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• • September 30, 2013 at 6:02 pm #65561
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    I wanted a dashed rule to link objects — always on the same page — in a long (120+ pages) InDesign document. I created a 2pt wide rule with the colour and tint I wanted and with dashes of 1pt and gaps of 1.5pt. I then selected that rule and used it to define an object style called “Link Line”.

    However, when I inserted a new rule and clicked on the “Link Line” object style in the Object Style pallet, the weight, colour and tint are right but the dashes are the default 6pt with 3pt gaps. So if I want my little dashes, either I have to recreate them every time (very UN-InDesign!) or else create each new rule by copying and pasteing and then relocating its start and end points — kinda last year.

    Have I missed something?

  • September 30, 2013 at 9:32 pm #65565
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Where are you setting the dashes to 1 pt and gaps of 1.5 pt? That sounds like Illustrator, not InDesign. In InDesign, you can set those kinds of things by creating a custom Stroke Style in the Stokes panel menu.

    • September 30, 2013 at 9:52 pm #65566
      Tom Pardy

      Member

      In the Stroke pallet/panel. Everything I have done in this document has been done within InDesign. I am using InD CS6.

  • September 30, 2013 at 10:02 pm #65567
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I’m pretty tired… end of day here… but what am I missing? There are no options in InDesign for specifying a dash length and gap length. Can you post an image somewhere (such as image shack) and put a link here so I can see it? Or email me at david at indesignsecrets.

  • September 30, 2013 at 11:28 pm #65569
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    I composed a detailed reply (complete with links to online graphics) and posted it but, for some odd reason it hasn’t (at the time of writing this) appeared. I will have another look later to see whether it has then appeared. If not, then I will try and recompose it.

  • October 1, 2013 at 6:26 am #65572
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Sorry to note that it’s not here yet! Drat.

  • October 1, 2013 at 7:08 am #65574
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    OK, it has now gone midnight here so let’s see if I can get it to work this time. Maybe I had too many links or something? So I’ll try posting three messages . . .

    Here is a shot of what I want to achieve. I have created this shot as the real thing tended to have other distracting features. https://members.ozemail.com.au/~pardy/indesign/InDesignScreenSnapz003.jpg. The blue “dotted” (dashed?) line links a box in an ancestry chart to another (with the same information) in a descendants’ chart.

  • October 1, 2013 at 7:11 am #65575
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    So far, so good.

    The next image shows how I constructed this linking line in the Stroke pallet (panel?) At the bottom you can see that I wanted dashed that are 1pt in length with a gap of 1.5pt.https://members.ozemail.com.au/~pardy/indesign/InDesignScreenSnapz004.jpg. I;m sorry it is small compared to the first image but I deliberately made the first image larger so that the really tiny numbers didn’t get greeked.

  • October 1, 2013 at 7:19 am #65576
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    Hey, I’m on a winner this time!

    The third image shows what happens when I try to create an object style, showing in particular the Stroke section of the Object Style Options dialog box. https://members.ozemail.com.au/~pardy/indesign/InDesignScreenSnapz005.jpg. There is no provision here for specifying dash length and gap length (though that is very possible in the Stroke pallet) and that seems to be the problem.

    If I use the fly-out menu in the Stroke pallet to create a custom dashed line, the space it gives for creating the dashed and gaps is a curious width, 8.467mm. If I want nice even dashes for the full length of the line, I need to divide that space into equal dashes and spaces such that it ends with a space, otherwise I get a “lumpy” line. Such mathematical tricks make my brain hurt!

    So have resorted to creating one line, copying and pasting it and then manipulating the end points of the pasted line to be where I want them to be. It all seems very UN-InDesign!

  • October 1, 2013 at 9:19 am #65577
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    OMG, I’m embarrassed to admit that I had completely forgotten about that Dashed feature in InDesign! As Anne-Marie said to me recently, I have forgotten more about InDesign than a lot of people ever learn, but it’s still frustrating when it happens.

    Yes, when you choose Dashed at the bottom of the Stroke Type pop-up menu, THEN you get the dash and gaps feature.

    However, as you discovered, I don’t think Object Styles are set up to record those gaps and dashes. Oops! Probably a bug or oversight on Adobe’s part. However, to be honest, given that I didn’t even remember that this feature existed, are there really that many people using it? Hm.

    Fortunately, there is a solution. I’ll write it up in a blog post now… hold on…

  • October 1, 2013 at 10:24 am #65589
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Okay, check it out:
    https://creativepro.com/setting-dash-stroke-exact-gap-dash-values-indesign.php

    Whew!

  • October 1, 2013 at 6:53 pm #65594
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    Thanks, David.

    Your work-around has taught me a bit more about InDesign’s sometimes-arcane dialog box settings. I hadn’t taken much notice of that Pattern Length section before.

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