r/indesign 4d ago

Help Setting up adjustable calendar dates

Post image

trying to set up an adjustable calendar. used centered tabs to space out the dates and keep them centered in columns,
But!
i cant get the first column to play along, making it not left aligned doesnt fix it, and also makes 31 run away from 30

anyone have an idea for how to get first column to center align.. or conceptually, how to center align the first "word" of each line of text

26 Upvotes

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44

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

15

u/Independent-Ad-7285 4d ago

I agree. This is a job for a table. I've found it's usually never a job for tabs hahahahah.

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u/AdobeScripts 4d ago edited 4d ago

Wrong πŸ˜‰ both of you πŸ˜‰

With Table - you won't be able to make it "adjustable" - you'll have to re-generate it every year.

With Tabs - you can just add/remove one at the beginning - edit February if necessary - and everything else will just reflow "naturally.

But it would require having everything as one long Paragraph ...

4

u/Independent-Ad-7285 4d ago

Honestly... it takes 2 seconds to type in the dates. With a table you can center the text vertically, center it horizontaly, set the exact width and height of the cells, add a touch of padding. It will never be as accurate as that. If you think you need a tab, you probably need something else. You are wrong jebroni.

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

All that you can achieve using Paragraph and Character Styles.

1

u/Independent-Ad-7285 4d ago

What if you want to add a grid with no outside lines?

0

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

Do it on the Master / Parent page?

3

u/Independent-Ad-7285 4d ago

Describe how you would add a grid to a calendar on a master page.

1

u/Stephonius 4d ago

I have a layout with multiple masters. Each possible month layout is represented, and I just assign the appropriate one to the correct month.

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

πŸ‘πŸ‘

0

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

Not sure where do you see a problem?

You would just "simulate" - draw edges of the days.

And you can be way more creative - than what you can achieve with trying to style tables...

For example - rounded corners...

Or fancy gradient...

Or a logo in the background...

Should I go on? πŸ˜‰

3

u/Independent-Ad-7285 4d ago

What do you mean simulate? Like free hand lines, gradients, boxes, etc?

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u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

You won't be able to "type" in 2 seconds πŸ˜‰ maybe copy&paste from somewhere - after it gets generated.

Although - Tables might be a bit more useful - in case of a different layouts - than OP currently have.

3

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

-1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

Yeah, sometimes that's the best approach πŸ˜‰

2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

I would use Excel - I'm sorry but I don't trust stupid "ai" - and you'll have to check effects even more carefully - so extra time wasted - so why not do it right from the beginning - and learn something new?

So next time - or even in some other case, not even related to calendar - you'll know how to make it quicker.

I'm helping a lot of people - most of the time for free πŸ˜‰ because for me - it's a new experience, that's worth more than those few £££/$$$ - and I make friends on the way as well πŸ˜‰

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/staticwings19 4d ago

This was what I was originally to do here,

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u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

You mean you wanted to use tables? πŸ˜‰

1

u/JaxAttack_ 4d ago

Tables are very rigid and once you're doing next year's calendar can be painful. Tabs or columns in stacked text boxes that are linked are much easier to update in future.

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

Precisely.

16

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

You need extra Tab in front.

2

u/dragonhydra37 4d ago

This is it. I've got files from Calendar Wizard, and they all put a tab before the Sunday dates.

8

u/ResponsibleSir5403 4d ago edited 4d ago

I’d do it with a table.
If for some reason you absolutely can’t, you need to set up a first centered tab stop at about where a 20 something or 30 something would be, and put a tab as the first character of each line. Essentially, treat the 1st number of each line like you treat all the others.

4

u/OkComputer513 4d ago

Assuming this isn't an assignment where you are tasked with making such a thing you are just trying to get a calendar going. Give Calendar Wizard a shot. It makes calendars rather painless.

Newest version is $20 but he still has an older version available on his sourceforge I think 4.1.1 is the one free for personal/commercial use. https://sourceforge.net/projects/calendarwizard/files/Calandar%20Wizard/4/

3

u/iamclaus 4d ago

Use five or six stacked text boxes with columns, linked together for the entire year.

1

u/JaxAttack_ 4d ago edited 4d ago

THIS ^ it makes it easily adjustable for future years too. Unless there is a trick I don't know about... tables are a pain to update next year. The linked boxes with columns means just adding or removing a few tabs.

ETA. You can also just set-up one month, duplicate, link and adjust for initial setup.

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

And with my solution from here - applying dedicated ObjectStyles + ParaStyles:

https://www.reddit.com/r/indesign/s/XxxMh0DnAt

different colors / formatting for Sunday and/or Saturday can be done automatically.

2

u/Desmo_UK 4d ago

You need to put a tab in front of the first numbers. Also.... use a table instead.

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

Either tabs or table...

1

u/Boca_Brat 4d ago

I've been in this exact same situation. I inherited a calendar that the client was VERY particular about so I didn't change it to a table.

The difference with mine was that the numbers were in separate linked text boxes, so when you'd tab in one box, it would shift everything accordingly. To align all you really had to do was add a space before the number or just move the text box. Complicated but it worked.

1

u/OkComputer513 4d ago

Whoops got tied up on a call. Meant to give you the solution.

The tab window, look at those 2 triangles on the far left - Drag the top one in slightly so it is centered above the double digits. Slide all the other center stops over slightly to account for the difference in the first 2 columns being too close

1

u/OkComputer513 4d ago

Caveat to that solution is if you have a single digit day on the 2nd row you'd have to enter a return on the first row. Since the top triangle only affects the first line / first line following a return

1

u/AdobeScripts 4d ago

And what are those extra lines - on the right-center and on the bottom-center - edges?

1

u/mingmong36 4d ago

Add a tab at the beginning of each line?

1

u/dylman3000 4d ago

I would have either add another centre tab at the front, leading each new line with a tab. Or would start again using tables.

1

u/michaelfkenedy 4d ago

Flex Layout?

I haven’t used it but isn’t that what it’s for?

Indesign needs CSS style controls.

1

u/AdobeScripts 3d ago

No, Flex Layout isn't for things like that - it interacts with size / location of the objects - not text contents.

1

u/michaelfkenedy 3d ago

So the frames wont grow with more text?

That’s a shame.

1

u/AdobeScripts 3d ago

Yes, can grow, but in case of calendar - you don't want the TextFrame to change shape or position - but re-arrangement of numbers - shifting all days forward or backward.

1

u/michaelfkenedy 3d ago

Oh! Now I understand.

OP wants to find a way to quickly shift the start of each month.

I have a script that builds each calendar with the right start date.

1

u/AdobeScripts 3d ago

OP has shifting covered πŸ˜‰ just forgot to add extra tabs before 1st column.

1

u/michaelfkenedy 3d ago

But don’t they have to manually shift each month?

1

u/AdobeScripts 3d ago

No πŸ˜‰ that's the beauty of their approach πŸ˜‰ vs using Tables πŸ˜‰

Because there are 7 days a week - and each month starts after the the other - and each year there is the same number of days - except February every 4 years - then adding or removing 1st Tab - or paragraph, if you go for each day in separate paragraph - everything shifts automatically.

1

u/michaelfkenedy 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yes, I understand!

But I have a script which makes all of the months and the numbers are in the right position. The user does nothing.

Tabs work, but if you needed more than just the number of the month, I imagine it could get complicated.

Another way to do this is linked text frames with column breaks

Not tables though.

1

u/AdobeScripts 3d ago

But if you do it once - you don't need script to do it next year πŸ˜‰

Even if there are extra informations.

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