Inspiring

Question

Script to set new doc to inches?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 10, 2023
3 replies
708 views

Working with a third part extension that always creates new doc's as points.

I was thinking of startup script that "after new" would:

set horizontal measurement units to inches

set vertical measurement units to inches

but i am not sure how to write it??

below is a script another person created but if i read it correctly it "views" the prefs?? maybe i am misunderstanding the use of "view"

tell application "Adobe InDesign 2023"
          tell view preferences
                    set ruler origin to page origin
                    set horizontal measurement units to inches
                    set vertical measurement units to inches
          end tell
end tell

i thought possibly i would write

tell application "Adobe InDesign 2023"
set myEventName to {"afterNew"}
repeat with myEventName
make event listener with properties {event type:myEventName, handler:"?"}
end repeat
end tell

its been awhile since i did any scripting. any ideas??

This topic has been closed for replies.

R

rickg76305781Author

Inspiring

I had some time to test and the first script does work and adding an event listener to the workflow does change the scale to inches afternew. BUT thats not the result I was expecting

The script changes the prefs to inches after doc creation. BUT it doesnt change the units of the doc that was created. All docs creeted after the first doc would be in inches.

.

What i would like to happen is: afterNEW, change scale of the current doc to inches.

I think i need to modify the first script (below) to change the scale of the current doc. Not sure how to make that happen. I am sure its a simple.

tell application "Adobe InDesign 2023"
          tell view preferences
                    set ruler origin to page origin
                    set horizontal measurement units to inches
                    set vertical measurement units to inches
          end tell
end tell

rob day

Community Expert

The view preferences can be a property of the application or a document—your AS is setting the application’s view preferences not the active document. This would set the InDesign default to points and the active document to inches:

tell application id "com.adobe.indesign"
	
	--sets the application’s view preferences
	set properties of view preferences to {horizontal measurement units:points, vertical measurement units:points, ruler origin:page origin}
	
	--sets the active document’s view preferences
	set properties of view preferences of active document to {horizontal measurement units:inches, vertical measurement units:inches, ruler origin:page origin}
	
end tell

JS:

//sets the application 
app.viewPreferences.properties = {horizontalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES, verticalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES}

//sets the document
app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.properties = {horizontalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES, verticalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES}

Running with a document open preferences shows Inches:

With no documents open Preferences shows Points:

In order to get the document that is created from the afterNew event you have to get the event’s parent. So this throws an error when I create a new doc and click OK with no docs open:

#targetengine "session"
app.eventListeners.add("afterNew", setRulers);

function setRulers(e){
    //the new document is not available yet
    var d = app.activeDocument;
    d.viewPreferences.properties = {horizontalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES, verticalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES}
}

But this works because the new document is the parent of the event:

#targetengine "session"
app.eventListeners.add("afterNew", setRulers);

function setRulers(e){
    var d = e.parent;
    alert("New Document named " + d.name + " has been created")
    //set the new document’s view prefs
    d.viewPreferences.properties = {horizontalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES, verticalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES}

}

R

rickg76305781Author

Inspiring

i havent had much time to test but i used my existing event listener and run jsx

var d = app.documents
for (var i = 0; i < d.length; i++){
    d[i].viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;
    d[i].viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;
};   
app.viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;
app.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @rickg76305781 , Try this Javascript.

#targetengine "session"
app.eventListeners.add("afterNew", setRulers);

function setRulers(e){
    var d = e.parent;
    d.viewPreferences.properties = {horizontalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES, verticalMeasurementUnits:MeasurementUnits.INCHES}
}

The AppleScript equivalent should be this where the evt variable references the event—the handler reference can’t have a parameter—but the evt reference is throwing an error:

tell application id "com.adobe.indesign"
	--tell event listeners to delete
	make event listener with properties {event type:"afterNew", handler:my setRulers}
end tell

on setRulers()
	tell application id "com.adobe.indesign"
		set d to parent of evt
		set properties of view preferences of d to {horizontal measurement units:points, vertical measurement units:inches}
	end tell
end setRulers

BarlaeDC

Community Expert

Hi,

The first code block should work, the actual object you are changing is called "view preferences".

So that code is setting the values inside the "view preferences" object

R

rickg76305781Author

Inspiring

there must be a better way to write this. i created a start up script with the handler as path to the the first script isaved into my scripts panel

tell application "Adobe InDesign 2023"
	set myEventNames to {"afterNew"}
	repeat with myEventName in myEventNames
		make event listener with properties {event type:myEventName, handler:"Macintosh HD:Applications:Adobe InDesign 2023:Scripts:Scripts Panel:Samples:AppleScript:name.scpt"}
	end repeat
end tell

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