Skip navigation
Gerben Wierda
Gerben Wierda
Currently Being Moderated

Can I somehow make the figure numbers of floating and inline/anchored figures consistent?

Sep 19, 2012 12:41 PM

I have a book project with many diagrams (called "views"). Many of these are small enough to be inline and move with teh text flow when I edit the story. Some, however, are too large. A few I can still make anchored. But some, I can't anchor because e.g. they are so large that have to appear on a page of their own.

 

InDesign numbers the captions in the caption paragraph style in the following order:

- first the figures that are inline/anchored in the story

- then the rest, as far as I can see on the basis of order of creation

 

This gives a weird result. Something like figure 21, then figure 88, then figure 22, etc.

 

Making all the figures floating is not an option. It would make the burden of editing (moving all the images when text is inserted at the beginning) prohibitive. Making them all anchored is impossible because some need to be on other pages than the text they are anchored to. Is there a workaround?

890 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: Gerben Wierda, Oct 7, 2012 2:21 AM
 
Replies
  • Mead324
    Currently Being Moderated
    1. Mead324,
    Sep 19, 2012 10:10 PM   in reply to Gerben Wierda
    Report

    I'm sure others will have more helpful answers, but after refreshing my memory and taking a look at this doc http://blogs.adobe.com/indesigndocs/2009/04/numbered_lists_part_iii_fi gure.html (albeit from 2009), I wonder if figure numbers are the best option in your particular situation. If you have CS5 or above, I wonder if it might be worth considering using Live Captions? I don't know if it's really the best answer, but it might be worth a thought.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Gerben Wierda
    Currently Being Moderated
    2. Gerben Wierda,
    Sep 20, 2012 8:48 AM   in reply to Mead324
    Report

    I really need numbering of the figures (these are inline images plus a caption in a text frame), there are around two hundred probably when I'm done and multiple images on a single page. This will be print, so I need numbers to point people to the right image.

     

    I was wondering if I can do something with threading the text frames that contain the images? Would that influence the numbering?

     

    I am using CS6.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Mead324
    Currently Being Moderated
    3. Mead324,
    Sep 20, 2012 10:35 AM   in reply to Gerben Wierda
    Report

    Understood. I had a bit of time to take a deeper look this morning at Live Captions. It would be possible to use them along with paragraph styles and numbered lists to generate the "Figure No." along with a caption. BUT, one catch that would have been crucial to your particular project - Live Captions don't work with inline images! I hadn't ever tried this until this morning...and I'm rather sad to discover it!

     

    InDesign will, by default, put numbers into text boxes in the order in which the text boxes were placed (top to bottom and left to right on the page). However, it will give favoritism to text boxes that are inline objects and number them first. Linking your text boxes should put those numbers in order, but I think the inline text boxes will still take precedence and cause you a problem.

     

    If you used Numbered Lists to create your figure numbers/captions (you can have it do the figure numbering automatically), then you simply create a paragraph style and apply the settings you need. Each time the numbers start to go out of order, create a new paragraph style and restart the numbering. It's really not ideal, I know, but I think with the mix of regular and anchored objects that need captioning, you may have to do a bit of a work around. This article explains pretty well how to set up the numbered list with the "figure number" at the front. http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSa285fff53dea4f86173837 51001ea8cb3f-6da6a.html#WS0D4A9E87-A636-4338-904D-4A2F622EB893a

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Gerben Wierda
    Currently Being Moderated
    4. Gerben Wierda,
    Sep 21, 2012 2:59 AM   in reply to Mead324
    Report

    The problem with the workaround is that it breaks as soon as you start editing in the beginning of your document and adding a floating object there.

     

    Hmm, maybe when I make it inle first, anchor it then break the anchor to turn it into a floating object the number is preserved? Nah, probably not.

     

    Seems I have to live with this.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Gerben Wierda
    Currently Being Moderated
    5. Gerben Wierda,
    Oct 7, 2012 2:21 AM   in reply to Gerben Wierda
    Report

    What I have decided is this. I create my figures in both inline/floating fashion. They get disjointed numbering. But just before producing the final document, I anchor all the floating objects en update the cross references. This will leave the floating images in place (I am not updating the document anymore) but they will all get a number in te order they (inline or their anchor) appear in the text.

     

    It is just the very very last thing you do in your document. And for a new version, you will have to release the anchors you want released.

     

    I have a single problem left with this. Some of my diagrams take up an entire page. I cannot anchor these on their own page.

     
    |
    Mark as:
Actions

More Like This

  • Retrieving data ...

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status

  • 10 points awarded for Correct Answers
  • 5 points awarded for Helpful Answers
  • 10,000+ points
  • 1,001-10,000 points
  • 501-1,000 points
  • 5-500 points