*** From the Archives ***
This article is from September 2, 2006, and is no longer current.
Free Bundled Scripts on Adobe.com
The InDesign or Creative Suite installation CDs contain a bunch of free scripts you can use in InDesign’s Window > Automation > Scripts palette.
If you can’t find the CD, or your IT admin has it under lock and key, you can download the scripts from from a link on Adobe’s XML and Scripting resource page.
Click the Scripting Resources tab in the middle of the page. If you’re on CS2, scroll down to the bottom and click on the link entitled Download InDesign CS2 Scripts. The 155K .zip file contains the same set of approximately 20 scripts as AppleScripts (Mac only), VB Scripts (Windows only) and JavaScripts (either platform).
If you’re on CS3, you shouldn’t need to download anything (installing CS3 automatically installs all the scripts – look in your Scripts panel.)
To install and run scripts, see this post.
[Edited by AMC 5/8/07]
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That’s fantastic! Thank you for pointing that out…
The Place Multipage PDFs script allows me to place a 60-page pdf file into Indy in under a minute. A great timesaver.
thanks!
This is fabulous! The ImageCatalogue Script is something I have searched high and low for. I know the Suite offers a similar thing thru brudge but we have independent programs. No one I talked to knew about these. Awesome!
In Mac, which plug-ins folder, do I drop in “tip of the day” plug-in?
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So this Place Multipage PDF thing works really seamlessly but I cant seem to come up with how it would be useful. How do other people use it? Like what kind of projects?
One question about the place multi-page PDFs script. I tried it several ways but can’t get it to place the PDF with the upper left origin at the BLEED of the page, not the trim of the page. So, placing an 8.75×11.25 PDF on a 8.5×11 does not center the PDF on the page and give you bleed all the way around. Is there something I’m missing, a key command to force it to center?
Hi KS, there might be a setting in the script itself that you can change (open the .jsx file in a text editor and see if you can suss it out). Otherwise you could temporarily change the doc size to 8.75 by 11.25 via File > Document Setup, place the PDFs, then change the doc size back to 8.5 by 11. InDesign grows and shrinks the “canvas” on all 4 sides equally by default, and here’s an instance where that sometimes-aggravating default could work to your advantage.
Thanks Anne-Marie. I did consider changing the page size but wanted my crops to be at 8.5×11. I didn’t think it through to “step 2” of your work-around.
I will check the script to see if I can change something but your workaround works fine. Good idea.
KS
Hello KS, you can edit the script to place the pdfs at a certain location. I use this script a lot and have to change the location all the time. I dont; have time now to tell you what line it is on but if you need this reply to this post and I will post he instructions at a later time.
I have found this script quite helpful at paginating and adding headers/footers to customer supplied pdf files for books and journals that we print. We were using Pitstop to do this but I have found that way to be very unintuitive and problematic. Does anyone know of a way to “globally” align the content of placed pdfs within an Indesign document? without going through each page individually and using the content move tool.
I’m using the Java flavour of the TextCleanup script but find that its not case sensitive… so its changing both upper and lower case of the same letter to capital letters only. What I want is lower case replacing lower case and upper case replacing upper case. Has anyone been able to change the java script to be case sensitive?
Thanks for this. I was looking for help with text cleanup and found you through google.
Re:Design – there seem to be several little (or not) documented tags for the TextCleanup script – one of which is caseSensitive:true/false (others include wholeWordtrue, includeFootnotes, includeMasterPages, includeHiddenLayers – all of which can be set to true or false). Tkae heed that both the tag itself and the “true/false” setting are, themselves, caseSensitive. :-)
Reference:
https://www.grafika.cz/art/sazba/skriptid16.html
https://forum.rudtp.ru/archive/index.php/t-20634.html
I could really use this script tonight, but Adobe seems to have given up on CS2 already. They don’t waste any time, do they?
And for the time I’ve wasted looking for it, I could’ve imported them, a page at a time.
Rick, the scripts for CS2 are still up at the same page I linked to in the post. Maybe you didn’t scroll down enough? They’re at the bottom of the Scripting Resources tab.
Hi,
Anybody have idea about, autogeneration of Index from a Indesign CS2 Book file.
You can organize scripts in folders… categorize ’em making it easier to find the right one. Just rememer to put help files in folders too.
If I repeated “Thank You” enough to express my gratitude I’d be banned for Spamming! I had a total of three scripts in InDesign CS2, found after great pains. (apparently my admin blessed me with a minimal install!)
Suddenly the toy shop/tool chest is opened and virtually every stumbling block in my current coffee-table DTP project becomes an opportunity to try something out.
ThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYou!
The very good feature I saw under the scripts is, each script can be assingned a keyboard shortcut! Really,it saves time drastically.
Each scripts default values can be changed by open the script file in “Script Editor” in MAC. I dont know which one is the equalent for PC? Any ideas to somebody?
The ESTK (ExtendScript Toolkit) which is installed with any of the CS apps will edit cross platform scripts for both Mac and Windows.
If you’re bent on working in Visual Basic, there’s a number of options (including the free editor which comes with Microsoft Office).
I’ve been looking for a script that will allow me to reduce the width of my text frames by 8 pts and move these frames 4 pts to the right.
I have a 150 page job that required a lot of manual manipulation. Long story short, when I was told to change the margins, none of the text frames went along with the idea. I really don’t want to sit here and hit x:+4 and w:-8 150 times. (All my text frames have an object style applied, if that’s any help.)
Help??
BTW, I’m pretty new to scripting, so speak slowly.
Members of the Adobe Scripting Forum at
https://forums.adobe.com/community/indesign/indesign_scripting
are extraordinarily generous in their willingness to write scripts for free. I don’t doubt that someone there will help you out — it’s a very easy script to write.
Be aware, however, that it’s the sort of thing you should pay a (modest) amount of money for — about $20 would be fine, I’d suggest. So if I were you, I’d contribute a little something via the website of whoever does it for free, as someone surely will.
Thanks Old Jeremy. I actually found something this morning at https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=26787
I changed mine to:
—————————————————-
tell application “Adobe InDesign CS3”
tell document 1
repeat with oneFrame in (get text frames whose name of applied object style is “myobjectstyle”)
set {a, b, c, d} to geometric bounds of oneFrame
set geometric bounds of oneFrame to {a, b + 4, c, d – 4}
end repeat
end tell
end tell
—————————————————-
Thanks for your help!
Lemonshrew, that is great!
Applescript is a brilliant scripting language, and as far as I know its powers equal or exceed Javascript (to say nothing of the other one whose name we cannot mention because Bill Gates is Satan).
Although Applescript looks absolutely incomprehensible to me now, it was an incredibly helpful way of getting into scripting when I first started out (in a lazy way, about 2 years ago).
The only reason I use Javascipt now is that it is cross-platform, and it (or something like it) can be used for both the web and in InDesign. And it is not all that different from PHP.
However, hardly a day passes when I do not grieve over the fact that Applescript is not the “universal” scripting language. The more people write their own stuff, and compare ideas with others, and freely exchange snippets of code, and disagree over the best way of achieving things, the better it all gets. It seems to me that that is the way knowledge grows.
Jeremy
Jeremy,
As nice as AppleScript is, and indispensable in cross-app scripting, a JavaScript is almost always less verbose than the equivalent AppleScript. The one thing I wish JS has is a “whose” clause. There’s something very elegant about “whose”…
This script is JS would be something like this:
var frames=app.documents[0].textFrames.everyItem().getElements();
for(var i=0;i<frames.length;i++){
if(frames[i].appliedObjectStyle.name!="myobjectstyle"){continue}
var bounds = frames[i].visibleBounds;
frames[i].visibleBounds = [bounds[0],bounds[1]+4,bounds[2],bounds[3]-4];
}
The word ‘whose’ is very useful in English too. Alas, some people avoid it because they think it should only be applied to people (and avoided with things). Good old AppleScript will set them right!
Harbs,
You said that Javascript is less verbose than Applescript, and I’m guessing you’re talking about the length of the incomprehensible “zeroes and ones” that a compiler turns into machine code (or whatever it’s called) before a script can do its thing.
I wonder does this verbosity make AppleScript work slower than JavaScript? If so, that would explain a couple of embarrassing moments — dragging into agonizing, interminable minutes — when I was trying to promote myself in my new career, saying “it doesn’t usually take this long!”
Even if AppleScript is slower than JavaScript, its user-friendliness and relative accessibility draw in new scripters, and swell the numbers of people exchanging ideas and disagreeing with each other. That’s great, I think — and it’s thanks to a different sort of “verbosity”: the way it mimics ordinary (English) speech.
I mean you generally have to try a lot more with AppleScript to do the same thing as a JavaScript. An AppleScript is almost always many more lines than JavaScript. I don’t know if that makes a difference in terms of performance.
There’s an awful lot that can effect performance in scripts. I’m not sure how a “whose” performs, but in this script, I’m almost positive that my version will be faster — especially when there’s a lot of text frames…
I personally find all the tell/end tell statements to be hard to keep track of in AppleScript. Also, I think conceptually and AppleScript is (purposely) a much more verbal language…
Hi guys, I need to convert a PDF document into JPG format. Pls help me
Hi Hilda! I have been using Magic PDF software and it works well in converting PDF document into JPG format. You can check it out at. http://www.magic-PDF.com.
Hilda, if you have Adobe Acrobat Pro you can simply go to File > Export > Image and choose JPEG there. It’ll let you choose the JPEG settings and will then save each page as a JPEG file.
You could also drag the PDF to Photoshop to open the pages there (with the ability to set resolution and size) and then save the files from there. Not as quick, but if you have Photoshop it’s free.
Hi,
I’m really very new to Indesign cs2 and have a prb I just cannot solve:
I want to change the margins for the whole document (280 pages) and though I have done this in the master nothing changes on the document pages. If I do it manually each page, at one page in the documet things ‘stops’ – that is – as the text is getting longer ( as I am diminishing the margins of the pages), instead of the text just continuing on to next pages – at one point of the document the text which is moving is putting itself on top of the other text…. (and I have tried to delete ‘new section’ in case that is the prb.). Anyone? THANKS!
Kikki,
I have run into a the same problem with books in the past. You want to change the margins on all the pages with out it effecting the text, bumping headers to a next page, ect.. ect… Their are a few ways to go about this and the best way will depend largely up the content of the book. A quick solution is to PDF the document as is. In pit stop or the Acrobat Pro re-size the whole doc so it will fit in the need margins and your page size, then set up a new document in In-deign with the correct margins. Use the place multiple PDF?s Script and there you have it.
-I have used this trick to center my place multiple PDF?s script too. For intense some one sends me a 400 page book in a Microsoft word doc. The margins are set for a 8.5 X 5.5 Book but the page size is 8.5 X 11 and it is justified in the upper left hand corner. I will then set up my template in In-design to accommodate any bindery needed bleeds the pinch, grinding, ect… I PDF the Word doc and in Acrobat Pro I will then crop the whole doc at one time to the size of my In-design page with the margins I need, (at this point you could just crop so the page is center.) save file. Go back to the InDesign file use the place multiple PDF?s script and if your math is right everything should fall in to place. The sweet thing is after doing this one or two times it shouldn?t take more then ten minutes and beats the pants off of placing 400 pages manually in your margins!
I created a 6 x 9 – 280 page book in InDesign (CS3) with an inside margin of 0.5 inches. I’ve recently changed the margin to .75, but my text box remains the same at .5 inches.
Is there a way to change the text frame to conincide with the margin at .75 as well, without having to manually move the frame to .75 for all 250 pages?
Any tip will be grately appreciated.
Did I mention I’m quite new to InDesign? I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an easy fix, but I would really appreciate it if you could poing me to the right direction.
Place multi page pdf . I get the size of the pdf I am importing from the Document setup in acrobat and make my InDesign doc. that size. Import the pages into InDesign then change page size in Indesign to your actual page size and bingo your done. HUGE timesaver for me.
Looking to center PDFs on the page, but stuck with the PlaceMultipagePDF script putting it in the top left (X:0, Y:0)? Just change two numbers in the script! Here’s the easy fix:
1. Determine coordinates
– Place a page from your PDF onto your document. Using the alignment tool, center the PDF vertically and horizontally to the page.
– Note the new X and Y coordinates of the upper left corner of the object.
2. (Easy) Edit script
– From the Scripts panel (Window > Automation > Scripts), locate the PlaceMultipagePDF script (.jsx or .applescript), right click and choose edit or reveal in finder and open it in the editor of your choice.
– At around line 109 or so, change the
[0,0]withinmyPDFPage = myPage.place(File(myPDFFile), [0,0])[0];to your new coordinates,
[x,y], respectively.– Save as new and run it, or just save and run and remember to change the coordinates back to
[0,0]when done.Done!