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• • April 14, 2010 at 2:14 pm #55512
    Esquivelia

    Member

    I am looking for a styling solution to apply a drop cap to each paragraph up to a hidden non-breaking space. This is for the dates/date ranges within a calendar listing as in the photo. The problem is the dates vary from one character to several. i.e. (1, 11, 11-13, and even “Thru May 15”. All of which end with the hidden non-breaking space.)

    Any help would be much appreciated!! Thanks in advance

    

  • April 14, 2010 at 4:09 pm #55514
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    Nothing you can do about that. “Drop Caps” only work with a preset number of characters — unlike nested styles and such, which can react to something in the text.

    Either adjust the number of characters manually per paragraph, or make loads of drop cap styles, each one with a different number of characters.

    Would a small Javascript help you out? (A bit?) As in

    par = app.selection[0].paragraphs[0];
    spacePos = par.contents.indexOf(“u00a0”);
    if (spacePos == -1)
    alert (“There is no Hard Space in this paragraph!!”);
    else
    par.dropCapCharacters = spacePos;

    (Ed.) Only one backslash in that script and it got eaten! Added again.

    (Ed. again) And it got et again. If you see two backslashes (or five, if I can't restrain myself): there should be only one.

  • May 3, 2010 at 5:57 am #55618
    benc.academie

    Participant

    This can be usefull, thanks Jongware. I really should lear JS!

    Ben

  • May 10, 2010 at 12:42 pm #55666
    Massey Padgham

    Member

    Another possible solution — that does not require a script but does change the design — is to opt for standing caps. That would just require a character style specifying a point size, say double the para style, and applied with nested styles.

  • May 10, 2010 at 1:48 pm #55667
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    Well, yes, Massey … but that's no proper use of Drop Caps.

    It's funny — I started thinking what you would need, besides a character style for 'n digits', applied through a nested style. This character style ought to make the size large enough and move the baseline down, but then you would need a function “Indent first x lines”, and InDesign does not have that.

    … doesn't it?

    Surprise, surprise: it does! Set a tab position at the right indent-to distance, set your Drop Caps number of characters to '1' and the required indenting number of first lines … and insert one Tab at the start. Presto! One Indent first x lines function!

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