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Textbook Perfect
Inspiring
December 5, 2017
Answered

Is there a way to have symbols in a text variable running head scale as superscript?

  • December 5, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 6806 views

I have a book that has running heads with an automated text variable that picks up the chapter title on every righthand page. The chapter titles have an ® that does not translate as a superscript in the running head. Is there a GREP style or something I can add that will correct the symbol size and positioning in the running header? See example below. Thanks for any and all help.

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    Correct answer Obi-wan Kenobi

    Although I share Obi-wan's aversion to the soft-return, it has nothing to do with the issue that you're trying to address here. Your screen shot clearly shows a space before the trademark symbol so it's coming from somewhere. Try changing the title text to something else. Just a single word with the tm behind it. Apply the character style to only the title text and the other character style to only the trademark symbol and see how the variable text looks. We're sleuthing now. Just need to find where it's coming from!


    Hi Chad!

    Simply from the soft-return! 

    Hercule Poirot

    4 replies

    hammer0909
    Community Expert
    hammer0909Community Expert
    Community Expert
    December 6, 2017

    Crazy!

    Obi-wan Kenobi
    Obi-wan Kenobi
    Legend
    December 6, 2017

    To avoid when you have a TOC to be generated behind! ...

    (^/)

    hammer0909
    Community Expert
    hammer0909Community Expert
    Community Expert
    December 6, 2017

    Case in point for soft returns... Not my choice, but the client's wishes for aesthetics. There's no way I have time to use No Break in these circumstances, which I know are excessive. Major headings are another story...


    You can add a keyboard shortcut to the No Break command very easily. Done deal. Using a No Break character style is another quick and effective way to achieve the desired result. For your body text that the client is requesting specific line breaks, I'd see if I could establish a pattern or rules that you could then incorporate into your body paragraph style. There's so much control there to adjust hyphenation, that you could probably avoid 85% of the breaks that the client is requesting. Also, are you using the Adobe Paragraph Composer to compose your body text? I'm thinking not. Because a lot of the soft returns in your screen shot are pushing very short words to the next line such as in, of, and is. The Paragraph Composer would almost surely push them to the next line automatically. I'm just trying to find a way to make your life easier ;-)

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 5, 2017

    No, not quite.

    Create two paragraph styles: i.e., Chapter Title and Running Head. I think you have these.

    On the 1st ChapterTitle: create two character styles that don't have any formatting attributes. I called mine 1 and 2 for brevity.

    Create two Running Header (Character Styles). I also called these 1 and 2. 1 uses the Character Style called 1, 2 uses the Character Style called 2.

    On the master page, insert Variable 1, followed directly by Variable 2.

    On the master page, assign Superscript to 2.

    Body page:

    I run the Denver Adobe CC User Group and we have a big meeting tonight: Adobe Evangelist Paul Trani is presenting so I have to head down now! I'll check back in with you tomorrow and someone else will step in if you need help before then.

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    T
    Textbook PerfectAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 6, 2017

    Thanks Barb. It's still not working. I have the chapter titles styled twice: first as a para, then as a character. I need to have offsets above and below for the title, hence the para style. ® is still full size even with correct use of symbol, plus there's a space between the title and ®. Not sure why this doesn't work. Frustrating.

    hammer0909
    Community Expert
    hammer0909Community Expert
    Community Expert
    December 6, 2017

    Barb's suggestion should work. If you have a space between the title and the trademark symbol it's because you either have one of the character styles applied to an additional space in the actual title or you could have possibly entered a space in the text before/after field of the variable. To reiterate you need a character style applied to the actual text in the title text. Then you need a character style to control the size of the trademark of the text variable.

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 5, 2017

    Very easy but...I started to grab screen shots to for you, and when I was setting it up, it worked automatically because that's how the ® symbol looks in the two fonts I inadvertently selected (Minion and Myriad)

    But if you like your font and don't want to switch to one that has a small, raised registration symbol:

    1. Create a character style to change the position to superscript. (I'm using the font called Charter to get a baseline registration symbol like yours).
    2. Edit the running head style and add a GREP style that apply your superscript character style to that one character.

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Obi-wan Kenobi
    Obi-wan Kenobi
    Legend
    December 5, 2017

    Hi,

    Do we talk about a « variable »?

    (^/)

    TomSchenck
    TomSchenck
    Inspiring
    December 5, 2017

    Hi,

    Thanks for reminding me about GREP styles. However, if you create a variable using the contents of the paragraph style the GREP character style does not get applied. I also added the GREP style to the paragraph style on the variable and it didn't work either.

    Michael Riordan
    Michael Riordan
    Inspiring
    December 5, 2017

    Yes, you can set up a character style for superscript then create a paragraph Style for your running header with a GREP style that applies the superscript character style to any registration symbol

    T
    Textbook PerfectAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 5, 2017

    I'm familiar with what GREP does, but never actually created one. Can you give me an example of how this would work or point me in the direction of creating one? I am very familiar with Para and Char styles, but not the Grep. Thanks!

    Michael Riordan
    Michael Riordan
    Inspiring
    December 5, 2017

    Sure, this one is very simple, really doesn't need any knowledge of GREP at all. As I posted earlier, create a superscript Character style.

    Then create or edit your Variable Header Paragraph style and on the left choose the GREP style option.

    Then simply choose your new superscript character style from the drop down list and type a registration mark in the To TEXT: field.

    The style will constantly be looking for registration marks within any text that has your variable header style applied and superscripting them.

    Hope that helps

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