Em Software has announced DocsFlow 7.0 for Mac OS and Windows, an upgrade of their plug-in for Adobe InDesign that dynamically links online Google Docs with InDesign layouts.

Integrating the free Google Docs web application - a text editor that allows multiple users to simultaneously edit online -- enables an ideal editorial workflow, according to the folks at Em. DocsFlow lets writers, editors, and designers work together in concert because there's an active link between the text, in all its drafts, and the story placed in InDesign.

With DocsFlow, any number of collaborators can share Google Docs documents with the user and edit them on the web, even collaborating in real-time on the documents. Once a source Google Docs document is linked with an InDesign story, layout users will be immediately alerted to any edits that occur in the Google Docs content. By double-clicking on the source-changed icon in the InDesign Links palette, all changes can be merged into the story automatically via DocsFlow's three-way merge (of the current story contents, the previous Google Docs document, and the current Google Docs document).

DocsFlow is compatible with Adobe InDesign CS5/5.5 on Mac OS X and Windows. On the Mac it requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher.

DocsFlow 7.0 costs US$200. It's available for purchase and download directly from Em Software (http://emsoftware.com/).