Creating Tear Off Tickets!!!

[kylielindstrom@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

Can anyone help with this text flow problem...

In the past we've created multiple certificates by placing the certificate design on a master page and setting the margins exactly where the name should print on the certificate.

Then on the first page of the document, set the same margins and create a text frame to the size of the margins.

Off to the side of the first page, import a text file containing the names ensuring each name is on a seperate line, but make the text field holding these names too small to fit even one. Click on the text overflow button then shift-click the text frame on the certificate. This causes InDesign to create a new page for each name, hence a certificate for each name! Beautiful.

My dilemma is that I've created a raffle ticket design and to save paper have tiled them 5 to an A4 sheet. Each ticket has a tear-off section and a stub, both of which need to have the same number on them.

My question is, is there a way to flow numbers from say 0001-5000 so that each ticket has the same number twice and so on 5 times down the same page?

For example page one:

0001 0001
0002 0002
0003 0003
0004 0004
0005 0005

For example page two:

0006 0006
0007 0007
0008 0008
0009 0009
0010 0010

And so on....until you reach 5000.

If anyone has any ideas on how to approach this.

Feel free to help out! I'm completely stumped!

Regards,

Kylie

[Alan_Gold@adobeforums.com]

I'm sure this can be done with scripting, and I think Dave Saunders posted a (better than this) solution to a similar problem a year or so ago. Anyway, here's a down and dirty way, if you have MS Excel . . .

Set up your ID page similar to the way you've done with your certificates, like this on the master page
Text Box 1 [link to] Text Box 2 [link to]
Text Box 3 [link to] Text Box 4 [link to]
Text Box 5 [link to] Text Box 6 [link to]
etc.
Note when you are creating these text boxes, that they are only going to contain the serial number.

In Excel, Edit > Fill > Series to make a colum with 1-5000. Copy that column to Column B. Select both columns, copy, and paste into your "little text box" in ID. Search for the tabs in ID (^t) and replace with ^n or ^p to force the text into the next box.

This won't give you leading zeros, but you can probably set those in Excel, too, or do a quick series of search and replaces in ID.

HTH
AG

[kylielindstrom@adobeforums.com]

Hi Alan,

Unless I'm misinterpreting your instructions, this doesn't actually work. The last text box doesn't link to anything and hence doesn't auto flow onto multiple pages.

Thanks for your help!

Kylie

[Alan_Gold@adobeforums.com]

On page 1, pickup the text thread from box 1, shift-click box 2 and it should autoflow for as long as the text goes on.

Now that I try it again, I would recommend doing the search and replace for ^t before you autoflow -- otherwise you'll need to pick up the end of the text string twice . . .

AG

[Alan_Gold@adobeforums.com]

Re-reading my first post, you don't need a link going out of the 10th text box. That's where the autoflow will kick in . . .

AG

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

I just tested out Alan's method and it worked perfectly for me. When you click the outport of Box 1, and hold down the Shift key (for autoflow) and click in Box 2, it autoflows through the rest of the page, and on to create as many pages (of 10 boxes each) as necessary.

[kylielindstrom@adobeforums.com]

Well, I have to offer my congratulations Steve, I've tried it several times with no success.

The Scenario...
I click the outport of Box 1 (the box with all of the numbers) and hold down shift click into Box 2 and rather than flowing into that box it creates a new box the size of the page. This then creates extra pages with large boxes the size of the page containing a long list of numbers. Arrrrgh! Frustrating!

New Scenario...
Just as I was writing the above, I tried one more time. Put the 10 text boxes onto the master page. Linked them together. Copied and pasted the text boxes onto page 1. Placed the box with numbers onto page 1 also.

Clicked the outport of the number box and clicked onto box 2 and so on until clicking on box 9. Then shift-click box 10 making sure the dotted line of the corner of the cursor lines up perfectly with your text box.

The autoflow prompt comes up and autoflows onto another 399 pages... Hey presto, it worked!