Live captions and graphic frames on parent pages

[andys98318584]

Hi, 

I'd like to set-up my parent pages so they have a placeholder frame I can drag an image into and a text frame with a live caption that automatically updates. My goal is:

• Specify the location of the image on each page in the parent page.
• Specify the location of the caption associated with the image in the parent page.
• Have the caption on a child page automatically update when I drag an image onto it. 

I created the graphic frame in the parent page and that works. After applying the parent page to the child pages I can drag images onto the child pages and they are displayed where I want and fitted as I want. 

I generated a live caption on parent page and the text displayed "No intersecting link" which I expect as the frame contains no image. I apply the design to my child pages. If I drag an image into a child page the image is displayed as I want but the live caption remains as "No intersecting link".

Is the specification of a layout that contains a placeholder graphic frame and live caption on a master page something that can be achieved? If so, what am I doing wrong? I did some google but didn't come up with much beyond someone complaining it didn't work in 2015. 

All help appreciated 🙂

BTW: I'm using the latest version of InDesign on a Mac.

[andys98318584 · Accepted solution]

I solved this by not using the Generate Live Caption and instead following the instructions here which are to add a text frame then add a text variable. This seems to work fine. 

[Creamer Training]

The variables method works well when you need more than one live caption--or you like more control over the placement of the caption. For simple one-caption options, the Generate Live Captions work well. 

Your original workflow should have worked fine. I do like my caption frames touching the image, however. I use text frame options to offset the text. 

I would go to Adobe's help pages before I trust an unknown tutorial on the internet. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I have yet to find ID's caption feature useful in any project. Tying it to image data is... an extremely niche approach.

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[andys98318584]

I'm creating a photo book and all my captions are in location and title metadata. It seems the obvious thing to want that to automatically be embedded in the book design when I add images. What do you do instead when you have a large number of images that you want to move around in a book with associated captions. Is it that my nice is the location info I've embedded in metadata perhaps?

[andys98318584]

"Niche" not "nice". Sorry, autocorrect.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If you're working with images that have all the info in metadata, ID's caption feature is much more useful.

That's just not a workflow everyone uses, outside of photographers, magazines and pictorial publishers. A more general caption utility would be nice for those of us who don't necessarily manage our images to that level. I'd rather be able to manage the caption as part of the text/layout process, not as a photo editing task.

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[Creamer Training]

Not sure how this info is helping the OP solve their problem. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If there was an original point, it's just not to use the Caption feature, but a more direct, manual process. Besides working better in all but a very narrow range of use, manual caption paragraphs, whether in text frames or not, grouped or not, may well get around some of the limitations of putting elements on parent pages.

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[andys98318584]

Thanks, I did have a good look and couldn't find anything related to its use in parent pages. Following the steps for child pages (but not in parent pages) didn't seem to work. The unknown tutorial does work. 

[Creamer Training]

I created an image frame on the parent page with and without variable text frames, then, in the document pages, I inserted a photo. Both methods worked as expected. (I did not follow the tutorial.)

[andys98318584]

Interesting, I suspect I have found a bug of some form with the Apple M1 compiled version of ID since we shouldn't do the same things and get different results :). You using the latest ID version? 

[andys98318584]

... you definitely need to group the frame and text box for this to work BTW

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

InDesign's caption feature is... somewhere between convoluted and useless. (I suppose it is of more use in environments like magazines, where images and their embedded data are more rigidly managed).

Some variation of using a separate paragraph for a caption is the only workable method. A grouped text box is not always necessary, though. You can do many captions simply with careful (style) formatting of  the graphics frame and following caption paragraph.

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[andys98318584]

Thanks 🙂

[Creamer Training]

I did not need to group in my tests.

[Laubender]

Hi @andys98318584 ,

to be very useful the feature is missing (at least) one option:

You cannot apply an object style automatically.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )