Your locked layout: preview, and allowing changes
When you open a book whose layout is locked, the formatter shows you the PDF you locked, not a fresh typesetting of your manuscript. Nothing is set and nothing is saved. If you haven't locked a book yet, start with What does Lock layout do?
The bar across the top reads Layout locked, then the date, the page count, the trim size and the style. Under it are three buttons.
Download this PDF
This gives you the exact file you locked, byte for byte, the same one you downloaded when you locked it. Use it if you've lost your copy, or need to upload it again.
Preview with today's typesetter
This sets your book again, so you can see how it would come out if you allowed changes now. It uses:
- your settings, and your style exactly as they were when you locked the book;
- your manuscript as locked;
- your front and back matter as it is now, including anything you've edited since;
- the typesetter as it is today.
Then it compares the result with your locked book, page by page. The preview saves nothing and can't be exported. Your locked PDF is exactly as it was. Press Back to the locked PDF when you're done looking.
The bar tells you one of three things:
"Today's typesetter sets this book exactly as locked." Every page holds the same text as your locked PDF. If you allowed changes, you would get the same book back.
"Same pages, so the spine would not move — but some pages would hold different text, starting on page…" The page count matches, so your cover still fits, but on some pages the words fall differently. The page number it names is the number printed on the page, so you can find it in your own PDF. If the book you've uploaded is the one you want, there's no reason to change it.
"Today's typesetter sets this book at a different number of pages." Allowing changes would change your page count, which changes your spine width. If you went ahead, you'd need to export your cover again so it matches, and upload both.
A page counts as different when the words on it change. A line breaking at a different word within the same page doesn't count, because the page still holds the same text.
Allow changes
This is how you tell the formatter you want to work on the book again. It asks you first. When you agree:
- The lock comes off, and the locked PDF is removed from the book. Keep the copy you downloaded; that's the file you uploaded.
- Your settings come back exactly as they were when you locked the book, including your style as it was then. We sometimes refine what a style looks like, and a book that was locked keeps the version it was locked with.
- The formatter typesets the book and saves it again, the way it does for any book you're working on.
After that, only two things can move a line compared with your locked PDF:
- the typesetter itself, if it has improved since you locked; and
- your front and back matter, if you've edited them since.
The preview shows you both before you decide. So if the preview said "exactly as locked", allowing changes gives you the same book back.
If you choose a different style after allowing changes, you get that style as it looks today. The kept copy belonged to the style you locked, and switching back to it later gives you today's version too.
If the page count moves, export your cover again so its spine matches, and upload both.
Locking again
When you're happy with the book again, export the PDF and lock it, as the first time. See What does Lock layout do?