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Jason Burnett
Jason Burnett
Inspiring
August 9, 2023
Question

How can one index objects with titles?

  • August 9, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 1566 views

I have a lot of images that represent handwritten recipes. Each recipe (photo) has a title to it. I would like to be able to create a master index of these titles for the end of the book. I'd also like to create small table of content pages for the beginning of each section. 

 

How do I add a Title to my images (just the data, not text and not a caption) that can be collected and the page number associated with the Object be returned? Do I need a script for this?

 

I'm quickly approaching 250+ pages and manually indexing all of these recipes seems like too much work, especially when reorganizing pages. Surely, someone has done something like this before and has a suggestion of the easiest way to manage this automatically.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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4 replies

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Brainiac
August 10, 2023

I assume the images are anchored to something... they should be, in general practice, and must be, for EPUB export. I'd create a descriptive page title for each, probably with a break to new page included, and anchor the recipe image to each. Then TOC the titles.

Lukas Engqvist
Lukas Engqvist
Community Expert
August 10, 2023

Sounds like you are wanting to do a table of contents. If the titles are written with a unique Paragraph Style that is quite easily done, and can be sorted alphabetically if you prefer. A Table of Contets (TOC) is also linked as bookmarks that you can use in InDesign or in the PDF or EPUB you would export. (InDesign can have several TOCs). But as @Robert at ID-Tasker says the first part is to isolate the text into a separate (and unique) Paragraph Style

There should be plenty tutorials online on the process. The documentation is here https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.html

Peter Spier
Peter Spier
Community Expert
August 9, 2023

And if you don't want those text frames to print, you should still be able to use the content for TOC and indexing.

    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Brainiac
    August 9, 2023

    What do you mean by "just the data, not text and not a caption"?

     

    I think the easiest way would be to group a TextFrame with the photo and put any info you want there - with some dedicated Char / Para Style. 

     

    If you split sections to separate INDD files - you should be able to do index per file and then complete index for the Book. 

     

    Or it could always be scripted. 

     

    Jason Burnett
    Jason BurnettAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 10, 2023

    @Robert at ID-Tasker  Thanks again for your help.. I figured I would apply different styles for each section then run a new TOC for each section. I have already created the Parent Page items for all 9 sections (both header and content pages) and have a special style for the Section Title text allowimg me to easily do the TOC for the sections (in the front of the book).
    I make a text frame that won't print, but contains the title of the recipes, if I go to create a new TOC for the section title page (which includes only the recipes in that section), it updates my book TOC. Are you only allowed to create one  TOC per document? I would like a  TOC for each section as well as a TOC for the book (listing sections) then have all of that compiled into a Index at the back of the book.

    Do I have to divide my file into separate sections to handle the TOC for each section? But then, how do I combine the sections into one final document for the master TOC/Index. 

     

    I tried doing Recipe 1 (style for section 1 TOC) and Recipe 2 (style for section 2 TOC) but that didn't work. Perhaps there is another way? And wIth the TOC, do I  have to manually generate this each time there's an update? Or does it automatically track new entries for me? 

    Also, do you know where to get the scripting reference for InDesign? I keep looking for it but can't find it. I'm pretty good with JS, but need the documentation for the specifcl model used by InDesign. I figure I could pretty easily write a script to gather the information I need and generate the TOCs per section like I want. 

     

    Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it.

    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Brainiac
    August 10, 2023

    https://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#about.html

     

    It would be REALLY much easier if you split your current document into smaller chunks - chapters / sections - and then combine them using Book feature. 

     

    This way - you'll have exactly the same structure - with just different content. 

     

    Index won't update itself - but if you are good with JS - you can easily script it - your script would need to either open the book and then go through collection of Documents - or just process Documents from the specified folder - and update TextFrames with Index.

     

    That way - InDesign will do the heavy lifting for you.

     

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