Add Document Name Automatically To The Page In InDesign Using Text Variables

Hi there, in this video we're going to look at Text Variables. In particular, we're going to look at Running Headers where at the moment it tells me I'm in the section that belongs to 2019 Collection, and if I get lower, I'm in the Oaks section, because over here it says Oak. It's automatically pulling it up, I'm in Ash now. I am in Walnut, because it says Walnut over here. These are automatically typed together and that's really helpful for long documents, knowing where we are in this big document.

Another good use, is down the bottom here I've put in the - let's zoom in - I've put in the name of the file, you can see it up here. And the actual date that this document was last modified. That's going to be, for me, useful, internally to know, have we got the right version in front of us when we're looking at say a printed document. All right, let's go and learn how to do Text Variables in InDesign.

So to create the different options let's create the first one, the first easy one. We're going to do it to the Master page. Why? It just means that when I add it to the Master pager it's going to appear on all the pages, and that's what I want. So I'm going to my A-Master, double click it. I know I'm in A-Master because it says right down the bottom here. And what I'm going to do is turn my 'W' key on so I can see stuff. And I'm going to put that down the bottom here. So to start off with it, needs a text box, and we're going to put in the file name. It's going to be small down the bottom, that's mainly reference for us in the company. It's not going to be used too much by the clients, I guess.

I'm going to put a font size that's not so ginomous. And I'm going to Right Align it so it just kind of bangs up to the side there. It's actually going to be '8 pt'. 8 point's kind of like the lowest. It's that business card size, where you need to squeeze things on. Still legible, but quite hard. Mine get smaller. So with my cursor flashing in a text box, let's go to 'Type', and go down to 'Text Variables'. We're going to 'Insert Variable', and you can see there's a bunch of options in here. We're going to put in 'File Name' to get started. You can see, it's taken the name of my file, which is up here in the Tab. And let's put that down the bottom here. What I might also do is put a couple of spaces in. I'm going to put in a pipe '|'. It's that weird key on your keyboard, next to back slash '\'. On my keyboard, it is underneath the Del key, next to the square bracket. You might just put in a hyphen. And I'm going to insert one more 'Type'. So go down to 'Text Variables', and I'm going to put in the 'Modification Date'. So it's going to just put in - I'm going to zoom in a little bit there. Just going to put in whenever I was working on it, and that is today. Near to Christmas, yeah.

So this is going to be mine for just kind of referencing down the bottom here. You might not have this in the Master page, it might be kind of hidden in the inside flap or on the back page. Just for you and the company to know when this was made and what version you're kind of dealing with at least with the modification date. The other option we're going to do is going to be a Running Heading. And because we've put it on the Master page, you can see here, it's on all the pages. I should totally not put that on the Master page, that particular one, but let's go into A-Master, and what I want to do at the top here is I want a Running Header because, for the long document, I want to know what section I'm in. Annual Reports, something like that, you want to know where you are. In my documents, have a quick little look, I've got this Heading here, I've got Oak, Ash, in a terrible place, and Walnut. So I just want to know when I'm flicking through this document, in the top right, where I am. Am I in the Chairman's Forward? Am I in the Forecasting for 2020? So that kind of thing.

So, A-Master, up the top here I'm going to put mine in a Text box. Just like we did before, but it's not going to be as hidden. It's not going to be that big though. So first of all we need a text box for it to go into. Make it long enough that it's going to fit, so, here we go. Mine's tiny. So to create a Running Heading, you need to find it first. So, let's go to 'Type', and let's go to 'Text Variables', and let's go to 'Define'. The only one you need to really define in here is the Running Header. So click on it, double click on it. And in here, we're going to say I'd like it, the Running Header to be based on a Paragraph Style that I've called Heading 1. So you need a Paragraph Style to start with, which I've already created. I'm going to actually force it to be upper case so I want it to change the case, please. Because you created it, click 'Done', nothing happens. Now with my cursor flashing in my box, I can go to 'Type', 'Text Variables'. 'Insert Text Variable', and I'm going to insert that 'Running Header'.

Now on the Master Page, it just says Running Header like it does for automatic page numbering. What I'm going to do now is jump to page 1. It says I'm in that part of the collection, scroll down, and I'm in Oak. Now I'm in Ash, now in Walnut, cool, huh? So that is how to add a Running Header. I'm going to style it nice, I'm not, just going to leave it like that. I really want to design it up. I'm using Arial because I know everyone has Arial. And I'm trying not to spend this tutorial series trying to make everything look pretty. So, you can have a little look through Text Variables. There's a couple of different options in there but they insert the same way. The creation date of the InDesign document, the file name which we've used. You can click on an image. You can create a box and InDesign will allow you to pick the different images in that page. You can create 'Last Page Number', 'Modification Date', 'Output Date'. All sorts of awesomeness. They got a pretty benign… sorry about that word. I know you know them, they got a pretty boring name, Text Variables but some useful stuff in there. All right, let's get on to the next video.