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AnneMarie Concepcion
AnneMarie Concepcion
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Running Header Variables and Anchored Text Frames

Dec 10, 2008 7:59 AM

I'm trying to troubleshoot a client's ID CS4 file. (Though I think this issue is unchanged from CS3.) Need your help.

The company is a publisher of long documents for the legal field. They need to get Running Headers to pick up use of a style we'll call AT (for anchored text). Left-page should show first instance on that page, right-hand page should show last instance on that page.

So they created 2 running header variables, AT-Left and AT-Right, and configured each to pick up first/last respectively. They inserted the variables correctly on the master. And all that works just peachy in the document pages, if the AT style is used normally in the text flow (not in an anchored text frame).

When it's used exclusively in anchored text frames, as it is in this client's document, it's a crapshoot which of these instances either running header will pick up. Sometimes the AT-Left variable picks up the instance in the first anchored frame, sometimes it picks up the most recent one added to the page, regardless of its location.

Ditto for the AT-Right variable. It sometimes ignores the actual final instance of the style used in an anchored frame at the bottom of the page and picks up the first one instead.

So ... is it a limitation of the RH/RF types of variables that they don't work reliably with anchored frames? (Or, in my experiments, even unanchored frames ... when there are more than one frame on the page that carries the style, it appears to ignore frames that overlap others.)

All insights/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks
AM
903 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: Graham van de Ruit, Aug 31, 2012 6:52 AM
 
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  • Bob Levine
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    1. Bob Levine,
    Dec 10, 2008 8:23 AM   in reply to AnneMarie Concepcion
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    I think the issue is that there's no concrete definition of what "first
    instance" on a page means.

    ID may be looking at the regular text first befpre considering anchored
    text. I have to admit that I don't do a whole lot of this so I'll be
    following this to see what you come up with.

    Bob
     
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  • Harbs.
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    2. Harbs.,
    Dec 10, 2008 12:45 PM   in reply to AnneMarie Concepcion
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    Hi Anne Marie,

    I've had very little luck getting the proper text picked up using
    InDesign's standard header variables when things go beyond basic. I
    never spent the time figuring out how InDesign's first and last is
    supposed to work. The way it works with my plug-in is that it's based
    solely on the position of the anchored frame (not the position of the
    anchor). Maybe that's the way the standard ones work as well?

    --
    Harbs
    http://www.in-tools.com
     
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  • Mr. Met
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    3. Mr. Met,
    Dec 11, 2008 5:05 AM   in reply to AnneMarie Concepcion
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    Michael Murphy has a tutorial on running headers and foooters on his site: www.theindesigner.com. You may want to check that.
     
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  • F vd Geest (WA Veghel)
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    4. F vd Geest (WA Veghel),
    Dec 11, 2008 11:00 AM   in reply to AnneMarie Concepcion
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    What do you see in the text editor (you know Ctrl/Cmnd-Y) as the first thing on the page? The anchor symbol or actually text in the text frame?
    Just wondering as it seems so random...
     
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  • Graham van de Ruit
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    5. Graham van de Ruit,
    Aug 28, 2012 3:24 AM   in reply to AnneMarie Concepcion
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    Hi

     

    I’m having the same trouble. I have a character style applied as a nested style to the first three characters of a paragraph style. I have set up running headers to show the first and last occurances of this character style on the page. It all work fine if the text is continuous in a single text frame, but when it sits in anchored objects both variables display the last occurances.

     

    I’m using CS4 (6.0.6) on a PC. In an earlier step of the project the main text was running continuously in a single text frame, but there were other anchored frames. I accidentally applied my character style to the contents of these anchored frames, but it didn’t affect my running heads. When my client opened it in CS5 on his Mac, however, the running heads displayed this text. This makes me wonder if this issue has been resolved in CS5.

     

    Anyone able to offer any insights?

     

    You can check my file at http://grahamvdr.com/public/docs/Directory4.indd

     
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  • Laubender
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    6. Laubender,
    Aug 28, 2012 5:58 AM   in reply to Graham van de Ruit
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    @Graham – After fiddling with anchored text frames and two different running header variables, after more than three hours yesterday, I finally gave up on that issue…

     

    I have to use InDesign CS5 for that project due to my customer.

    (German InDesign CS5 7.0.4  on German OSX 10.6.8)


    To complicate things, I discovered that in some instances copy/paste anchored text frames with text variables will never be updated. Regradless what you do. Even not after save/re-open the document. AND EVEN NOT  after exporting to IDML and open that again as a fresh file…

     

    I'll stick to a script I'm going to write for my special case…

     

    A little frustrated,

     

    Uwe

     
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  • Graham van de Ruit
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    7. Graham van de Ruit,
    Aug 31, 2012 6:52 AM   in reply to Laubender
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    Thanks for your feedback, Uwe. I also had no joy from copy/pasting, exporting to INDX / IDML etc.

     

    However…

     

    I checked the document on my client’s Mac today (CS5) and all seems to be working fine there. I would assume that means that the issue has been resolved in CS5, but you say you’re using it and having great trouble? Strange.

     
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