Replacing a Character with an Inline Object
S.W. wrote:
Is there a way to convert all instances of font/dingbat to outlines in a document? I was using the square shaped dingbat from Wingdings as placeholder for a Check Box in a form I was designing in InDesign. To my surprise the Acrobat form recognition function wouldn’t recognize boxes in the PDF I exported, unless I converted them to outlines. So is there a quick way to do this for the entire document?
Interesting problem! While you cannot convert a single character to outlines everywhere throughout a document, you can convert it once, then use Find/Change to replace it.
- Select the character you want to convert and copy it to the clipboard (Edit > Copy).
- While it’s still selected, convert it to outlines (Type > Create Outlines)
- Open Find/Change (from the Edit menu or with Command/Ctrl-F).
- Place the cursor in the Find What field and paste (Command/Ctrl-V). You should see the dingbat there (or the character that makes the dingbat). If it’s in a particular font (such as Wingdings), then click the Find Format area and specify the font in the Basic Character Formats pane.
- Now choose the Selection tool, click on the character you converted to outlines, and copy that the clipboard.
- In the Find/Change dialog box, click in the little triangle menu to the right of the Change To field, and choose Other > Clipboard Contents, Unformatted.
- Click Change All.
That’s it! I love the ability to replace with the clipboard contents, especially when it comes to replacing with an inline object like this. So handy…
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Very cool! Thanks for that tip!
regards,
MAJ
briliant!
What is the difference between “Clipboard Contents, Formatted” and “Clipboard Contents, Unformatted”?
Both seemed to work in this instance.
I believe that if you have a frame with styling applied (like a stroke, drop shadow, etc) and you choose unformated that it will be pasted in as a plain frame.
Fritz, I’m not sure that’s correct. In my tests, there actually is no difference between formatted and unformatted when it comes to inline objects. Object formatting (even object styles) appear to be maintained either way.
However, I like to use “unformatted” just in case (we publishers are a paranoid lot). I reserve “formatted” for when I know I need to maintain text formatting (font, character style, etc.).
This is one of my all-time favorite tricks I’ve ever seen you demo, David (remember, at the live podcast recording in NYC … it was one of your solutions for “how many ways can you duplicate something”). I wasn’t sure I’d ever see a practical application for it, and here it is! Very cool.
I just used this same trick (gleaned from an InDesign conference session in Miami) for a festival programme. If you apply a character style to the inline item, it makes it easier to find afterwards as well.
Thank you for such a speedy response!
I was slow close to getting it right. I tried pasting the object into the Replace field, but I didn’t know about the “Other” options. Just goes to show that you should click on every button and menu item, then you’r bound to find what you’re looking for!
Very nice. I realize that this example is pretty straight forward but the one thing I like to remind people of when find/change discussions come up is that if you have a complicated find change that it’s a good idea to save the query for future use.
They’re saved as small XML files that you can very easily share with other users.
It’s amazing how many folks miss that query drop down at the top of the find change dialog box.
is there a feasible way to do this in CS2?
I’ve been bugging my IT staff to deploy CS3 (now that CS4 is on the horizon) – and we’ve only recently gotten CS2!
I have a script that replaces a string of text with inline art (forget where I got it), but in this case I’m not embedding art, just an empty frame.
I should add that the frame I’m placing is an empty colored circle. my afforementioned script places an art file, which creates its own frame, which would be square.
e.g. replace every “B” with a small blue circle, every “R” with a red one (for a color-coded index)
thanks david! it’s save me a lot of time and effort