Eugene: I'll look into that for next years book.  Thanks for the suggestion!

David: I tried a version of what you suggested, and it seemed to work.  I created a character style “item#”, and the only attribute I set was color (black).  I did a Find/Replace, using Find Format for any word (or group of numbers) with the specific font, bold, size and color that I use for every item number, and made the Change Format the character style “item#”.

I then ran the IndexMatic script, having it look for the item# style.

I created a new document and copied one spread over from the catalog file to test this out.  The spread contains 27 item numbers, and IndexMatic  gave me a list of 27, so it looks like I've got what I need.

Thanks for the help!!!

I read through the IndexMatic posting, and downloaded it.

Where do I enter a GREP expression?

UPDATE:

I did the Save As method as have the file setup fine now.  

I think I've identified the cause of the Opening old file message.  I copied and pasted a spread layout into a new document, so i could give it to someone else to work on.  In this new document, I selected all and copied.  I got the same deal as before, where it kept telling me it was opening the old document, except this time it was saying it was opening the 2010 file, not the 2009.

So, seeing as how this was just a single spread, I was able to keep selecting more and more objects and copy them until the message appeared again.

The cause, it seems, is a cross-reference I have set up in one of the text boxes.  I use these throughout the catalog, to reference products on other pages. (ex: See our complete line of bags on page 32.)  I set these up last year so that this year, when I shuffle pages, all the references will update themselves.

Even though it says its it's opening the document, it never does though…. Unless, you go to the Cross Reference panel and try to edit it.  At that point, InD does open the referenced file.

Glad I figured that out. I don't think I set up the cross references wrong.  I guess this is just one of those things that'll just have to happen.

Thanks Colin.  I read that when it came out, and suggested a fix to an issue I found with it.  My comments are still on that page.  That script was perfect for a specific task I needed to do, which was create a version of the catalog with Canadian pricing.  That was simple, in the sense that every price was being multiplied by the same number.

What I'm asking about now, is involving the yearly price change, where any price can change by any amount.  Finding the best and easiest way to automate the task of updating the prices in a catalog is the goal here.

Are any of these considered “the one”.

I'd love to hear some accounts from fellow forum members that use any of these regularly.

I'm curious as to how certain situations are handled:

Such as layouts where some prices are at the end of a product's text block and some pricing is in tables.  

Or for items that have a large number of SKU's for just one actual item (like a pair of pants, where the item is just a pair of pants, but it has a SKU for each color and size variation).  A spreadsheet of SKU's would list all of those, but in the catalog, you'd just list the base number.

And etc… any stories involving a little or large challenge with pricing would be appreciated. We've grown comfortable with doing our catalog a certain way year after year, and I need to get us up to speed with better methods.

Thanks.

-Sean

Hey David,

This catalog doesn't use book files. It's just the full 176 pages.

Is it possible that object, paragraph or character styles could cause this?

I'm just trying to think of what could have been copied over that still needs access to the old file. Whatever it is, there seemed to be a bunch of them.

I'm starting the process over again, so I may be able to isolate the problem. The file became corrupt after a crash, or sloppy shutdown by me, and won't open anymore anyways.

Is 176 pages too ambitious a page count for one file?