Text variable / running header question

[Spenno]

Hi there. I am laying out a series of books which repeat text on the page as a helpful sidebar next to it. Previously I laid these out manually, by copying the relevant text and pasting it into the sidebar and changing it into a new style. Time-consuming, and a pain in the backside when the text was altered, as I'd have to cut-paste every sidebar frame onto the new page. So after using some simple running headers effectively elsewhere I began to play with the idea of using character styles to automatically populate the sidebar. I got it to work but with one problem - the spacing in the sidebar text is wrong, almost as if the leading is zero (which it isn't)...

Here is the variable in question...

And here is the desired outcome. You can see the character style I've used in the grey text at the end of the first paragraph.

Many thanks for any suggestions on how to get that text to space correctly. It's almost as if it can only be on one line, as that's what it's tried to do.

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Hi,

What you only need is to apply a condition to the text you want to see into the sidebar!

After, play a script! [ … that won't use a variable, acting as a single char! ]

(^/) 

[Spenno]

This sounds perfect but I've never applied a condition before... what do I do? And where can I grab the script to do this? Thanks in advance.

[Document Geek]

There is no need for a script. Simply make a new condition, select some text, and apply the condition.

But honestly, I'm not sure how a condition would help you. Conditions let you selectively show and hide text. But I think a better solution would be a plugin. Power Headers by in-Tools. It has a dizzying number of features, bet here are the two that I think will solve your problem.

• Flexible Source Styles: Power Headers includes an option to base headers on paragraph style, character style, or both (a character style within a specific paragraph style).
• Text Composition:Power Headers keeps the headers as live text, the text is composed by InDesign’s standard text composer. Variables on the other hand are treated as a single character and cannot break across lines. With Power Headers you can create multiple line headers with ease! Additionally, since the headers are simple text, nested styles work as expected.

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Hi Kelly,

Not truly sure we use Conditions in the same way!

… and, here, it's not matter of headers, just parts of text highlighted on the page!

Sidebar - YouTube

(^/) 

[script not fro free!]

[Document Geek]

That is very cool!

I’ve never used conditional text in that way. Very clever!