AUTOMATING DOCUMENT CREATION – Your Script Doctor

QUICK AND EASY!

Running out of time and recovering from a minor auto accident, it was now too late to send valentine cards through the mail. In a pinch, I decided to put together a quick electronic card for family and friends. This could be something that I could attach to a personalized email. What better way could there be than to send something personal?

My decision was to use Adobe’s Publish to Web. No time to loose. Thank goodness I had a couple of scripts in my library of files that would help me get the task done in as short of time as possible.

I had fallen in love with some old-fashioned cards: the kind we as young girls put together with lace and cut-outs before anyone even thought of computers. With a little Photoshop magic I modified some scans I had of cards I had inherited from a favorite aunt and set to work.

Once I had the images I wanted modified in Photoshop, it was time to make the document. A script that did the bulk of the work for me was WebDocFromPreset. This is a fairly complex little script that presents the user with options for selecting a document preset, and for importing styles from stylesheets. Some of the basics for the script will be covered in the following discussion.

WEBDOCFROMPRESET

Of course one can start a project using InDesign’s New Document panel. But when there are other chores may benefit from automation, using a script to create the document becomes a logical choice. The following creates a document in InDesign using an existing preset. For this the script presents the user with a list of document presets having web intent. Once a choice is made, the script creates the document. Easy.

Doc From Web Intent Preset

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
   set presetNames to name of document presets where intent is web intent
   --have user select the preset from the list
   try
	set userPrompt to "Choose document preset from list"
        activate
	set userChoice to choose from list presetNames with prompt userPrompt
	if userChoice is false then
	   error "User cancelled"
	else
	   set presetChoice to item 1 of userChoice
	end if
   on error errStr
	activate
	display alert ("Error: " & errStr)
   end try
   set presetRef to document preset presetChoice
   set docRef to make document with properties {document preset: presetRef}
end tell

No real automation savings here. But as part of a script that imports styles from style sheets, colors from color palettes, and maybe a lot more, creating the document programmatically becomes a vital piece of the automation.

Next, the script can add the ability to import text and object styles from a selected stylesheet.

No stylesheets? Any time you set up a document for a client, take the few seconds necessary to save the document as both a template and a stylesheet. The advantage of having stylesheets handy is that the text and object styles can be imported into any document of just about any size.

I keep my stylesheets in a folder named Styles inside the Presets folder for InDesign. You may decide to keep your stylesheets elsewhere, maybe in the user’s Library folder. To get a list of the stylesheets from within a Styles folder in InDesign’s Presets folder the following can be used.

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
   set appPath to file path as string
   set stylePath to appPath & "Presets" & ":" & "Styles"
end tell
set styleList to list folder stylePath without invisibles
styleList

With this, it’s a simple matter to have the user select the stylesheet wanted. Adding this to the above, we have the following:

Choose Stylesheet

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
   set appPath to file path as string
   set stylePath to appPath & "Presets" & ":" & "Styles"
end tell
set styleList to list folder stylePath without invisibles
set userPrompt to "Choose style file from list"
activate
set userChoice to choose from list styleList with prompt userPrompt
if userChoice is false then
   error "User Cancelled"
else
   set styleFileName to item 1 of userChoice
end if
set styleFilePath to stylePath & ":" & styleFileName
styleFilePath

A USEABLE SCRIPT

We can put the two routines from above into a script that completes the document setup by adding text styling (both paragraph and character) and object styling to the document.

--include calls to handlers from within a try/on error block to catch any possible errors.
try
   set docRef to docFromPreset()
   set stylesheetRef to getStylesheetRef()
   set stylesToImport to {"text", "object", "table"}
   importStyles(docRef, stylesheetRef, stylesToImport)
on error errStr
   activate
   display alert ("Error: " & errStr)
end try
(*Creates document using preset chosen from list of presets having web intent*)
on docFromPreset()
   tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
	set presetNames to name of document presets where intent is web intent
	--have user select the preset from the list
	try
	   set userPrompt to "Choose document preset from list"
	   activate
	   set userChoice to choose from list presetNames with prompt userPrompt
	   if userChoice is false then
		error "User canelled"
	   else
		set presetChoice to item 1 of userChoice
	   end if
	on error errStr
	   activate
	   display alert ("Error: " & errStr)
	end try
	set presetRef to document preset presetChoice
	set docRef to make document with properties {document preset:presetRef}
   end tell
   return docRef
end docFromPreset

(*Returns reference to file chosen from files in Presets:Styles folder*)
on getStylesheetRef()
   tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
	set appPath to file path as string
	set stylePath to appPath & "Presets" & ":" & "Styles"
   end tell
   set styleList to list folder stylePath without invisibles
   set userPrompt to "Choose style file from list"
   activate
   set userChoice to choose from list styleList with prompt userPrompt
   if userChoice is false then
	error "User Cancelled"
   else
	set styleFileName to item 1 of userChoice
   end if
   set styleFilePath to stylePath & ":" & styleFileName
   return styleFilePath
end getStylesheetRef
(*Imports text, object, and/or table styles from stylesheet reference passed.
stylesToImport is a list containing "text", "object", and/or "table" to indicate styles to be imported*)
on importStyles(docRef, stylesheetRef, stylesToImport)
   tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2018"
	tell docRef
	   if stylesToImport contains "text" then
		import styles format text styles format from stylesheetRef
	   end if
	   if stylesToImport contains "object" then
		import styles format object styles format from stylesheetRef
	   end if
	   if stylesToImport contains "table" then
		import styles format table styles format from stylesheetRef
	   end if
	end tell
   end tell
end importStyles

Notice that the docFromPreset() and the getStylesheetRef() handlers are the same code as above, just placed inside of handlers.

A REAL WORLD SCRIPT

Although the script above is usable, it definitely can be improved. First off, unless edited, all styles (text, object and table) styles will be imported. To make this a first-rate script, you will want to create a custom dialog from which the user can choose the preset, the stylesheetfile, and check off the kind of styles to be imported. For now, we will leave this up to the reader.

UPWARD AND ONWARD

While contemplating the creation of a custom dialog, you might want to think about other predetermined collections or settings you might want to add to the document. Perhaps a palette of color choices, some standing graphics or image files. The sky’s the limit.

Disclaimer:

Scripts provided are for demonstration and educational purposes. No representation is made as to their completeness. Users are advised to use the code at their own risk.