Active Layer Name as Text Variable/Live Caption?

Hi all,
I work for a company that uses heavily layered InDesign files to create variable brochures, with the appropriate layers activating for output as pdfs based on user information. Our clients often have difficulty discerning what layer they're looking at when we send them proofs for approval, and I'd like to find a way to have the names of active layer on any given page appear automatically in the slug, as though they are text variables or live captions.
One rather inelegant solution I've come up with is creating a small uncolored picture to put onto each layer, with the layer name as that picture's file name, and link it for Live Captioning. This is a huge messy timesuck though, and I'd love to see if I can just dedicate a text variable to display the names of active layers on a page prior to output. Any help/info is very much appreciated.
Thanks!

Willi—that's a great point. I was simply hoping to avoid the reiterative task of writing it out in the slug so it would change automatically if the layer name was changed, and having to go back through old files to put this info in (each document typically has 150+ layers). If I can't find an automated solution, this is most likely the route I'll be taking.

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Hi Rene,
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Hi,
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Hello!
I have 3 columns with amounts, 1 characteristic value variable and 1 text variable.
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Hi,
u need a second Text varaible and u need to correct your existing text variable.
Prerequisite: u need for your key figures the same KF-variable
1. Edit your existing text variable lets say its called &Text1&
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3. Choose a) InfoObject b) Choose key
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KF 1 -> &Text1&
KF 2 -> &Text1&
KF 3 -> &Text1& / &Text2&
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Tobias

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I am using a Top N condition in my Report and need to take in value of N from the user and also display it in to title of the report.
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Ashish..

Hi Dorothy,
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Hello,
I am placing image material with live captions in indesign. The file name created usually goes like this:
Credit: 0617 name.jpg
I would like to remove the date (0617) as well as .jpg automatically. I can do the later with a text search function, however,
due to different dates I can't do the same there.
My Grep codes (\d+) do not seem to find any numbers in the image captions. The captions are static by then.
Any ideas what could go wrong there?
Cheers

Live captions, section markers, and other variables or treated like a single character.
You say, "The captions are static by then".
Static Captions—These would be treated as normal text and your expressions should work fine.
Live Captions—These will automatically update based on the filename of the associated linked media. As mentioned before, they are treated as a single character.
Grep Style
(:\s\K\d+\s|\.\l+$)
Description of Expression
(:\s\K\d+\s|\.\l+$) Find a one or more digits and a whitespace character that follows
(:\s\K\d+\s|\.\l+$) That comes after a colon followed by a whitespace character
(:\s\K\d+\s|\.\l+$) Or
(:\s\K\d+\s|\.\l+$) Find a period followed by one or more letters, which come at the end of a paragraph
Character Style used by above expression to hide the found characters
Basic Character FormatsSize = 1pt
Advanced Character Formats
Horizontal Scale = 1%
Vertical Scale = 1%
Character ColorNone
Solution
Set up the aforementioned grep style in your caption paragraph style, as well as the associated character style.
Generate Static Captions for your photos Object > Captions > Generate Static Captions
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Is it possible to print the layer name on file/copy when print or export file?

Hi,
I produce a large number of pages in InDesign.
In each document there are 5 layers. 1 layer with images and 4 layers with language-editions.
For safety and quality control I would like to print out the layer name together with the crop-marks.
Like... Documentname / page number/ layerImages - layer language
Is that even possible? That is...without me having to write it myserlf in the bleed. :-)
/Karl

Karl Z wrote:
Hi,
I produce a large number of pages in InDesign.
In each document there are 5 layers. 1 layer with images and 4 layers with language-editions.
For safety and quality control I would like to print out the layer name together with the crop-marks.
Like... Documentname / page number/ layerImages - layer language
Is that even possible? That is...without me having to write it myserlf in the bleed. :-)
/Karl
InDesign's pasteboard, bleed, and slug areas are independent for each document page. Running header text variables in these areas can capture sources on document pages. If you place a text frame with a character style for the layer name, and a character style for the language name, on a layer, and capture them in a character-style-based running header in the slug, for example, the source from whichever layer is visible will appear in the running header in the slug area. Similarly, you can capture other text variables for page number, filename, date/time, etc.
It may take a little fussing to set it up the first time, but thereafter when you change layer visibility, the visible layer name changes automatically.
NOTE: Text frames on master page pasteboards, bleed, or slug areas do not appear on document pages unless they also touch the document page border.
Above: Master page view
Above: Page 1 view
Above: Page 2 view
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
Message was edited by: peter at knowhowpro

The Limitations of Live Captions?

Hi,
Just wondered if anyone could offer any general advice about the possible benefits of using Live Captions for a project which I’m currently working on.
I’m in the throes of setting up an 800page InDesign document (split into smaller files and chapters) which should eventually include about 300 graphics produced in Illustrator (CS5.5 versions – the company will not currently fund an upgrade to CS6). Traditionally, we have always included the graphics captions as part of the Illustrator image as we found they had a habit of being forgotten about by the authors if they were to be added at a later stage in InDesign. If we’ve also needed to include sequential figure numbering we’ve typed them in manually in Illustrator – a bit plebeian but on smaller documents it has worked well enough.
Given the size of this document, I’ve been looking at the features of Live Captioning but have run into the following queries – can anyone help, please? For the purposes of these questions, let’s assume I am working on Chapter 2 and need to caption up 3 graphics: Fig 2.1, Fig 2.2 and Fig 2.3:
The text for a Live Caption needs to be included as metadata in the Illustrator file. Is there any way to print this out with the Illustrator image (directly beneath it would be ideal) to ensure it does not get forgotten about by the author? I’ve Googled and Googled and it doesn’t appear to be possible – have I missed something? If not, I would definitely recommend this as a product feature for CS7!
Is it possible to mix up the text styles in a Live Caption? We use three part captions, the first being the figure number (in bold), the second being the benefit (also in bold) and the third being a description (in italics).A typical caption would run something like this –
“Fig 2.1: Environmentally-friendly energy. Our use of horses to pull the trams rather than engines reduces carbon emissions and will protect the local parkland.”
I can separate out a style for the figure number via the Numbering Paragraph Style but if I go the Live Caption route and write the rest of the caption via Illustrator’s metadata I can’t seem to distinguish between the benefit text and the description text unless I turn it into a Static Caption. Is this possible within Live Caption?
Live Captions appear to only be able to run to one line in length without resizing / retracking?
Finally, getting the captions to automatically renumber if the locations of the graphics are moved around seems tricky. Let’s say I've got my three images in place – Figs 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. The order comes through to move 2.2 to the front of the document – in effect turning it into Fig 2.1.As it’s in its own frame, the numbering in the Live Caption does not flip to 2.1 automatically as it would if I were using a series of linked text frames. The only solution seems to be to delete and then re-generate the first Live Caption frame after the image has been moved which then auto-renumbers the ones that follow.
I can see the benefit of Live Captioning for ensuring a particular piece of text always accompanies a particular image. For anything more complex it appears to be a bit of a pullava. I’m tempted to just stick with doing everything manually in Illustrator or are there ways to automate everything easily using Live Captions and cross-references which I’ve missed?
As always, thanks in advance for any and all advice offered.

Here how I would have approach this.. See if it can help you.
1. Metadata description is added to illustrator graphic using Bridge.
2. Graphic placed in InDesign.
3. Create a Paragraph Style with a named Numberining List with a character style for Fig., add a Nested Styles option for the second bold part ending at a sentence. The main text is Italic.
4. Make a Live Caption setup. Using Description, the paragraph style and put the results on his own layers. Not grouped.
5. If using CS6 make an Object Style with only the Text Frame Option for Auto-Sizing Height only. From the bottom.
6. Place all you graphics in InDesign.
Then when ready...
7. Select all the Graphics in the Link Panel, and choose Generate Live Captions.
8. Then use this Script: "TomaxxiVARIprocessor" - > http://tomaxxi.com/downloads/
9. When executed, the script allow you to convert the specified variables to text, and apply a object style at the same time.
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Text variable + text with tabs to align away from spine

Hello
I need a document header that shows the chapter captions. So I created a text variable that picks the format of the caption.
But the chapter captions have tabs:
I.>Introduction
So in the header, on the left pages it looks fine:
alignment is "away from spine"
I.>Introduction
But on the right page the chapter number remains with the spine, only the text after the tabs aligns "away from the spine":
I. > Introduction
I found it difficult to search for this on google and the forum (and no result) - and hope I made it clear in the text above I can't believe it's a rare problem and really hope I just oversee something and it can be solved..
Thank you!!

Some details about how the paragraph is constructed would help. I'm guessing here that the variable is a running head variable based on paragraph style, and that the nmber is manually typed, along with the tab, rather than being a numbered list.
If that's the case, substituting one or more em spaces or other fixed-width spaces in combination for the tab should solve the problem in the headers, but may cause other issues in the body of the text if your intention by using the tab was to always have a variable space between the number and the words depening on how many characters there are in your number. With roman numerals and proportional fonts it would be difficult without the tab to always have the chapter title itself begin at the same x-coordinate in the frame regardless of the number.
To overcome that issue, you can use two variables in the header, both designated as Running Header (character style), and separate them with an em-space or similar (not a tab). If there are not already nested styles in use for the titles, create two character styles that are nothing but names, then in the paragraph style for your chapter titles go to Drop Caps and Nested Styles and apply the first character syle up to 1 tab character, None through 1 tab character, and the second character style through 1 sentence. You two character style based variables in the header will pick up the two parts of the paragraph. It seems unlikely that anyone would notice or care that the spacing is fixed between number and text in the headers but not on the page, especially since the alignment shifts from page to page.

Active Layer Name as Text Variable/Live Caption?

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