into layout groups. Or you can drag a single asset into a single layout box.

If you place assets that have not been on the Layout elements table so far, for instance from the pinboard, the table is only refreshed after rendering the preview. When the preview is refreshed, the Layout elements table shows the newly placed assets.

To place asset structures into layout groups:

In the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents, click the desired page on the preview bar to open it in the preview.
From the Layout elements table, drag any top-level element and drop it into the respective layout group of the open preview page.

If you place snippets, these are no longer visible as snippets after refreshing the preview. The boxes are placed into the layout and the Layout elements table shows the individual elements. The snippet is dissolved.

To place a single asset into a single layout box:

In the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents, click the desired page on the preview bar to open it in the preview.
On the Layout elements table, press and hold the SHIFT key, drag any single asset and drop it into the respective layout box of the open preview page.

Render the layout by clicking the Refresh button in the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents. Layout preview and Layout elements table are synchronized. For the element placed, the number of placements is increased accordingly in the "Placed" column.

Remove elements

You detach or remove elements using the respective action available in the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents.

From the Layout elements table, select the respective element. Depending on the element selected, click the “Detach asset” or “Remove layout group” button in the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents.
Render the layout by clicking the "Refresh" button.

Layout preview and Layout elements are synchronized. The element is removed from the Layout elements table accordingly. If the element was placed more than once, the number of placements is decreased accordingly in the "Placed" column.

Edit elements

For any element on the Layout elements table, you can carry out general editing tasks such as opening the asset or editing its properties, directly from the Actions menu next to it. Depending on the element selected, the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents offers the respective buttons to edit this asset in the layout preview.

To synchronize the layout preview and layout elements table after your edits, click the "Refresh" button from the top of the Editor for Adobe InDesign documents.

Result

Once the layout is rendered, the Layout elements table is updated according to your edits. The layout and data in the Layout elements table are synchronized. If elements have been placed multiple times in the layout, the number of placements is updated as well. If elements have been detached from the layout, they are removed from the Layout elements widget.