Change Active Tool with script!

Did you know that you can change active tool through scripting? YES, YOU CAN, and it’s so easy! This is new option in InDesign CS5 scripting, and it’s so cool! You can even retrieve current tool name, hint, icon file! It’s really great feature! So, let’s look how to do it! 😀

This option is located in application class, under ‘toolBoxTools’ properties. First, let’s see all available tool options:

UITools.NONE	UITools.SELECTION_TOOL
UITools.DIRECT_SELECTION_TOOL	UITools.GAP_TOOL
UITools.PEN_TOOL	UITools.ADD_ANCHOR_POINT
UITools.DELETE_ANCHOR_POINT	UITools.CONVERT_DIRECTION_POINT
UITools.LINE_TOOL	UITools.TYPE_TOOL
UITools.TYPE_ON_PATH_TOOL	UITools.PENCIL_TOOL
UITools.SMOOTH_TOOL	UITools.ERASE_TOOL
UITools.POLYGON_FRAME_TOOL	UITools.RECTANGLE_FRAME_TOOL
UITools.ELLIPSE_FRAME_TOOL	UITools.POLYGON_TOOL
UITools.RECTANGLE_TOOL	UITools.ELLIPSE_TOOL
UITools.ROTATE_TOOL	UITools.SCALE_TOOL
UITools.SHEAR_TOOL	UITools.SCISSORS_TOOL
UITools.FREE_TRANSFORM_TOOL	UITools.GRADIENT_SWATCH_TOOL
UITools.GRADIENT_FEATHER_TOOL	UITools.NOTE_TOOL
UITools.EYE_DROPPER_TOOL	UITools.MEASURE_TOOL
UITools.HAND_TOOL	UITools.ZOOM_TOOL
UITools.TABLE_TOOL	UITools.PLACE_CURSOR_TOOL
UITools.MOTION_PATH_TOOL	UITools.PAGE_TOOL

Good, so, now let’s see how to get active tool:

var myTool = app.toolBoxTools;

Ok, ‘myTool’ now holds active tool object. We can retrieve info about it:

var myToolObj = myTool.currentTool;
var myToolName = myTool.currentToolName;
var myToolHint = myTool.currentToolHint;
var myToolIcon = myTool.currentToolIconFile;

Cool! So, let’s try to change active tool to for example ‘Pencil Tool’:

myTool.currentTool = UITools.PENCIL_TOOL;

Yeah, it works 😀 Also, you can add event listener to track tool changing or something else. We will add simple listener just for example:

#targetengine myToolListener
app.toolBoxTools.addEventListener("afterAttributeChanged", myTest);

function myTest(){
    alert(app.toolBoxTools.currentToolHint);
}

Now, each time we change tool, alert will pop-up and show tool hint.

That’s it! It’s really handy, and easy control over active tool!

Have fun! 😀