setting a book - advice on indents on first para

[Tom_L@adobeforums.com]

OS 10.4.8 / G5 / CS2

Hi guys

I'm typesetting a novel. My para style for the body is set and I have indents on the first line of each para. Traditionally though, there is no indent on the first para of a chapter. Is there a way to set this without creating a different paragraph style just for the first para?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

[Sugavanan@adobeforums.com]

Hey Tom,

You cannot do that without creating a separate style.

Regards,
Sugavanan

[DavidT]

NAFAIK. I ususally set everything to body first, then when everything's in place, assign a shortcut for a first paragraph style

Go to the beginning of the first chapter and change the style of the first paragraph using your shortcut, then the next and so on. How many chapters are there? It can't take that long to do. 8)

[Tom_L@adobeforums.com]

Thanks guys - figured that might be the only solution.

David - when I said novel I wasn't being entirely accurate - it's actually an account of a women's rowing team corossing the Atlantic. There are loads of awkward little sub sections etc. Anyway, not to worry, I shall do as advised and create the first para style sheet.

Tom

[DavidT]

Tom, I suppose it also depends upon how the text is brought in; being a good typist, I input a lot of stuff directly into ID and have style sheets set up with 'next style' (very handy for restaurant menus) which, along with assigning shortcuts, means I don't have to take my hands away from the keyboard that much.

Otherwise, you could look at tagged text if stuff is brought in from a word processing program.

[Martin_Sammtleben@adobeforums.com]

In article <3bc1ddc2.3@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI>,
DavidT <graphics@tmprinting.ie> wrote:

> Tom, I suppose it also depends upon how the text is brought in; being a good
> typist, I input a lot of stuff directly into ID and have style sheets set up
> with 'next style' (very handy for restaurant menus) which, along with
> assigning shortcuts, means I don't have to take my hands away from the
> keyboard that much.

I've just been tinkering with that same issue the other day.

It would be fantastic if styles could have a built-in conditional logic
like for example telling your body text style to remove any first-line
indent if the paragraph is *immediately preceded* by any heading-level
style.

On the internet that's already possible thanks to Cascading Style Sheets
using two style rules such as these:

p { text-indent: 2em }

h1 + p { text-indent: 0em }

This adds a first-line indent to any paragraph of body text, but removes
the indent in the paragraphs that immediately follow a level 1 header.

--
Cheers Martin

[DavidT]

Err..

paragraph style = 'header'
next style = 'first para'

paragraph style = 'first para'
next style = 'body'

[Tom_L@adobeforums.com]

David

That sounded perfect, so I went and tried it. I set a new para style, first para, with no indent and set it to be the next style within the Header style sheet. Nothing happened.

So I copied the text to a new doc, broke the links to the styles and tried reapplying them. Still nothing.

What am I missing? Sorry if I'm being a bit slow.

Cheers

Tom

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

Next Style is a state not an action. Next Style takes effect in two situations:

1. (The traditional use of Next Style and not the one you're interested in right now.) When you type new content. Each time you end a paragraph, the next paragraph will assume the style indicated in the Next Style setting of the paragraph you just finished.

2. (The new feature in CS2 that you want to use.) For existing text, select some range of paragraphs and then in the paragraph palette, right-click (or Control-click) on a paragraph style name and then choose Apply <StyleName> then Next Style.

Dave

[Tom_L@adobeforums.com]

Dave

Thank you very much indeed. I see what you mean about option 1 - useful if you are typing.

Do you think it would be useful to have a nested style type of thing for paragraph styles? Seems to me that I would be able to use that quite a lot for books, brochures etc.

Cheers

Tom

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

If you're talking about conditional paragraph styles, then yes indeed, I do think it would be useful "to have a nested style type of thing for paragraph styles."

Dave

[Martin_Sammtleben@adobeforums.com]

In article <3bc1ddc2.9@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI>,
[email]Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com[/email] wrote:

> If you're talking about conditional paragraph styles, then yes indeed, I do
> think it would be useful "to have a nested style type of thing for paragraph
> styles."

Excuse my ignorance, I'm on ID CS1.
Are you saying conditional styles, like I was hinting at previously, are
available in CS2?

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

No. I'm saying they'd be nice to have in some future version of InDesign.

Dave