Reflow non-threaded figure numbers?

[Daniel308]

Greetings all, and thanks for your time.

I produce a textbook with 300+ pages and over 250 illustrations. Most of the contents are threaded but in some areas this was not possible. I need to insert a new figure into approximately page 50 and because of the way this spread is formatted, this new figure can not be threaded.

Of course when I insert my new figure in the document (physically it should be Figure 53) it of course becomes the last figure in the document Figure 255. I can't obviously begin copy / pasting every figure south of this to try to re-order my figures.  I have be researching this for hours now, and have only been able to find the copy / paste method of getting my numbering to be physically accurate vs chronologically accurate.

This seems to be something that would be a regular occurrence for people working on certain types of publications. I guess that often, the figures would re-start with each section making the copy / paste somewhat less arduous but still...I feel like I must be missing something.

Any help would be ••greatly•• appreciated!

[Sandee Cohen]

Daniel308

You don't have to arrange 100 layers. And most likely adding the text frame with the figure number is all that you would need to do.

I don't understand your intractability in accepting a solution that is 1000 times easier than the kludges you think will work.

I've told you more than once that you need a List defined to reflow across stories. Are you aware of where that setting is?

Would it help if I created a video to show you how simple the solution is?

[FRIdNGE]

Sure! …

Personally, I always look carefully at the original demand and all the previous answers/screenshots [especially mine] too, and, of course, I didn't ignore your article on this way written elsewhere 5 years ago!

https://indesignsecrets.com/arranging-numbered-lists-separate-frames.php

[Sandee Cohen]

Michel,

Wow! I was about to congratulate the brilliant person who wrote an article on this technique.

Then I discovered that I wrote the article!

As my English relatives say "Brill. Just brill."

[FRIdNGE]

Oh Sandee, it's been so long! ...

I applaud the self-congratulation repeated 3 times [never better served than by oneself!], but, sorry, I won't play with you!

It's useless once again! As I already wrote:

"Personally, I always look carefully at the original and all the previous answers/screenshots [especially mine] too ..."

Have a good day!

[Daniel308]

Michel is there any way, you could detail your use of cross-references to overcome this issue? I'm just not sure how you are setting the reference up.

[FRIdNGE]

Sorry, I can’t! ... I’m cooking at the moment! But sure later!

[FRIdNGE]

Daniel, private message sent! …

[Barb Binder]

Hi Daniel:

The community forums are a user-to-use forums (we are users like you), so Adobe won't necessarily see this:

***please InDesign Team, just give me an "Arrange / Insert Before" function and the ability to choose a target frame.••• And / or an "Auto-reflow List "X"

Please be sure to post a feature request here: Adobe InDesign Feedback  and link back to this page so that the engineering team can get the full picture.

~Barb

[Sandee Cohen]

Barb,

I agree those features would be good, but in case anyone doesn't think there is an answer, Cut/Paste in Place can reorder the numbers.

[Sandee Cohen]

In case anyone needs more information, here's a video that explains my answer to this question.

Numbering stories in InDesign - YouTube

[vinny38]

Hi Sandee.

With all due respect, I don't think your video answers to the original question...

I know my English is not as good as yours, but I really don't think that question was about how to set up a numbered list.

I understand it was all about... stories!

Maybe you could read again the whole thread and correct me if I misunderstood?

Regards

Vinny

[FRIdNGE]

Hi Vincent,

No more comment from me on this topic I consider closed since Daniel's last message.

I'll let you finish if you want.

Best regards!

[off the record!] Between us, even before the final episode that ends the stories of "Game of Thrones", we already know who will be the "King"! ...

[Sandee Cohen]

Hi Vinny,

Yes, the original post was about stories. But the OP wanted to know how to make figure numbers flow from page to page without making stories — that is to make the frames "non-threaded."

And I explained it several times. And created the video.

The OP misunderstood something I said and thought he would have to deal with hundreds of layers. But that wouldn't have been the case.

I'm so sorry if anyone doesn't think my video is on topic. I tried as best I could.

I'm also sorry if Daniel thinks that cross refs are the only was to do this. It's quite cumbersome to try to number the items that way. Once you learn how to set the controls for numbered lists, you'll see that the ID engineers created a very robust set of tools for numbering.

[Daniel308]

Hi Sandy.

Thanks for the video, I'm sure that will help some people with setting up the numbered lists and re-ordering items on a page.

At 5:34, I think you are close to what my request to Adobe and issue is: Perform precisely what you show at 5:34, but without moving the whole page. I want to do that with a stand-alone frame, group, illustration...that is assigned to my list and choose where it is inserted sequentially. Your instructions about grouping and using layers etc is just far too complicated (and should be unnecessary IMO) with the depth of the technical publications I'm creating.

[Daniel308]

Again so many thanks to everyone who has provided some thoughts and insight. Sandee, you invested a great deal of time in addressing this and your efforts are truly appreciated.

My takeaway so far, is that there is no current way to perform this simple function. There have been some extremely convoluted work-arounds presented, not all of which I have even been able to understand or fully experiment with.

Adobe: Select or highlight any list instance / Edit List / "Ignore Sequential" [checkbox] / "insert before/after* —choose / Apply.

<<A big error message that states something along the lines of "what you are about to do could completely mess your list">>

And add a function to help quickly reset a "messed" list that states "Auto-reflow List" that performs this function based on location...?

Do I have any seconders?

[FRIdNGE]

Le son est inutile et le propos suffisamment explicite, comme d'habitude !

C'est mon dernier post sur ce forum !

[Daniel308]

What script is this that you're running? This looks like the magic I'm looking for! (Finger's crossed you can read my message).

[livefromsf]

Did you ever get Michel's script or find another way to resolve your problem?  I'm in search of the same solution now. The script does look magic.

[Jay Maechtlen]

sorry, I haven't read the entire grisley thread -

But numbering afik, is according to thread sequence and anchor location within thread.

So you should be able to have things scattered all over a page, and have then numbered according to their anchor locations - if they are anchored in the story, the numbers should be sequenced according to how the anchors appear - they could be all on one otherwise blank line, or positioned in the thread/story wherever their number needs to belong.

The items that have to number (captions?) can float anywhere - don't have to be inline with the anchor.

Or is that not what you're trying to do?

[Daniel308]

Thanks, but no; anchoring won't work in my scenario because the (custom) list I'm calling—and you're correct—in a figure caption, is an island text frame floating in area surrounded by continuously threaded text. Also this island page cannot be threaded, it must remain in a fixed and permanent location...but thanks Jay.