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• • July 6, 2015 at 11:54 am #76422
    redbook

    Member

    Hi all,

    Is there a simple script to close up the three em dashed needed for repeat bibliography entries? Since Indesign does not include kerning in search and replace, I’m left with creating what I need by putting a -110 kern between the em dashes, copying it, and then using “find” and “paste” for as many instances as there are, and sometimes in is upwards of 100 in large bibliographies. It works, but it is tedious. How is everyone else doing this? I tried a character style created from the kerned em dash posted by Sandee Cohen in 2008, but it did not work. I’m using CS6 on a PC, and I need this on every job I work on, and in all fonts I might be using.

    thanks for any help,

    Lori Holland

  • July 6, 2015 at 2:46 pm #76425
    Ariel Walden

    Member

    Just type three em dashes and kern as needed. Now, cut them to the pasteboard. In the change to field of find/change, choose Other>Clipboard contents formatted, and in the find search for 3 em dashes. That should work!

  • July 7, 2015 at 1:26 am #76437
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    I do this with a GREP style that applies -120 tracking. It needs to be applied to the first 2 of the 3 dashes, but of course only when there are 3 in a row, so this needs a lookahead:

    (?<!~_)~_~_(?=~_(?!~_))

    That check at the end (?=~_(?!~_)) is so it will only be applied to 3 em-dashes, not 4 or more. This way you can easily see when there are too many.

    • July 7, 2015 at 5:35 am #76444
      redbook

      Member

      Nevermind! I got it, I had accidentally applied the character style to the entire sentence, rather than letting the grep expression do the work. Now all good, and my thanks again!

      Jongware

      I tried the grep style, and it did not cancel after the em dashes, all the type following also had the -120 tracking.

      What I did:

      In “rf” paragraph style, I pasted the expression from your response (?<!~_)~_~_(?=~_(?!~_)) into the find box of the grep style window, and applied character style “3 em dash”. “3 em dash” character style has -120 tracking.

      why is it kerning the whole sentence? I have screen shots to show(jpg) but do not know how to include here in my response.

      sorry I’m so daft!

  • July 7, 2015 at 4:59 am #76442
    redbook

    Member

    Many, many thanks both! I can’t believe that after all these years I still struggle with these simple tasks (always knowing there must be better way). In my next life I’m going to be a brilliant programmer and make lots more money than compositors do :-).

  • July 12, 2015 at 3:41 pm #76527
    Masood Ahmad

    Participant

    Why chose to be a programmer then? Choose to be a billionaire by birth and you don’t even have to struggle for bits. There will be people to struggle for you, hopefully :)

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