September 30, 2009

Exploring Adobe InDesign CS4’s Built in Scripts

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If you've never opened the Scripts panel in InDesign before, you don't know what you're missing!

I know that you are probably busy enough dealing with production schedules, answering emails, and trying to be creative inside of InDesign CS4. But I implore you to take a moment and explore the Scripts panel in InDesign, it could save you a lot of time and headaches. Usually, the moment you discover what these scripts are capable of, you end up realizing that something which took you hours last week to do manually, could have been accomplished in a matter of minutes had you known the Scripts panel existed. 

If you've never used the Scripts panel in InDesign, here is a quick explanation of what scripts are; Scripts can add functionality to InDesign that doesn't already exist in the menu. Quite often, before a new feature is released, you can find a script that performs that function. Whether it is the developers lack of time to add the functionality into the interface, or them simply adding a script to see if its reception is worthy of making it a new feature, InDesign users can benefit from these new hidden functions. For example, before "Align to Page" became a function located inside the Alignment panel, it existed inside the Scripts panel.

This is the "Align to Page" feature that was a new feature added inside of InDesign CS3, but the script existed in InDesign CS2! 

In this blog, I'd like to discuss my two favorite InDesign scripts; Place Multiple PDF's, and Corner Effects. If you've never used the Scripts panel before, it is located in Window > Automation > Scripts.

Navigating to the Scripts panel. 

You'll notice that the Scripts panel has two folders; User and Application. "User" is a good place to store scripts you may start to develop yourself, or that you may collect. If you want to add scripts to this folder, and don't know where it's located, simply right-click the folder and choose "Reveal in Finder" on a Mac, or "Reveal in Explorer" on Windows.

Navigating to the scripts folder.

The folder "Application" contains a folder called "Samples" where the scripts reside. On a Mac you can use either the Applescript or JavaScripts located inside. On Windows, you can use either JavaScript or VBScripts. JavaScripts are cross-platform and I have noticed they are more stable than the Apple or VB scripts. But, you can use whichever scripts you'd like. 

Opening the Sample Scripts Folder. 

To run a script you simply double click the script name in the panel. However, some scripts require you to have something selected, so make sure you understand what the script is about to do before you just start clicking away.

Placing Multiple PDF's into an InDesign Document

This script has saved me an enormous amount of time on more than one occasion. Let's say that you need to flow a PDF into an InDesign document. Maybe you don't have the original document, and you just need to change the footer information. Or, you accidentally threw away the InDesign document, and you just need to flow it in and make changes over it. Or, it was an older document based on a legacy program you no longer own (Quark), and all you have is the PDF. Inside of InDesign CS4, there is no automated way to place multiple PDF pages built into the programs user interface. You either have to make a new document, add as many pages as the PDF was and individually place each PDF page onto the corresponding InDesign page. If you had a 300 page PDF, it could easily take you more than an afternoon of performing the tediously repetitive task of; placing, choosing the correct page, navigating to the next page. Then came along this script.... 

To flow in PDF pages without all the clicking and navigating, first make a new document that is the same page size as the original PDF. Then, simply click on the PlaceMultiplePage script, choose the PDF and watch the PDF pages flow into newly created pages inside your InDesign document!

All you need to do is pick the PDF and let it flow! 

Using the Corner Effects Script

You may have encountered a situation where this script could have saved you a lot of time. Did you ever want to create a frame in InDesign that has rounded corners at the top, and right angles at the bottom? If so, you suddenly realized that the "Rounded Corner" option InDesign has applies rounded corners to the whole frame. If you were clever, you may have turned to the Pen tools, or Pathfinder to complete this tricky operation. Instead, by utilizing the "Corner Effects" script, you can make frames such as these with the click of a button.

Simply draw a frame, double-click CornerEffects, choose the Corner Type and Offset, and than pick the pattern. You should be aware that when InDesign refers to the "first" point, it is the top left point of the object and all other points are numbered counter-clockwise.

Choosing the right corner in the Corner Effects Script.

InDesign CS4 has over 20 free scripts built into the program. There's even a few more on the Creative Suite install disk that don't load with the program. You can also find a lot of free scripts on the InDesign Secrets website: http://indesignsecrets.com/resources/plug-ins-and-scripts. Or check out Adobe's free scripts and tutorials at: http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting/index.html. 

If you're looking to automate your workflow, and need any scripts tweaked or developed, please don't hesitate to contact DPCI. Always remember, that the more you can automate repetitive tasks, the more time you'll have to be creative...

Have fun exploring the Scripts Panel!

Posted at 10:00 pm by Robert Underwood

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