Allow editing of text content in dynamic symbol instances
When creating dynamic symbols, there can be some changes to individual instances, however, the text content is static. If you need multiple instances of the same symbol, but with different text content, the only way to achieve that is to break the symbol link before editing; future style updates to the symbol will not be inherited. Sometimes the intended behaviour can be achieved through Character or Paragraph Styles, but if the symbol also includes non-text objects, that is no longer an option.
It would be great if text content for instances of dynamic symbols could be changed dynamically.
Sample use cases might be illustrations of maps, board games, calendars, instruction manuals; anything that requires a lot of individual short text instances with consistent iconography or styling.
Tobl
shared this idea
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Tobl
commented
Sure, happy to give an example. The board game map I'm currently working on is a re-illustration of an already released map, so I'm free to share it. As you can see, all of the major cities share a common appearance, but with differences in
- main color
- secondary color (light or dark, for the cutouts)
- City name
- Associated number
- color and glow/shadow of the associated numberThe first two I can easily change as part of the dynamic symbol. However, to change the text content (and font color / appearance of the number), I had to break the symbol link. If I now want to change e.g. the shape of the cutout or positionioning of the numbers, as shown in Belgrade, those changes no longer propagate. There is already a feature request for the font color, but I couldn't find one for text content, which is the main issue I encounter when illustrating games.
Some changes to the text appearance are covered via the style, but as soon as path definitions are to be changed or objects are to be moved, the missing link becomes obvious.
I'm not sure how Graphic Styles would help? I do already use them to quickly apply the different color sets to dynamic symbols, but afaik, they are not linked in Illustrator, but rather just a shortcut to apply several graphics settings at once. Unlike Character or Graphic Styles, they can not be updated after the fact and propagate through, right? Either way, they would not help with path/positioning changes.
(Other examples within the same picture would be the minor cities, represented by a white circle, and the variable-cost sea routes seen in the top right.)
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Plus Graphic Styles help.
Tobl, can you share some actual examples of symbols that you’d love to operate with by changing the text dynamically?
