Kerntiff MoreInfo
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Much of my workflow involves obscure, little understood technical features of InDesign. Two of the features I use the most are Conditional text and Notes. They were introduced perhaps a decade ago, in CS4 I think, and they haven’t been improved since (at least not by Adobe). However, from time to time, independent developers decide to tackle some of the challenges faced by users of these little-used features. And for these developers I am extremely grateful!
Today I’d like to introduce you to a new plugin by Kerntiff Publishing Systems: MoreInfo. It is a plugin that combines the information from several other plugins and displays it all in one handy spot.
- Conditional text
- Sticky Notes
- Track changes Overset text
- Indexes
- Overset Text
Notes
In the existing Notes panel, the content of the Note will only show in the Notes Pane if you have the actual Note character selected. So you could be hovering over the note or near the note, or even have your cursor blinking immediately beside the note, and the Notes panel will be empty. Contrast that to the MoreInfo panel, which displays the content of the Note simply by hovering over the line of text containing the Note. What an improvement!
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MoreInfo Showing the content of a Note, whereas it’s harder using the Notes panel |
Conditional Text
A few years ago, I wrote a related article: How to See Hidden Conditional Text in InDesign, Without Making the Condition Visible. It involved hovering over the hidden conditional text indicator, waiting patiently, a saying a prayer that the tooltip showing the hidden text would appear. But that method didn’t work if multiple bits of conditional text were hidden and stacked on top of each other.
MoreInfo completely negates that frustrating behavior! Just like when showing the contents of a Note, all the user has to do is hover above the line containing the hidden conditional text.
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MoreInfo Showing Hidden Conditional Text |
Track Changes
MoreInfo also displays Track Changes, but not in the same way as the Story Editor. It displays the information in a simpler way, right inside the panel. What’s nice about this is that you can see at a quick glance, the contents of the changes. While it likely won’t replace the use of the Story Editor for this purpose, I can see it being really helpful for some people.
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Track Changes normally requires the user the Story Editor |
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MoreInfo displays Track Changes |
Overset Text
MoreInfo also displays overset text, so you no longer have to view it using the story editor.
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Overset Text |
Indexes
More Info also display index markers. I don’t create indexes, so I honestly don’t truly understand how they work, but I suspect those who do will appreciate this.
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Indexes |
Combined information
One of the features that’s so great about MoreInfo is that it can display the information from multiple types of hidden characters. In the example below, it is displaying indexes, conditional text, tracked changes, and Notes, all in one panel!
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Multiple Types of information all in one panel! |
MoreInfo is a must-have for anyone who wants to more easily see what’s hiding under those hidden character symbols. Currently, the plugin is just at version 1, but Version 2 promises to be even better!
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