Comments on: Get Rid of That Absurd Section Prefix

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:17:29 +0000

Looks like the script works as long as the numbering is set to “Start page numbering at”. All of my pages are set to “Automatic Numbering” and the script will not remove the prefix.

thanks for the script though. It was a great idea. Hopefully it can be made to work in both cases someday.

By: Mark Shorter

Mark Shorter — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:06:06 +0000

This script sounds wonderful, however I’m still with CS1. How could I change it to function as intended with CS1?

Mark

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:14:07 +0000

Thanks, Dave! That’s another neat little “best practice” technique to add to our arsenal here. (And thanks to Steve for helping us all figure this out.)

By: Dave Saunders

Dave Saunders — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 19:00:10 +0000

Some off-line discussion with Steve and further experimentation reveals this:

1. My script is good for cleaning up after-the-fact. It does nothing to prime the contents of that field if you subsequently make a new section.

2. That value, though is sticky. If you make a new section and then hit tab followed by delete, that will eliminate the “Sec1:” prefix for the section you are now creating AND prime the field for the next section you create — from then on, in that document, they’ll be blank.

This suggests that the prefix is a document level preference held somewhere, but a search of the InDesign Scripting Reference fails to show any other reference to section prefix, so, if you want to avoid using my script to clean-up after the fact, just hit tab-delete the first time you create a section.

Dave

By: Dave Saunders

Dave Saunders — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:31:45 +0000

Steve,

That sounds weird (although I’m glad you found a workaround). My script wipes out the prefixes and then tells them to not appear. So if you have a document where a prefix survived the script and then had the temerity to appear anyway, I’d be interested in seeing it. If you can reproduce the problem in a small document can you send it (or perhaps a .inx version of it) to support@pdsassoc.com please.

Thanks,

Dave

By: Steve Traynor

Steve Traynor — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:51:30 +0000

Thanks David and Dave, this works pretty neat! I did find one instance where it didn’t seem to work: when the prefs are set to section numbering instead of absolute numbering and you select a page that’s not the start of a section, the prefix still appears. I don’t think this is an issue as my pages exported to PDF without problems.

Again, thanks for the handy script (and the zippy resonse!)

Steve

By: Dave Saunders

Dave Saunders — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 10:57:39 +0000

It you look up “bracers” in the dictionary, you won’t find this Hampshire-English mangling of “braces” — which, according to the on-line dictionaries is British for “suspenders.” If you pursue that, you’ll find that “suspender” is British for “garter.” So no wonder I stuck with my Hampshire roots and spell the word the way we used to say it as kids: “bracers”!

All of which brings to mind the Morecambe and Wise skit that started “I say, I say, I say, why does Mr. Kruschev wear red, white and blue braces?”

But I digress.