Scripts in Localized InDesign : locale independent default names

Hi vnh68,

interesting question.

I tried the following with my German InDesign 2021 where the "standard" layer in a new document is named "Ebene 1":

app.findKeyStrings("Ebene 1");
// Returned array contained one item that holds the string:
// "$ID/Placeholder for Level 1"

So I tried the following code to access the "standard" layer with that string:

var resultArray = app.findKeyStrings("Ebene 1");
// Returned array contained one item that holds the string:
// "$ID/Placeholder for Level 1"

var newDoc = app.documents.add();
var standardLayer = newDoc.layers.itemByName( resultArray[0] );
standardLayer.isValid;
// returns true

So, this question is answered.

String "$ID/Placeholder for Level 1" is the independent name for that layer.

If the layer was renamed perhaps and you want to add a new layer with the "standard" name you could do it like that:

app.documents[0].layers.add({ name : "$ID/Placeholder for Level 1"} )

Of course this code has to run on the localized version of InDesign.

What will not work the same way in this case is:

app.documents[0].layers.add();

It will add a new "standard" layer with a different name, perhaps "Ebene 2" with my German document.

What you cannot do without knowing the name of a "standard" layer:

Add the layer named in English when you running the script on a German InDesign.

However, now you know how to identify a standard name.

//EDIT: Wrong. See next post.

FWIW: Standard layer names are not renamed when you open a document in a different localized version of InDesign.

And perhaps you already guessed it now:

var resultArray = app.findKeyStrings("Ebene 2");
// Returned array contained one item that holds the string:
// "$ID/Placeholder for Level 2"

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )