How to keep layout text linked to a Word or Markdown file

A story in Layout by Zaweba can stay linked to the file it came from. Bring it in with File > Import text and the text stays tied to its source, whether that's a Word document, Markdown, RTF, HTML or plain text. Linked text is managed under Type > Linked text. When the source changes, or goes missing, preflight tells you, and Update reads the file again.

This suits any job where the words are written somewhere else and keep changing. A writer works in Word, a designer lays the pages out, and the text goes back and forth several times. Without a link, every round means copying and pasting again, and it's easy to end up with the wrong version in print.

How linked text works

When you import text this way, Layout remembers the file. The story on the page is a copy, laid out with your styles, but it knows where it came from. Change the file and save it, and Layout notices. Preflight lists changed or missing linked files, so you're never left wondering whether the page is up to date.

Choose Update and Layout reads the file again, replacing the story's text with the new version. If you no longer want the link, Unlink breaks it, and the text becomes ordinary text in the document.

Setting it up

Agree the workflow first. The writer should use the file's own styles consistently, such as headings set as headings, because Layout maps Word styles when it imports .docx files. Tables and pictures in a Word file are anchored in the story, and Word comments can come in as notes.

In Layout, set up your paragraph and character styles before importing. Then import the text into the first frame of the story and thread it through as many frames as it needs. Live preflight shows overset text if it doesn't all fit.

The update cycle

When the writer sends a new version, save it over the linked file. Preflight shows it has changed. Choose Update, and the new text flows into the frames. Check the pages afterwards, since a longer version can push text into overset or move a heading to the top of a column.

Remember which side owns the words. Edits made in Layout to a linked story will be replaced on the next update, so make text changes in the source file and keep design changes, such as styles and frames, in Layout.

Linked copies inside a document

There's a second kind of link: linked stories. A linked copy of a story follows the original, so a disclaimer or a standard paragraph used on several pages can be kept in step. Change the original, update the copies, and they all match. Unlink a copy if one place needs to differ.

When not to link

If the text is written once and then edited in the layout, linking adds little. Plain import is simpler, and Layout imports .txt, .rtf, .docx and .md either way. Linking pays off when the source keeps changing while the design is in progress, such as a monthly newsletter, a catalogue description file or a book still being revised.

For heavy editing inside Layout itself, track changes and notes may suit better, keeping a record of edits by author and time within the document.

Used this way, Layout by Zaweba lets writers keep writing in their own tools while the layout picks up their latest words with one Update.