Blocks of text used both stand-alone and within a book?
Blocks of text used both stand-alone and within a book?
(OP)
I'm including a link to an example, so that my question can be more clearly understood:
http://sk
What I need is a way to combine blocks of text (bill summaries) into a continuous document... but still preserve the individual text as unique units.
The bill summaries are published as individual PDFs, but they are also joined into a single document.
A bill summary can be a single paragraph or PAGES of paragraphs, sometimes including tables. There are about a dozen paragraph styles that are used throughout the publication, including nested styles that I can't recreate in a word-processing program.
Right now, this is done as an InDesign book, with a TOC based on styles, some headers based on text variables and header styles, and a complicated indexing process that has evolved as a "work-around." (house bills and senate bills are indexed separately in the two early publications, but the final publication also includes a very complex topical index)
Each main "topic" is a separate file made up of one or more bill summaries. These are joined into the book. After the book is published I have to split the pieces apart to create the individual PDFs. I can do some of the splitting with find-and-replace codes, but it's still very time consuming and I'm working on a tight deadline with secretarial staff who aren't crazy about working in InDesign in the first place.
I need a methodology that preserves each bill summary as a unique "entity" to be joined into a single publication... but is still able to be published singly. And, unfortunately, I have no programming skills.
Is such a thing possible?
I've played with Snippets, considered a series of inline textboxes, looked over data merge and tables... but I could sure use some guidance.
If this is the kind of thing that needs a consultant to design, I could probably negotiate with my boss to have this done as paid consultant work. I SUSPECT this can be done, but I fear that it's be my skill level!
Or, in a more positive note: I'm hoping that maybe I'm in so deep that I can't see the forest for the trees and some kind experienced soul can point me to something basic that I'm missing ! ! ! !
http://sk
What I need is a way to combine blocks of text (bill summaries) into a continuous document... but still preserve the individual text as unique units.
The bill summaries are published as individual PDFs, but they are also joined into a single document.
A bill summary can be a single paragraph or PAGES of paragraphs, sometimes including tables. There are about a dozen paragraph styles that are used throughout the publication, including nested styles that I can't recreate in a word-processing program.
Right now, this is done as an InDesign book, with a TOC based on styles, some headers based on text variables and header styles, and a complicated indexing process that has evolved as a "work-around." (house bills and senate bills are indexed separately in the two early publications, but the final publication also includes a very complex topical index)
Each main "topic" is a separate file made up of one or more bill summaries. These are joined into the book. After the book is published I have to split the pieces apart to create the individual PDFs. I can do some of the splitting with find-and-replace codes, but it's still very time consuming and I'm working on a tight deadline with secretarial staff who aren't crazy about working in InDesign in the first place.
I need a methodology that preserves each bill summary as a unique "entity" to be joined into a single publication... but is still able to be published singly. And, unfortunately, I have no programming skills.
Is such a thing possible?
I've played with Snippets, considered a series of inline textboxes, looked over data merge and tables... but I could sure use some guidance.
If this is the kind of thing that needs a consultant to design, I could probably negotiate with my boss to have this done as paid consultant work. I SUSPECT this can be done, but I fear that it's be my skill level!
Or, in a more positive note: I'm hoping that maybe I'm in so deep that I can't see the forest for the trees and some kind experienced soul can point me to something basic that I'm missing ! ! ! !
Talk To Other Members
RE: Blocks of text used both stand-alone and within a book?
Keeping each Bill Summary as a separate file.
File>New>Book
You then insert all your separate files into that which you can then print as one combined file or as separate ones.
Marcus
www.midlandtypesetters.com.au
RE: Blocks of text used both stand-alone and within a book?
However, many summaries are short and need to be flowed into the same story so saving each as an individual book file isn't an option. I need a smaller "unit" that can function within a text flow, but work whether it's 5 lines or 5 pages long!
RE: Blocks of text used both stand-alone and within a book?
Unless you manually select to print by page numbers in your Print Window.
Maybe you could make a combined PDF with some dynamic bookmarks etc. which would take you directly to that section... like an index in a way or Table of contents.
Marcus
www.midlandtypesetters.com.au
RE: Blocks of text used both stand-alone and within a book?
Well, it's good to know that I didn't miss something!
Thanks for taking the time to consider my problem.