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J
jHowardDesigns
Participant
March 1, 2019
Answered

ScriptUI Palette Focus After Clicking Button

  • March 1, 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 2931 views

Hello, first time poster here!

I am working on developing an InDesign palette and I have run into an issue surrounding clicking buttons. The palette that I am working on is something that I want to stay open so that the user can interact with it while they work on their InDesign document. I want key focus to be on the document after clicking buttons in the palette and I am a bit stuck.

Here is my use case: I click a button in the palette and it selects multiple frames on the page. I then want to be able to use arrow keys to nudge the frames around (for example). I can’t use the arrow keys to move the objects until I click back into the document because the palette is holding key focus.

How do I tell my script to return focus to the InDesign document while keeping the palette open?

Any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks,

Jeremy

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Correct answer Marc Autret

Hi Jeremy,

(…)

How do I tell my script to return focus to the InDesign document while keeping the palette open?

Invoke app.activate() whenever you need to give the focus back to InDesign.

Something like this:

myButton.onClick = function onClickHandler()

{

app.select( app.activeDocument.spreads[0].pageItems.everyItem().getElements() );

app.activate();

};

Best,

Marc

7 replies

A
AnotherFrank
Inspiring
December 27, 2020

Sorry for digging up such an old thread, but the answer Marc provided doesn't work for me either (nor Chris' tip with app.selection = null). With an open panel, app.activate() doesn't do anything on the Mac. Hope it's not just a bug.

 

Thanks!

T
tobias.wantzen
Inspiring
December 18, 2022

I can confirm this (non-)behaviour for Mac even all the years after the original post. Please vote on uservoice:

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/46096285-scirptui-in-events-app-activate-doesn-t-work

Marc Autret
Marc AutretCorrect answer
Legend
March 1, 2019

Hi Jeremy,

(…)

How do I tell my script to return focus to the InDesign document while keeping the palette open?

Invoke app.activate() whenever you need to give the focus back to InDesign.

Something like this:

myButton.onClick = function onClickHandler()

{

app.select( app.activeDocument.spreads[0].pageItems.everyItem().getElements() );

app.activate();

};

Best,

Marc

    J
    jHowardDesignsAuthor
    Participant
    March 1, 2019

    I tried that but it's not working as expected. Here is a dummy script that I set up to test that approach:

    #targetengine 'session'

    var myDoc = app.activeDocument;

    var myTextFrame = myDoc.textFrames[0];

    var myDialog = new Window ("palette","Layers",undefined, {resizeable:true});

    myDialog.preferredSize = [300,300];

    var selectButton = myDialog.add("button", undefined, "Select The Things");

    selectButton.onClick = function (){

        app.selection = myTextFrame;

        app.activate();

        };

    myDialog.show();

    app.activate();

    Marc Autret
    Marc Autret
    Legend
    March 2, 2019

    Well your dummy script works for me :-/

    The app recovers the focus and I can move the text frame using arrow keys…

    Tested on Win10 with ID 14.0.

    Maybe a Mac issue (?)

    @+

    Marc

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