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Updating Documents in AutoPage

One advantage of using STEP AutoPage to automate page building is the ability to automatically update the contents of previously built pages without having to rebuild them from scratch.

When pages are built (mounted) using AutoPage, the content placed from STEP onto the pages accurately reflects how the content existed in STEP at that moment in time. If changes are made later to the corresponding content in STEP (for example, attributes values or referenced images), the pages become out of sync with the latest content.

When this content mismatch occurs, there are several options available within STEP'n'design and STEP Workbench for updating page contents. This topic describes how to use the update options available for AutoPage from within the workbench. Methods for updating pages from within InDesign are explained in the Updating Documents From InDesign topic here.

Checking for Updates

Though it is possible to update the contents of entire publications and sections at once without first checking to see exactly what pages or mounted objects contain outdated content, AutoPage provides functionality that gives visibility into the specific locations of content that needs updating. Pinpointing the exact location(s) of this content allows for smaller page update operations, preventing scenarios where a large amount of system resources are tied up for large update operations (for example, on entire publications) when only one section or even one document may actually need updating.

Documents can be checked for needed updates from the Tree, the AutoPage Publication Planner, and by using a Bulk Update operation.

Check for Updates From the Tree

1. In the Tree, navigate to the relevant publication or section, then right-click and select Check for update needed....

2. The Check for Update Needed dialog displays. Click OK.
3. An 'Autopage Batch Service' background process is kicked off that checks for changes in all the mounted products in the selected publication or section.
4. (Optional) Click 'Go to process' to go to the BGProcesses tab and monitor the progress of the background process.
5. The messages returned in the Execution Report do not indicate the specific objects that need updates. You must go to either the AutoPage Publication Planner tab or the Page Inspector tab to see where updates are needed. See the 'Updating Documents' section of this topic below for more information.

Important: Only content updates are recognized by the system. Template changes or pagination rule changes are not shown as updates needed on the Page Inspector tab or AutoPage Publication Planner tab.

Check for Updates From the AutoPage Publication Planner

1. In the Tree, navigate to the relevant publication or section, then go to the AutoPage Publication Planner tab.
2. Right-click a section or subsection row, and then choose Check for update needed. (Updates cannot be checked for an entire publication from the AutoPage Publication Planner; this can only be done from the Tree.)

3. The Check for Update Needed dialog displays. Click OK.
4. An 'Autopage Batch Service' background process is kicked off that checks for changes in all mounted products in the selected section.
5. (Optional) Click 'Go to process' to go to the BGProcesses tab and monitor the progress of the background process.

6. Return to the AutoPage Publication Planner. If there are mounted objects whose content has changed in STEP since the page was last mounted, 'Data Changed' will display in the 'Data Changed' column.

Check for Updates Using Bulk Update

Documents can be checked for updates by running the bulk update operation 'Check publication document for needs update.' This operation is accessed in step 2 of the bulk update wizard ('Operations').

Checking for updates from the bulk update wizard is, for all intents and purposes, identical to checking for updates from the two previously documented methods in this topic. (It is essentially the same functionality, just accessed from a different location.)

For information on how to access and use bulk update publishing operations, see Publishing Operations for Bulk Updates in the Getting Started / STEP User Guide documentation here.

Updating Documents

Mounted (actual) pages saved back to STEP can be updated from the Tree by the following methods for users of any STEP Publisher license: Update and Bulk Update. Both methods work in a near-identical fashion, but Update is the simplest and most straightforward. In AutoPage, documents—and even individual mounted objects themselves—can be updated from the AutoPage Publication Planner.

Update Documents From the Tree

The Update feature is accessed by right-clicking on a publication, section, or DTP document object in the publication hierarchy.

Since 'Update' is valid for any STEP publishing component (as long as an InDesign server [IDS] is set up and integrated with the STEP application server), this functionality is detailed in the Updating Documents in the Workbench section of the STEP'n'design documentation here.

Note: If you select Object Name, all product, classification, attribute, section, and subsection names are updated. If a Repeat rule is applied to a section, but you only selected one page within this section to be updated, the section name is not updated outside of the selected page.

Update Documents From the AutoPage Publication Planner

1. In the Tree, navigate to the relevant publication or section, then go to the AutoPage Publication Planner tab.
2. Right-click on the relevant section that contains the object(s) designated as 'Data Changed.' (This step assumes that you have already run a check for updates, as detailed in the 'Checking for Updates' section of this topic above.)

3. The 'Update contents of documents' dialog displays.
4. Follow the instructions as detailed in the Updating Documents in the Workbench section of the STEP'n'design documentation here to complete the update process.

Update Documents From the Page Inspector

Once documents have been checked for needed updates, the AutoPage Page Inspector provides a visual indicator to let you know if an update needs to be run on a mounted object or page.

1. In the Tree, navigate to the relevant publication or section, then go to the Page Inspector tab.
2. Click on the Markers button.

3. Choose Show Update Needed from the dropdown list. Objects on the page that have out-of-date data will display in a pink-shaded box.

4. Click on an individual pink-shaded box—or on an entire page—that you would like to update. Boxes and pages may be multi-selected by holding down the Ctrl button while making selections.
5. Click the Update icon to launch the 'Update contents of' dialog.

6. Follow the instructions as detailed in the Updating Documents in the Workbench section of the STEP'n'design documentation here to complete the update process.

Updating Documents Using Bulk Update

Bulk update is simply another method of accessing the same features available under 'Update'. For information on bulk update operations for STEP publication documents, see Publishing Operations for Bulk Updates in the Getting Started / STEP User Guide documentation here.

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