WoodWing Software today announced the launch of Smart Layout CS v3.1. As the next generation of Smart Layout (SL), this product works with the CS versions of InDesign and InCopy and introduces many improvements over previous SL versions.
Smart Layout CS v3.1 adds the Article Concept (the ability to combine all a page’s elements into one) to InDesign, just as earlier versions of SL did, but also offers many new features, including:
• Users can now select a group of page items and convert them to SL articles with one click.
• With Automatic XML mapping, users don’t have to understand XML or even think about using it.
• CopyFit, the ability to reformat content so it fits its elements, and Square Off, the ability to resize an article so all columns are leveled, can be done in one click.
• SL InCopy users can now create structured articles with multiple components from scratch.
• By using the pre-designed Smart Layout templates, InDesign users can lay out articles with multiple components. This means designers can take an article that was created in InCopy (with multiple components), place it in InDesign and all pieces of content will flow into the correct elements.
• Flexible Column Gutters allows for different-width gutters inside an article.
Further improvements include more flexible text wrap behavior, support for child items outside parent bounding box, nested SL items, (basic) scripting support, grouping inside SL, vertical justification and improved API, to name a few. Smart Layout CS v3.1 is available for InDesign CS, InCopy CS and as a free reader version, designed for service bureaus to easily review documents created in these programs.