Adobe Systems has announced XML import/export support in its InDesign version 2.0 software, together with an enhanced printing interface, editable transparency effects such as drop shadows, table creation, and long document support. The professional layout and design program also supports Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) technology, "an XML-based framework for embedding, tracking and exchanging metadata so that content can be deployed more efficiently across different media. InDesign 2.0 enables creative professionals to more effectively create, manage and deliver visually rich content to multiple channels including print, Web, eBooks and PDAs. With built-in support for importing and exporting XML files, one can produce a layout in InDesign, tag the content, and export an XML file for integration into different publishing workflows. Version 2.0 performance enhancements, native support for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows XP, and tighter integration with other Adobe products (Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop) make Adobe InDesign more usable for graphic designers, production artists, and prepress professionals in advertising agencies, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, and book publishers."

Adobe InDesign 2.0 New Features. "XML moves beyond print: (1) Structure view and Tag palette for creating XML to repurpose legacy documents, build XML templates, and more; (2) Support for importing and exporting well-formed XML; (3) Ability to collaborate on InDesign files through built-in WebDAV support; (4) Easier tracking, management, and retrieval of InDesign documents through Adobe's new XML-based metadata framework; (5) Export to rich content formats, including SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), XML, or tagged Adobe PDF [eBooks]; (6) Tight integration between InDesign and Adobe GoLive."

"Adobe InDesign 2.0 software delivers tools for multiple media content design with its built-in support for importing and exporting XML files. Now you can produce a layout in InDesign, tag the content, and export an XML file for integration into different publishing workflows. With InDesign 2.0 software, for example, you can quickly create multiple print layouts by importing an XML file into tagged InDesign templates. Or, dynamically generate a Web page by combining the XML file with an Adobe GoLive 6.0 template..." [from the 'Cross-Media Overview']

Adobe InDesign 2.0 version 2.0 XML support [from the online documentation]:

Adobe InDesign provides native support for XML within your page layout application. It uses tools, processes, and metaphors you're already familiar with, plus a few new ones, to create, manage, and deliver XML. InDesign's Tags palette helps you organize and manage tag names used to label content. It also lets you create new tags for use with your document. Tags can be loaded into the Tags palette from existing XML files or other InDesign documents. This helps ensure consistent tag names are used to structure new or legacy documents.

In InDesign, you create tags in the Tags palette and apply them to graphics frames, text frames, and blocks of text within a text frame. Bracketed tags appear when you export the document to XML. Tag Labels for page items in your InDesign document. A tag describes the role of the item (such as "Article" or "Sidebar") and its relationship to other items. In InDesign, tags appear in the Tags palette. XML tags are extensible, not predefined. You can create your own set of tags...

In Adobe InDesign, an element is an XML tag that appears in the Structure view window when you tag a page item. Child elements are subordinate to parent elements in the structure. Sibling elements appear on the same hierarchical level. Attributes Strings that describe an element appear under elements in the Structure view window. In InDesign, you use a convenient dialog box to enter the name and value of attributes... An attribute consists of a name (such as href or keywords) and a value. You can add optional attributes to any element. For example, to include keywords for searching in another downstream application, you can create an attribute called keywords. You can also create attributes to indicate substituted text, article titles, and other XML content-related information.

Use any of the following methods to add tags to the Tags palette: (1) Create tags using the New Tag command; (2) Load tags from an XML file or from another InDesign 2.0 document; (3) Import tags (and content) using the Import XML command; (4) Add tags based on PDF structure tags... You can tag page items such as text frames and graphics frames, including nested frames. You can also tag blocks of text within a text frame to add a level of detail to the XML file. For example, you may want to apply an <Article> tag to a text frame, and then apply specific text tags, such as <Title> and <Body>, to paragraphs within the text frame. When you tag a frame in a threaded story, all other frames in the story are tagged.

The Structure view window displays a hierarchical tree of tagged page items and imported XML content. Items that appear in the Structure tree are called elements. Structure view shows at a glance what elements have been placed on the page and what have not... You can rearrange the XML structure by dragging elements to different positions in Structure view. Changing the hierarchy affects the structure of exported XML files, but it doesn't affect the position of frames in your layout.

After you tag the document's page items, you're ready to export a document to XML. You can export the entire set of tagged page items, or you can export only a specified portion. Once the document is exported, you can make additional changes to the XML file using a program such as Adobe GoLive, or you can import the XML file into an InDesign 2.0 document or another downstream application.

When you import an XML file into an InDesign document, you specify whether imported elements replace existing content or are appended to the contents. Imported XML files contain no text formatting information, because XML separates form and content. You can flow XML text into any document. If you flow text into a blank document, untagged elements appear in the Structure view window. You can then drag elements from Structure view to the document layout. When you drag and drop elements, the content uses the document's default text and graphics characteristics. You can then reformat this content by mapping tags to styles... You can also flow contents into an InDesign document that acts as a template. The template document contains tagged page items. If you set up your template document properly, the contents of the XML file will flow into the tagged page items of the template document...