Your prescription for increased productivity and profitability
An early pioneer of the digital revolution with an extensive background in the typesetting industry, Shirley Hopkins was often frustrated by the slowness of the new technology and its point-and-click methods. As part of her continual effort to find ways to automate the process, she began working with AppleScript and VisualBasic when they were first announced. When clients saw the magic that a script could perform, she was encouraged to write a book on the subject as there was little documentation to be found at the time. Since the release of her first book, AppleScripting QuarkXPress (1996), she positioned herself as a scripting evangelist switching to InDesign in 1997. After taking a much-needed sabbatical, she continues to concentrate her energies on writing and teaching in an effort to help others discover the hidden power of scripting.
She has been a community partner for Adobe Systems and teaches online with WyzAnt. When time permits, she hangs out on the web contributing to forums and answering emails.
Developing scripted solutions and supporting scripting earned Ms. Hopkins the nickname “Script Doctor” while working with Digital Technology International. The name and the idea stuck. So if you experience symptoms of user fatigue, repetitive motion syndrome, or behind deadline anxiety, keep an eye on this website for featured projects and scripts. You may find the perfect preSCRIPTion for what ails you.
While in the throes of daily deadlines, the last thing on a person’s mind is to learn a new skill. It’s the old adage: “When you are up to your elbows in alligators, who has time to drain the swamp?” For this reason, a slightly different approach is taken in the Automating Adobe InDesign books. The emphasis is on working with pre-written snippets of code (function) instead of learning to write code from scratch. Because scripting languages are intuitive and fairly easy to read, users can take advantage of scripting almost immediately. By cutting and pasting code and using code from scripts provided, users can begin building their own custom scripts with a minimum of effort.