BUT, I’m really happy to say that this bug is fixed in CS5.5! I was really excited when I found it working like it should! I felt young again! It opens so many doors for doing some cool automation things! So, I had put together a simple document and did few tests.

Test script:

alert(
    function(){
        var p = [];
        for(var i = 0; i < app.selection.length; i++)
            p.push("Object: " + app.selection[i].toSource() + " | Contents: " + app.selection[i].contents)
        return p;
    }().join('\r'), "Adobe InDesign ver. (" + app.version + ")"
);

Horizontal order:

Red line represents selection order.

Vertical order:

Red line represents selection order.

Notice how order of object ID change between horizontal and vertical selection order! This is really awesome! Thank you Adobe for fixing this!

Now, all you need to do is to wait till CS5.5 hit the market!

Let’s list most important ones:

• EPUB Export Improvements
• Style Mapping
• Articles Panel
• Linked Stories
• Object Export Options
• DPS Tablet Features
• Easier Anchored Objects

Also, bunch of old bugs from previous releases are corrected! But, that’s not all! Some CS5 users were frustrated with frame edge highlighting! Now in CS5.5 you are CAN turn it OFF! Woohoo! I will not go into details about features and stuff, because there is so many places where you can find info and I’ll list some of them:

• Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Product Family by Adobe
• What’s new in CS5.5 by Adobe TV
• Adobe CS5 Evolves: Digital Publishing from InDesign to Tablets Gets Better by Terry White, Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist for Adobe
• InDesign CS 5.5 Announced: New Features, Subscription Pricing by InDesignSecrets.com
• Adobe Upgrades Nine Products to CS5.5 by CreativePro.com
• CS5.5 & Any Screen by Cari Jansen

Thank you Adobe for making our creative work easier
with such a awesome and creative tools!

I have to say that this is not my original idea. Manuel Hollert published script like this (Automatic set of layers in new documents) one and a half years ago for InDesign CS4. He also mentioned version for CS5 but I couldn’t find download link. So, I decided to write new script from scratch!

Let me explain how script works. After you install script and containing files in “startup scripts” folder and restart InDesign. You probably noticed “txt” files. Each “txt” file is Layer Set which contains layer names. You can manually create as many Layer Set files as you want (ex: “layerSet_My Special Set.txt” (without quotes)). Each line in Layer Set file represents one layer that will be created. Keep in mind that Layer Set files have to be in same folder as JSX file. Next, go to Layers panel pop-up menu and at the bottom you can “Enable tomaxxiLAYERS“. Now, start creating new document. tomaxxiLAYERS will pop-up. Simply select Layer Set from drop-down and click Select Set. Next you will see is New Document dialog, and when you confirm it, script will automatically add layers defined in Layer Set to the new document. It sounds complicated, but when you try it once, you will love it!

One of new features I added is ability to add Layer Set‘s not just to new documents. Simply open already created document, go to Layers panel pop-up menu and at the bottom click “Apply tomaxxiLAYERS“. When tomaxxiLAYERS pops-up simply select Layer Set from drop-down and click Select Set. Layers defined in Layer Set will be added to the current document.

There are also few optional tweaks that you can do while creating Layer Set file. You can define Layer options (Show Layer, Lock Layer, Print Layer, Suppress Text Wrap When Layer is Hidden, Show Guides, Lock Guides) for each layer in Layer Set! For more info make sure you read Quick Start Guide. (“tomaxxiLAYERS_QuickStart.txt”) And the the last one is ability to set which layer will be active after all layers are added. Simply add “#” (without quotes) and the beginning of the layer name in Layer Set file!

That’s it! Don’t be scared with this detailed description! Have fun!

[UPDATED]

WARNING!
In version 1.0 I found BUG that throws error when Re-linking files!
PLEASE, UPDATE to version 1.1!

Also, new version has been translated to five languages and it also works with CS4!
Special thanks to Frans van der Geest [NL], Loic Aigon [FR], Jan Kampling [DE], Rufus Deuchler [IT] and Vladislav Ossipov [RU] for translation!

Download

Version 1.1, 25/02/2011, InDesign CS4 & CS5!

But, if you have bunch of links, you need to sort them first, select just embedded ones and then click Unembed Link from Links panel menu, or from context menu. But, it can be done much more easily with help of short script! Let’s see how!

Link Class has unembed() method which allows us to extract link from InDesign document and save/relink it to new/existing file. Yes, if file doesn’t exist in folder we selected as destination, InDesgn will also create file (extract from INDD file)! That’s really great! The fact is that InDesign stores complete files inside INDD file when you embed it! That means, if you embed PSD file that contains layers, and you unembed it on different computer, you will get original PSD! But, I DON’T suggest you to use this technique to pack all links, especially high-res images inside INDD file! It will just blowup your file! Small logos and graphics are OK, but nothing bigger!

Let’s see how unembed() works:

// first link in document
var myLink = app.activeDocument.links[0];

// check embedded status
$.writeln(myLink.status == LinkStatus.LINK_EMBEDDED);

// unembed to default location
myLink.unembed();

// unembed to new location
// if file exists it will be overwritten with the extracted one
var myDest = Folder("/c/myDestination");
myLink.unembed(myDest);

So, here is simple script which will ask you where you want to save all embedded and if some of files already exists in destination folder, they will be automatically relinked instead of overwriting (default unembed() action). Simple and easy!

var myDoc = (app.documents.length && app.activeDocument),
    myLinks = (myDoc) ? myDoc.links : false,
    hasEmbedded = (myLinks && String(app.activeDocument.links.everyItem().status).indexOf("EMBEDDED") != -1) ? true : false;
    myDoc ? undefined : alert("No Documents opened!", "tomaxxiUnEmbed");
    (!hasEmbedded && myDoc) ? alert("No Embedded links found!", "tomaxxiUnEmbed") : undefined;

if(myDoc && myLinks.length != 0 && hasEmbedded){
    var myFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Select folder where Embedded links will be extracted:");
    if(myFolder != null){
        for(var i = 0; i < myLinks.length; i++)
            if(myLinks[i].status == LinkStatus.LINK_EMBEDDED)
                if(File(myFolder + "/" + myLinks[i].name).exists)
                    myLinks[i].relink(File(myFolder + "/" + myLinks[i].name));
                else
                    myLinks[i].unembed(myFolder);
        alert("Done!", "tomaxxiUnEmbed");
    }
}

That’s it!

Have fun!

So, you might be wondering how this is really created. Here is short outline of workflow I’ve used to create this interactive guide. Remember, I’ve used just InDesign!

• Collect all shortcuts PC and Mac
• Create InDesign Keyboard Layout
• Create Object Styles for Normal/Over/Click keys
• Input all shortcuts to tables (every key to separate page)
• Merge shortcuts page to Multi-State Object with script
• Assign every key to Multi-State Object state
• Export to SWF

I think there is no need to explain how to use this guide. Simply start it and explore! In case you still need some help, there is short Quick Start Guide.

That’s it! I hope that you will find this guide useful and helpful! Please, if you have any suggestions, feedback, and even if you find errors, do not hesitate to send me an email!

So, what’s so special about this “new version”?

First, there is no more floating palette with list of Object Styles! Woohoo! Now, there is menu item where you Enable or Disable tomaxxiPLACE® and it will also remember enable/disable state even after restarting! The script is now StartUp type, so you need to copy it to Startup scripts folder. Menu item will appear in Object and Object Styles panel menu (see screenshots) and it’s totally localized! Next, you can use any style from Object Styles, not just top-level ones!

How to use/install?

• Download the script
• Copy script to Startup scripts folder
• Start or restart InDesign
• Locate menu item in Object or Object Styles panel menu
• Click Enable tomaxxiPLACE®
• Load PlaceGun with files
• Select desired Object Style
• Place

So easy and effective! Remember, you can change Object Style while placing!

Have fun!

Download

Version 2.3, 14/01/2011, InDesign CS5 only!

New updated version available! Fixed some localization typos.

Special thanks goes to Pierre Labbe and Jean-Claude Tremblay for script testing and also for menu items localization suggestion! Thank you!

Also, you will not need special “Place Fun Frame” Object Style to apply desired object style while placing objects, and you will be able to even select different while placing multiple objects. Really?! Well, yes, I hope so!

It’s really simple script, but I deside to encrypt it to make it untouchable for unexperienced scripters. But, the core is simple. Event Listener that catches Place event and applies selected object style. Notice that this script will remember selected object style across documents, and even if you close document, and open it again, your last time used style will be selected InDesign lacks few event listeners to be able to detect when new styles are added, so you will have to click that “Refresh” button to refresh object style list.

DISCLAMER AND LIMITATIONS

• Info about selected object style in document via insertLabel()
• Script will not detect Object Styles in Style Groups
• It’s InDesign CS5 only!

If you find BUG please report it to my email address! Also, if you have suggestion, fell free to contact me!

You can download the script here:
Version 1.5, 14/01/2011, InDesign CS5 only!

I want to apologize to all who downloaded this script on 14th January 2011 between 1PM and 7PM GMT+1! This script wasn’t working! Version 1.5 is good one! Thank you! I also want to thank Pierre Labbe for noticing the error!

Special thanks and credits goes to Loic Aigon, Marc Autret, Tim Gouder, Jean-Claude Tremblay and Sigurdur Armannsson for great suggestions and script testing! Thank you guys!

That’s it!

Have fun!

I will post short and interesting tips&tricks mostly for InDesign CS5. As I work and find some useful tip, I will post it as soon as possible So, stay tuned and enjoy!

In first post, I used simple “*” to separate multiple values, and at load time used split(*) to separate values back to Array. That’s not bad, and it’s working fine, but there is another much more elegant solution!

What is JSON? JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format in other words it’s Associative array. It is, among other things, a faster, simpler, easier-to-use alternative to XML. More info about JSON can be found here: Introducing JSON. That’s great, but how to use it in InDesign?! How to save/load values?

I created short sample to demonstrate usage and shortly explain how it works. Of course, you can extend it as you wish! So, let’s get started!

First, let’s take a look at simple JSON (Associative array) object:

var myJSON = { myText: "My First Text", myValue: 1 };

// displaying values
alert(myJSON.myText); // My First Text
alert(myJSON.myValue); // 1

So, the main idea is to populate simply populate JSON object with dialog values and save them into app or document label. But, label is String value, and JSON is object, so before saving we need to convert JSON to string. Easiest way to do that is to use toSource() which will generate String from JSON object.

alert(myJSON.toSource()); // ({myText:"My First Text", myValue:1})

Another great thing is that we don’t have to think about escaping reserved characters, they are automatically escaped during conversion to string!

So, let’s build really simple example! First we need simple dialog. As you see on image, it will contain three text boxes, two check boxes and one dropdown:

// loading saved settings
var loadSettings = eval(app.activeDocument.extractLabel("mySettings"));

// function which assigns values to elements
var myValues = function(setObj, defValue){
    if(loadSettings != undefined){
        if(loadSettings[setObj]){
            return loadSettings[setObj];
        }
    }else{
        return defValue;
    }
};

// array for dropdown element
var myArray = ["Level 1", "Level 2", "Level 3", "Level 4", "Level 5"];

// dialog
var myWin = new Window('dialog', "Save Settings / by IndiSnip");

// elements
var myT1 = myWin.add('edittext', undefined, myValues("myT1", "Name"));
    myT1.characters = 20;
var myT2 = myWin.add('edittext', undefined, myValues("myT2", "Company"));
    myT2.characters = 20;
var myT3 = myWin.add('edittext', undefined, myValues("myT3", "E-mail"));
    myT3.characters = 20;
var myC1 = myWin.add('checkbox', undefined, "Newsletter");
    myC1.value = myValues("myC1", true);
var myC2 = myWin.add('checkbox', undefined, "Support");
    myC2.value = myValues("myC2", false);
var myD1 = myWin.add('dropdownlist', undefined, myArray);
    myD1.selection = myValues("myD1", 0);
var myOK = myWin.add('button', undefined, "OK");

// this is more like bonus element
// which enables you to reset values to default
var myReset = myWin.add('button', undefined, "Reset");
    myReset.onClick = function(){myWin.close(3);};
    loadSettings != undefined ? myReset.enabled = true : myReset.enabled = false;

// center dialog [optional]
myWin.center();

// show dialog
var myRes = myWin.show();

// switch dialog close value
if(myRes == 1){ // OK is clicked
    var mySettings = {}; // new JSON
    // adds values from dialog to JSON
    mySettings['myT1'] = myT1.text;
    mySettings['myT2'] = myT2.text;
    mySettings['myT3'] = myT3.text;
    mySettings['myC1'] = myC1.value;
    mySettings['myC2'] = myC2.value;
    mySettings['myD1'] = myD1.selection.index;
    // saves JSON which is converted to string to activeDocument label
    app.activeDocument.insertLabel("mySettings", mySettings.toSource());
}else if(myRes == 3){ // Reset is clicked
    // clears activeDocument label
    app.activeDocument.insertLabel("mySettings", "");
}

OK, let’s explain this a little bit Key part is in myValues(setObj, defValue) function which loads saved data if any, or assigns default data if no data stored. Keep in mind that setObj has to be the same when saving data (line 52), if not, data will not match! String which is loaded from label has to be converted to JSON object using eval() to make it accessible!

Here you can see how JSON from example above looks like when filled with data and converted to String:

And here is dialog which is loaded with already saved data:

Maybe you can make this more efficient if you build your own ScriptUI widgets. You can implement this technique directly into widgets and add more control over content/values of your dialog elements.

That’s it!

Happy coding!