Pagewing, a St. Paul, Minn. company that offers a software system for design, editing and repurposing content, has signed an agreement with Adobe to incorporate Adobe's InDesign and InCopy, a layout, design and editorial program, into Pagewing's Digital Publishing System. The new agreement will allow print books to be produced and updated online and create a master XML file that can be quickly repurposed into print books, e-books or Web pages.

Don Leeper, CEO for Pagewing, said the new system allows publishers either to have Pagewing take over their title production and content repurposing or to perform these functions themselves remotely from a password-protected logon. Houghton Mifflin, Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Milkweed Editions are trying the system.

Both Linda Rosenberg, associate publisher at FSG, and Rebecca Saikia-Wilson, v-p and managing editor at HM for trade and reference, said the system had potential for cost-saving efficiencies and that it made sense to work with Pagewing, a digital conversion house with a background in book publishing. Both emphasized they were testing the system. "We don't know if it will work," said Rosenberg, "but we are impressed with their operation."