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You know how we can have running headers say for chapters, and as we enter a new chapter and change its title it automatically updates the text on subsequent pages of the chapter...
Can we do the same with colours?
Is it possible to set a colour as some sort of variable?
Context is:
Surely there's a way of automating colours used throughout a chapter.
If this isn't possible in InDesign, how would you guys go about simplifying this process so the job isn't so arduous when it comes to having to lay out the other languages?
Thanks in advance.
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There may be some scripting approach that might handle this, but the only technique I can think of (and have used) is to assign a color name to all of the chapter documents, use it as the highlight color for the desired elements, and then change it in each chapter.
For instance, create a color swatch named HIGHLIGHT, and make it some distinctive color like Magenta. Lay out your book, get it into something like final form, and use HIGHLIGHT as the color for (say) running heads, chapter titles and numbers, footnote separator lines, paragraph separator characters, drop caps, etc. Then, in each chapter, change HIGHLIGHT to some different (and hopefully, attractive and coordinated) color.
This might be a problem when you synchronize book chapters etc., but you can work around that with the sync settings.
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That's interesting. How have you acheived that?
I assume that's driven by a style sheet connected in some way to a variable, but I'm wondering if the heading 'Colour Red' is the running header and that's why it appears on every subsequent page. I'm wondering if it would work with page headings, subheadings, crossheadings etc that aren't actually running headers.
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GREP Styles in Paragraph definition?
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Split your chapters into a Book?
Separate INDD file for each chapter.