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• • March 6, 2012 at 2:35 pm #61752
    rleamon

    Member

    Hi all,

    Wondering if it's possible to format an automatic page number in InDesign so it looks like this (for page 109):

    1

    0

    9

    I tried squeezing a text frame so the characters slid to the next line, but it just squeezes them on top of one another. Thanks for your help!

  • March 6, 2012 at 7:50 pm #61754
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Okay, that was a brain teaser, but it's possible.

    First, visually it's easier to set up on a document page then copy it to the masters.

    Start by drawing a short vertical line (2 or 3 picas, it can be adjusted later) from top to bottom, but not bottom to top.

    Next, using the Type on Path tool, and with the text I-beam on the right side of the line/path, insert the page marker. Unlike Illustrator (and I'm not entirely sure about this), it appears text can't be dragged from one side of the path to the other, and if you draw the line bottom to top, 100 will become 001.

    Then, select the text and choose Justify All Lines as your text alignment.

    Finally, with the text still selected, choose Type on a Path>Options from the Type menu and select the Stair Step effect.

    Now you can tweak it a bit by adjusting the vertical line then cut and paste it to the masters.

  • March 7, 2012 at 7:10 am #61758
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    That's brilliant!

  • March 7, 2012 at 6:00 pm #61771
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Thanks Eugene

    The steps just seemed to come to me, the devil was in the details. There is an old 2009 thread about vertical page numbers on the Adobe Forums which basically had all the pieces, but I don't think I had seen that till I did a Google search this morning.

    So, perhaps somewhere….

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