Bulleted Lists In InDesign CS

[Lee_Carter@adobeforums.com]

Can anyone tell me how to use an automated process to create bulleted lists in InDesign CS. I've figured out how to do it with a bullet and hanging indent, but that is tedious. Thanks in advance...Lee

[Bob_Levine]

You script it or buy the Pagemaker plugins that have a decent, though
not very complicated bullet plugin included.

Bob

[Lee_Carter@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Bob!
That's what I seemed to be finding out online, but I wanted someone with more experience to confirm that before I drove myself nuts trying to figure it out...Lee

[Abe]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 10:56:27 -0700, [email]Lee_Carter@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote:

>Can anyone tell me how to use an automated process to create bulleted lists in InDesign CS. I've figured out how to do it with a bullet and hanging indent, but that is tedious. Thanks in advance...Lee

I created a Paragraph Style called "Alt-8 Tab" which is all I've ever
needed

Abe

[Christine_Krof_Shock@adobeforums.com]

Or create a 2 column n row table
1st column use for dingbats, graphics etc.
2nd column for text.

Save table as a library item for reuse
(I actually have a "bullet library" where I keep about 100 different styles of "bulleted lists!)

So I did learn something from all my web work after all!

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

I'm going to add to what I just wrote in another post:

Defining and styling a list with only change/find and a nested style. This can be done in one step for a whole manuscript without the PageMaker additions (if the manuscript uses only one character for its bullets).

First, define a character style for the bullet, including font and any other specs that are different from the list specs (such as point size of the bullet or baseline shift).

Next define a para style for the list items. Make it a nested style, using the bullet character style for the first word.

Then use find/change to search for ^p(character)space or ^p(character)^t if the manuscript already has a tab after the bullet character. Change both the bullet character and the para style (use show options from the hidden menu at upper right corner).

I find it works best if you use the Unicode equivalent from glyphs menu for the new character you want for the bullet. I use E0A9 (^<pE0A9>^t) and set the character style to use Universal News & Commercial Pi, along with a smaller point size than the list font and some baseline shift to move the bullet where I want it. If I use the code, I don't get the dreaded pinkness.

It's very simple once you've done it a few times. That's why I've never worried about not having a lists setup like Word or Framemaker. Especially now that we have nested styles.

[Marilyn_Langfeld@adobeforums.com]

Oops, I made a typing error in the last post and it's too late to edit it. The correct string to change to is ^p<E0A9>^t using the Unicode value for whatever bullet you want.

[Lee_Carter@adobeforums.com]

Hello and thanks for both of those suggestions. You both obviously know a lot more about this program that I do, and I'm very thankful for each solution. I'll try them out.

[Tony_Stuart@adobeforums.com]

Scripting and clever workarounds are all well and good, but why not have bullets as a component of paragraph styles in the next version of InDesign, as Ventura has done for ages?

Pick a bullet character (any type or graphic object), set the size and baseline shift, and set the hanging indent, and there it is. Add user-friendly precoding of word-processing files and a paragraph tool that allows non-contiguous paragraphs to be styled with a single click and everyone is cooking with gas. I do a lot of pubs peppered with bulleted lists in Ventura and it is an absolute snap.

It's not like Corel has just added automated bullets to Ventura. The feature has been there since the mid-1980s, just waiting to be mimicked by Adobe and Quark. Well, perhaps some day . . .

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Scripting and clever workarounds are all well and good, but why not have
bullets as a component of paragraph styles in the next version of InDesign,
as Ventura has done for ages?




That's the way it can be done with the PageMaker Plugin Pack. If we're lucky, maybe they'll include it in the next version of InDesign. It makes a good feature request.

[Tony_Stuart@adobeforums.com]

Steve

Surely the 'PageMaker' bullets will be incorporated next time, or will it be a matter of luck, as you say?

Bullets are such a ubiquitous publishing component that it beggars belief that we are still talking in 2004 about their inclusion in an Adobe page layout program.

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

I think the PageMaker Plug-in Pack features SHOULD be included in the next version of InDesign, but it's the Adobe product managers who make that decision. And they're not telling us yet.

[Christine_Krof_Shock@adobeforums.com]

I like the freedom that I get from using tables to set bulleted lists. My clients have been wowed when I have scaled their logos down to use as a bullet or that I can use a custom design brought over from illustrator that is something only their company has!

Bulleted tables have brought me extra business and repeat business! I hope that Adobe doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one!

[simon_biddell@adobeforums.com]

Christine

Can you post your bullet list on the Studio Exchange?

Simon

[Kaci_Hartlaub@adobeforums.com]

I have InDesign 2.0 with the pagemaker plug-in...so I am not sure if the feature I have is from the PM plug-in or if it is included in the standard ID 2.0. Anyway, I can simply make a bullet list by going to the paragraph menu, clicking on the arrow which brings up the drop down menu. If you look at the bottom of the list it says bullets and numbering. It is a very basic bullet program, but it gets the job done. Hope this helps.

[Bob_Levine]

> I have InDesign 2.0 with the pagemaker plug-in

No you don't. You have CS and yes it is a feature of the plug ins.

Bob

[Dominic_Hurley@adobeforums.com]

Bulleted tables have brought me extra business and repeat business! I hope that Adobe doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one!

I don't follow. How could adding a beefed up bullets and numbering option to the standard progam affect your ability to create the lists as you are? I can't see them adding bullets and removing tables!

[Unregistered]

On a Mac paste the text into TextEdit. Create the list in TextEdit. Paste the result back into InDesign