Not sure if I could make this short, so here's the problem and the process (I'm posting here, because I think, ultimately, the solution will be a script). If you want to go straight to the request, and pass all the foundational explanation to the issue, just scroll down to 'THE REQUEST.'
Challenge: In the catalog that I'm working on, each spread has several text blocks. Each of those text blocks has a separate, smaller text block associated with it that holds the pricing and SKU information. Because we have several versions of the catalog, we have to be able to have 5 or 6 versions of the pricing info, and have them on separate layers so for the press, we could switch out the black plates with that info only on the plates.
Current way of dealing with it: Currently, we have the pricing information in separate text blocks than the body copy, allowing the body copy to be on one layer, and the various versions of the pricing info on several other layers. The prepress folks then just turn off all the version layers they don't need and print out the one they do… alternating through the different layers.
Problem: The two text blocks are meant to work together. Therefore, alignment becomes very time-consuming for every product. And, often times, when moving product, the pricing info gets left behind, etc. It's just a foolish waste of time to have them separated out.
Attempt #1: My first attempt was to create the pricing info as an anchor embedded into the body copy. That solves the issue of alignment… now, whenever I reflow text or move text, it all moves together as a unit. It also creates a sub-layer that I could turn on or off. HOWEVER…
Now, all of the pricing info is spread out through the layers panel as sub-layers of sub-layers (body text) of the universal text layer that I've created. There is no way I can request (or pay for) the pre-press folks to turn on and off all those hundreds of sub-layers.
THE REQUEST: 1. Is embedding the pricing info into the body text the best way to go about solving the problem of alignment, as well as providing the means to turn on and off the layer? and, 2. (the reason why this is in this forum) is there a script that exists that would find all the sub-layers in the layers panel that have a certain prefix or name and turn them on and off? If so, I would use it locally, as well as provide it to our prepress providers.
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