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This article is from June 15, 2010, and is no longer current.

Self-running slide show script

I’ve been traveling a lot lately. Strangely, I’ve found that I do some of my best scripting at 30,000 feet. Must be the in-flight peanuts. Just for fun, I decided to knock a script together to create self-running slide shows in InDesign CS5.

InDesign CS5 has a new Presentation Mode that displays the active InDesign file full-screen, hiding the InDesign interface. But when you’re in presentation mode, you need to use the arrow keys to advance from slide to slide. I thought it might be handy to have the slides advance automatically, and the SlideShow script is the result.

The script is rough and unpolished, but it does the trick. It will likely only work in the US English version of InDesign. If someone really needs it to work in another language, let me know, and I could tell you how to modify it for your language.

Praveen says:

June 16, 2010 at 12:30 am

Hi Gilbert,

This script is working fine, but checked the option ‘Loop at end’ script is continuously running. Pl. confirm how we can stop this script while running.

Thanks,

Praveen

Keith Gilbert says:

June 16, 2010 at 5:32 am

Praveen, to quit the self-running slide show, hit the Esc key twice. (There’s a note about this at the bottom of the dialog box to remind you.) Hope you find the script useful!

June 16, 2010 at 6:57 am

Yes Gilbert, I missed to see that instruction. Anyway, it’s fine now and I feel that this script is very useful for me.

James Wamser says:

June 16, 2010 at 9:02 am

Keith,

Since you’re at 30,000 ft again today, I wonder what you’re come up with next.

The SlideShow script is very cool!

Uwe Laubender says:

June 17, 2010 at 1:22 am

@Keith:
To utilize the script in all international versions of InDesign I suggest to use app.menuActions.itemByID instead of item(“Next Spread”) like:

var myMenuAction1 = app.menuActions.itemByID(118818);

I tested that with my German version of InDesign CS5 (7.0.1) and it ran well.

Stephan of the InDesign Scripting forum was so kind to send me the available ID numbers of all menuActions. Thank’s again, Stephan?

Uwe

June 18, 2010 at 8:12 am

@Uwe: Thank you for the ID number. I hadn’t had the time to dig up the code. I’ve made the change to the script, and posted the new version on my Web site.

What this means to everyone is that the script should now function in all localized versions of InDesign CS5, regardless of your language. The interface has not been localized, so that will always be in English.

Pierre Labbe has translated the interface into French, and that version is available on the Web site also.

SEO says:

December 9, 2010 at 9:35 am

This script is working fine .Thank.

Cheryl Jackson says:

January 30, 2012 at 3:21 pm

do you have the slide show.jsx script for INDD cs5.5 in english? all I see is french.

thanks.

January 30, 2012 at 3:25 pm

@ Cheryl, the English version is on the same Web page. Just click on the “SlideShow” heading to download the English version.

cinzia says:

March 27, 2012 at 11:28 pm

Hello, I’m following you in lynda.com (InDesign CS5: Interactive Documents and Presentations) and I’m searching the slideshow jsx in italian to do the exercise.

Thanks

March 28, 2012 at 7:13 am

@Cinzia, I’m sorry, the script is only available in English and French. There isn’t an Italian version.

November 1, 2012 at 8:47 am

Hey Keith,

Ok, I got the slideshow.jsx script to intall and work properly. I work in a corporate office and want to be able to loop indd presentations in another more common application besides INDD. Not everyone in the office has that program. Can I use this slideshow.jsx script to run a looped interactive indd presentation in say, Acrobat as a pdf? If not, how can I make this happen?

Thanks,
Cheryl

November 2, 2012 at 8:54 am

@Cheryl, The script will only run inside InDesign. If you create a PDF of the InDesign file, then open the PDF in Acrobat, you can run it in full screen mode in Acrobat (command/ctrl-L) and dig around in the Acrobat Preferences to control the speed at which the slides advance as well as set the presentation to loop.

Bradley says:

November 28, 2012 at 10:22 am

Is there a script or a procedure for a self-running photo slideshow for within an Indesign document? I’ma novice at Indesign and can’t figure it out. Thanks for any help.

Bradley