Why Translate Non-Assets
It is common for a site to have blobs of text that run in print but do not run online. One of the very common items is a calendar that is being reversed published from online to print.
The BLOX Total CMS for Adobe InDesign has always had the a way to run that text through a ruleset using a utility script `Translate Existing Text`. Using it involved making sure that the raw blob of text had some sort of tag that the default ruleset could find. The utility scripts are not 100% compatible with Distributed Production and the legacy method depended upon that adding of that special tag.
Unfortunately, having the search for the special tag slows down the translation of all assets. So if there was another way, all translations could be sped up.
Configuring the New Method
This new method allows the site to create a set of rulesets whose name begins with `Non-Asset` as shown below:
When a ruleset with that name exists, then the BLOX Total CMS menu in Adobe InDesign will display an option: `Translate Non-Asset...` as shown below:
Choosing that menu item with a non-asset text frame selected will display a simple prompt showing the remainder of the ruleset names as shown below:
The user selects a radio button and then clicks the `OK` button and the text in the selected non-asset text frame will get translated according to the selected ruleset. All ruleset options exist.
Non-Assets only
This new option will reject its use on a text frame containing an asset. If you really need to use it on text that originated from BLOX Total CMS, you can use `BLOX Total CMS > Release Selected Assets...` first. And then yeah, you could save it back to BLOX Total CMS if necessary.
But that's a lot of steps and now you have a duplicated asset. If you really need to direct a ruleset of on asset, just tag the asset correctly.
