ChapterTitle

Welcome

 Welcome to Michèle’s ChapterTitle plugin. It replaces a one line chapter title with two lines. Instead of doing

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General information

Plugin name: ChapterTitle
Version: 1.0.0 – 8/18/26
Fee: Free
Availability: Adobe Marketplace
Status: Not yet published
Source code in book:  Adobe InDesign Automation of Nonfiction Books via JavaScript

Requirements

The ChapterTitle plugin requires three specific paragraph styles and one character format, namely numbered paragraph style, unnumbered paragraph style, paragraph title and chapter title character format styles. Details follow:

  1. Numbered paragraph style named DSL – HDG0 defines new numbered paragraphs.
    Its basic  character formats size should be set to 0.1. Its
    Its Bullets and Numbering Character Style should be set to DSL – CHAR HDG0; see below.
    Its Bullets and Numbering List Type should be set to Numbers, Level set to 1.
    Its Keep Options Start Paragraph should be set to Next Odd Page.
  2. Unnumbered paragraph style named DSL – HDG0 no number defines new unnumbered paragraphs.
    Its basic  character formats size should be set to 26 or whatever.
    Its Bullets and Numbering List Type should be set to None, Level and Character Style are grayed out.
    Its Keep Options Start Paragraph should be set to Next Odd Page.
  3. Paragraph title style named DSL – HDG0 name defines the format of the second lime in the two lines paragraph title.
    General Based On is set to DSL – HDG0.
    Its Keep Options Start Paragraph should be set to Anywhere. This transforms it into an ordinary line except that its character size is the intended size.
  4. Chapter title character format style named DSL – CHAR HDG0 defines the size of the title.
    All defaults except that its character size should be the same as the DSL – HDG0 name character size.

Please note that the above is subject to two restrictions:

    1. The names are hard coded. They will be customizable in a future version of ChapterTitle plugin.
    2. New chapters must start in an odd page as this is the feature which enables the algorithm to detect new paragraphs.
    3. The algorithm transforms DSL – HDG0 (numbered chapters) titles only.

What it does

By default, chapter titles get displayed on one line. When dealing with numbered chapters, the outcome is something like:

Chapter 7 – Image Processing

I prefer to split the chapter’s title into two parts: the chapter’s number on one line, the chapter’s name on  the next line, as follows:

Chapter 7
Image Processing

The ChapterTitle task cycles through the book’s chapter; it removes the chapter’s name from the first line and adds a new line with it. Since doing so expands text, a potential last page overflow condition may rise. The task checks for this and adds a page if necessary.

Consider the code provided in my book to be minimalist code; it opens the door to customizing new chapter pages.

Please note that a dialog box displays the HOMEDIR full path to enable the plugin user find the IndexesReadme.txt file. 

For more information

You will find source code in my InDesign automation book so that you could roll your own ImageProcessing plugin.
For information on other plugins please go back to my InDesign Automation page plugins section.
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