Top/bottom from/to text on frames with flowed text

[daibhidh]

Greetings. Installed 1.7.0.162 a couple of days ago and generally impressed, but (in addition to inline graphics already requested) there's a capability I'd like see.

When text flows into additional frames, I would like to specify text for "to" and/or "from" pages. These variables would be associated with a block of text. The "to" text would appear at the bottom of a frame, the "from" text would appear at the top. Formatting for "to" and "from" text could be specified as default document-wide.

For example, the "to" text could be "See OWNER BITES DOG on page <topage>". The "from" text could then be "OWNER BITES DOG from page <frompage>". 

If a frame is moved to another page, page numbers would change accordingly.

For this purpose, a block of text could be a "story," and to/from text could be assigned to the story.

I understand how to insert page# fields and I thought there might be a workaround by moving to/from text frames inside linked frames, but when a text frame becomes a child of a linked frame the text disappears.

For newspapers and magazines, this would be a very important feature.

[fde101]

This has already come up a few times...

 

[daibhidh]

Thanks for the reference, FDE101. The response there is promising, assuming the to/from text in inDesign stays positioned within the text frame and doesn't flow with the text.

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, daibhidh said:

Thanks for the reference, FDE101. The response there is promising, assuming the to/from text in inDesign stays positioned within the text frame and doesn't flow with the text.

What I do is make two little text frames one with "Continued on page <Next Frame Page Number>(paragraph return)", and the second has "From page <Previous Frame Page Number>". I size them so they are just tall enough for one line of text and link them, then just place them in an appropriate place over the text and turn on text wrapping. I haven't found a method other than zooming out and dragging them to the pages I want.

[daibhidh]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

What I do is make two little text frames one with "Continued on page <Next Frame Page Number>(paragraph return)", and the second has "From page <Previous Frame Page Number>"....

Thanks for the suggestion, Old Bruce. Yes, that works, and you can group the continuation and content frames if you need to move them. I'm just saying that there could be a simpler way, where you just enter the text for "to" and "from" and it all happens automagically. I suspect those who must layout newspapers on a tight schedule would be thankful.

However, I do see one time saver, and that is to add formatted, linked, and grouped to/from frames as an asset. Then you can just drag them in, ungroup, and position them.

[Old Bruce]

Thanks for the neat idea @daibhidh.