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R
RuthK
Known Participant
May 13, 2018
Answered

Subsections in InDesign

  • May 13, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 3357 views

Hi all!

I am designing a catalogue where there are approximately 10 main sections but each section has 2 or 3 subsections. I don't want to create a master page for every subsection, but I want to somehow define a variable so I can have a breadcrumb along the bottom of each page:

For example

Food > Fruit >  Apples

So I'd only want to set up "Food" as the main master, because the only thing different is the breadcrumb at the bottom of the page. It seems like this is something that should be possible between sections and running headers / footers but I don't see how to do it.

There is no text on the actual page, all the information will be placed from other indesign files which have been generated through data merge.

Any information gratefully received.

Ruth

Correct answer jane-e

It's not tricky as long as you have your styles in use consistently. You create three variables and insert them into the header or footer.

Variables:

Head 1

Head 2

Head 3

Footer:

Head 1 text > Head 2 text > Head 3 text

2 replies

R
RuthKAuthor
Known Participant
May 13, 2018

Next question - is there anyway I can have an "IF" sort of variable - I want to include a character after each variable to separate between the variables, but not if there is nothing after the variable.

jane-e
Community Expert
jane-eCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 14, 2018

I tried "Text Before" the Head 2 and the Head 3

<space> <greater than> <space>

[[[ > ]]]

and the greater than is suppressed when the variable is not used.

Will that work?

R
RuthKAuthor
Known Participant
May 14, 2018

Spot on perfect, thanks so much!

Colin Flashman
Community Expert
Colin FlashmanCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 13, 2018

Perhaps a text variable would help? Create and edit text variables in InDesign

Sandee Cohen has a video that may assist: Using Text Variables for InDesign Masters - YouTube

If the answer wasn't in my post, perhaps it might be on my blog at colecandoo!
    R
    RuthKAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 13, 2018

    Thank you, I've been looking at these but I don't think it will work unless I can actually specify sections and subsections (I can of course do sections but I think subsections are a bit tricky, unless perhaps I do this as a book with multiple files which is a bit more complex but maybe a better way of working.

    jane-e
    Community Expert
    jane-eCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    May 13, 2018

    It's not tricky as long as you have your styles in use consistently. You create three variables and insert them into the header or footer.

    Variables:

    Head 1

    Head 2

    Head 3

    Footer:

    Head 1 text > Head 2 text > Head 3 text

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