4 Replies Latest reply: Nov 27, 2009 1:16 AM by chapmanga RSS

    Running Headers/XML [CS3]

    chapmanga Community Member

      I am looking for help with running headers on XML driven files.

       

      At  present we generate Indexes for our atlases by importing XML from the mapping software into a series of InDesign templates. The importing is do via a JavaScript that builds the final document from up to four XML files and addresses pages until all the date is placed.

       

      Within each entry of our index we have a dummy tag <runner> this sits around the first three letters of every entry and has an associated character style. Using this character style and text variables within InDesign our running headers are then generated.

       

      up until now this has worked fine as all entries in the index have been black and the runner character style has been pretty much a clone of the Paragraph style within which it sits, these means that the 3 affected letter do not look any different from the index but are able to be referenced for the running header.

       

      The problem we now have is that there is a requirement to have more that one color of type with in the index and thus more than one paragraph style depending on the required color of the entry. This means that the 3 runner characters will need to be able to match their parent paragraph. As character styles do not appear to be able to have null color value like they can for point size etc. we need to have one for each of the required colors, and thus the running headers will not work as we now have potentially more than one character style from them to work.

       

      I suspect this may be a shot in the dark but I was hoping that someone can point out something we have missed in the actual app. or be able to point us in the right direction with regards to adjusting the script to generate the running header straight from the XML, either way any help appreciated.

       

      I have attached to a zip file containing a sample file with some data already imported (only a dummy by no means a finished index). Some sample XML to show the present structure we are working with, and the section of the JavaScript that builds this particular product (it normally sits within a larger script that loads at start-up and generates associate menus

       

      regards

      Geoff