Your Script Doctor

EXPORTING GRAPHICS IN INDESIGN

InDesign does a remarkable job for exporting documents to HTML, but there is one place where it leaves some work to the designer. That is with graphics that have been created inside of InDesign or with graphics copy/pasted from another resource. These graphics don’t make it into the collection of files placed in the image folder created as part of the export.

This is one reason you may want to read through this blog post to see how you can create a script that will look through your document and export these graphics for you.

CREATING A SCRIPT

Define the purpose of the script. Our demonstration script will allow graphics in the active document to be exported as jpeg and or png files to folders specified for each file type.

In writing a script, consider the steps that your process will need to complete. List the steps starting with the core behavior and work outward to include the supporting steps. For our example script, the steps may be listed as follows:

• export item from itemList to (folder & fileName & extension) format givenFormat
• create itemList of items to export
• get path to folder for exported file(s)
• determine expectedPath
• if document is not active alert user
• if document does not contain images to export alert user
• ask user to define export format

Variables

Start By Defining Values needed in variables hardcoded at the top of the script. These can be set initially with default values. Here we are defining the path to the folders for our graphics.

--Define path to folders
set folderPath to path to desktop from user domain as string
set jpgPath to folderPath & "Images_JPG"
set pngPath to folderPath & "Images_PNG"

Define file types for export. This will be a list of file types.

set exportType to {"jpg", "png"}

WHAT TO EXPORT

Get list of items in document for export. A graphic created in the document should be created as a group as is a graphic copied and pasted from another source. Here we will look for groups inside an InDesign document which we assume is open.

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2017"
	tell document 1
		set itemList to every group & every group of every page item		
	end tell
end tell
itemList

Test It

Copy the code above and paste it inside a new file created in the AppleScript editor. Compile and run. Note that placing a variable at the end of the script causes the editor to place its value in the Result window. When you test the script at this point you should have a list of one or more items.

Do the Deed

Assuming that we have folders at the expected location (on the desktop), we can now test to make sure the items in the list will export to the folders. We will be naming the files based on the class and id of the item exported. The statements for this will all be inside a repeat loop.

Change the tell document 1 statement block, to read as follows

   tell document 1
      set itemList to every group & every group of every page item
      repeat with i from 1 to length of itemList
		set itemClass to class of item i of itemList
		set itemId to id of item i of  itemList
		if "jpg" is in exportType then
			export item i of itemList to (jpgPath & ":" & itemClass & "_" & itemId & ".jpg") format JPG
		end if
		if "png" is in exportType then
			export item i of itemList to (pngPath & ":" & itemClass & "_" & itemId & ".png") format JPG
		end if
	end repeat
   end tell

Test It

If all goes well, you should have a file for each of your groups in the folders for both the jpeg and png files.

SO FAR SO GOOD

Let’s say that while you are at it, you may want to export all graphics to both the jpeg and png formats. We can get a list of all graphics by adding the following to our script. This will go below the statement that sets the variable for itemList.

set graphicList to all graphics

The repeat loop for exporting the graphics will be the same as that for the group with the exception it will be using the graphicList. Rather than rewriting the repeat loop, we will put the code in a handler. We will namel the handler exportItems.

Create Handler

First create a wrapper (function) for the procedure at the bottom of the script:

on exportItems (itemList, exportType, jpgPath, pngPath)
   --InDesign tell block for exporting items in list
end exportItems 

Now cut the repeat loop from the top part of the script and paste it inside the handler wrapper. Surround the code withi a tell statement block addressed to the application. The handler should now read as follows:

   on exportItems (itemList, exportType, jpgPath, pngPath)
      tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2017"
	  repeat with i from 1 to length of groupList
		set itemClass to class of item i of groupList
		set itemId to id of item i of groupList
		if "jpg" is in exportType then
			export item i of groupList to (jpgPath & ":" & itemClass & "_" & itemId & ".jpg") format JPG
		end if
		if "png" is in exportType then
			export item i of groupList to (pngPath & ":" & itemClass & "_" & itemId & ".png") format JPG
		end if
	  end repeat
      end tell
   end exportItems 

It we test the script at this point, nothing will get exported to our folders but we can test to make sure we have a list of graphics. Place the graphicList variable after the last end tell statement at the top of the script. Test the script. You should have a list of graphics in the editor’s Result window (that is, if there are graphics in the active document).

Call the Handler

Now add a call to the handler passing the itemList and then the graphicList. Change the code inside the tell statement to the document to read as follows:

           set itemList to every group & every group of every page item	
           my exportItems (itemList, exportType, jpgPath, pngPath)
           set graphicList to all graphics
           my exportItems (graphicList, exportType, jpgPath, pngPath)

Bulletproofing

We will now add a try/on error/end try statement at the top of the script to trap any errors that may occur. Before the tell statement to document 1 add a try statement so this section now reads as follows

   try
     tell document 1
	set itemList to every group & every group of every page item	
        my exportItems (itemList, exportType, jpgPath, pngPath)
        set graphicList to all graphics
        my exportItems (graphicList, exportType, jpgPath, pngPath)
     end tell
   on error errStr
     activate
     display alert "Error: " & errStr
   end try
end tell --application

USER INTERACTION

To give users options as to whether they want to export groups and or graphics and specify the export formats to use, the following custom dialog can be used. We will create this first as a separate script then add it to the main portion of the script once tested. (See previous blog post for details on creating a user dialog.)

userDialog script

   set dialogName to "Export Preferences"
   tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2017"
	set origLevel to user interaction level of script preferences
	set user interaction level of script preferences to interact with all
	set dlgRef to make dialog with properties ¬
		{name:dialogName, can cancel:true, label:dialogName}
	tell dlgRef
		--add fields and widgets here
		tell (make dialog column)
			set eGroup1 to make enabling group with properties ¬
{static label:"Export Groups", checked state:true}
			set eGroup2 to make enabling group with properties ¬
{static label:"Export images", checked state:true}
			tell eGroup1
				set groupJpg to make checkbox control with properties ¬
{static label:"Jpg export format", checked state:true}
				set groupPng to make checkbox control with properties ¬
{static label:"Png export format", checked state:false}
			end tell
			tell eGroup2
				set graphicJpg to make checkbox control with properties ¬
{static label:"Jpg export format", checked state:true}
				set graphicPng to make checkbox control with properties ¬
{static label:"Png export format", checked state:false}
			end tell
		end tell --column
	end tell
	set userResponse to show dlgRef
	if userResponse = true then
		set checkedList to {missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value}
		--capture results from widgets
		if (checked state of eGroup1 is true) then
			set item 1 of checkedList to checked state of groupJpg
			set item 2 of checkedList to checked state of groupPng
		end if
		if (checked state of eGroup2 is true) then
			set item 3 of checkedList to checked state of graphicJpg
			set item 4 of checkedList to checked state of graphicPng
		end if
        end if
	destroy dlgRef
	set user interaction level of script preferences to origLevel
	--return captured results or throw error based on value of userResponse
	if (userResponse is false) then
		error ("User Cancelled")
	end if
   end tell
   --return statement here
   checkedList

If you test the userDialog script, the dialog should look like the following screen capture