Best way to insert multiple images (hundreds)

[adunate]

I'm working on a class listing for a conference program. There is an icon key with six 10 pt. images and each class uses anywhere from 2-4 images in its description. When finished the six images together will be likely used 100 times.

I'm assuming copy/paste will not insure quality. I should instead place the image, correct? If so, what is the most efficient way to place these images, considering time, document size and quality?

[Barb Binder]

You should place the first occurence of each image to link the images to the file on the disk. After that, you can copy and paste the image with no resolution ramifications. (Select a copy and look at the links panel to see.)

I don't suppose there are words in the program that indicate the type of icon? Like the words "online delivery" that need to be replaced with the appropriate icon? A super quick technique is to copy an image from the document (it picks up the linked image) and then Find: [words describing icon] and Change to: Other > Clipboard Contents. Details here: Adobe InDesign CS4 & CS5: Replacing Text with Icons, Really Fast! - Rocky Mountain Training.

If not, you could try the Content Collector tool which is a very cute (yes, I'm being sarcastic) way of copying and pasting using a conveyor belt. The only reason I bring it up is that there is an option to leave images on the conveyor belt after you place them, which might be quicker than the regular old copy/paste. And check Create Link before taking them off the belt so that you can change them all at once, if need-be.

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Hi,

Screenshot please! 

(^/)

[Jongware]

How do you decide which images go with which text?

[adunate]

Thanks all for your interest in my question. @BarbBinder, your suggestion could work. As you can see each icon indicates a specific word. @Jongware. Seems I would then need to determine what is quicker, copy/pasting or typing each word and find/replace. Thanks!

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

As Jongware could have said!

"… Maybe a little more work … but IndyFont would play the game! …" 

Indiscripts :: Quoi de neuf dans IndyFont 1.135 ?

After having created the chars, just include a grep style as: \$\d+\h|\h\K.+$

What else? … Nothing or maybe a coffee! 

(^/)

[Jongware]

Obi-wan, I thought of mentioning that but I don't think it would help lots, because the OP still has to type the correct characters next to each sentence. You might as well copy-and-paste the images, then. I was hoping there would be some kind of indication which icon goes where, so a find-and-replace would work.

Also, creating more than a single character in a font requires the full version of IF. The free demo is limited to One Character Font only. (This is important because the GREP style to assign color and font needs all glyphs to be in the same font. Without, you'd need to manually assign the correct font to each unique icon.) Still, it might be worth for the OP to check.

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Not sure the op types the chars chains to identify the images! [I hope it for him the data source is an Excel file or something like this!]

… and, Yes!, €59, even for such a great tool as IndyFont, could be an unsupportable business investment for a lot of people!

… But it's just a personal comment! 

(^/)