During last week’s InDesign User Group meeting in Perth, we took a look at how third-party scripts and plug-ins can help us expand the functionality of InDesign, and make us work more efficiently. The speaker-notes for this session have now been uploaded and provide an overview of the scripts/plug-ins that were reviewed.

Download: Expanding InDesign – Speaker Notes. (5.4Mb PDF)

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

InDesign layout artists/designers continue to receive requests for the provision of PDF or print proofs that contain a clear indication of where the page border is positioned. Ages ago I wrote a small script that would quickly add a page border to your InDesign document.

Marc Autret (Indiscripts), has taken the PageBorder script I wrote quite a few years ago to a brand new power level

This script not only:

• supports InDesign CS3, CS4 and CS5
• in its support of CS5 documents it also supports documents containing different page sizes.
• and provides end-user control over the border stroke-weight and alignment via a handy dialog box it displays.
• plus the script provides a control for automatic removal of the border layer it adds.

Great job Marc!

And… if you’re still using my old script… take my advice throw it out and replace it with Marc’s new script! you will have no regrets!

For more information check-out the Indiscripts site.

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

Once installed his script provides a simple on/off mechanism to display any local style overrides that are applied to text. No need to look for that tiny little + symbol in the Character/Paragraph Styles panel… instead a very clear red line marks all the overrides. It even picks up things like hyphenation enabling/disabling, lack of style formatting etc, by placing a red vertical rule at the start of each line in the effected paragraph.

It really is very cool indeed! Merci Beaucoup Marc!

Although Marc doesn’t mention this in his blog-post. I’ve tested the script in InDesign CS5 as well, and it seems to work just as nicely as it does in CS4. That’s super!

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

This is the second part of a two part write-up about sorting paragraph and table text in InDesign and covers the sorting of table data, thanks to a great script developed and provided freely by Peter Kahrel.

Sorting Table Columns

Sorting Table data is not something the SortParagraphs.jsx script that comes installed as a Sample script in InDesig does. Unless you first convert the Table to Text, then sort based on the ‘first column’ and recreate the table. However, if the table has already been created and been nicely designed that might not be an option. In addition, you could only sort on the first column in that case… and not choose to sort on another column.

Peter Kahrel, UK-based InDesign Scripter extraordinaire has been kind enough to release a free script that allows you to sort table data, amongst a myriad of other scripts.

Sort Tables script from Peter Kahrel.

This might be the first time you’ve gone through the steps of downloading a script for use in InDesign. I’ll take you through the process of downloading and installing the script in InDesign. Believe me it’s a pretty painless process.

To download the script from Peter Kahrel’s site, Right-click the Show Script button. Depending on which browser you’re in the contextual menu that appears might be a little different. I’m using Mozilla Firefox here, and this has a Save Link As… option.

The Save Dialog Appears. At this stage, I’ll just save the script SortTable.jsx  to the Desktop. Your browser might download into a Downloads folder.

How to install scripts in InDesign

We’re now ready to install the script so we can run it from within InDesign, but must first install it. InDesign Scripts can be installed in two different locations:

• At Application level, which makes the Script accessible to all users on the workstation. E.g. regardless of which user account is used upon startup
• At User level, which makes the Script accessible only to the current active user.

If you’re into sharing Scripts with your mates who use the computer on which you’re installing the script, than install at Application level!

Ensure the Script Panel is visible (Window > Automation > Scripts).

Click the Application folder in the scripts panel, then from the panel menu choose Reveal in Finder (on Windows this will say Reveal in Explorer), alternatively right-click the Application folder

The Scripts Panel folder inside the InDesign application folder on your computer is selected. Double click this folder to open it.

You’ll notice that this is the folder that contains the Apple and Java samples Scripts

The folder hierarchy you see here is identical to what you see in the Scripts panel. If you want to organise your scripts a little you can create additional folders inside the Scripts Panel directory. I’m adding a folder called myOtherScripts.

Next copy the previously downloaded script into the Scripts panel folder (or sub-directory there-of).

Time to check if the Script is now visible in InDesign (there is no need to relaunch InDesign when you add a script).

That’s it we’re now ready to start sorting some table data. The script allows you to either sort a particular range of data, or all of the table data.

• To sort based on data range, highlight some cell data in the column that is the trigger for the sort order you want to generate
• To sort the entire table, simply insert your cursor anywhere in the column that is the trigger for the sort order.

In my example I want to sort the entire table, based on the data in the very first column. So I use my Type Tool and click in one of the cells in the first column.

Next it is time to run the script. This time I’m double clicking the script in the Scripts panel (to learn more about running scripts refer to the first part of this 2-part “Sort it please…” series.

I’m placing my cursor in one first body cell of the first column (“Road with Pollard…”), and going for the Double Click to run the script option.

Running the tablesort.jsx script triggers a dialog prompt that asks for some input.

I’ll be sorting in Ascending order (A-Z) and my data is alphanumberical (combination of numerical and alphabetical characters). The script is smart enough to pick up that the Table I’m sorting contains a Header Row.

For a detailed write-up of the script functionality, please refer to Peter Kahrels accompanying post to the Script.
http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/tablesort.html

Once the Table Sort Options are set, click OK… and wait a little while (long tables might take some seconds to fully complete their sorting).

and ta-daaaahhh… one beautifully sorted table…

A special thank you goes out to Peter Kahrel, who’s made this script available to us InDesign lovers! Thank you Peter!

Video Tutorial

Not yet available, hope to have this up on Tuesday.

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

Updated 23-Feb-2010 Added video

You’ve spend a few days working on some great layouts for a customer. Lots of bulleted lists and tables, and when you receive the first proof back, many of the lists and tables have a note on them: “can you please sort this in alphabetical order”? I won’t ask you what your first thought is when you read this scenario. But my response to my customer would be: “Not a problem, I’ll have an amended proof for you this afternoon, that will have things sorted as requested”.So two separate tasks to perform… and I’ll break them into two separate posts. This being the first.

Sorting Paragraphs

Let’s start with the sorting of paragraphs in alphabetical order.

I’m revealing secret number one… we won’t be going through cut-paste steps here… I just don’t have the time to show you how to reorder a long list alphabetically like that.  Instead I’d like to introduce you to one of the sample scripts that is supplied with Adobe InDesign. It is designed to sort paragraphs in alphabetical order.  What’s a script you might ask? Well it’s like a little bit of code that has been written to perform a particular task automatic, that you might otherwise need to perform manually.

Sample scripts come installed with InDesign CS3 and higher. For earlier versions of InDesign the set of sample scripts can be downloaded from the Adobe web-ste:

So where do we find these magical scripts? They come pre-installed with an InDesign installation. You access them from the Automation > Scripts panel.

The default install in InDesign will provide a series of Sample Scripts. On the Mac in AppleScript and JavaScript format, on Windows OS the AppleScript is replaced by VB Script. AppleScript as the name says, is specific to the Mac OS. VB Script support in InDesign specific to Windows OS.

To stick with common ground between the OSes, let’s expand the JavaScript folder in the Scripts panel and see what that brings us in available Scripts.

Plenty of Scripts there as you can see. I posted a summary of what each of these does quite some time ago.

Time to start sorting those paragraphs. Start by highlighting the paragraphs that need to be sorted (Type tool).

How to use a script in InDesign

There are a number of methods you can use to execute the script: Double clicking the script name in the list, or selecting the script then choosing Run Script from the Script panel menu. You can even assign a keyboard shortcut to a script if you want.

I’m using the Run Script command from the Script panel menu.

As soon as the script is executed you’ll be prompted with an additional dialog, asking for some input on your end.

The Sort Options dialog appears.

First input requested from us as a user of the script is whether or not the Sort Method choose needs to Retain the formatting of the highlighted text.  If you hadn’t yet formatted your text, I would always stick to the default Ignore Formatting option, it’s nice and fast. However if you have formatted your text, then use Retain Formatting. Yep, I know it says “slower”. but believe me … slower is still fast! Depending on how much text you have highlighted… it might still all be sorted in a blink of an eye!

Yes, you can get away with retaining formatting when using the default ignore formatting settings, however, I won’t guarantee that will always work! For instance when you have a paragraph style applied to your text and also have some style overrides applied to the start of a paragraph, you’ll see some interesting (if that’s what you call them) results.

Ignore Spaces, when selected basically ignores any leading spaces found at the start of a paragraph, and sorts on the first non-space character found in that paragraph. So if you want your spaces to sort at the top of the sort order, deselect this option.

Reverse Sort, will sort in descending (Z-A) order instead of ascending (A-Z) order.

With your settings all sorted, click OK (and don’t blink an eye!! or you’ll miss it!).

All done! Now aren’t you glad you told your customer you’d have it done quickly. They’ll love you for it for sure!

This write-up is continued in a second blog-post.

Video Tutorial

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

Learn to unlock the power of Adobe InDesign Scripting

Learn from one of the world’s best. Take advantage of a unique opportunity to attend either a half day introductory or full day master class on scripting with Adobe InDesign, presented by Dave Saunders, one of the world’s leading scripting experts.  Dave will be in Australia in March to share his knowledge and expertise during sessions to be held in Melbourne (3 & 4 March) and Sydney (5 & 6 March).

These seminars will allow attendees to gain a solid foundation for creating scripts and scripting their workflow, along with an understanding of how scripting can immediately enhance productivity, creativity and quality assurance in the work environment by automating repetiive tasks, with lightning speed and predictable consistency.
Who should attend?

Print providers, publishers, creative professionals and any InDesign user who can benefit from automating tedious manual work. No matter what your background is, it’s easy to get started in scripting.

For more information & registration: www.automateindesign.com

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

The following list provides an overview of the Plug-ins and Scripts reviewed during the InDesign Add-Ons session at the Creative Suite LIVE Conference – Melbourne 28-29 September 2008.

01 David Blatner’s Tips for Adobe InDesign Plug-in (Free)

Ok, in a perfect world you would launch InDesign no more than once a day, but if you really like seeing those random tips that David Blatner’s Tips for InDesign Scripts give you upon launch then you might be inclined to Quit InDesign and launch it again.

Just kidding! You can access David’s any time you want when working in InDesign, just jump to the Help Menu and select “David Blatner’s Tips”. If you want to read the tips like a book, click the two arrows at the top of the tips window.

Web Reference: Tips for Adobe InDesign Plug-in (DTP Tools)

02 Calendar Wizard Script (Free)

Setting Calendars in InDesign can be a bit of a drag really. Table Styles came to the rescue in InDesign CS3, but the population of Months, Days and Dates is still a tedious task. Scott Selberg with the help of several other scripters and InDesign gurus has developed a nice script that allows you to create Calendars of any size.

the Calendar Wizard consists of three scripts the calendarWizard, fitCalandarToFrame and realignCalendarTables. the calendarWizard creates the calendar tables, the fitCalendar frame, enables reformatting of a calendar table to an amended text frame size, and the realignCalendarTables script is a script that allows you to match overlaid tables that might form part of the calendar (such as a separate Holiday Layer with its own table, that matches the calendar), when you’ve adjusted the column or row height settings of one of the table layers the wizard created.

When running the calendarWizard script without selecting a Frame first, the wizard, will use the current [Default] document size and margins as the basis for placement and positioning of the calendar table(s) it creates.

The script contains a range of options

And when the calendar is generated a series of Styles is added to the Paragraph Styles panel. Each of these styles can be adjusted to match your design requirements. To change the font for all of the styles, start by adjusting the cal_base paragraph style. Then work away on the others you’d like to change.

Web Reference: Calendar Wizard (Scott Selberg)

03 Tetris

Ok, we’re all spending way too much time working on our InDesign documents, in order to keep your productivity going, a game of Tetris would be a welcome break.

After installing the plug-in, it is available from the Window menu.

Web Reference: Tetris (DTP Tools)

04 Layout Zone for InDesign CS3

Layout Zone is a cool collaborative tool for InDesign CS3, developed by Martinho daGloria (New Zealand). I love this tool and have dedicated an entire blog-post and podcast to it earlier this year.

Web Reference: Layout Zone (Automatication)

05 Selection to PDF for InDesign CS3

Another one of Martinho’s scripts creates PDFs from selections in InDesign.Refer to my June 14 blog-post for more informatio

Web Reference: Selection to PDF (Automatication)

06 AutoFit

Has it ever annoyed you that when you place text in a placeholder textframe in a template, the frame size doesn’t grow/shrink to make the text fit in the frame?
Or have you wondered why you’re spending so much time tweaking complex design elements in your artwork as a result of text corrections? Move lines up, background tints down etc.

The Typefi AutoFit tool allows you to visually define parent-child relationships between individual objects. When the parent object is moved or resized as a result of content fitting, for example more text would make a frame grow, the child object will reposition or resize as well. The tool works in conjunction with the AutoFit panel, with which resize instructions can be set.

On the AutoFit page on the Typefi site, there are three quicktime tutorials that show you how to use the tool in more detail.
Web Reference: http://www.typefi.com

07 Fractions

InDesign lacks a Fraction Maker command, that some of you might be familiar with from a previous application you’ve been working with.
Dan Rodney developed two very nice scripts for fraction creation. The Proper Fraction script is available Free. Rod has also developed a low cost Pro version of the script that finds all fractions in the document and corrects them automatically. With the Free Script you start by highlighting some text, then generate the fraction either by using the Proper Fraction Szie script, which behaves like that of product Q in that it reduces the fontsize and sets baseline shifts. The second script HScale-VScale is a bit better in that it utilises a combination of horizontal and vertical scaling and baseline shift. Although text resizing is still an issue, due to the baseline shift, which Rodney acknowledges in his notes for this script, he also recommends the quick fix to use after resizing text. which is utilising Find/Change to correct the baseline shift values as required.
Web Reference: Properfraction (by Dan Rodney)

See also: How do I create Fractions in InDesign?

08 Page Exporter Utility

There are still quite a few printers out there who might ask you to submit single page PDF files instead of a multiple page PDF file. Extracting pages as individual PDFs from InDesign and applying a different naming convention is a tedious task. We can extract individual pages from a PDF in Acrobat, but that still leaves the naming problem.

Scott Zanelli has shared a very nice script with the InDesign User Community on the Adobe Exchange site, that will allow you to easily create these PDFs right from InDesign.

Web Reference: Page Exporter Utility (Scott Zanelli)

Another commercial (Mac Only) application that you can use for PDF Page Export is PDF Bee by Chris Paveglio .

09 Text Exporter

Remember that phone call from your client? Can you please provide us with a text file for all of the content in that annual report? You sigh and naturally say yes, not a problem.. “how would you like that”, in RTF (great for Word users), InDesign Tagged Text (not likely they’ll ask for that) or Plain Text?
When you manage to have Rorohiko’s Kris Coppieter’s TextExporter script installed on your system, this task becomes a breeze.

Installing the script takes a good read of the Read Me file. Make sure you read this properly, as the script install alone won’t make the script work. You must also install the APID Tool Assistant. However, once installed the Script works as expected.

Web Reference: Text Exporter (Rorohiko)

10 LB Color2Gray

This utility assists with conversion of jpegs, (some) photoshop files, tiffs to greyscale, within the InDesign document. It even adds a contextual menu to InDesign.

Web Reference: Color2Gray (Rorohiko)

11 Font Catalogue (Mac Only – $10)

Chris Paveglio, wrote this really cool little application that provides you with a quick overview of the activated fonts in your system. This application was born out of frustration by Chris with font management applications that generate single page output for each font and font-style. And recently someone asked me if I knew of a good way of creating a font-catalogue.

The application builds either a Waterfall Catalogue, that takes a custom centance and displays it at different font sizes, or it can build a Single Paragraph Catalogue that again can use a custom sample of text as the basis for the catalogue.

The PDF that is generated generates bookmarks for each page, using the first font name that appears on the page.

Web Reference: Font Catalogue (Chris Paveglio)

INDD – Scripts

The Scripts panel in InDesign hides quite a few gems that many of use would use on a regular basis, if only we knew what they would do. I’ve in the past written about the Sample InDesign Scripts that were literally hidden away in the InDesign CS2 installer CDs, but with CS3, these scripts actually come pre-installed. You can access them from the Automation > Scripts Panel.

I highlighted a few of my own favourites in this list:

13 CornerEffects

For instructions of running Scripts in InDesign and a tutorial on using the Corner Effects script (which really in CS3 should now be named Corner Options script) look at a previous post I wrote.

14 SortParagraphs

If you’ve ever received text for which the paragraphs need to be sorted in alphabetical order, this script will be your savior. No more cutting and pasting required, or drag and dropping. Highlight the paragraphs that need to be sorted, and run the script.

You can use the script in combination with GREP Find/Change As I’ve demonstrated in an earlier blog-post.

15 FindChangeByList

When you are regularly performing multiple Find/Changes on text, one after the other, then, the FindChangeByList script is the one to use.

16 MakeGrid

Working on those ads that need to be broken up into a grid of graphic frames?
You might have used Edit > Step and Repeat, or the Layout > Create Guides option in the past to set up a document template that consists of a grid of graphic frames (ads,). Let’s use the MakeGrid script instead.

[added 5-Sept-2008] David Blatner writes about this script in a very recent blog-post on indesignsecrets.com

17 CropMarks

Does your printer ask you to create business cards 4-Up or 8-Up on an A4, preferably with crop marks included? And have you found yourself creating lots of guides and copying and pasting thin lines with colour “Registration” to create these crop-marks?
The CropMarks script enables automatic creation of crop or registration marks around selected object(s).

18A LabelGraphics

Think of Label Graphics as a caption creator. The script allows you to select one of the following options:

• FileName
• FilePath
• XMP Descriptor
• XMP Author

The XMP settings allow you to insert previously added metadata below the (selected) graphics).

To add XMP metadata to images, either select File > File Info in Adobe Bridge, or alternatively select File > File Info in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign.
There are two XMP metadata fields that are support for “captioning”, the ‘description’ field and the ‘author’ field. Where images originate from picture managements systems or from image repositories such as Reuters or AAP, often this metadata has already been entered.

18B LabelGraphicsMenu.

To add a context sensitive menu to InDesign that enables you to right-click (Ctrl-click on Mac) on a graphic, then add a label below the graphic, run the LabelGraphicsMenu script once. You’ll be prompted with a dialog that says “This script installs a new menu item “Label Graphic” on the context menu that appears when you select one or more graphics. Click the Yes button to add the menu item”. From this point forward, you can add a graphic label

Ok, so you might be left with a ton of captions for figures that have their text overset? Hmmm… wonder if there’s another script for that.

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

InDesign out-of-the-box, does not contain a ‘Make Fraction” command, like other applications such as QuarkXPress have, so if you’re a Quark converter (Welcome a-board by the way!!!), how do you go abouts creating fractions in InDesign?

So how can setting fractions be made easier? Well, there are a number of options available. Let me take you through five different methods…

Option 1 – Use OpenType font with fraction support

Quite a few OpenType fonts you use a font such as Adobe Garamond Pro, which has really good fraction support, creating fractions is pretty easy. Type the fraction e.g. 1/2, highlight the text, then from the Character panel menu select OpenType > Fractions.

Alternatively, select OpenType > Fractions from the Control Panel menu or select OpenType > Fractions in the Character Style Options dialog.

If you regularly use this feature consider applying a shortcut to this comment, by choosing Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, then select Product Area > Panel Menus and scroll down to Character:OpenType:Fractions, set Context to Text, seen as you’d only apply this shortcut when working with text and for instance choose shortcut Command+Shift+F (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+F (Win). Click Assign, to add the shortcut to your shortcut set. If you’ve not yet created a new shortcut set you’ll be prompted to create a new set. Click OK to acknowledge the changes made and close the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.

The advantage of using the OpenType Fraction feature, is that you can easily resize your text and the fractions will remain typographically correct. Something the “Make Fraction” command in QuarkXPress for instance doesn’t do, as it simpley resizes the text before and after the ‘/’ and amends the baseline shift when generating fraction.

Option 2 – Find/Change with OpenType support

Ok, so you’re using a OpenType font with fraction support. Yay!!!
With Find/Change you can to set your all fractions in one hit! Using the GREP feature, now, that would save some time.
Set Find what:
Wildcards > Any digit \d
that is Repeated > One or More Times \d+
followed by a slash-character \d+/
followed by another Wildcards > Any digit \d+/ \d
that is Repeated > One or More Times \d+/ \d+

Set Change to:
Select Found > Found Text $0

Set Change Format:
Style Options: Character Style > fraction.

This fraction Character style, would just enable the OpenType Features setting for Fractinos.When using Superscript Position setting, you’ll have to have a bit of a play with the Edit > Preferences > Advanced Type, superscript Position and Size settings for the document to ensure you generate the best looking fraction for the font you’re using.

Next… click Change All.

Option 3 – Use a Script

You’re using a font that doesn’t support Fractions? Bummer… Naaaaah… not really… Dan Rodney developed a Proper Fraction script that helps you generate fractions. The Proper Fraction script is available in Free format as well as low cost Pro Script (that finds all fractions and formats automatically).

The Free Script allows you to highlight some text, then generate the fraction either by running the ProperFraction 2.0-Size DanRodney.js script which really replicates what the “Make Fraction” command in QuarkXPress does (e.g. reduce font size, set baseline shift). I’d vote for not using this particular script as it has the same limitations when text is resized later on.

The second sript ProperFraction 2.0-HScale-VScale DanRodney.js is a bit better in that it utilises a combination of horizontal and vertical scaling and baseline shift. Although text resizing is still an issue, due to the baseline shift, which Rodney acknowledges in his notes for the script, he also recommends the quick fix to use after resizing text, which is utilising Find/Change to correct the baseline shift values as required.

Option 4- Find/Change no OpenType support

Ok, you want to set fractions for your core body text and don’t want to pay for a script and are not using an OpenType font with Fractions support?

Well here’s one way of fixing things… still a multi-step process…

Let’s look at using Edit > Find/Change again… and use GREP once more…

Set Find what:
Wildcards > Any digit \d
that is Repeated > One or More Times \d+
followed by a slash-character \d+/

Set Change to:
Select Found > Found Text $0

Set Change Format:
Style Options: Character Style > superscript.

This superscript Character style, would just set the Basic Character Position to Superscript and if I may recommend, also set the Kerning setting to Optical. If your text is formatted with an OpenType font that supports Denominator and Nominator font settings, then utilise the Nominator OpenType feature.

When using Superscript Position setting, you’ll have to have a bit of a play with the Edit > Preferences > Advanced Type, superscript Position and Size settings for the document to ensure you generate the best looking fraction for the font you’re using.

Next… click Change All.

Continue with the following Find/Change command:

Set Find what:
A slash-character /
followed by Wildcards > Any digit / \d
that is Repeated > One or More Times /\d+

Set Change to:
Select Found > Found Text $0

Set Change Format:
Style Options: Character Style > subscript.

This subscript Character style, would just set the Basic Character Position to Subscript and if I may recommend, also set the Kerning setting to Optical. If your text is formatted with an OpenType font that supports Denominator and Nominator font settings, then utilise the Denominator OpenType feature.

When using Subscript Position setting, you’ll have to have a bit of a play with the Edit > Preferences > Advanced Type, superscript Position and Size settings for the document to ensure you generate the best looking fraction for the font you’re using.

Next, click Change All.

Ok, so at this stage you would have ended up with a document that has fractions looking like this:

What we really need to do at this stage is locate all the /-characters in the fractions and turn the default slash character to a “fraction slash”.

Set Find what:
A slash-character /

Set Find Format:
Style Options: Character Style > subscript.

What we’d like to do at this stage is change that slash to a Fraction Slash. We’ll have to discover what the Unicode character for that is.

For my font ’2044′. We’re now ready to set the Change To settings.

Set Change to:
\x{2044} (use \x{nnnn} and replace nnnn with the Unicode).

Set Change Format:
Style Options: Character Style > [None]. (to remove the subscript style).
Basic Character Formats: Normal (to remove the subscript)

Change All…

Wow, that is a lot of steps to get some fractions set in your document.

Luckily InDesign comes pre-installed with the FindChangeByList.jsx script that allows you to perform multiple finds in ONE hit! So yes, you can perform all of the preceding tasks in a single hit.

Option 5 – FindChangeByList

The FindChangeByList.jsx script utilises a text file located in the InDesign CS3/Scripts/Scripts Panel/Sample Scripts/JavaScripts/FindChangeSupport directory, called FindChangeList.txt as way of setting a series of Find/Changes and applying them as a single command.

If you rename the default .txt file in this directory – which is the text file containing instructions the script uses by default – and create a new file called ‘fractions.txt’ somewhere, you’ll prompted to point to the .txt file that contains your Find/Changes when running the script.

Rather than typing out all of the previously set Find/Change settings (option 4), I’ve attached a sample .txt file for you to use, simply change your style names and the script will work for you too!

The one thing that you’ll have to do is to adjust your Preferences > Advanced Type > Character Settings for Superscript and Subscript to provide the best positioning and sizing for the core font you’re using.

Here’s a link to the fractions.txt file I’ve created as a sample for you.

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

Ever wanted to be able to select some artwork in your InDesign document and turn it into an instant PDF? Maybe an ad you’ve created on the page in InDesign that also needs to be used in another publication or submitted to a publisher in PDF format?

Well, you can create a PDF quickly and easily… New Zealand’s, Martinho da Gloria, the developer of the Layout Zone script, has just released another very cool script: Selection To PDF Add-On for Adobe InDesign CS3.

Using the Script:

After you’ve unzipped the SelectToPDF.zip file, drag the SelectionToPDF folder to the InDesign/Scripts folder.

Next in your InDesign document select the artwork you’d like to turn into a PDF and select File > Export Selection to PDF…

The Save As dialog appears. Navigate to the folder that is to hold the PDF and enter the file name for the PDF, then click Save.

The Export Adobe PDF dialog appears. Select the preferred Adobe PDF Preset from the presets menu, and make any additional changes in this dialog as required for your specific PDF output.

Then click Export, and your PDF will be generated.

Pretty cool right? If you like the functionality of the SelectToPDF script, also look at the LayoutZone script.

Web-reference: www.automatication.com (Martinho da Gloria, 2008)

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

Modified 23-April-2008 (improved sound quality)
Modified 22-April-2008 (added transcript).

Martinho da Gloria’s Layout Zone script adds two cool features to InDesign CS3. The script was announced via InDesign Secrets earlier this month, and Tim Cole on his Adobe blog, provided excellent instructions on installation and usage of the script.

With this podcast I’m hoping to provide some visual ideas of how useful the script could be in your workflow, using a newspaper layout with lots of ‘layout zones’ as an example. I apologize in advance for the poor sound quality.

A recent upgrade to OSX 10.5.2 (Leopard) seems to come with a limitation for use of my old logitech USB-headset (it records with severe feedback echo after about 20 secs, from notes on various Apple forums I understand I’m not alone in experiencing this…).

I’ll have to look into getting a new microphone or headset that works with Leopard. Tips welcome!

Erratum: I state in the video that the script was released early this month. in fact it was late last month.

Transcript (slightly amended in write-up)

Martinho da Gloria’s Layout Zone script once installed, adds the Layout Zone menu to the Edit menu in InDesign.

The script provides you with two commands “Object To InDesign Document” and “Linked InDesign Page to Objects”.
The script was launched at the end of February @ InDesign Secrets.com and Adobe’s own Tim Cole wrote several extensive posts on his InDesign BackChannel blog, providing installation instructions and in-depth notes on all of the settings the script dialogs provide.

About Layout Zone

The About Layout Zone command provides links to the listed web-sites. Without replicating what others have already listed in their podcasts or blog posts I’d like to show you an example of how you can use this script in a small newspaper workflow.

Small Newspaper workflow

I’m talking about a workflow that has no editorial workflow integrated with InDesign, such as for instance InCopy or other Integrated Editorial Systems that work with InDesign.

• An editor might be deciding beforehand what article is going to be positioned where on a page prior to the text being written and be “zoning the layout”.
• Ad space will be preserved, for ads that are being sold.
• A Designer works on the newspaper page layouts, another designer creates the ads etc.

What are some of the issues you encounter in such a small editorial workflow?

• Different parts of the layout will arrive at different times.
• In addition several people might want to work on a document at the same time:An editor wants to write his/her article, whilst the designer is still putting the pages together or setting an Ad.
• In InDesign only one person can work on the document at any one time so we’re all waiting on eachother whilst the other finishes work on a particular component in the page?

This is where LayoutZone will help out a bit. Let’s have a look.

Objects to InDesign Document

We’ve got some ad-space reserved for an Ad here. The ad is going to be set by someone else either Inhouse or external. With inDesign’s ability to place InDesign documents inside InDesign documents this ad could be provided in native .indd format.

Layout Zone allows you to extract the exact the reserved Ad space (the Text Frame), as an InDesign document of exact Ad size, whilst also replacing the original text frame containing text with a graphic frame that holds a link to the external InDesign file.

Select The Ad Text Frame, then choose Objects To InDesign Document from the Layout Zone menu under the Edit menu.

We’re just saving the Selection and will replace this with a link to external InDesign document. We don’t have to worry about ascenders or descenders sticking out of the bottom of the frame in this case. Click Ok, and I’ll save this into the relevant folder.

As soon as this is done the original text frame has turned into a graphic frame, with a link to the external file.

I’m going to do a quick pretend ‘ad-design’ here, I’ve set this ad before and am copying it across to the linked .indd file. As you can see I’m actually placing the Ad in the “Ads layer” I created in the original document.

After the Ad-artists has set and saved the Ad (finished), the designer working on the Newspaper page will see a modified Link marker in the Links panel.

Updating the link will result in the Ad being placed.

Similar to how we just set the Ad, we can convert the yet to be placed article into an external InDesign file. Select all of the related frames, then from the Layout Zone menu choose Objects To InDesign document as we did for the ad earlier.

Again naming and saving the article as an external InDesign file.

The editor can now work on his/her own indesign file.

Like before I’ve got a version finished so will cheat and copy this into the external InDesign file I created earler.

Once again on the newspaper page itself, the modified link is being updated after the editor has completed work on the article .indd file and saved it again.

Objects to InDesign document, without placement in InDesign

In some occasions you might have InDesign artwork in a document, such as for instance the “Whale Watching tours ad” here, and receive a request from someone who’d like to receive this artwork for use in another document. In this case there is no need to create a link back to this page.

This time around we’ll not be replacing the Objects in the Document with the linked InDesign document, but retain the artwork as is, whilst creating the external InDesign file. Again from the Layout Zone menu choose Objects To InDesign document as we did earlier, but this time ensure you don’t enable the Replace Objects With Document option.

This is a bit like providing someone with a snippet with one major difference in that you’re actually providing a full indesign document, ready to use, whereas the snippet must be placed in an existing InDesign document.

Linked InDesign Page to Objects

The last thing I want to show you is a scenario where an editor has submitted an article as an InDesign document and it’s been placed on the page with a link to this document. The editor wants to make a few changes, and rather than dong that him/herself, wants to sit with the designer whilst the pages are made on the page itself.

In this case we’re looking at converting the linked InDesign file back to real InDesign artwork.

The Whale article as you can see links back to the “Whale in Swan River” .indd file. To convert this to InDesign objects, let’s select Linked InDesign Page To Objects from the Layout Zone menu.

We’ll create these objects as in the Original document, click OK and all the objects are there on the page and fully editable.

Hopefully this Layout Zone example has given you a bit more of an idea of how you can use the script in your workflow.

Video Tutorial

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

The following tip will take you through Script installation, running scripts, assigning a keyboard shortcut to a script and reviews the sample script “CornerEffects.jsx”. With the installation of Adobe Creative Suite 3 or InDesign CS3, a series of sample scripts, ready for use are installed.  In the previous version of InDesign you would have had to locate these sample scripts either on your Resources Disk or on your Installers disk somewhere and copy them to the Scripts directory.

Scripts panel

Access the Scripts panel from Window > Automation. And twirl open the arrow in front of Application, Samples and JavaScript and you’ll see a list of the scripts displayed.

If you’re on a Mac you’ll also see the same set of scripts in an AppleScript directory. On a PC a VBScript directory. AppleScripts and VBScripts are native to their respective operating system, JavaScripts are shared and used across platforms.

Scripts are installed at Application level or User level.  Application level scripts are accessible to all users logging into a workstation, User level scripts are only accessible to the user who’s installed them.

Installing Scripts

To navigate to the install locations of either Application or User level scripts, right-click the folder name in the Scripts panel and select Reveal in Finder/Explorer. Double click the Script Panel folder to open it. Copy new scripts to this folder. Either copy them to their own folder so that the Scripts Panel displays them in a more organised manner or drop them straight into the Scripts Panel folder.

To Run A Script, either double click the script name in the Script panel or select the script, then select Run Script from the panel menu.

The CornerEffects script

CornerEffects, renamed  Corner Options in InDesign CS3, are the round, bevel, inverse rounded etc. corner settings you can apply to objects, normally by using the Object > Corner Options… command.  This command applies the selected option to all corners of the selected object.

This is where the CornerEffects script comes in handy

It is build around the assumption that you are applying it to a rectangular 4-cornered object and allows you to select which corners you’d like to apply a corner effect to.

To run the script you must first select the rectangular object. Next Run the Script.

The CornerEffects dialog appears, allowing you to set the Corner Type and Offset option and Pattern.  With the Pattern option you can select which of the corner(s) is going to have the Corner Option (effect) applied to it.  I’m opting to apply selected settings to all even corners.

You could achieve a similar result using the PathFinder commands by adding different shapes together, but this script is definitely the quikest way to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’

If it is a script you intend using a lot, consider assigning a keyboard shortcut to it.

Assigning keyboard shortcuts to scripts

To assign a keyboard shortcut to a script, access Keyboard Shortcuts from Edit menu. If you’ve not yet created a custom Keyboard Shortcut set, start by creating a New Set.

Note: When using InDesign CS3 you will be prompted to create a new set when you try to change a shortcut when no custom set is active. This is because you can not override the [Default]. Earlier versions of InDesign would just update the [Default] set if you didn’t create a new set first. As this file doesn’t reset itself when you delete application preferences, it’s best practice to create a new set first, based on the [Default].

Click New Set and name your set, I’m basing my set on the [Default] so it adopts all of InDesign’s standard shortcut settings.

Click OK to create the new shortcuts set.

Next set Product Area to Scripts and scroll down to the CornerEffects.jsx script. Place your cursor in the New Shortcut box and press the keyboard shortcut you’d like to assign to this script. If the shortcut is already assigned to another command you’ll see that command listed as “Currently Assigned to:”. Although you can use the same shortcut in different Context (Text or Tables), be aware that in same context you’d be overriding the previous shortcut. So best to look for one that is [unassigned].

Click Assign, then click Save to save the shortcut set changes, next click OK to close the dialog.

Note: if you don’t “Save” the shortcut set changes and InDesign Quits/Exits unexpectately due to a crash, you’d loose the amendments you’ve just made, as the new settings aren’t saved until you Quit/Exit InDesign normally.

Applying CornerEffects Script on a polygon

Did I say earlier that the CornerEffects.jsx script is assuming your object has 4 corners?  Well that is true, but try applying “Even” or “Odd” points only to a starburst that has an even number of points. You can now access the CornerEffects.jsx script using your newly assigned shortcut

Gives a nice visual effect.  If you’re interested in playing with starbursts, be sure to also look at my earlier tip: Bursting stars with Scaling and Corner Effects.

Video Tutorial

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

However, the section on Scripts also includes an overview of what the rest of the scripts do. As the article itself has now been released for public download from the InDesign Mag server, I thought it would be nice to provide you with the full script section from my manual . It provides and overview of what all of the scripts do as well as the more extensive overview of the Text Cleanup Script.

Web Reference: Scripts – Overview (2006, Cari Jansen)

Web Reference: InDesign Magazine Excerpt

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

Here are some of the links I referred to:

1) the Adobe Exchange – A great resource for scripts, tutorials and other goodies.

2) the Adobe Store , then under STORE heading, go to Store Home.

3) … and the 21 Adobe Sample Scripts can be found here:

Adobe Creative Suite Premium – Resources and Extras Disk 1:
The scripts are found in: Technical Information / InDesign CS2 / Scripting / Adobe Sample Scripts folder

Adobe InDesign CS2 CD:
The scripts are found in: Adobe Technical Info / Scripting / Adobe Sample Scripts folder.

I will record the ‘nested styles’ demonstration I gave over the weekend and make it available as part of my Podcast.

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker

I’ve cleaned things up and added functions and error handlers, and specific instructions that can be viewed by you if you edit the script in ExtendScript toolkit (or another editor).

Web Reference: MakePlural.jsx (2006, Cari Jansen)

Cari Jansen - Trainer, Print & E-Publishing Consultant, Technical Writer, Public Speaker