Hi there!
In this video we’ll be talking about the wonders of conditional text in InDesign, so
let’s get started.
I have a few sentences typed in here, and you could see that every sentence has the
American, as well as the UK spelling of the words.
Basically, instead of two completely different sets of sentences, I’d like to have just
one version, and using the conditional text, I can switch between the two versions.
Let’s go to window, and then type and tables, and select ‘conditional text.’
In the popup menu, you can see that at this point, the entire text is set to unconditional.
So let’s select the American spelling of the word ‘color’, and then click the small
plus button at the bottom of the conditional text panel.
Let’s rename it ‘US Spelling’, and there are other settings you can play with, so you
can have it underlined, or highlighted, so let’s keep it underlined for this one.
You can even set the appearance of the chosen method, from wavy, solid, or dashed, so let’s
keep it wavy, and lastly, you can set the color of the indicator from a wide variety
of available colors, and then hit okay.
Since the conditional text is set, let’s highlight the word ‘color’, and click
the new conditional text we’ve just created, and you shall find the blue wavy underline
appearing below the word.
Similarly, select the word ‘flavor’, and set it as US spelling.
Likewise, do it for the rest of the American spellings in all the sentences.
Each time you set a word to the American spelling, a blue underline should appear below it.
Now highlight the UK spelling of the word ‘color’, and click the small plus button
at the bottom of the conditional text panel, and rename it ‘UK spelling.’
Let’s change the appearance to dashed, and hit okay.
Now with the word selected, select the ‘UK Spelling’ conditional text.
Much like earlier, select all the UK spellings, and assign them to the ‘UK spelling’ conditional
text.
Now comes the best part.
Suppose I want to print the sentences with the UK spelling only, so all I need to do
is click the eye icon next to the US spelling to turn the visibility off, and it shall show
me the sentences with just the UK spelling.
Similarly, if I want the sentences with just the US spellings, I’m going to turn it on,
and turn the UK spelling off, and job’s done.
You can even chose to hide the indicators from the dropdown below, should you want to.
So it’s a very nice feature, particularly when you have two, or more variations of the
same thing, like shoe sizes, or spellings, or measurements etc., so do make good use
of it.
Alright guys!
That concludes our session, and I’m going to see you in just a bit.
Good bye!