Kai,

OK, I understand now. I still think it’s simpler to get it right with hits and misses and to save the result as a character style. After all, we have thousandths of points to work with; just need to be patient… until we get a script to automate the whole process. :)

Kai,

I produce a history magazine and I cannot change the font of an article just because an author wants to underline part of a quote to support a point he’s making. In this case, the quotes are from an 18th century manuscript where the numerous abreviations are indicated with superscript in the original text. I personally do not agree with the use of underline (the Mac is not a typewriter) but it’s not my place to argue with the author and the editor.

I find the technique you describe a bit too complex and not really applicable in my case (the quotes are italic, so the use of a text box to contain the superscript would place it to far to the right). Obviously, I’ve managed to underline superscript so far by creating a character style; I’m just looking for a better and more efficient way to do it.

Obi-wan,

Thanks. I’m curious; where’s that script?

You’re right, that was exactly the case.

Learning something new everyday about ID…

Thanks!

Thanks for all your suggestions. I still haven’t found a reliable way to bring down the size of the PDF under 10MB; I get it after much fumbling and hit & miss. The interactive option is interesting but gave me a 19,5MB PDF, better than the 25MB from the Print option but not good enough. The closest I came to my target was with a copy for the web (RGB colors, jpeg images, replacing any drow shadow effect with a gray box, etc.), but that PDF was still around 13MB. I optimized that last one in Acrobat and after a few tries brought it down to 9,8MB, with quite pitiful results on the images, but that’s what the client wants… and offering the mag in two parts will be the very last resort (quite sure that option will be refused).

By the way, I had to uninstall Acrobat DC and go back to my old Acrobat X; all the links in any file I tested stopped working, and after a full day trying to get that feature going again I gave up. Anybody else encountered a similar problem? It used to work correctly; hovering above a link still shows the address, right-clicking on the link give me the usual menu, but no amount of cllcking or choosing to open the link from the contextual menu has any effect. Looks like the latest update of OS X (Yosemite 10.10.5) or, more likely, Acrobat DC, is interfering with the activation of the links. Security feature?

Ha! Just read the post about the plug-in and, would you know it, I have installed the Recipe Design Wizard plug-in (haven’t used it yet) and the problem started at about the same time… I’ll remove it and see if the problem is gone (until the writer of the app can tell me how to correct the problem).

Just found the answer to my own question: Apply the effects only to the fill of the box, not to the whole object (Object > Effects > Settings for: Fill (instead of the default “Object”); the effects will not be applied to any custom anchored objects or text sticking out of the shadowed box.