*** From the Archives ***
This article is from June 16, 2008, and is no longer current.
Free Selection to PDF Script from Auckland
I’m at The InDesign Conference in Auckland, New Zealand, and trying hard to ignore the overwhelming sense of jetlag and exhaustion after canceled flights and other horrors made my trip here a little less pleasant than it might have been. But Martinho da Gloria picked me (and Sandee Cohen and Barry Anderson) up at the airport and took us to some Really Good Coffee. So things are looking up!
You’ll remember Martinho from his astonishing LayoutZone script, which lets you create “composition zones” in InDesign. Well, while we were driving, one thing led to another, and it turns out he used his prowess in exporting page objects for a new script, called Selection to PDF, which you can find on his Web site, automatication.com. I bet you can’t guess what the script does: Right, it takes any selection on your page and makes it into a PDF file. Very handy!
This conference should be great fun, as Tim Cole, Mike McHugh, Michael Stoddart, Cari Jansen, Sandee, and myself will be doing all sort of tips, tricks, and techniques. I always learn something new at these things!
 |
Hey David,
It kind of makes me feel a bit better to know I’m not the only one experiencing issues in getting to Auckland :)
Some engineers are presently working on the aircraft that is supposed to get me there :) thusfar over 2hrs delay…
But being optimistic, and will definitely need to find that coffee place in the morning :)
See also:
https://carijansen.com/2008/06/14/selection-to-pdf-new-indesign-add-on/ for an insight into Martinho’s new script
I only have access to the User’s InDesign Scripts folder, and this script isn’t working for me when it’s placed there. Any ideas?
Can we please not assume everyone is using CS3 in these post – would have saved me some time if there had been a simple compatibility note attached to this post. I use CS3 at home, but my employer still uses CS2 and I suspect the majority of users (personally no employee I have spoken too anywhere uses CS3 yet) have yet to upgrade.
Cari, thanks for the link and for all that extra info!
Tom, you make a good point. The Startup Scripts folder isn’t being seen there, I think. I’ll try to find out if there’s any good workaround for that.
cposey, I apologize for that. It’s a good point that many people are not yet using CS3 — though the download web site does clearly state that the script is for CS3.
Oh man, I only just read about this conference now. This is just Indesign conference is around the corner from my house. Fancy that!
Hope you all enjoy your stay here.
To install SelectionToPDF in InDesign(CS3) User Scripts folder…
Make sure that you have placed the folder SelectionToPDF into:
Mac OS
Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/[version]/Scripts
Windows XP
Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\[version]\Scripts
Windows Vista
Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\[Version]\Scripts
Alternatively:
Open InDesign CS3 and go to the Scripts panel (Window > Automation > Scripts).
Right-mouse click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the User Folder and choose Reveal in Explorer (Windows) or Reveal in Finder (Mac).
This opens the User folder, now you can simply copy SelectionToPDF Folder into it and then restart InDesign.
Does not work on non-english systems. The item won’yt install under ‘File’…
And… already fixed by Martinho! Works fine now also in the Dutch version.
I have just released a new version of SelectionToPDF to fix an issue related to the installation of the menu in the Dutch and German versions of Adobe InDesign CS3. Dank u wa veghel!
Hi Martinho,
WA Veghel = Frans van der Geest
(Wa veghel was a pseudonym way back in the old Brand X forum days, but many people got to know me under that name, so I kept on using it)
Thanks, great tool! Again one reason more to switch less to Illustrator.
Great stuff!!
Hi Martinho,
I really like using this new script. I am running IDCS3 on a Mac running Parallel Desktop and Microsoft Windows XP. After doing some testing, several of my Javascripts stopped functioning. For example, the CS3 CropMarks.jsx and ImageCatalog.jsx.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem? Could this be a Parallel Desktop issue?
Thanks in advance for you response.
Best regards,
Greg
I have just released a new version of SelectionToPDF, that should address the problem Greg was experiencing.
After installing the new version of SelectionToPDF and run it once over any selection (File > Export Selection To PDF), the scripts CropMarks and ImageCatalog should run fine again.
Thanks
Martinho
Very handy script indeed! Thanks for the tip!
NOOOOOOOO
Where’s the script? Is the site down or nonexistant anymore?
@Marty, I’m not sure what you mean… When I go to https://automatication.com/ I see it in the navigation links on the left side. Perhaps the site was down temporarily.