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Isiah5FD8
Participant
August 9, 2022
Answered

save indesign script on multiple users at once

  • August 9, 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 632 views

After I've customized an existing InDesign script, I want to be able to roll it out to my entire team to use all at once and not worry about if someone saved it incorrectly or didn't save it at all.

 

Is there a way to make my customized Script appear on all of my Team's InDesign user accounts all at once?

 

Any ideas would be appreciated. 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Hi @Isiah5FD8 ,

what Kasyan said.

 

But be aware that when you update your InDesign to a new point update, let's say from 17.3.0 to 17.4.0 ( or to an entirely new version ) in the future, the shortcuts will be no shortcuts anymore, but actual folders with the contents of the shared folder copied over. Noticed this with a big project where I shared a Dropbox folder as alias in my Scripts folder of InDesign.

 

So what I do to avoid this before updating InDesign:

I move all Version xx.0 folders from all installed versions of InDesign out of the Preferences.

After installing the new version I move them in again to maintain the shortcuts ( alias ) to the scripts at Dropbox.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

6 replies

S
Studio 223681069pbak
Participating Frequently
August 10, 2022

Or if you are on Windows you can use Autohotkey script which can run jsx scripts from any folder you want:

script = w:\folder\folder1\folder2\nameOfYourScript.jsxbin
Enabled := ComObjError(false) ; this is to avoid getting an error in case the script fails and so tha tthe script continues after the INDD script rans (same as run instead of ranwait) use true to make it like run.
ID := ComObjCreate("InDesign.Application")
ID.doScript(script, 1246973031) ; this is for javascript
return



PaoloVeronelli
PaoloVeronelli
Participating Frequently
August 10, 2022
Just upload your script on a web server.
 
This is the local Indesign script:
var remoteScript = app.doScript("do shell script \"curl 'remoteCode'\"".replace("remoteCode", remoteCode), ScriptLanguage.APPLESCRIPT_LANGUAGE);
(this is for Mac but there's a windows version too).
 
Modify the web script and your collegues can instantly use the new version.
R
Robert Kyle
Inspiring
August 10, 2022

Here's an approach that may seem more complicated, but it has the advantage off blending in with the Adobe interface.

Almost all of our script code is stored on a shared server. In each user's startup folder is a stub scriptt that gets a list of the script files in one of the shared folders and executes them in order.

These shared startup scripts initialize (1) a floating panel with dropdown menus, push buttons, etc., that allow the user to run other scripts also on the server (2) a top-of-the-window menu with that provides menu items for the same scripts (for those who work on small screens where the floating panel was a nuisance) (3) in a few cases, items in context menus so that the user can summon a particular scipt by right-clicking on a text frame and (4) event-listeners that call particular scripts when documents are opened, saved, etc.

So when we want to change how a particular script works, we just have to chamge one file on the server. The  stub script in the startup items folder is the only code on the desktop computers. This architecture made a seamless transition to the world of work-at-home because the remote desktops of our virtual office could be equipped with the same startup script.

Bob

L
Community Expert
LaubenderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 9, 2022

Hi @Isiah5FD8 ,

what Kasyan said.

 

But be aware that when you update your InDesign to a new point update, let's say from 17.3.0 to 17.4.0 ( or to an entirely new version ) in the future, the shortcuts will be no shortcuts anymore, but actual folders with the contents of the shared folder copied over. Noticed this with a big project where I shared a Dropbox folder as alias in my Scripts folder of InDesign.

 

So what I do to avoid this before updating InDesign:

I move all Version xx.0 folders from all installed versions of InDesign out of the Preferences.

After installing the new version I move them in again to maintain the shortcuts ( alias ) to the scripts at Dropbox.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Kasyan Servetsky
Kasyan Servetsky
Legend
August 9, 2022

You can keep your script, say, in a shared folder on DropBox (or another shared location) and create shortcuts to it in the Scripts Panel folder on users' machines. Then you can update the script on DropBox (keeping the original file name) and the shortcuts will point to the updated script.

    brian_p_dts
    Community Expert
    brian_p_dtsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 9, 2022

    You'd need to write a batch script that could copy the file to the correct user directory. 

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