10 first letters/digits Partial filename

Hello @charlieg19576563

Here's a play off of Brian's code as a startup script, this script will run when a Indesign document in opened and only if the filename is equal or greater than 10 characters it will create the text variable "Doc Name 10" of the first 10 characters.

Save and place the script here: Applications⁩ ▸ ⁨Adobe InDesign 2021⁩ ▸ ⁨Scripts⁩ ▸ ⁨startup scripts⁩

#targetengine "session"

var eventListener = app.addEventListener("afterOpen", myCustomTextVariable, false); 

function myCustomTextVariable() {
 try {var doc = app.documents[0];
  var fileName = doc.name.replace(/.indd$/i, ""); 
   if(fileName.length >= 10){
    var tenName = fileName.slice(0,10);
    }else{
    exit();
   }
var tv = doc.textVariables.add({ variableType: VariableTypes.CUSTOM_TEXT_TYPE,
name: "Doc Name 10"
});
tv.variableOptions.contents = tenName;
  
 } catch(err) {}
}

Regards,

Mike

Here's a convulouted non-script way 

Set your Slug area in File>Document Setup to be a larger size (larger than your bleed

Insert a Text Frame

And then insert a cross reference

This will pull the entire File Name.

Create a new character style and call it Filename (or something) and you don't have to do anything with this - just leave it plain and blank.

Create a New Paragraph Style for the text in the slug

in the white are is just a space

Create a New Text Variable

It will draw on first set of characters up to a space in your slug area - drawn from the cross reference - and inserted as a variable in the text above.

The only draw back is that I have to update the Cross Reference when resaving to a different file name.

Attached is a sample IDML file which should work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q8d6ueksuhd5a44/54321_123%20Design%20sample%20design.idml?dl=0

you cant refine the variables to that degree, but you cant fake it: you can assign a paragraph style to it with a grep style to "hide" any text after the first ten digits for eg by changing the text colour to none.

/G