C3

C3 is a tool to place and link information from different data sources into an Adobe InDesign document. C3 manages different types of information, it don't have to be just products, it might as well be reports, manuals, training or other types of content.

The content from the data source can be formated automatically, which saves a lot of work. All the placed data can be easily updated, which saves time, increases quality and reduces errors.

C3 needs the following

A data source or a XML-file with data.
A document or template with some styleing.
Images if refereced in the data.

Basic settings

You need to configure:

The data source.
Path to images.

Syntax

The following syntax is used in this documentation:

This text shows a reference to the C3-panel or a element or attribut i the data
Texten with "F#" refering to a specific function #.
Example data or transformations:
```
Data row 1
Data row 2
Data row 3
```

Flow or Placeholder

There are two basic ways to work:

Flow: Content is placed in a sequence that flows in a text frame.
Placeholder: Content is placed element by element in separate text frames.

There are two ways to work and you have to select one way dependent of your data and document.

The number of links. In a flow, there is one link to each data block. In a placeholder each element has it's own link. If you work with many pages in the documents there might be to many links with the place holder approach.
In a flow, you need to define type och class. In a placeholder data gets the style of the object in the document.
In a flow, all content of a placed block is placed in the document. In a placeholder only the selected elements are placed.

Document Template

Both Flow and Placeholder uses as much of the styling as possible from the document or the template. Data in C3 can be complemented with styling. For example a text, can have the style "Heading". The settings of the Heading are stored in the document where the data are placed:

Paragraph Style: The style of a text paragraph.
Character Style: Style of one or many characters within a paragraph.
Table Style: The style of a table.
Cell Style: Style of a single cell in a table.
Object Style: Object style is used for image frames.

Example of a data for a flow.

<p class="Header">My text</p>
<p class="Body">This is my text,<p>
<p class="Body">and C3 knows what to do with it.</p>

Example of a data for a placeholder.

<Header>My text</Header>
<Body1>This is my text,<Body1>
<Body2>and C3 knows what to do with it.</Body2>

Placeholder tags

When a placeholder is created in InDesign you use XML-Tags. For every data element you place, a tag with the same name are used to tell C3 what to place and where.

Scripts

After data is placed, or updated there is a possibility to run a Java Script. The script can be useful when there are adjustments of content. For example sizing of table columns etc.

Introduction

C3