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Hi, I was wondering what people are using for custom running heads -- the kind not possible with the built-in tools. I figure I will have to use Applescript, but am curious as to how other people are doing it. Any thoughts, insights, or links to info, methodology, logic, programs, etc., is appreciated!
I think the best you can do is an Object Style with repeating Paragraph Styles, but that only works if there are no exceptions.
No Object style applied
An object style applied with 3 Paragraph Styles using Next Style
The Object Style‘s Paragraph Styles setting: Ahead has a Next style of BHead, BHead’s Next is Text, and Text’s Next is AHead.
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,Can you better explain (or preferably give an example) of what you mean by a custom running head not possible with the built-in tools, please. It's not at all clear to mean what you mean.
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Hi, I added some details as requested. Any ideas? Thanks!
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What you are looking for doesn’t sound like the traditional running head that Barb is describing in her post— a repeating page head generated from a master.
Seems like you are looking for automated next styles in the running text that change depending on a condition. I think conditional styling would need a script.
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OK, thanks. I have a somewhat elaborate method to do it using a database and scripts, but was wondering what the "state of the art" was these days and whether I could simplify with some new tool or not. Maybe this always requires elaborate custom scripting. Thanks again!
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I think the best you can do is an Object Style with repeating Paragraph Styles, but that only works if there are no exceptions.
No Object style applied
An object style applied with 3 Paragraph Styles using Next Style
The Object Style‘s Paragraph Styles setting: Ahead has a Next style of BHead, BHead’s Next is Text, and Text’s Next is AHead.
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Thanks for this example! Also fairly elaborate, but something for me to experiment with.
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It would work with items 1-4 in your example (assuming all of the items are single paragraphs). The occasional 5th item would not work, and would break the repeating styles.
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I'm also unclear on the question.
What do you need beyond those basics?
~Barb
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Hi All:
Thanks for the comments so far. The document I have to do is basically a list of names and numbers, by categories, completely styled with paragraph and character styles. That's the good news. What makes it interesting is that there are several levels of hierarchy, one optional.
For example:
1. Category subhead (alphabetical order)
2. Subcategory subhead (Area, one of four, alpha order, but
OPTIONAL for category, ie, some categories have this
subhead, some don't)
3. Skill Type subhead (first "Professional", then "Amateur",
so not alpha)
4. Person's name and numbers (alpha)
5. Some names (<10%) have a second paragraph
following their listing paragraph.
- There are Continued From frames on every page.
- There are full page ads, so the text flow can skip up to 4 pages.
- The people under each Skill Type subhead have the same
paragraph and character styles, so there is no way to tell
which is which just by inspecting a paragraph.
- Some Categories are so long that abbreviations for them must
be used in the Continued From text.
Now, what they want for the Continued From is something like:
Line 1: Category (possibly abbreviated to fit) [[Skill Type]]s (plural),
[[optional , Subcategory, eg, " , North Area"]]
Line 2: "Continued from Page [[#]]"
Reading the Help file led me to believe that this kind of running header was not possible, thus my question. Happy to be proven wrong!
If anyone needs more info, please ask. Either way, thanks for reading!
-k