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• • September 14, 2010 at 11:23 am #56992
    nellbern

    Member

    Every year we make revisions to a 60 page pamphlet. Since now I’m little bit more familiar with InDesign I think this is the perfect document to be automated. The process for this document is:

    1. The designer exports all the text (plain text) from Quark to Microsoft Word and emails the MW document to the client
    2. Client make changes and emails back the document to the designer.
    3. The designer place the text from MW document to Quark and applies styles sheets.

    This year I'm trying something new with the pamphlet. I want to present the idea of redesign & automate the pamphlet in ID Cs5. The pamphlet is very predictable. A blue 10 pt subheading followed by a black 9 pt text containing the address. It looks like a label when there is a name & an address. (Not all address contain the same amount of lines). The biggest obstacle I found was the use the hard returns in the address making impossible to use Next Style in paragraph style

    How can I tell InDesign to apply the paragraph style sub heading containing the names & paragraph style with the address automatically when there is hard return in every single line of text in the paragraph. It is not an option to go to a paragraph & apply soft returns. (Too many addresses)

    I watched a podcast combining style sheets to automate formatting which gave me good ideas but I guess I still help. Any suggestions in how can make this to work?

    I would really appreciate your help. If I succeed automating this document this can lead the whole creative department in my company to switch to ID which for now they are very reluctant because they don’t know what ID is capable.

  • September 14, 2010 at 2:07 pm #56993
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    So the text goes, “name address address name address name address address (etc.)”, right?

    How do you know what a name and what the address is?

    Do they come in with some formatting applied? (even though it's the wrong formatting) — because then you could use Search & Replace. Search for 'blue' text and put your Name style in the Replace With formatting. Search for 'black' text and put your Address style in there.

    Are there blank lines between successive names, for example, a single Hard return? Because then you can apply “Address” to everything, then use GREP to format all paragraphs-after-a-double hard return. (Ask & ye shall receive guidance on this.)

    Okay, had to try first ;) This GREP Find will find and replace either the first paragraph in a story, or just those preceded by two hard returns (and no spaces on that blank line, please):

    ^((?<!r)|(?<=rr)).

    Make sure the Replace With text field is empty, and your paragraph style is in the Replace With formatting field.

  • September 14, 2010 at 2:16 pm #56994
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Instead of “apply next para” you might be able to use Nested Styles. Using a shift-return means it's all one big paragraph. So you could say “character style 1 up to the 1 soft return, character style 2 up to 1 soft return,” and so on. Yes?

  • September 15, 2010 at 9:14 am #57007
    Theresa VERBURG

    Member

    Hi nellbern:

    Here's another way of possibly approaching this project. You said the information is primarily a Word file with labels containing a name and address. What about setting this up as a DataMerge project in InDesign? You won't need to buy any additional software or plug-ins. DataMerge comes with InDesign. You could easily convert the names and addresses from the Word file into a spreadsheet in Excel and save it out as CSV (comma separated values) or a Tab-delimited text file.

    Both file types are acceptable with DataMerge in InDesign. This would also make your future updates and revisions go much smoother.

    There may be a possibility that whoever is supplying the Word file back to you could supply it to you in a different format like a spreadsheet that could then be saved as a CSV file or a tab-delimited text file. My hunch is that the client is pulling their updated information from a database somewhere. It would save some steps for everyone if they could just output that data from the database into a spreadsheet for you.

    There is a good tutorial at https://www.instantindesign.com on DataMerge called “Episode 2: Automating a Catalog with Data Merge” at: https://www.instantindesign.com&#8230;..p?view=386. It goes into some pretty good detail about how to set up repeating elements like what you are describing.

    Good luck!

    Theresa

  • September 15, 2010 at 9:27 am #57008
    Theresa VERBURG

    Member

    I had an additional thought… No, that isn't smoke that you are smelling. : )

    Starting with CS4, there is a feature called Line Styles. You can tell the style of each line to repeat a specific number of times before changing to another Line Style. Michael Murphy has done some extensive work with this method. His website is at: https://www.theindesigner.com.

  • February 1, 2011 at 9:51 am #58592
    nellbern

    Member

    Sorry guys I never replied back because the was project was cancelled but it is back again.

    1. Data merge it is not good for this project because not all addresses have the same amount of lines to fit in an specific size text frame. I can have 12 address in column & the other I can have 15.
    2. Nested Styles was the other possibility but there is a single hard return in every line of the text.
    3. Grep looks good but difficult for me. I don't know how to search w Grep. Jongware's suggestion is interesting. The text goes:

    Names (are Times Bold, blue color, 9 pts) paragraph style applied

    Adresses (Times plain, black color, 8 pts) paragraph style applied

    Using Find & Replace I searched for all the instances of the address paragraph style but I don't to how change that instead a hard return change to soft return. After an address the next paragraph style is the names that way I can use nested styles & avoid widows & orphans

  • February 1, 2011 at 9:55 am #58593
    nellbern

    Member

    Search for addresses paragraph style, find every hard return in that style & change it to a soft return. Is that possible with Grep?

  • February 2, 2011 at 12:47 am #58599
    Roland

    Member

    If a style has been applied to the item you want to search & replace, then yes you can use a GREP find/replace:
    Search for r and replace it with n to replace End Of Paragraphs with Forced Line Breaks. These, and many other common GREP items are easy to find if you click the the little @-button at the right of the text field.
    Then set the Find Format to the style you've applied (click the T with loupe icon) so it doesn't replace the Paragraph ends anywhere but in the text with the style you choose.

    You can also use the Change Format option to set a new Paragraph style if you want or need to.

  • February 2, 2011 at 9:27 am #58615
    Rhiannon Miller

    Member

    The only trouble with replacing r with n is that it will also apply to the final paragraph return in the style – the one separating the address from the following heading. You'd be better off running another search first, to put an extra paragraph return at the start of your headings (and then removing it again afterwards).

    Find: ^.+ (with your heading paragraph style/formatting)

    Replace with: r$0

    Then after you've replaced r with n in the address style/formatting, so

    Find: nr

    Replace with: r (with your address style/formatting)

  • February 3, 2011 at 8:25 am #58632
    nellbern

    Member

    orielwen:

    In the last step when I replace: r (w adress style/formatting) the heading paragraph converts to the address formatting.

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