Indesign Find / Replace

[kaiserwilhelm]

If I have a text box (Address block per se) that is at coordinate 1 inch down and 1 inch from the left....on sixty plus layers......can I "find" that box and tell that box (60 times over) to move to .875 from the left?

While we are at it....layers - CS5 - Why can I not paste the same thing onto the same place on all sixty layers? I select the layers and make sure they are visible. It still only pastes onto one layer.

[Al Ferrari]

I think your first question calls for some form of scripting.

Regarding your second question:

"While we are at it....layers - CS5 - Why can I not paste the same thing onto the same place on all sixty layers? I select the layers and make sure they are visible. It still only pastes onto one layer."

Is this something you were able to do in some earlier version of InDesign? In order to get some suggestions on this you should flesh out why you are wanting to do this. Have you considered placing the elements you would want in the same location on every layer on a master page for that or those pages instead? This suggestion is limited by the dearth of information available about what you are trying to accomplish.

Al

[RUsure]

A) you need to "name" an item to be able to affect its properties globally. Not sure how to "name" something that is an actual object (in InDesign), but,
B) if you place something (anything - text, object, etc.) on a Master Layer, that "something will appear on all subsequent "pages". You can then "change" that object/text/whatever, once, and that action will be reflected on every page/layer
Scripting via CSS (or ActionScript) recognizes "objects" (named styles, classes, regions, etc.) and then allows characteristics to be altered that take effect globally (within that "document") . . .
Variable printing techniques allows manipulation of data via placement of "master" fields whereby the info within the following double carats << (containing field names) >> relate to the "data merge" characteristics listed in an Excel file, comma de-limited text file (info fields separated by commas, etc.).
Investigate the "data merge" function in InDesign. That will unlock the secrets of multiple layer creation & its usage . . .
Best of luck! It's easier than it looks at first glance . . .

[Lukas Engqvist]

There is an option called paste remembers layers.. if that's what you need. It is one of those global preferences that is not document specific.

Also the idea of having 60+ layers seems strange I would recommend Gabriel Powells book Instant Indesign (InstantInDesign.com) even if it's CS3 t goes through thinking STRUCTURE in your design.

[kaiserwilhelm]

Long story as to why there are 50 versions. Needless to say, we are trying to transition then from INDD to GMC Inspire. We have ways of doing that. However, fixing their legacy 50-80 version indd files takes a bit. If I had a find replace that had just a bit more oommph...but, alas, I will just do it by hand.
Thanks

[Stephen Marsh]

If I have a text box (Address block per se) that is at coordinate 1 inch down and 1 inch from the left....on sixty plus layers......can I "find" that box and tell that box (60 times over) to move to .875 from the left?

If you can cleanly marquee select part of these objects (and no other objects) - they will all move at the same time at the same distance in all layers affected, so no need for a find or a script in this case. The marquee select behaviour is the same in Illustrator. This differs from simply click selecting a single object.

The script label panel is used to "tag" objects with a "handle" that can be used by a script.

While we are at it....layers - CS5 - Why can I not paste the same thing onto the same place on all sixty layers? I select the layers and make sure they are visible. It still only pastes onto one layer.

The active "current drawing layer" is marked with the pen symbol. AFAIK there can only be one such layer active.

One can copy and paste in place. It should not be too hard for somebody that is good at scripts to write a simple script that would copy/paste in place in an active layer, then select the next layer and repeat etc.

Or one could create the layer the first time with the object, then dupe that layer or multiple layers multiple times.


Stephen Marsh

[compdispo]

I've got my project corrected, too from what I learned in this discussion.
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