IDM 49 20 Free Must-Have Scripts

7/28/2019 IDM 49 20 Free Must-Have Scripts

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InDepth: Scripts

20 Free ScriptsEvery InDesign user should consider using these scripts toenhance workow efciency.

Congratulations: By starting to read this

article you have taken the rst step towards

making your lie ar easier! Im going to

uncover a secret that can transorm you

rom a regular InDesign User to a super-

powered orce o nature! The trick is based

on what I (immodestly) call Blatners First

Rule o Publishing:

Take a little time now to save far more timein the future.

One o the best ways to apply this rule

is to nd a script or plug-in that does your

work or you. Most scripts are extremely

easy to use and can save you hours o time.

The hardest part is knowing whats available

and where to get them. Fortunately, Im

going to make it easier or you by providing

a list o twenty awesome scripts. O course,

Im not saying you need all o them, but

you do need to know aboutall o them! You

never know when one will come in handy.

By the way, i you dont know how to

install and run scripts, youre not alone.

Fortunately, its really simple. Heres thereally quick version:

Open the Scripts panel (Window >

Utilities > Scripts). Youll nd pre-installed

scripts inside the Application/Samples/

Javascript older in the panel. To run one,

double-click on it.

By dv Ber

INDESIGN MAGAZINE 49 August | September 2012 35

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InDepth: Scripts

I you want to install a script you have

downloaded rom the internet (it shouldhave a .js or .jsx extension), right-click the

Users older in the Scripts panel and choose

Open in Finder (or Open in Explorer in

Windows) rom the context menu.

Put your scripts inside the Scripts Panel

older (not the Scripts older). Make sure it

ends with .js or .jsx (sometimes scripts get

a .txt added to their name when you down-

load them rom the internet). Next time you

look at your Scripts Panel, youll see the script

inside the User olderno need to restart

the program. Double-click it to run the script.

Note that these scripts are in alphabetical

order, not order o awesomeness or unction-

ality. Click on the script name to jump to aweb page rom which you can download the

script. Or go to http://InDesignSecrets.com/

ree or the ull list o links to the sites where

you can download the scripts. In most cases

youll nd other scripts worth checking out,

too. I want to thank Mike Rankin, Anne-Marie

CalendarWizard can create calendars in a

wide variety o orms, and with a wide rangeo options including holidays, phases o

the moon, and calendars in over 20 dierent

languages (Figure 1)! Best o all, the calen-

dars are all based on paragraph, table, and

cell styles, so its extremely easy to customize

them. Scott has created a number o simple

Figure 1: Calendar Wizards dialog box is huge, but doesnt take long to gure out.

Concepcin, and Erica Gamet or pointing

out some o these that I hadnt seen beore.

CerWzrOne o the most stunning examples o a ree

script available is CalendarWizard, a tour de

force by Scott Selberg that he has posted at

the popular open source SourceForge site.


http://indesignsecrets.com/freehttp://indesignsecrets.com/freehttp://calendarwizard.sourceforge.net/http://calendarwizard.sourceforge.net/http://indesignsecrets.com/freehttp://indesignsecrets.com/free


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InDepth: Scripts

and excellent tutorials to help you throughthe process. Note that I also wrote about

CalendarWizard in Issue 21 o this magazine

(December 2007).

FCheBylDo you run the same nd/change queries

repeatedly? Do you have ten dierent nd/

change queries that you have to run one

ater the other? You need FindChangeByList,

and the good news is that you already

have itits one o the ree scripts that are

installed by deault into the Samples older

inside the Scripts older. The hardest part

o using this script is the text le you have

to create to control the script. The textle tells the script what it should nd and

what to replace it with. Its not rocket sci-

ence; but it does take some time and eort

to gure out (see my lynda.com movie or

details). You can save a lot o time i you

use some additional scripts, mentioned

in this blog post: Find-Change Scripting

Goodness. But honestly, you can save even

more time i you use an inexpensive third-

party product called Multi-Find/Change.

Foo_o_EDo you need endnotes in InDesign? Tough

luck, because InDesign only oers ootnotes!

Fortunately, there is a cool workaround,involving cross-reerences. And even more

ortunately, Peter Kahrel has made a script

that can convert your ootnotes into end-

notes! Even better, he has other scripts that

can convert ootnotes into side notes (which

sit in the margins) and more!

HoryscrpHave you ever needed to undo back 20

steps? And then you get there and real-ize, nah, you were better o redoing 18 o

them? There are several History plug-ins out

there, but Harbs at In-Tools created two sim-

ple ree scripts that give you a list o all the

Undo or Redo steps (Figure 2). Just choose a

step, click OK, and it takes you there.

Figure 2: The History scripts let you undo or redo as many

steps as you want, using a convenient po pup menu.

You can set a keyboard shortcut to these script s (or any

other script) or easy access by choosing Edit > Keyboard

Shortcuts and choosing Scripts rom the Product Area

popup menu.

Free Scripts: The Movie

I recorded movies about how some o

these work in my title 10 Free Must-

Have Scripts at lynda.com.


http://indesignsecrets.com/find-change-scripting-goodness.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/find-change-scripting-goodness.phphttp://www.automatication.com/index.php?id=12http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/footnotes.htmlhttp://in-tools.com/products/scripts/http://www.lynda.com/InDesign-CS4-tutorials/10-free-must-have-scripts/46814-2.html?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=ldc_affiliate&utm_content=28&utm_campaign=CD243&bid=28&aid=CD243&opt=http://www.lynda.com/InDesign-CS4-tutorials/10-free-must-have-scripts/46814-2.html?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=ldc_affiliate&utm_content=28&utm_campaign=CD243&bid=28&aid=CD243&opt=http://www.lynda.com/InDesign-CS4-tutorials/10-free-must-have-scripts/46814-2.html?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=ldc_affiliate&utm_content=28&utm_campaign=CD243&bid=28&aid=CD243&opt=http://www.lynda.com/InDesign-CS4-tutorials/10-free-must-have-scripts/46814-2.html?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=ldc_affiliate&utm_content=28&utm_campaign=CD243&bid=28&aid=CD243&opt=http://in-tools.com/products/scripts/http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/footnotes.htmlhttp://www.automatication.com/index.php?id=12http://indesignsecrets.com/find-change-scripting-goodness.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/find-change-scripting-goodness.php


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InDepth: Scripts

iyFobeIndyFont turns InDesign into a ont creationapplicationyes, you can literally design

and export a ont! That may sound crazy, but

in act it has some excellent uses. For exam-

ple, need a custom bullet character? Or cus-

tom numbering or a ancy auto-numbered

list? What about a custom icon at the end

o your magazine story? All these things

require a custom ont. In the past, that

meant not only buying another application,

but learning it! IndyFont lets you do it with

tools you already know, and while the ree

demo version only exports a single char-

acter in the ont, it lets you create as many

onts as you want.

igerIts a common request by InDesign users,

especially olks who make newsletters and

magazines: We want a way to run lines

(rules) between each column. Its not that

hard to do manually, but it is tedious andrustrating i you ever need to change the

size o the rame. Enter InGutter, a wonder-

ul tool that uses a clever trick to add the

lines or you (Figure 3). Even better, when

you resize the rame, the rules change auto-

matically, too!

lyoZoeDid you ever wish you could take a section

o your page and hand it to someone else to

work on? LayoutZone lets you convert any

part o your spread into an editable InDesign

document; then later, ater its edited, you

can update the zone in InDesign or convert

it back into editable objects again. You caneven use it to convert any placed InDesign

document into editable objects. LayoutZone

needs to be installed in a dierent loca-

tion (the Scripts panel inside the applica-

tion older, not the Scripts Panel older),

but easy-to-understand instructions on the

Return the Favor!

Just because these scripts are ree

doesnt mean theyre not worth a lot!

I you nd yoursel saving money or

time using a script, consider donat-

ing to the developer, or buying some

other product rom them! Most o

these scripters have a Donate but-

ton on their site. Youd be amazed at

how sending even $20 or $50 makes

a huge dierence to these olks. (And

believe me, youre likely to save hun-

dreds o dollars in time, so its more

than worth it.)

Figure 3: InGutter can add guides between or around any

multi-column text rame.


http://www.indiscripts.com/post/2012/06/indyfont-build-opentype-fonts-from-within-indesignhttp://www.indiscripts.com/post/2009/11/ingutter-howtos-7-essential-tipshttp://www.automatication.com/http://www.automatication.com/http://www.indiscripts.com/post/2009/11/ingutter-howtos-7-essential-tipshttp://www.indiscripts.com/post/2012/06/indyfont-build-opentype-fonts-from-within-indesign


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InDepth: Scripts

developers site lay it out or you. This toolmay sound complex, but its actually very

easy and has the potential to supercharge

your workow!

MkegrThis is one o my avorite scripts, and not

just because I was partially responsible or

it being written. A client o mine needed

a way to split a single rame into a grid o

smaller rames (they were using it to create

real estate and car ads). I asked Olav Martin

Kvern (who was working at Adobe at the

time) and he xed this up in a jiy. It was so

useul that Adobe decided to add it to the

Samples older, which is where youll nd ittoday (Figure 4).

MeretbeInDesign has a lot o eatures or work-

ing with tables, but it s lacking some ea-

tures that youd think were no-brainers. For

example, have you ever tried tocombine two tables together? Its

almost impossible unless you

have a script like Merge Tables.

Just select two tables with the

Type tool, then run the script. It

lets you combine them vertically

(one on top o the other, adding

more rows) or horizontally (side

by side, adding more columns).

M-peimporerIts easy to place two or more

pages o a PDF into an InDesign

document with the Import

Options dialog box, but youhave to click at least once or

each page youre importing.

Wouldnt it be cool i you could

just import two or more pages

automatically? InDesign ships

with a ree script (in the Samples

Figure 4: The MakeGrid script breaks any empty or graphic rame into a

bunch o pieces (let). For text rames or open paths, it makes duplicates

in a grid (right)!


http://indesignsecrets.com/transform-a-frame-into-a-grid-of-frames.phphttp://in-tools.com/article/scripts-blog/merge-tables-script/http://indesignsecrets.com/zanelli-releases-multipageimporter-for-importing-both-pdf-and-indd-files.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/zanelli-releases-multipageimporter-for-importing-both-pdf-and-indd-files.phphttp://in-tools.com/article/scripts-blog/merge-tables-script/http://indesignsecrets.com/transform-a-frame-into-a-grid-of-frames.php


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InDepth: Scripts

older) called PlaceMultipagePDF which canhelp. When you run it, it asks you to choose

a PDF, and then it asks i you want to place

the pages in a new document or the current

one. But thats about the extent o its power.

I you want to supercharge the import, use

MultiPageImporter, which lets you rotate,

scale and position the PDF just where you

want it (Figure 5).

nmberajerLets say you have a thousand dierent

numbers in your InDesign story and you

need to increase each o them by 1. Or

you have a hundred prices in your cata-

log and you need to decrease them all by30 percent. Computers are supposed to

be good at doing math, right? So let the

NumberAdjuster script do the heavy lit-

ing or you! You can add, subtract, multiply,

or divide all the numbers in your story or

document. It even lets you adjust just the

numbers that have a dol-lar sign in ront o them,

or just ones that match a

particular GREP pattern.

Its very powerul, and

very ast.

PeExporer

uyI you need more control

over how your documents are exported to

PDF (or EPS or some other ormat), then

check out the Page Exporter Utility (PEU),

which has been a staple o many peoples

production lines or years. PEU lets you

export your InDesign documents as single-page les (instead o putting all the pages or

spreads into one PDF). What I use it or most

commonly is layer versioning. For example,

you might have a base layer and then three

dierent language versions (say English,

French, German). PEU can export multiple

PDF les as base+English, base+French, and

base+German. Simple and super efcient!

seVChrszeNeed to make your text exactly 72 points

tall? Thats surprisingly difcult in InDesignbecause the point size o text typically

includes space above the ascenders and

space below the baseline (to make room

or descenders). Fortunately, you can use

this script to gure out the size or you. Just

select some text, run the script, and tell it

Figure 5: MultiPageImporter lets you import a bunch o pages rom any PDF orINDD le very quickly and accurately.


http://indesignsecrets.com/free-script-to-change-all-numbers-in-a-document-using-math.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/page-exporter-utility-peu-5-script-updated-for-cs3.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/page-exporter-utility-peu-5-script-updated-for-cs3.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/set-the-size-of-text-exactly-based-on-cap-or-x-height.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/set-the-size-of-text-exactly-based-on-cap-or-x-height.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/page-exporter-utility-peu-5-script-updated-for-cs3.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/page-exporter-utility-peu-5-script-updated-for-cs3.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/free-script-to-change-all-numbers-in-a-document-using-math.php


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InDepth: Scripts

how large you want the text to be (based onthe size o a specic letter). For example, you

could say make the uppercase A be exactly

30 mm tall.

szelbeNeed to know exactly how large every

rame is in your document because youre

working with very strict guidelines? Dont

click on each rame one by one; just run

the SizeLabels script and every object

is suddenly adorned with a little label

showing its dimensions. You can edit the

script (sounds scary, but it s reallyeasy!) to

change the measurement system it uses

rom inches to something else, and youcan add paragraph and object styles to

customize the labels. Best o all, the script

places the labels on a special layer, so its

easy to hide or even delete them. While

youre at the Rorohiko site, look around at

the many other products they have!

sylherIts almost impossible to tell where stylesare applied in InDesign unless you click

on every bit o text manually, or the style

is easily identiable by eye. Worse, theres

almost no way to tell where someone has

applied local ormatting (text that has para-

graph or character ormatting on top o the

style denition). Both these problems are

handled by the amazing StyLighter script.

When you run it and enable the Activate

the Preview Mode checkbox, then all localcharacter ormatting gets a red line through

it; local paragraph ormatting gets a line

along its let side. These lines dont print;

theyre on-screen-only. Even better, the

StyLighter dialog box lets you assign a di-

erent color or each paragraph or character

style (Figure 6, next page). Again, its or

screen viewing only, and you can make it

all go away by running the script again and

turning o that checkbox.

Save First!

Some coders write their scripts in a way that you can use Undo to easily revert back

to the state o your document beore you ran the script. However, many scripts dontdo this (especially older scripts). The result is that i you try to undo afer running

one o those scripts, you may have to choose Undo about 50 times (once or every

action the script perorms). Instead, save your document beore running the script!

That way, i something goes terribly wrong (or you just dont like the result), you can

choose File > Revert and youre back in action quickly.

INDESIGN MAGAZINE 49 August | September 2012 41previous next fullscreencontents
http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/otherproducts/sizelabels/http://indesignsecrets.com/style-highlighting.phphttp://indesignsecrets.com/style-highlighting.phphttp://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/otherproducts/sizelabels/


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InDepth: Scripts

tbesorIm actually going to mention two scriptshere. First, you have to know about

the SortParagraphs script that ships in

InDesigns Samples older (in the Scripts

panel). Its terric or sorting any kind o list,

whether numerically or alphabetically. But it

only sorts paragraphs and cant sort data in

a table! Thats where Peter Kahrels TableSort

script comes in handy. It can sort tables in all

the ways youd typically want (Figure 7).

tomxxFtbeYou know how choosing Type > Fill with

Placeholder Text lls up any rame?

Unortunately, it doesnt work or tables. ButMarijan Tompas TomaxxiFillTable does the

job admirably, letting you ll with text, num-

bers, date/time stamps, and more. But the

eature I like the most is its ability to insert

consecutive numbers. For example, you can

ll a column with numbers rom 100 to 1000

with a quick couple o clicks. Remember to

select the cells in the table that you want to

ll beore running the script.

tomxxPce2One o the most conusing and annoying

aspects o object styles is that the DeaultGraphic Frame Style is not applied to

graphic ramesits only applied to empty

unassigned rames. This is particularly rus-

trating when importing images that you

want placed into a rame with a particular

object style. Thats where TomaxxiPlace2Figure 7: TableSort is great or sorting a table

alphabetically.

Figure 6: When you turn on the preview mode in StyLighter, you

can see what styles are applied and i any local ormatting has

been applied on top o those styles.

http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/tablesort.htmlhttp://tomaxxi.com/downloads/http://tomaxxi.com/downloads/http://tomaxxi.com/downloads/http://tomaxxi.com/downloads/http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/tablesort.html


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InDepth: Scripts

comes in. This is a startup script (so it doesntgo in the Scripts Panel older) and the

instructions are clearly laid out in the link

above. The result is that whenever you use

File > Place to import a graphic, InDesign

will assign the deault graphic rame style,

giving you the result you expect and want.

WorzerThe last script on here is addictive; once you

start using it, youll want to run it at least

ten times in a row. Wordalizer is a script that

makes a word cloud o the most common

words in a story or document and lays them

out in a clever and colorul way (Figure 8).

While most people dont need a word cloudin their documents, it is an awesome way to

make your publication look super cool.

David Blatner is the Editorial Director oInDesign Magazine

and the co-creator oInDesignSecrets.com. Check out his

own sotware tool at BlatnerTools.com.

It Didnt Work! Now What?

Ive tried all the scripts in this article, and they generally work ne. However, every

so ofen scripts spit back errors at you when you try to run them. These errors are

ofen really scary and unless youre a scripter you may not know what to do. My

suggestion is to try the script on a dierent document and see i it works there. Try

setting up the document dierently (or example, some scripts want you to select

something rst; others dont want anything selected). Sometimes older scripts just

dont work right in a new version o the product. Some scripts in this article even say

theyre designed or CS4 or CS5, but they do appear to work in CS6. Other times

its some weird bug that might aect just you or your situation. You can sometimes

go back to the developer, report the bug, and see i theyll x it or you. But because

these are ree, the developer may not get around to xing it or a while. I its impor-tant or you, consider oering them a small ee to help motivate them.

Figure 8: Two layouts rom the same document, created by the Wordalizer script.

http://www.indiscripts.com/category/projects/Wordalizerhttp://indesignsecrets.com/http://blatnertools.com/http://blatnertools.com/http://indesignsecrets.com/http://www.indiscripts.com/category/projects/Wordalizer

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IDM 49 20 Free Must-Have Scripts