Overset Manager
Total control over text length and overset in Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy.
The vjoon Overset Manager plug-in for Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy gives you complete control over text length and text overset, enabling you to count, display, edit and print overset text. It increases production security by warning you if the document contains overset when you print or export a file. Overset Manager is the ideal tool for everybody dealing with text-intensive files on a regular basis.
With Overset Manager, you can see at a glance if a file contains overset and which text threads are affected. And you can show or hide overset frames for the selected text flow or all text flows on the page. From the vjoon Overset Manager palette, you can go directly to a specific overset frame, and start editing the text.
Additionally, you will be alerted when printing or exporting a document containing overset text. With its extensive feature set, Overset Manager significantly increases the level of production security and helps to prevent costly mistakes.
Preferences can be set to determine the background color of overset frames, as well as their position relative to their master frame. Overset frames can be placed comfortably at the top right corner in the document so that even long overset text will be visible. Alternatively, overset text frames could be placed to the left of the original text frame when using right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.
By counting placeholder text, Overset Manager allows you to determine the exact text length needed to fill a text thread in order to give correct instructions to an editor. Overset Manager calculates text length by number of characters, words, lines and manuscript lines. The length of manuscript lines is set in the Overset Manager preferences. By setting the preference to a decimal number, e.g. 5.8, it is also possible to calculate the number of standard words needed to fill the text frame.
You can measure the length of text in the current selection, text column or text thread, and see values for the text that fits in the text frames as well as for overset text, separately. The Overset Manager palette allows you to measure the current text selection against the remaining amount of overset text for easy and precise copyfitting. If a text frame is not completely filled with text, the palette displays an estimate number of missing lines for underset text.
The text count feature in Overset Manager differs from the native Adobe InDesign character count feature. The most important differences are summarized in this table:
| Overset Manager | Adobe InDesign CS2/CS3/CS4 |
|---|---|
| calculates values for text column, text selection or text thread | calculates values for text selection or text thread |
| text column or text thread can be calculated even when selecting part of the content with the text tool, as the type of selection is set in the plug-in palette | displays values for the current selection only. If no text is selected, values for the entire text thread are displayed. |
| always shows the amount of overset to a text thread, even when counting just part of the fitting text | does not allow you to compare the length of part of a text against the amount of overset |
| shows text length when selecting a text frame with the selection tool | shows text length only when the text tool is selected |
| offers preferences for setting the number of characters per manuscript line | offers no features for caluclating manuscript lines |
| number of characters per manuscript line can be integers or decimal numbers, e.g. to estimate the number of average words by setting the value to 5.8 | offers no features for calculating manuscript lines |
| counts only line per table row when calculating tables | counts at least one line per table cell, e.g. one table row with three columns will return a line count of three (or more, if one or more of the cells contains more than one line of text) |
| shows how many lines and tables are included in the overset part of the text | does not recognize lines or tables in the overset text part |
| added preference to choose the position of the overset frames | offers no features |
| added preference for the background color of the overset frames | offers no features |
| a drop down menu to jump to the overset and yellow background in the palette if overset exists | offers no features |
| added warnings about overset in the document before output | offers no features |
| estimate number of missing lines for underset text threads | offers no features |
Overset Manager can be used with InDesign or with InCopy. While InCopy provides editors with statistical information and allows to edit overset text in Galley and Story view, Overset Manager brings these important features to the Layout view, where the editor can see the exact design as it appears on the InDesign page.