InDesign

Lay out XML manually

You can manually place XML content in your document layout by dragging elements from the Structure pane to the page or to existing frames. When you place an element, its child elements (and all child elements below those, if any) are placed as well.

In the Structure panel, a structure-specific blue diamond appears on an element’s icon if the element has been placed in the document; elements that haven’t been placed show an unplaced icon.

Note: If you imported XML using the Merge Content option, some elements may already be laid out. When you merge imported content, InDesign automatically flows elements into existing frames if they are identically structured and tagged.
  1. Open the Structure pane (View > Structure > Show Structure) and select the element that you want to lay out.
  2. Do either of the following for each element you want to place in your document:

    • Drag the element onto the page. InDesign creates a frame for the element.

    • Drag the element onto an existing frame. If the frame contains content, it is replaced by content from the XML data.

  3. To format the items you lay out, do any of the following:

    • Map XML tags to paragraph and character styles.

    • Apply styles to elements.

    • Format the selected content manually by choosing text options in the Control panel.