Hidden text frames for TOC

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    • #96932
      Clark Kenyon
      Participant

      I’m doing a book layout where the chapter number and the chapter title are two different styles. So I can use one or the other in the TOC, but not both. The client would like both chapter number and title to appear in the TOC, e.g., Chapter One: I am Born. The way I am handling this is with number and title combined in a style called Hidden Chapter Heading on a hidden layer, and I generate the TOC from that style. So here’s the thing: I would like to anchor the hidden layer text frames to the beginning of each chapter, so that when the client decides he wants to add more items to the TOC, such as subheadings within the chapter, thereby increasing the length of the TOC by two pages, the hidden text frames are carried along when everything in the book is advanced by two pages. Trouble is, if I anchor the hidden text frames to the visible text layer, they’re moved to that layer and are no longer on their hidden layer. Would there be a way to automate moving those hidden text frames back to their own layer?

    • #96951
      Kelly Vaughn
      Participant

      Instead of having those frames on a hidden text layer, why not just make the text invisible and move it off to the side? Or have the invisible text within the body of the document, but very small, and invisible. You can still find and edit it with the story editor.

    • #96954
      Clark Kenyon
      Participant

      Thanks for your idea. That would work ok when I generate a PDF for print, but the same document has to be exported to ePub as well, and changing the text color to none does not hide the hidden chapter heading in the ePub export. I could make the text white, but then it would show up if anyone changed the background color on their reader or app from white to black.

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