Try adding a “+” sign after mySet as follows: alert("The " + myAction + "Action is not available in the " + mySet + " Set."); ... View more

Ok cool. I was afraid that I was losing my mind – at least what little is left of it! Ha! Your way was much cleaner, now that I understand about the additional changes needed. Thanks, Carlos! PS: Congrats on the very well-deserved MVP. It was a long time coming, my friend! ... View more

You have to get up pretty early to beat Carlos!   Nice work Carlos. Fully realizing that I am ignoring the two cardinal rules (#1. NEVER do anything in a hurry [proof of which I guess was my first reply to the OP - although I still am not sure why it didn't work in the first place] and #2. Be very, VERY careful when you challenge Carlos [which I'm not actually doing, but I am curious]) I just have a quick question... What am I missing, although the OP seems satisfied, in thinking that more references to sourceDoc.pageItems... would have been impacted and should have been changed -- not just the one line? if (targetLayer.pageItems.note == "Date")  // ** edited Like "Time", "Version", "Ops Component Code"?  I know that this must have been thought out but I am curious since I know that I am probably missing something... ... View more

Hi! Hopefully you know a little about JS to complete this task. I am short on time and kinda hit this on the fly, but thought that it might help you if there is no one else around. First, locate the beginning of the main for/next loop which iterates through all the page items: for(i=0; i<sourceDoc.pageItems.length;i++) {  ...  } Under that line, insert this line of code - but you'll have to insert the remaining for/next loop code (excluding the last brace of course for the for/next loop). If sourceDoc.pageItems.layer == "Legend" {  ...insert remaining loop code here...   } Hopefully this will make some sense to you. If not, maybe someone else  has the time to finish it up for you. Hope this helps! -TT ... View more

You should be able to "SaveAs",  specifying the PDF as the type and choosing to not invoke the dialog box. Hope this helps!  -TT ... View more

I'll PM you to try to help you.   Sorry you had to wait so long for a reply. ... View more

iDoc.Layers("Name") in VB.NET ...  try it for VBS or possibly iDoc.Layers.Item("Name"). Again -- just remember you're masking elements, not layers. Since you're more comfortable with VB maybe this could help, albeit it VB.NET. Translation should be pretty easy for you though. Note: I just pop in GUIDs to temporarily name the groups. You can use a different naming convention. Dim aDoc As Document = app.ActiveDocument aDoc.Selection = False Dim grp1 = CreateGroup(aDoc, "Layer 4")   'whatever layer name you want app.ExecuteMenuCommand("compoundPath") Dim grp2 = CreateGroup(aDoc, "Layer 2")   'whatever layer name you want app.ExecuteMenuCommand("makeMask") Private Function CreateGroup(aDoc As Document, layerName As String)     Dim tmpGuid = Guid.NewGuid.ToString     Dim layer As Layer = aDoc.Layers(layerName)     Dim grp = layer.GroupItems.Add : grp.Name = tmpGuid     For i = layer.PageItems.Count To 1 Step -1         Dim pi = layer.PageItems(i)         If Not pi.Name = tmpGuid Then pi.Move(layer.PageItems(tmpGuid), AiElementPlacement.aiPlaceInside)     Next     layer.PageItems(tmpGuid).Selected = True     Return layer.PageItems(tmpGuid) End Function ... View more

I am not aware that you can mask more than two elements, at least not to get the result that I suspect you desire. So what you will need to do, if you have more than one element on one or both layers, is to group the elements, select the two grouped elements, then mask them. ... View more

// this should help you with your most recent question var pixelArea = "244 x 388"; var retValTest = prompt("Copy this: " + pixelArea, pixelArea); // give this a try -- see if it helps you with your previous (first) question var aDoc = app.activeDocument; for (i = 0; i < aDoc.pageItems.length; i++) {     var pi = aDoc.pageItems;     if (pi.parent.typename == aDoc.activeLayer.typename) {                 var layer = pi.parent,                        layerName = layer.name;                 var retVal = prompt("Copy this: " + layerName, layerName);                 if (retVal) {                     layer.name = retVal;                 }         } } Does this help? 🙂    -TT ... View more

Welcome to the forum! Here's a quick script that might lead you to finding your answer...     Dim aDoc As Document = app.ActiveDocument   For Each pi In aDoc.PageItems     If TypeName(pi.Parent) = TypeName(aDoc.Layers(1)) Then       Dim layer As Layer = pi.Parent       'you can rename here       layer.Name = "New Name"   End If Next Now this is written in .NET so you'll have to translate into JS, but you should get the idea. Thing is that if you choose to do it the way that you have chosen via pageitems, you will have to find the parent to find the layer that it is on. There might be an easier way if you can elaborate on your objective, at least as far as your first script is concerned... Does this help? -TT ... View more

Silly-V‌'s suggestion is viable but could even be expanded to monitoring the interim folder in the background and moving them immediately. It may be better, however, to address the core need rather than treat symptoms. Not trying to be funny here, but who is saving the artwork if everyone's at a meeting anyway? Nonetheless, I work on this kind of thing all the time but need some more background. Given the possible sensitive nature of your setup, feel free to PM me if you would like and we'll see what we can do. Once resolved, if possible, you can elaborate publicly on the remedy if you'd like for the benefit of the community. -TT ... View more

here you go... [JS] CS6+ executeMenuCommand HTH!     -- TT ... View more

To at least your first paragraph...  https://gist.github.com/moluapple/2719021 might be a start for you. There is a newer and slightly more comprehensive list that I've seen but I can't put my finger on it right now. If I find it quickly I'll post it...  -TT ... View more

Not sure if you meant this to be a scripting question or just an AI question; if the latter you are in the wrong forum. Nonetheless, in practice/theory, you could take all of your objects that you want clipped and group them together. Then create your clipping shape/mask on top of that group and Ctrl+7 (Cmd+7 on a Mac). Your objects below will still be editable. If you want to create a script for this, use the same logic. Hope this helps. -TT ... View more

In this continuing quest, I find that deleting a swatch color group in a group via the UI behaves differently than in code, e.g.: aDoc.SwatchGroups("Color Group 1").Delete() With the UI, the SwatchGroup and contained swatches are deleted (in this case spot colors), but the spot colors are retained in the document's swatches (a preferred result). However, in code, when the SwatchGroup is deleted, much to my surprise, all the document's spot color swatches are converted to RGB colors (in this case that's the prevailing color mode) from Spot Colors. Am I missing something? ... View more

Addendum: Line 18 requires a separate MenuAction for each style...  here's the list:   8453        Character Styles   8481        Paragraph Styles 113159        Object Styles 132104        Table Styles 132127        Cell Styles Hope this helps!    -TT  🙂 ... View more

Okay -- here's the final answer. It contains just a small "hack", in that there appears to be no method that allows for the selection of a particular style within the style panel. So we create a temp object, apply the target style to it, which activates the target style within the panel, make the desired changes to the style in the panel dialog and then delete the temp object. Many thanks to Laubender (Uwe) for the information and suggestions that led to this being able to work.  -TT Here's the code (in VB.NET but the process should be readily apparent):         Dim app As New InDesign.Application         Dim aDoc As ID.Document = app.ActiveDocument         'style panel names -- should be self explanatory         '$ID/ObjStylesTreeViewPanelName         '$ID/ObjStylesParaStylePanelName         '$ID/Character Styles         '$ID/Table Styles         '$ID/Cell Styles         Dim curSelections = aDoc.Selection                              'to remember current selections (if any)         app.Panels("$ID/ObjStylesTreeViewPanelName").Visible = True     'open desired styles panel (see above for options)         aDoc.Selection = ID.idNothingEnum.idNothing                     'don't want to apply style to unintended objects         Dim tmpRect = aDoc.Rectangles.Add() : With tmpRect              'creates temp object (may need to modify for other style types)             .AppliedObjectStyle = aDoc.ObjectStyles("Panel")            'insert your intended style name to change             .Name = "_deleteThis"                                       'in case something goes wrong the object will be easy to find :-)         End With         aDoc.Select(tmpRect)                                            'select temp object to activate desired style name         Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)                                     'required for COM lag (.NET only??)         app.MenuActions.ItemByID(113159).Invoke()                       'Opens Style Options using "active" style... should work on styles         tmpRect.Delete()                                                'deletes temporary object         aDoc.Select(curSelections)                                      'restore previously selected items         app.Panels("$ID/ObjStylesTreeViewPanelName").Visible = False    'close styles panel ... View more

Sure, Uwe!    The  UI lags a little and, since in the next line I am opening the Style Options of the “presently selected style”, without the sleep code the code (on the script side) was moving on and sometimes choosing the style options of the wrong style. Remember, that the script in this case is running as a separate executable through COM. Hope this helps!   I will get back to you shortly regarding your last comment/suggestion as to how to best approach this.  Thanks!  -TT ... View more

>>  A. You select a page object with that style (not a good user experience) Uwe -- actually you may have solved the problem right there. I'll get on it tomorrow...  Thanks!!    -TT ... View more

Hi Uwe, I'm not sure where to start -- or finish, for that matter.  Here's the VB.NET code that works (hardcoded IDs):         app.Panels("$ID/ObjStylesTreeViewPanelName").Visible = True    'Opens Object Styles Panel         app.MenuActions.ItemByID(113286).Invoke()                      'Moves Active Panel Item to "Panel"         Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)                                    'sleep 500ms to let system move to active panel         app.MenuActions.ItemByID(113159).Invoke()                      'Opens Style Options... It's VB.NET, but it's pretty clear, I think. Now for my test document, I can modularize the code to not have direct ID number, but rather code to loop through the MenuActions, further clarify them by utilizing the "Area" property and presto, everything works as planned: the user is presented with an opened UI to the exact Object Style that we want it opened to. I should have taken a video, it was SO pretty! 🙂  I can present the code if you still need more info. But here's the problem(s). If I move an Object Style in the list, it's a game changer and the wrong style is opened. It seems that somehow a cached copy of MenuAction indexes are kept, as documents that are no longer open in ID still show their Object Styles in a listing of MenuActions by Index number. I've tried closing and reopening both ID and my .NET application, but the indexes still remain. If I open a different document that has a "Panel" Object Style, unless it is in the same position as the original test document, as if the MenuAction search for "Panel" doesn't mean anything. I can get everything to work perfectly, but I just can't seem to move the needle on activating the appropriate Object Style in order to then invoke the Open Style Options menu (thanks for that one though, Uwe -- it was a lifesaver!). There's some piece that I am missing, and it's driving me nuts. The end doesn't justify the means in this situation, no doubt -- but it really has me perplexed. I don't know enough about he ID menu structure. I find it hard to believe that there isn't a quicker way to open up a Popup UI Dialog in code for a given Style (Object, Paragraph, Character, etc...). So I don't know where to go now with this. I hate to sound defeated as it's usually not my style. I believe that this is doable, it's just that I'm missing one small piece that, if I could get it, the logic should probably work for most/all style classes with a few parameters called to a function. If you have any ideas that can lend direction, it would be most appreciated. You've spent an inordinate amount of time on this already and I really do appreciate it. I hate to surrender on this but it may have to go that way. Your thoughts are most welcome. Best regards, TT ... View more

Hi Uwe, Just a further update... it is interesting that my own search of Key Strings and related Actions (written in .NET, of course 😉 ) result in the use of the exact same IDs of the "standard" menu items that you had (see below). I am running ID CC2014 on Windows and I believe that you are CS5.5 on a Mac. A few versions of separations and different OS platforms. Interesting...  But I don't believe that you can just use any of the Id's of the set that is resultant from an MenuAction.ItemByName() search, as there appears to "Areas" (see MenuItem.Area property) that play into the usefulness of these MenuItem Ids. I have managed to "automate" the selection of the proper "area" that I want but it dowsn;t seem to be working in 100% of the scenarios. So I will get back to you... Here's my results: === KeyStrings searched by 'Select All Unused' === $ID/SelectUnusedObjectStyles $ID/Select All Unused $ID/#CondTextUI_SelectUnusedMenu $ID/SelectAllUnused $ID/Select All Unused_2 $ID/kSelectAllUnused Matches found: 6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === MenuActions searched by '$ID/SelectUnusedObjectStyles' === 8454: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Character Styles, Label: ) 8474: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles, Label: ) 16395: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Swatches, Label: ) 68111: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Trap Presets, Label: ) 113167: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Object Styles, Label: ) 132111: Select All Unused(Other, Label: ) 132131: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Cell Styles, Label: ) 133143: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Conditional Text, Label: ) Matches found: 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === MenuActions searched by '$ID/Select All Unused' === 8454: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Character Styles, Label: ) 8474: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles, Label: ) 16395: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Swatches, Label: ) 68111: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Trap Presets, Label: ) 113167: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Object Styles, Label: ) 132111: Select All Unused(Other, Label: ) 132131: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Cell Styles, Label: ) 133143: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Conditional Text, Label: ) Matches found: 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === MenuActions searched by '$ID/#CondTextUI_SelectUnusedMenu' === 8454: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Character Styles, Label: ) 8474: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles, Label: ) 16395: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Swatches, Label: ) 68111: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Trap Presets, Label: ) 113167: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Object Styles, Label: ) 132111: Select All Unused(Other, Label: ) 132131: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Cell Styles, Label: ) 133143: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Conditional Text, Label: ) Matches found: 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === MenuActions searched by '$ID/SelectAllUnused' === 8454: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Character Styles, Label: ) 8474: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles, Label: ) 16395: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Swatches, Label: ) 68111: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Trap Presets, Label: ) 113167: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Object Styles, Label: ) 132111: Select All Unused(Other, Label: ) 132131: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Cell Styles, Label: ) 133143: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Conditional Text, Label: ) Matches found: 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === MenuActions searched by '$ID/Select All Unused_2' === 8454: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Character Styles, Label: ) 8474: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles, Label: ) 16395: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Swatches, Label: ) 68111: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Trap Presets, Label: ) 113167: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Object Styles, Label: ) 132111: Select All Unused(Other, Label: ) 132131: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Cell Styles, Label: ) 133143: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Conditional Text, Label: ) Matches found: 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- === MenuActions searched by '$ID/kSelectAllUnused' === 8454: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Character Styles, Label: ) 8474: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles, Label: ) 16395: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Swatches, Label: ) 68111: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Trap Presets, Label: ) 113167: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Object Styles, Label: ) 132111: Select All Unused(Other, Label: ) 132131: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Cell Styles, Label: ) 133143: Select All Unused(Panel Menus:Conditional Text, Label: ) Matches found: 8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ... 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Hi Uwe, I just wanted to update you that, in fact, I AM able to get exactly what I want with presenting an "opened" UI to the user. Your help has been invaluable. I am working on modularizing it and when finished will post my findings. I am working with ID CC 2014 on Windows, not sure whether that matters. I will keep you posted. Thanks -- TT ... View more

Hey Guys, Thanks for keeping this thread in mind -- I have managed to get this to work with just ONE manual intervention (ENTER key) so far (down from 1 x # colors), but I think/hope that with some additional work I can nail it entirely. I've been jammed up on another InDesign issue so when I can I'll try to get back with an update. -TT ... View more

Hi Uwe, First let me say THANK YOU for the time that you have spent so far in illustrating potential fixes for my dilemma. I figure that you are either a great teacher or that you write books on these subjects. You did a FANTASTIC job in illustrating everything… Again, THANK YOU! I believe that one of the key findings in your study that made things "happen" for me was the revelation that the panel needed to be open in order for an active item in the item list below to be selected. Prior to my post, I had tried the menuActions.itemByID(113286) by itself, and actually it DOES select the active item that I want (still with the panel closed), but it doesn't slide open the object styles panel, so I figured that nothing was happening and/or that it didn't work.   I may not have explained myself properly… The item that I want to select is an existing object style (in this case "panel"). This can be accessed through the context menu once the desired object style is activated. The context menu option would be 'Edit "Panel"…' which is the first selection on the context menu. I think that your second post mentioned that I possible wanted Interestingly enough, while searching through all of the app.MenuActions() results I came upon the following: 8483: Edit "^1"...(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles) 8484: Duplicate Style...(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles) 8485: Delete Style...(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles) 8486: Redefine Style(Panel Menus:Paragraph Styles)   Please note that the numbers are the MenuAction Ids. These 4 items just happen to match the active object style's first 4 context menu items and I thought that the '^1' could serve as a placeholder for the underlying active item. But NOWHERE could I locate anything like this for 'Object Styles'. I tried the 8483 MenuAction, but it didn't work.   In Javascript, here's what I have so far: app.panels.itemByName("$ID/ObjStylesTreeViewPanelName").visible = true;    //opens panel menu app.menuActions.itemByID(113286).invoke();          // takes to panel item (my name for my object style)   At this point, I'm showing the correct active Object Style ('Panel in my case). If possible, from this point I need to:  open the context menu for the active Object Style Activate 'Edit "Panel"...' on the context menu. Do you think that this is possible? Please let me know if you need any more information.   Thank you for your kind assistance!   TT ... View more

You're welcome. Nice avatar! ... View more

Here's a good start: http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/illustrator/sdk/CC2014/Illustrator%20Scripting%20Reference%20-%20… Search the above document and this forum for PlacedItems, as I did and found many resourceful threads. If you start to develop a script or find one that just needs some tweaking and find that you are having problems doing that, please let us know and there are many here that would be happy to help you through your problems. Good luck and best wishes. ... View more

Oh, yeah. Haha. THAT ought to do it! One thing that came out of this that I think bears mentioning (at least for VB) is that Layer.HasSelectedArtwork = False is listed as deselecting all selected art which is true. However, the opposite is also true, where Layer.HasSelectedArtwork = True will select all art on that layer, not exactly what the property describes nor what the VB documentation states (big surprise, eh?). Now I know that you, Carlos, probably already know this, being the AI Obi-Wan Kenobi, (just messin' man) but I thought that maybe somebody else may benefit from this. Thanks again, Carlos, for your help. I'll leave this open for a while to mark the correct answer in case somebody else has another approach (without dialogs [haha!]). ... View more