scripts and frame tags?

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
July 7, 2010
1 reply
6303 views

This is a general question that, if possible, I'll be looking for details at a later date.

Is it possible to use Frame Tags to identify a layout object so that a script can accurately select it no matter where it is on a layout? Or is there another function that can do this?

Filemaker allows you to name objects for this purpose and when I saw the Tag Frame option I started wondering if it could be used for that purpose.

Thanks

Roger

Scripting

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Jongware

Absolutely. Look up "label" in your favourite scripting language.

Up to CS4 (I think) almost every single object in ID can have a single label. Starting with CS5 (again, I think) you can add any kind of 'key-value' pair to almost every single ID object.

You can easily apply and interrogate labels from within a script, but also from with the User Interface -- the "Script Label" panel shows the label for a selected item.

The great thing about labels is that you can even use the same label for a set of different objects, and then perform operations on every item with that label!

Jongware

Correct answer

Community Expert

Absolutely. Look up "label" in your favourite scripting language.

Up to CS4 (I think) almost every single object in ID can have a single label. Starting with CS5 (again, I think) you can add any kind of 'key-value' pair to almost every single ID object.

You can easily apply and interrogate labels from within a script, but also from with the User Interface -- the "Script Label" panel shows the label for a selected item.

The great thing about labels is that you can even use the same label for a set of different objects, and then perform operations on every item with that label!

Jongware

Community Expert

(The Tag Frame option is for XML tagging of files. It's kinda sort of the same thing as a user defined label, but then in a pure XML context.)

R

Roger SawhillAuthor

Known Participant

Jongware, another question if you will - can the script see the contents of a text box?

Some background --- We are building an automated product using a variable data plugin for Indesign (DesignMerge). One of my earlier questions in the forums was about editing color swatch RGB values so that we can change the color scheme of the product with a script. At the edge of the product we have production data being brought in from our database (job number, client data, shipping address, etc), one of those items is the ColorCode.

So, if this ColorCode is in its own text block and that text box has been given a unique script label, can the script be built to "see" the text in this text block and use this data to decide which color scheme to trigger? I'm thinking the answer to this would be 'yes'.

My other question is, since what we are talking about here is far outside my abilities ("damn it Jim, I'm a designer not a programmer!"), are you or are there guys on the forum that do contracts for this type of work and what is the proper procedure for soliciting such work? Any thoughts on what this type of thing might cost - ballpark? I have no clue.

Thanks

Roger

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