1 Correct answer
Hi gwhPoster:
Is this a limitation of Indesign?
Yes. You can use a nested style to add a character format to a particular number of words, but they won't be able to drop into the paragraph.
In your situation, I would set up two styles:
- a character style to control the typeface, weight and color, and
- a paragraph style to control the drop (how far and initially how many characters).
Add the character style to the drop cap paragraph style and then you'll just have to count characters and override the i
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18
Replies
A drop cap is a paragraph attribute. You apply the settings to a specific number of characters, at the beginning of the paragraph, and it will go down, into the paragraph a specific number of lines. The number of characters will be set according to the paragraph settings.
If you want just the word like in your screen shot "initial" to be a different color, font and size, and NOT dropped into the paragraph, that can be done by setting up a Nested Paragraph Style.
First make a style for your body text called Body with Red first words.
Then make a CHARACTER style to make the word Red, bigger - call it Red Word
Then open up your Paragraph Style (body with red first words) and on the list on the left, choose Drop Cap and Nested Style.
You have to define a Nested Style here, NOT a Drop Cap.
Click New Nested Style Button.
Choose your Character style Red Word from the list
Choose "through"
Choose how many Words (1 or 2 or 3)
Choose what you want the Red Word character style to stop at, if you picked 2 above and Words from the fourth position, this will always apply the red character style to the first 2 words, when this paragraph style is used.
Confusing I know. get more info by looking up a video on using Nested Styles
If you know that you ALWAYS want 1 or 2 characters dropped down 3 lines into your paragraph you can set it up in the top part of the dialog shown here, but the problem is when you want one paragarph to have 2 words, then another to have 4 words and the number of characters is different for each instance.
Hi gwhPoster:
Is this a limitation of Indesign?
Yes. You can use a nested style to add a character format to a particular number of words, but they won't be able to drop into the paragraph.
In your situation, I would set up two styles:
- a character style to control the typeface, weight and color, and
- a paragraph style to control the drop (how far and initially how many characters).
Add the character style to the drop cap paragraph style and then you'll just have to count characters and override the initial number.
~Barb
Is this a limitation of Indesign?
You could do it via scripting. Something like this AppleScript (OSX only), which looks for any paragraph with a style named "Drop Style". Just change the name in line 1 to your style name, and the number in line to for the number of words to drop cap.
set dropstylename to "Drop Style"
set wdcnt to 2
tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
set ps to object reference of every paragraph of every story of active document whose name of applied paragraph style is dropstylename
repeat with x in ps
set cc to ((index of last character of word wdcnt of x) + 1) - (index of first character of word 1 of x)
set drop cap characters of x to cc
set drop cap lines of x to 2
end repeat
end tell
Hmm, I not getting that error. What version of ID, and are you running it from the Scripts Panel?
It is running on paragraphs—it has to loop thru the stories in order to get at the paragraphs. I did forget to check for the paragraph style name, should be this:
//The paragraph’s style name you want to dropcap
var dsName = "Drop Style"
//number of words to dropcap
var wcnt = 2
//number of lines for the dropcap height
var lcnt = 2
var ds = app.activeDocument.stories
for(var i=0; i < ds.length; i++){
var s = ds.item(i);
for(var j=0; j < s.paragraphs.length; j++){
var p=s.paragraphs.item(j);
if (p.appliedParagraphStyle.name == dsName) {
var dc = p.words.itemByRange(p.words[0], p.words[wcnt-1]);
p.dropCapCharacters = Math.round(dc.length)
p.dropCapLines = lcnt
}
}
}
This is what I get in CC2020:
Here’s my compiled version out of ESTK, try coping it into your Applications<u+2069> ▸ <u+2068>Adobe InDesign 20XX<u+2069> ▸ <u+2068>Scripts<u+2069> ▸ <u+2068>Scripts Panel folder<u+2069>:
ere’s my compiled version out of ESTK, try copingnbsp; my compiled version out of ESTK, try coping
nbsp; my compiled version out of ESTK, try coping
I can‘t help with the error—not sure why it is happening on your end.
If I increase the dropcap number by 1 the space after the last word is included. So, I get this with left to right text:
//The paragraph’s style name you want to dropcap
var dsName = "Drop Style"
//number of words to dropcap
var wcnt = 2
//number of lines for the dropcap height
var lcnt = 2
var ds = app.activeDocument.stories
for(var i=0; i < ds.length; i++){
var s = ds.item(i);
for(var j=0; j < s.paragraphs.length; j++){
var p=s.paragraphs.item(j);
if (p.appliedParagraphStyle.name == dsName) {
var dc = p.words.itemByRange(p.words[0], p.words[wcnt-1]);
p.dropCapCharacters = dc.characters.length+1
p.dropCapLines = lcnt
}
}
}
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