Adobe 65024872 - InDesign CS4 - Mac Bedienungsanleitung

ADOBE®INDESIGN®CS4

ADOBE INDESIGN CS4

SCRIPTING TUTORIAL

Adobe® InDesign® CS4 Scripting Tutorial

If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user agreement, this guide, as well as the software

described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license.

Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written

permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law

even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end user license agreement.

The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be

construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or

liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.

Please remember that existing artwork or images that you may want to include in your project may be protected under

the copyright owner. Please be sure to obtain any permission required from the copyright owner.

Any references to company names in sample templates are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to

refer to any actual organization.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Suite, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop are registered trademarks or trademarks of

Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered

trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Apple and Mac OS are

trademarks of Apple Computer, Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks

are the property of their respective owners.

Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, USA. Notice to U.S. Government End Users.

The Software and Documentation are “Commercial Items,” as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of

“Commercial Computer Software” and “Commercial Computer Software Documentation,” as such terms are used in 48

C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through

227.7202-4, as applicable, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are

being licensed to U.S. Government end users (a) only as Commercial Items and (b) with only those rights as are granted

to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein. Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright

laws of the United States. Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704, USA. For U.S.

Government End Users, Adobe agrees to comply with all applicable equal opportunity laws including, if appropriate, the

provisions of Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 402 of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act

of 1974 (38 USC 4212), and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the regulations at 41 CFR

Parts 60-1 through 60-60, 60-250, and 60-741. The affirmative action clause and regulations contained in the preceding

sentence shall be incorporated by reference.

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Installing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Running a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Using the scripts panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

About scripting languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Mac OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Which scripting language should you use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

How to use the scripts in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Your first InDesign script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Walking through the script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Scripting and the InDesign object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Scripting terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Conditional statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Control structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Functions and handlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Understanding the InDesign object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Looking at the InDesign object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Measurements and positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Adding features to “Hello World” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Contents 4

Constructing a document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Setting up measurement units and master spread margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Adding a baseline grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Adding master page items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Adding master text frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Overriding master page items and adding text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Adding and applying a paragraph style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Placing a text file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Placing a graphic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Beyond the basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Tutorial

Introduction

Scripting is the most powerful feature in Adobe® InDesign® CS4. No other feature can save you as much

time, trouble, and money as scripting.

This document is for every InDesign user. If you never created a script before, we show you how to get

started. If you wrote scripts for other applications, we show you how to apply your knowledge to InDesign

scripting.

The document also covers how to install and run an InDesign script and describes what InDesign scripting

can and cannot do. We discuss the software you need to start writing your own scripts.

After you learn the basics of InDesign scripting in this tutorial, you can move on to Adobe InDesign CS4

Scripting Guide, which explores scripting in more depth. Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Guide contains

hundreds of tutorial scripts covering topics like text formatting, finding and changing text, associating

scripts with menu items, drawing objects on a page, and exporting documents.

Getting started

Almost anything you can do with the user interface; you can do with a script. You can draw frames, enter

and format text, place graphics, and print or export the pages of the document. Any action that can

change a document or its contents can be scripted. There even are a few things you can do in scripting

that you cannot do using the user interface.

Scripts can create menus, add menu items, create and display dialog boxes and panels, and respond to

user-interface selections. Scripts can read and write text files, parse XML data, and communicate with

other applications.

Scripts can do everything from very small tasks (like setting a tab stop at the location of the text cursor) to

providing complete features (InDesign’s XHTML export feature is provided by a script). You can start with

simple scripts that do only one thing and move on to scripts that automate your entire publishing

workflow.

Most of the things scripting cannot do—like setting up a workspace or defining a set of keyboard

shortcuts—are things that have to do with the user interface. In addition, scripts cannot add new types of

objects to an InDesign document or add new, fundamental capabilities to the program, like a new

text-composition engine. For that type of extensibility, you must use the InDesign Software Development

Kit (SDK), which shows you to write compiled plug-ins using C++.

We tend to think of scripting in terms of long, repetitive tasks, like laying out a phone book. It also is good

for things like the following:

➤Automating the myriad, small, annoying tasks you face every day.

➤Customizing InDesign to match your work habits and layouts.

➤Achieving creative effects that would be difficult or impossible to attain by other means.

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Tutorial Getting started 6

Installing scripts

Installing an InDesign script is easy: put the script file in the Scripts Panel folder inside the Scripts folder in

your InDesign application folder. (Create the Scripts folder if it does not already exist.)

Alternately, put the script inside the Scripts Panel folder in your preferences folder. Your preferences folder

is at:

Windows® XP: ~\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Adobe

\InDesign\Version 6.0\Scripts

Mac OS®: ~/Users/user_name/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version 6.0/Scripts

where ~is your system volume and user_name is your user name.

Once the script is in the folder, it appears on the Scripts panel inside InDesign. To display the panel, choose

Window > Automation > Scripts.

You also can put aliases/shortcuts to scripts (or to folders containing scripts) in the Scripts Panel folder, and

they will appear in the Scripts panel.

To run a specific script when InDesign starts, put the script inside a folder named “Startup Scripts” inside

the Scripts folder (create this folder if it does not already exist).

Running a script

To run a script, display the Scripts panel (choose Window > Automation > Scripts), then double-click the

script name in the Scripts panel. Many scripts display user-interface items (like dialog boxes or panels) and

display alerts if necessary.

Using the scripts panel

The InDesign Scripts panel is the easiest and best way to run most InDesign scripts. If the panel is not

already visible, you can display it by choosing Window > Automation > Scripts.

Scripts run from the Scripts panel run faster than scripts run from the Finder (Mac OS®) or Explorer

(Windows®).

Another way to make scripts run faster is to turn off screen redraw while the script is running. To do this,

turn on the Enable Redraw from the Scripts panel menu. To view the script actions as they execute, turn

this option off.

The Scripts panel can run compiled or uncompiled AppleScripts (files with the file extension .spt, .as, or

.applescript), JavaScripts (files with the file extension .js or .jsx), VBScripts (files with the extension

.vbs), or executable programs from the Scripts panel.

To edit a script shown in the Scripts panel, select the script and choose Edit Script from the Scripts panel

menu. Alternatively, you can hold down Option (Mac OS) or Alt (Windows) key and double-click the script’s

name. This opens the script in the editor you defined for the script file type.

To open the folder containing a script shown in the Scripts panel, select the script and choose Reveal in

Finder (Mac OS) or Reveal in Explorer (Windows). Alternatively, you can hold down the Command (Mac OS)

or Ctrl-Shift (Windows) keys and double-click the script’s name. The folder containing the script opens in

the Finder (Mac OS) or Explorer (Windows).

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Tutorial Getting started 7

Scripts generally run as a series of actions, which means you can undo the changes the script made to a

document by choosing Undo from the Edit menu. This can help you troubleshoot a script, as you can step

backward through each change. Scripts can change the undo mode and store all of the script actions as a

single undo step. This can significantly speed up script execution. For more on how to do this, refer to the

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Guide for the scripting language of your choice.

To add a keyboard shortcut for a script, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, select an editable shortcut set

from the Set menu, then choose Product Area > Scripts. A list of the scripts in your Scripts panel appears.

Select a script and assign a keyboard shortcut as you would for any other InDesign feature.

About scripting languages

The language you use to write scripts depends on the scripting system of your platform: AppleScript for

Mac OS, VBScript for Windows, or JavaScript for either platform. Although the scripting languages differ,

the ways they work with InDesign are very similar.

Each sample script in this document is shown in all three scripting languages. Translating a script from one

language to another is fairly easy.

JavaScript

InDesign supports JavaScript for cross-platform scripting in both Mac OS and Windows. InDesign’s

JavaScript support is based on an Adobe implementation of JavaScript known as ExtendScript. The

ExtendScript interpreter conforms to the current, ECMA 262 standard for JavaScript. All language features

of JavaScript 1.5 are supported. Adobe Illustrator®, Adobe Photoshop®, and other Adobe Creative Suite®

products also use the ExtendScript JavaScript interpreter.

While you can write scripts using other versions of JavaScript, like Microsoft® JScript (in Windows) or Late

Night Software’s OSA JavaScript (on the Mac OS), the terms you use in those languages are not the same as

the terms you use in ExtendScript. ExtendScript examples do not work in other JavaScript versions.

NOTE: Because ExtendScript tools and features are used in several Adobe products, we consolidated all

ExtendScript documentation. To learn more about JavaScript utilities like the ScriptUI user-interface

module and the ExtendScript Toolkit (a JavaScript development environment and object-model

inspector), see Creative Suite 4 JavaScript Tools Guide.

Windows

To use InDesign scripting in Windows, you can use either JavaScript or some version of Microsoft Visual

Basic, such as VBScript.

The Visual Basic tutorial scripts are written in VBScript. We chose VBScript because no added software is

required to run or edit VBScripts; you can edit them with any text editor (like Notepad) and run them using

the InDesign Scripts panel.

Other versions of Visual Basic include Visual Basic 5 Control Creation Edition (CCE), Visual Basic 6, Visual

Basic .NET, and Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition. Versions of Visual Basic prior to Visual Basic .NET work

well with InDesign scripting. Visual Basic .NET and newer versions work less well, because they lack the

Variant data type, which is used extensively in InDesign scripting.

Many applications contain Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel,

Microsoft Visio, or AutoCAD. Although you can use VBA to create InDesign scripts, InDesign does not

include VBA.

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Tutorial Getting started 8

To use VBScript or Visual Basic for InDesign scripting in Windows XP, you must install InDesign from a user

account that has Administrator privileges. After you complete the installation, any user can run InDesign

scripts, and any user can add scripts to the InDesign Scripts panel.

Mac OS

To use InDesign scripting on Mac OS, you can use either JavaScript or AppleScript. To write AppleScripts,

you must have AppleScript version 1.6 or higher and an AppleScript script editor. AppleScript comes with

all Apple® systems, and it can be downloaded free from the Apple Web site. The Apple Script Editor is

included with the Mac OS; third-party script editors, like Script Debugger (from Late Night Software,

http://www.latenightsw.com) also are available.

Which scripting language should you use?

If you have written scripts before, use whatever language you know. If you have never written scripts

before or if you need to make your scripts work on both the Mac OS and Windows versions of InDesign,

use JavaScript. If you need to communicate with other, non-Adobe applications on your system, use the

appropriate, platform standard language (AppleScript on Mac OS or VBScript in Windows).

We cannot fully document the language features of AppleScript, JavaScript, or VBScript, so you may need

documentation for any or all those scripting languages.

NOTE: You also can use almost any other programming language (like Python or C#) that can connect to

the platform standard automation system; that is beyond the scope of this document.

How to use the scripts in this document

To view or edit any script shown in this document, open the corresponding tutorial script file (the filename

is given before each script) in the script editing application of your choice.

To run a script, install the script in your Scripts Panel folder (see “Installing scripts” on page 6), then:

1. Choose Windows > Automation > Scripts to display the Scripts panel.

2. Double-click the script name in the Scripts panel to run the script.

To save a script you’ve edited, save the script as a plain text file in the Scripts Panel folder (see “Installing

scripts” on page 6), using the appropriate file extension:

AppleScript: .applescript

JavaScript: .jsx

VBScript: .vbs

NOTE: If you are entering the JavaScript examples shown in this document, it is very important to use the

same capitalization shown in the example. JavaScript is case-sensitive, and the scripts will fail if they do

not use the capitalization shown. The AppleScript and VBScript examples are not case-sensitive. Again, it’s

better to use the script files that come with this tutorial.

NOTE: If you are copying and pasting scripts from this document, be aware that line breaks caused by the

layout of the document can cause errors in your script. As it can be very difficult to find such errors, we

recommend that you use the scripts in the zip archive.

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Tutorial Getting started 9

Your first InDesign script

Next, we will create an InDesign script that creates a new document, adds a text frame, and enters text in

the text frame. This demonstrates how to do the following:

➤Establish communication with InDesign.

➤Create a new document.

➤Create a text frame on a specific page.

➤Add text to a text frame.

AppleScript

Start the Script Editor application (you can find it in your Applications folder, inside the AppleScript folder).

Enter the following script (or open the HelloWorld.applescript tutorial script):

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"

set myDocument to make document

tell page 1 of myDocument

set myTextFrame to make text frame

set geometric bounds of myTextFrame to {"6p", "6p", "24p", "24p"}

set contents of myTextFrame to "Hello World!"

end tell

Save the script as text with the file extension .applescript to the Scripts Panel folder (see “Installing

scripts” on page 6). To run the script, double-click the script name in the Scripts panel or click the Run

button in the Script Editor window.

JavaScript

Start the ExtendScript Toolkit (or a text editor). Enter the following script (or open the HelloWorld.jsx

tutorial script):

var myDocument = app.documents.add();

var myTextFrame = myDocument.pages.item(0).textFrames.add();

myTextFrame.geometricBounds = ["6p", "6p", "24p", "24p"];

myTextFrame.contents = "Hello World!";

Save the script as a plain-text file with the .jsx file extension to the Scripts Panel folder (see “Installing

scripts” on page 6). To run the script, double-click the script name in the Scripts panel, or select InDesign

from the application target pop-up menu in the ExtendScript Toolkit and then click the Run button).

VBScript

Start a text editor (e.g., Notepad) and enter the following script (or open the HelloWorld.vbs tutorial

script):

Set myInDesign = CreateObject("InDesign.Application.CS4")

Set myDocument = myInDesign.Documents.Add

Set myTextFrame = myDocument.Pages.Item(1).TextFrames.Add

myTextFrame.GeometricBounds = Array("6p", "6p", "24p", "24p")

myTextFrame.Contents = "Hello World!"

Adobe InDesign CS4 Scripting Tutorial Getting started 10

Save the script as a text file with the .vbs file extension to the Scripts Panel folder (see “Installing scripts”

on page 6). To run the script, double-click the script name in the Scripts panel.

Walking through the script

Examining the script presented above, here is a step-by-step analysis of what the script does (in each

scripting language):

1. Establish communication with the InDesign application object:

AppleScript: tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"

JavaScript: Refer to the application as app.

VBScript: Set myInDesign = CreateObject("InDesign.Application.CS4")

2. Create a new document and a reference to the document:

AppleScript: Set myDocument to make document

JavaScript: Var myDocument = app.documents.add();

VBScript: Set myDocument = myInDesign.Documents.Add

3. Create a new text frame on the first page and a create a reference to the text frame.:

AppleScript: tell page 1 of myDocument

set myTextFrame to make text frame

JavaScript: var myTextFrame = myDocument.pages.item(0).textFrames.add();

VBScript: Set myTextFrame = myDocument.Pages.Item(1).TextFrames.Add

4. Set the geometric bounds (the location of the top, left, bottom, and right edges) of the text frame. In

this step, the script uses measurement overrides (“p” for picas) to ensure the text frame is the correct

size, regardless of your default measurement units. The locations are provided as a list, or array, of val-

ues; each scripting language has a slightly different way of creating an array. For more on array vari-

ables, see “Array variables” on page 14.

AppleScript: set geometric bounds of myTextFrame to {"6p", "6p", "24p", "24p"}

JavaScript: myTextFrame.geometricBounds = ["6p", "6p", "24p", "24p"];

VBScript: myTextFrame.GeometricBounds = Array("6p", "6p", "24p", "24p")

5. Add text to the text frame by setting the contents property to a string.:

AppleScript: set contents of myTextFrame to "Hello World!"

JavaScript: myTextFrame.contents = "Hello World!";

VBScript: myTextFrame.Contents = "Hello World!"

Andere Handbücher für 65024872 - InDesign CS4 - Mac

Dieses Handbuch passt für folgende Modelle

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Andere Adobe Software Handbücher

Adobe

Adobe CONNECT ENTERPRISE SERVER 6-INSTALLATION... Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 23101335 - Photoshop - PC Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 65029940 - Captivate - PC Leitfaden

Adobe

Adobe 65018518 - Flash CS4 Professional Leitfaden

Adobe

Adobe FRAMEMAKER Leitfaden

Adobe

Adobe ILLUSTRATOR CS4 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 65048332 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe PAGEMAKER 6.5 - Installationsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 65009963 - After Effects CS4 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe MEDIA SERVER Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 22002418 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 65011817 - Fireworks CS4 - Mac Service-Handbuch

Adobe

Adobe FRAMEMAKER 6.0 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe PREMIERE PRO 4.0 Referenzhandbuch

Adobe

Adobe CAPTIVATE 5 Referenzhandbuch

Adobe

Adobe ACROBAT SDK 8.1 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 22001438 - Acrobat - PC Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 38043740 - ColdFusion Standard - Mac Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 65009333 - InCopy CS4 - PC Leitfaden

Adobe

Adobe 29180248 - Photoshop Elements 5.0 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 38040334 - Dreamweaver CS3 Bedienungsanleitung

Adobe

Adobe 65009626 - Soundbooth CS4 - PC Leitfaden

Adobe

Adobe 25520388 - Premiere Pro - PC Leitfaden

Adobe

Adobe 12040118 - After Effects Standard Betriebsanleitung

Beliebte Software Handbücher anderer Marken

COMPRO

COMPRO COMPROFM Bedienungsanleitung

Muratec

Muratec OFFICEBRIDGE ONLINE Bedienungsanleitung

Oracle

Oracle Contact Center Anywhere 8.1 Bedienungsanleitung

Avaya

Avaya NULL One-X for RIM Blackberry Bedienungsanleitung

HP ProLiant BL420c Bedienungsanleitung

PS Audio

PS Audio PowerPlay Betriebsanleitung

Brady

Brady LOCKOUT PRO 3.0 Service-Handbuch

Avaya

Avaya Interaction Center Bedienungsanleitung

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Handbuch

Novell

Novell GROUPWISE 8 - INTERNET AGENT Bedienungsanleitung

Oracle

Oracle Application 9i Bedienungsanleitung

Acer

Acer RDM Bedienungsanleitung

Canon

Canon Vixia HF21 Bedienungsanleitung

Canon

Canon ZR950 Bedienungsanleitung

Samsung

Samsung Auto Backup Bedienungsanleitung

Polycom

Polycom Vortex EF2201 Montage- und Bedienungsanleitung

Brocade Communications Systems

Brocade Communications Systems Brocade 8/12c Bedienungsanleitung

Novell

Novell SP2 - S Bedienungsanleitung