Changing Numbered List Character Styles for Different Background Colors

[susan@placemakers.com]

I have a lengthy document with different types of numbered lists that run throughout. Because of different background colors on pages I need to change character styles from black to white for specific locations without disrupting the list. I can change the character style of the list text, but not the numbering text. Is that possible? Thanks in advance.


<Title renamed by moderator>

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

InDesign does not support the kind of text color mapping you see in elaborate layouts, where the text changes color according to the background. It can be achieved, a bit clumsily, with blending modes and the like, but I am not sure that applies to live text (e.g., it might have to be rasterized or reduced to outlines for the effect to work.)

If you have more control over where each paragraph of the list falls, without splitting any one across a color break (especially across a non-horizontal one), it should be possible to create compatible styles that preserve list order and allow you to switch the text from black to white. A key element would be for each list pair, at each level, to have identical numbering formatting and level assignment. And it would have to be manually applied; I can't think of any GREP or other automation that would do it automatically as text flows.

But, if you create two or three list levels that work perfectly for your text needs, and then clone each one and switch the color, you should be able to, for example, have lists that go—

• LEVEL ONE WHITE
• LEVEL ONE WHITE
  • LEVEL TWO WHITE
  • LEVEL TWO BLACK
• LEVEL ONE BLACK
  • LEVEL TWO BLACK]
  • LEVEL TWO WHTE

— and so on, indefinitely. You might also want two Level 1 styles that are child/clones and restart numbering at 1; this is often more absolute than leaving list restart to the text/list flow.

If that's not enough detail, ask away.

ETA: if I were doing this, I'd apply something like a cyan outline to the parent styles, so that the text was visible regardless of whether it falls on the correct background color. Remove the outline color in the last steps of layout.

[susan@placemakers.com]

Thanks James. And way more complex than my budget allows! But I appreciate the response.

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

Setup of the styles should not take more than a few minutes; the only time involved would be applying (whichever is) the lesser variant through the document. I guess if your time budget is very small, that could add up. But I don't think there's any (easy) way to automate it.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

susan@placemakers.com

Can you post example screenshots? 

Maybe Invert effect would be enough?