Missing nested formats

[Mezzo]

Hi,

i need "nested formats". Hope they will be integrated. E. g. if i layout a "Menu" then i go with tab to a defined Position and need there an other Format for the Text. Like the sample below.

Description e. g. Glass of milk                                             200 ml                               1,80 €  

I want the Format for the Text changes if i insert a "Tab" or other defined operations.

[Seneca]

This is an often requested Publisher feature on this forum.

Nobody knows when it is going to be implemented though.

[walt.farrell]

The specific example seems more appropriate for a Table than for a Text Frame, in my opinion.

[Seneca]

7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The specific example seems more appropriate for a Table than for a Text Frame, in my opinion.

A one liner like this is not a good example of using a table, in MHO. You could, of course, use a table here if you wanted to but it would really be an overkill.

The example above is mostly used in catalogues where each product has its own line of specs. In a book catalogue you could have Number of Pages, Dimension, Price, etc.
In cases like these automatic paragraph styles are a god-send. You only need to deal with text and nothing else.

Whether you prepare your text outside of a publishing application or not you can format the entire text in one fell swoop.

Of course one could use a script to format all the tables, if a given application supports, it but that wold be an extra step and potentially a lot of extra steps.

In cases where a catalogue calls for a number of lines per product a table might be a better solution.

[Jeremy Bohn]

InDesign calls this feature "Nested Styles" - I use it all the time and is a major time saver once you've set it up. I especially like it for menus... Menu item name in one format - tab - menu price in another format - forced return - item description in another format.

[Seneca]

3 hours ago, Jeremy Bohn said:

Nested Styles"

Nested Styles and GREP Styles.

[Lorox]

On 11/8/2018 at 2:35 AM, Seneca said:

Nested Styles and GREP Styles.

Yeah, definitely. Adding these useful "pro" features to AP would be awesome! I wonder, though, if the guys at Serif are really serious about targeting those professional users (too), who would really need it on a daily basis and appreciate it accordingly...

[Oufti]

On 11/6/2018 at 4:16 PM, Seneca said:

Whether you prepare your text outside of a publishing application or not you can format the entire text in one fell swoop.

In some apps (notably Word 5.1 for Mac), there was a brilliant function of rectangular selection in text.

When pressing Alt key, it was possible to draw a rectangle wherever above the text and selecting only the characters inside it. Thus it was very easy to change format of a vertical selection like a column… 

Alack I don't know any modern app that permits that nowadays. 

[GaryLearnTech]

8 hours ago, Oufti said:

In some apps (notably Word 5.1 for Mac), there was a brilliant function of rectangular selection in text.

When pressing Alt key, it was possible to draw a rectangle wherever above the text and selecting only the characters inside it. Thus it was very easy to change format of a vertical selection like a column… 

Alack I don't know any modern app that permits that nowadays. 

Yes, I remember that well.  And the current 365 version of Word still does it.  Is that modern enough for you?  😃

[Oufti]

How, it has been a very long time I did not give it a ride (v. 2011) and I must have forgotten (or is only on a given platform?). Thank you for the information.

Whatever, I think this method of selecting text would be welcome on Affinity as well. 

[MikeTO]

+1 for rectangular text selection

This feature dates back to the mainframe terminals with monospaced screen fonts. But it would be useful when editing a multi-column PDF in Affinity if the lines didn't form paragraphs correctly - when you drag select today you get text from both columns. With rectangular selection you could select the text in one column and then join the line ends after pasting.

But this is the v1 archive, perhaps it would be better to suggest it in the v2 feedback forum.