Soxy Update Works Around “Missing Required Parameter” Error in Snow Leopard
If you run InDesign on Snow Leopard you may have run into an error message when double clicking a file from OSX’s Finder.
That error looks pretty scary but it seems to only occur with files that contain “#” or “/” in the file name. This is an operating system bug and it’s fairly easy to work around.
- Rename any files removing the offending characters;
- Open the files from Bridge or from within InDesign.
Of course, those are just workarounds and until the folks at Cupertino get around to fixing it in 10.6.? there’s an additional choice. Rorohiko has just released an update to Soxy, their application that chooses the correct version of Creative Suite programs to open when a file is double clicked.
Soxy 1.0.7 adds a preference setting to Open InDesign by Script. Once this in enabled, the “Missing required parameter ‘from’ for event ‘open’. open error shouldn’t rear its ugly head, again. As Kris Coppieters explains it in a post on the User to User forums:
the workaround works by special-casing how Soxy opens documents in InDesign: instead of using AppleScript, Soxy will use ExtendScript to instruct InDesign to open the document – which works fine
Soxy can be downloaded from here. The update for current license holders is free and there is a fully functional demo available. A beta Windows version can also be downloaded from the same page.
It looks interesting. We have a problem with a few folks at work who insist on double-clicking files to open and then save to the higher version (even though they should know better).
Something like this installed on the machines of the folks who like to double-click and not pay attention may be useful.
Thanks for the link.
Actually, is this a operating system bug? I ask because we have machines at work pre-Snow Leopard (Tiger or Leopard), and when opening files in PhotoShop or Illustrator, we get a corrupt file message when opening files with a “/” in it.
I figured it out right away when just certain files were not printing when placed in Quark (yes–we use Quark for some clients
). And when we tried to check the art in question, it came up as corrupt. Noticed the slash in the file name, and once we changed that all was good.
I have seen this error and one where it just won’t open the InDesign file. But it’s consistent to be when I open the file remotely (server) instead of my own hard drive.
Kevin, it’s possible that the folder on the server has the troublesome characters.
I will keep my peepers on the lookout for strange characters. Thanks!
The error was found to be the character “#” in a parent directory. I removed it and the file opened without the missing parameter error. Thanks again!
I have just encountered this but with files that do not contain the offending characters. It happened when I transferred files from a CD to my desktop. I could open the files from the CD itself but not after I moved them to my desktop. Even when I opened from the CD and saved to my computer, once I closed the file it wouldn’t reopen. It does work, though, to open from within Indesign or Bridge. Thanks for the help.
This error also appeated for us when the path (e.g. one of the folders the document was in) had a “?” character.
Replacing the character made it work again. Q.E.D.
hey Kevin thanks for this great post and tutorial