Scribe’s Well-Formed Document Workflow (WFDW) is a process and set of tools that connect editorial and production work across all stages of publishing. From manuscript preparation and editorial through typesetting, print, and digital production, the WFDW allows publishing professionals to work in the programs they already use (e.g., Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign) while providing tools that improve efficiency, produce cleaner files, and support automation.
The WFDW is based on the concept of a well-formed document—or XML, which is the underlying markup for Word and InDesign. Thus, editors can continue to work in Microsoft Word, using Scribe’s tools and add-ins, and typesetters can continue to work in Adobe InDesign, using Scribe’s tools to facilitate the work they do.
Because it adheres to standard practices and the underlying markup language used by programs, Scribe’s WFDW offers a perfect complement to your publishing program. And because a publication, no matter the stage, is always in XML, publishers gain efficiency, reduce error, benefit from current developments in technology, meet accessibility requirements, and can easily convert their materials to meet future standards.
A WFDW subscription gives publishers the tools, structure, and ongoing framework needed to make this workflow part of their own publishing operation—allowing existing staff to work more efficiently in familiar programs while gaining the long-term benefits of structured, reusable content. Publishers retain ownership of their files. The information contained in those files is structured independently of any particular technology or software platform, helping ensure that publications remain usable. Because the workflow is built around standard formats and structured XML, their publications are not locked into a proprietary production environment if their needs change.
What a WFDW Subscription Offers
Training, Support, and Documentation
Subscribers receive full training, documentation, and technical support from dedicated staff members (never chatbots). Training builds on staff members’ existing knowledge of Word, InDesign, and editorial and typesetting practices instead of requiring them to learn an entirely new publishing environment. Whether a publisher works print first or electronic first or follows another production sequence, the WFDW supports the same structured content throughout the process.
Scribe Markup Language (ScML)
Scribe Markup Language (ScML) is a robust XML schema designed specifically for publishing. It is also the format used for Scribe’s .scml files, which contain publication content encoded according to the ScML schema. A well-formed document is a structured XML file in which every element of a publication is clearly identified according to its purpose and place. ScML employs common conventions already used by publishers to identify different parts of the text. This use of shared vocabulary makes ScML both easy to learn and simple to apply. The full ScML file is created through the Digital Hub and contains the detailed structure and metadata needed for continued use of the publication, including IDs, links, and other information that Word and InDesign do not maintain as native XML. ScML can be used to produce ePub and HTML files and can also be converted back to Word. The use of one common language provides clarity throughout the workflow. It also enables Scribe’s tools to work within individual files and bridge the gaps between programs. Because structure is retained as content moves through the workflow, fully accessible and navigable ebooks become a natural outgrowth of the same work used to develop the print publication rather than a separate production process.
Single Stream
The working document is always the source for future versions, and revisions and additions are carried forward from one stage to the next. A common workflow begins with an author’s manuscript in Word. In this scenario, the publisher edits the manuscript in Word, converts it to InDesign Tagged Text (IDTT) through the Digital Hub, typesets it in InDesign, and produces the print PDF. The content is then exported using Scribe Tools for InDesign and processed back through the Digital Hub to create the ePub. However, publishers can follow any order, such as moving from manuscript to ePub, and changes made at any stage, including during editorial or typesetting, are preserved within the archival ScML file. At any point, round-tripped Word files, ePubs, IDTT, or HTML can be output. This prevents having two streams of work. No matter what order, there is only a single work stream.
Scribe Add-In (SAI) for Word
The Scribe Add-In (SAI) operates inside Microsoft Word and is the primary tool used to scribe and prepare Word manuscripts within the WFDW. A publisher can receive an author’s Word file and use the SAI to establish the proper structure, apply ScML styles, and clean up formatting. The SAI includes tools for both automated and manual actions, facilitating the application of styles and editorial considerations such as managing queries. These tools simplify repetitive preparation tasks, provide easy access to some of Word's deeper features, and help editors apply the structure required by the workflow.
Scribe Tools for InDesign
Scribe Tools for InDesign is a suite of integrated scripts installed within Adobe InDesign. A scribed Word manuscript can be converted to IDTT by the Digital Hub and flowed into an InDesign template, after which design and typesetting work is performed in InDesign in accordance with best practices. Scribe Tools assist with workflow-specific tasks such as checking styles, placing images from callouts, preserving alt text, handling linked information, and exporting structured content. When a typeset is ready to be carried forward, the Export XML tools map the InDesign styles to the corresponding structure tags; maintain information such as index, link, and language attributes; and export InDesign XML. In this way, the typesetter works in InDesign while the structural information needed for later ebook, archival, and Word outputs is retained.
Sublime Text Packages
Sublime Text is a free text editor that provides a text-only environment for working directly with structured files. Scribe’s custom packages add WFDW-specific functions that allow users to check, review, and manipulate ScML, HTML, and other text-based content. These packages are used primarily for quality control and file review. They can run groups of regular-expression checks for text patterns, titles, phrases, alt text, indexes, optical character recognition (OCR) issues, punctuation, spaces, structure tags, and other potential problems. After a file has been converted to ScML, publishers can use these checks to locate issues that may be easier to identify in structured text than in Word or InDesign.
The Digital Hub
The Digital Hub, the WFDW’s web-based suite of tools for transforming structured documents, is the technological center of the workflow. Publishers create projects in the Hub, upload project files, maintain project metadata and assets, review file statistics, and perform conversions. The Hub bridges editorial and production stages by processing structured files for use in multiple programs and formats. It checks uploaded Word, InDesign, and ScML files for validation problems and known conversion issues and reports file statistics such as word counts, styles/elements, special characters, and image references. The Hub is the point at which a structured file moves from one production environment to another while retaining the information needed for subsequent outputs. Digital Hub outputs include fully accessible ePub, HTML, ScML, IDTT, PDF, and round-tripped Word files (i.e., files that contain the most recent edition of the publication).
WFDW Advantages
Familiar Programs
The WFDW integrates industry-standard editing and typesetting software, including Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. Building on these programs’ native features, Scribe’s WFDW creates high-fidelity, accessible, aesthetically pleasing publications. Editors and designers can continue using the programs and skills they already have while Scribe’s documentation and tools indicate best practices for deploying those familiar programs within a coordinated workflow.
Personnel and Production Flexibility
Whether work is performed by in-house staff, freelancers, Scribe, or a combination, the WFDW provides a consistent approach across the publishing program. Publishers do not need to reorganize their entire staff around a new production platform. The WFDW is intended to strengthen existing publishing operations rather than require publishers to sacrifice their own hard-earned expertise to a foreign system.
Sustainability
ScML preserves publication structure independently of any one final output, and files can be processed or adapted as technology, accessibility standards, distribution requirements, and publishing formats change. The WFDW reduces the need to maintain multiple versions of the same publication. Corrections do not have to be repeatedly entered into separate programs (e.g., Word or InDesign) because the work occurs in a single stream. This not only helps gain efficiency and reduce errors; it means that publications created in the WFDW are an enduring source for future development.
At Scribe, we are committed to ensuring that the WFDW continues to improve and produces the most effective accessible publications. The WFDW reduces time, effort, and the potential for error in your editorial and production processes. Scribe provides unmatched levels of training, support, and customer care, along with practical solutions created, tested, and—most importantly—used by publishing professionals. Our team combines real knowledge of established publishing traditions with expertise in the latest developments in information technology.
We believe in inclusivity, sustainability, and approaches to editing and design that achieve the highest level of comprehension for everyone. Never before has the potential for XML been so great for publishers. Accessibility requirements, digital formats, distribution channels, and long-term content needs continue to evolve. As they do, the WFDW provides a method for maintaining structured content through present production requirements and future output needs.
Editors can continue working in Word. Designers and typesetters can continue working in InDesign. Scribe’s tools and procedures connect their processes and coordinate their efforts as part of a single stream.
Some things remain unchanged: Authors and publishers want to produce work of the highest quality and distribute it to the intended audience, whether it is a wide readership or specialists in a particular field. The experience of creating a publication is collaborative, and we must join together to achieve these goals while navigating budget constraints, scheduling concerns, and other limitations placed on personnel. Scribe embraces the traditions of book production with an eye on advancing the processes to meet current, and future, needs. The WFDW exemplifies Scribe’s motto: “A Modern Application of an Ancient Craft.”
Contact us to learn more about how Scribe and the WFDW can benefit your organization.