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• • January 4, 2013 at 11:56 am #63855
    boris the typo

    Participant

    Hi,

    I've searched for this, but must be blind. Sorry for long posting:

    We are running short and long publications inhouse and they contains images, mostly illustrations, tables and diagrams. These are surprisingly called Fig. #, Table # and Diagram # (currently in separate paragraphs). When referred to, we (in some 80% of the cases) do it in brackets (→ fig. #), (→ table #), when on other spreads (→ diagram #, page #) etc.

    I am looking for a way to have independent number series for all three kinds of items, and in long documents start new either manually or at predefined instances (h1).

    Need to have is the ability to control where in the order the thing is, so the number sequence is correct. Creation sequence, position on page, etc cannot be used as a means to control this. Sometimes items come or go. That makes this not work with numbered lists, the lower case and upper case switch is another thing.

    Nice to have would be the ability to have the number inside the paragraph, and not by the end: “Fig. # – Caption heading“.

    Oh, also with a lot of character style bells and whistles, conditional (GREP), that is.

    As we have very many publications in various executions, provided by inhouse departments and external agencies and not all are into this oh-so-rewarding way of working, we need something that is unobtrusive and can be safely overlooked by the ignorant. This is for the lengthy stuff

    The plan is to refer to these items with e.g. Cross-References PRO from DTP tools.

    Any ideas?

  • January 4, 2013 at 12:45 pm #63856
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Here's one article about figure numbering (most of which you may already know):

    https://creativepro.com/fig…..o-them.php

    I think talking to the folks at DTP tools is a great idea; that is clearly the best general x-ref tool around. Given the breadth of documents you're making, you should also look at some of the plug-ins at in-tools.com.

    Another idea is to explore working with a larger workflow company, such as typefi.com, where they have a wide range of off-the-shelf and custom tools.

  • January 6, 2013 at 7:11 am #63869
    boris the typo

    Participant

    Thanks David,

    I have had a look at that, but I don't think it fit our needs for two reasons:

    a) need initial caps on the fig or table itself, but lower case in the body copy as shown in my original post, and

    b) that I do not find it “reliable” when tables or images are added, removed or shuffled. Especially in tables is the item number contained in the table itself, so number sequencing is not plain enough.

    I'll go on talking to DTP tools, and see if there is something.

    Thanks for the in-tools tip, I found two nice other utilities there :-)

    Also thanks for the typefi tip, and that kind of structured single-sourcing is a wet dream in my happiest moments, but it won't fit in our corporate structure. The powers have chosen another approach and there is no centrally managed publishing department. We who are the most core group, have to find our most efficient way to do it, and in an unobtrusive way for those that might not know about GREP and other nice things.

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