USING TEMPLATES

Once you have assigned styling for all text frames in a document, save it as a template (.indt). Where you save your templates is up to you. I like to put my templates in a folder named Templates inside InDesign’s Presets folder. (The scripts following assume that this is the folder in which the templates will be found.)

When it comes time to use a template and its styles, you can use a script to start a new document complete with page styling, object styles, and paragraph styles. The script sample below should get you started:

DocFromTemplate

set savePathPrompt to "Select file and folder for save"
set defaultPath to path to home folder from user domain
tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2017"
   set appPath to file path as string
   set templatePath to appPath & "Presets:Templates"
   set templateList to list folder templatePath without invisibles
   set templateChoice to choose from list templateList ¬
without multiple selections allowed
   set docRef to open templatePath & ":" & templateChoice
   set savePath to choose file name with prompt ¬
savePathPrompt default location defaultPath
   --make sure name of file ends with .indd
   if savePath does not end with ".indd" then
       set fileName to fileName & ".indd"
       set savePath to fileName as alias
   end if
   --save the file without saving over existing
   save docRef to savePath without force save
end tell

You can also use a template to start a completely new project using only the styles from the template. The next sample script, demonstrates:

NewDocWithStyles

set choosePrompt to "Select template from list"
tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2017"
   set measurement unit of script preferences to points
   set appPath to file path as string
   set templatePath to appPath & "Presets:Templates"
   set templateList to list folder templatePath without invisibles
   set stylesheetName to choose from list templateList with prompt ¬
choosePrompt without multiple selections allowed
   set stylesheetRef to templatePath & ":" & stylesheetName
   set docRef to make document
   tell docRef
	set properties of document preferences to {intent:print intent, ¬
page width:"8.5 inches", page height:"11 inches", facing pages:false, ¬
create primary text frame:true, pages per document:2}
	import styles format object styles format from stylesheetRef
	import styles format text styles format from stylesheetRef
	tell page 1
	   set frameRef to make text frame with properties ¬
{geometric bounds:{36, 36, 10 * 72, 6 * 72}}
	end tell
	if (exists object style "Kicker") then
	   set textToImport to my getImportFile()
	   set applied object style of frameRef to object style "Kicker"	
	   tell frameRef
		place textToImport
		clear object style overrides
	   end tell
	end if
	end tell
end tell
(*Allows user to choose file for placing*)
on getImportFile()
   set filePath to path to desktop from user domain
   activate
   set fileRef to choose file with prompt "choose file to import" default location filePath
   return fileRef
end getImportFile

Try It

With Adobe InDesign running in the foreground, try out the scripts above. The second script requires a text file saved in plain text format. The script designates the Desktop as the default location for the file, but the user can navigate to wherever the file is saved.

Imagine an entire page, or an entire document, composed using similar scripts to create documents, import text, and assign object styles with paragraph styles assigned to the text imported. The only problem is in having to access the script.

SAVING SCRIPTS

When you have a script working the way you want it, don’t forget to add try/on error/end try statements to catch user-produced errors. Save the script and assign a keyboard shortcut to manage and use the script.

Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts to Scripts

The most efficient way to manage scripts is to add them to your User scripts folder and assign keyboard shortcuts. Here’s how.

• Save your script somewhere handy (maybe on the Desktop)
• Open the Scripts panel from inside InDesign (Window > Utilities > Scripts)
• Scroll down the list of scripts in the panel to find the User folder