Rename artboards using their numbers

[Egor Chistyakov]

I need a script or action or rtfm-quote that renames all artboards (may be selected only, but I see no use of it) with default pattern ('Artboard X'), where X is an actual number of artboard.

I'm a bit tired that after rearranging order of arboards their labels don't correspond with numbers.

[LeoMari-eL6mBl]

Hellow my friend!

carloscanto‌ wrote the script that solves your problem:

#target illustrator 

// script.name = UI_insertPageNumbers.jsx; // works with CS4 & CS5 

// script description = Inserts page numbers (or any other text) to all artboards in the active document; 

// script.required = at least one open document 

// script.parent = CarlosCanto // 11/14/11; 

// script.elegant = false; 

// Notes: The script creates a new layer (Page Numbers) then adds a text frame per Artboard that act as footer or header text. 

//                     Its primary function is to insert Page Numbers, but it could be used to insert any other kind of information. 

if (app.documents.length > 0) // continue if there's at leat one document open 

    { 

                    // start building User Interface 

                    var win = new Window("dialog","MTools - Insert Page Numbers"); 

                    var panelMargins = win.add("panel", undefined, "Margins"); 

                    var lblMargins = panelMargins.add("statictext",undefined,"How far from the edge:"); 

                    var txtMargins = panelMargins.add("edittext",undefined, 0.25);  

                    var lblUnits = panelMargins.add("statictext",undefined,"inches"); 

                    var panelLocation = win.add("panel", undefined, "Location"); 

                    var radTop = panelLocation.add("radiobutton",undefined,"Top"); 

                    var radBottom = panelLocation.add("radiobutton",undefined, "Bottom");  

                    var panelAlignment = win.add("panel", undefined, "Alignment"); 

                    var radLeft = panelAlignment.add("radiobutton",undefined,"Left"); 

                    var radCenter = panelAlignment.add("radiobutton",undefined, "Center");  

                    var radRight = panelAlignment.add("radiobutton",undefined, "Right");  

                    var panelFooter = win.add("panel", undefined, "Text to insert"); 

                    var grpPages = panelFooter.add("group"); 

                    var btnPage = grpPages.add("button",undefined,"Insert Page"); 

                    var btnPages = grpPages.add("button",undefined,"Insert Pages"); 

                    var txtFooter = panelFooter.add("edittext",undefined, "[Type text to insert here]");  

                    var btnOk = win.add("button", undefined, "Ok"); 

                    radRight.value = radBottom.value = true; 

                    win.alignChildren = panelFooter.alignChildren = "fill"; 

                    panelMargins.spacing = 3; 

                    panelMargins.orientation = panelLocation.orientation = panelAlignment.orientation = "row"; 

                    win.helpTip = "Coded by CarlosCanto"; 

                    btnPage.helpTip = "Adds *page* keyword, it represents a single page"; 

                    btnPages.helpTip = "Adds *pages* keyword, it represents total number of pages"; 

                    txtFooter.helpTip = "Type \r\t'Page *page* of *pages*' \rto get \r\t'Page 1 of 3' \rfor example"; 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                                                            btnOk.onClick = function(){ 

                                                                      doSomething(); // call main function 

                                                                      win.close(); // close when done 

                                                             } 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                                                            btnPage.onClick = function(){ 

                                                                      footer("*page*"); 

                                                             } 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                                                            btnPages.onClick = function(){ 

                                                                      footer("*pages*"); 

                                                             } 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                                                            win.center(); 

                                                            win.show(); 

                    //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

                    function footer (page) //  

                              { 

                                        txtFooter.text = txtFooter.text + page; 

                              } 

                    function doSomething() 

                              { 

                                        //alert("I'm doing something"); 

                                        var idoc = app.activeDocument; 

                                        var ilayer = idoc.layers.add(); 

                                        ilayer.name = "Page Numbers"; 

                                        var pages = idoc.artboards.length; // number of artboards 

                                        var footerPages = (txtFooter.text).replace("*pages*",pages); // replace the "*pages*" keyword with the actual number fo pages (artboards) 

                                        var margins = Number(txtMargins.text)*72; // get margins in points 

                                        //$.writeln(margins); 

                                        for (i = 0; i<idoc.artboards.length; i++) // loop thru all artboards, and add input text from UI 

                                                  { 

                                                            footerPage = footerPages.replace("*page*",i+1); // replace "*page*" keyword with the actual page Number 

                                                            var itext = ilayer.textFrames.add(); 

                                                            itext.contents = footerPage; //"page 1 of 1";  

                                                            var fontSize = itext.textRange.characterAttributes.size; 

                                                            var activeAB = idoc.artboards; 

                                                            var iartBounds = activeAB.artboardRect; 

                                                            var ableft = iartBounds[0]+margins; 

                                                            var abtop = iartBounds[1]-margins; 

                                                            var abright = iartBounds[2]-margins; 

                                                            var abbottom = iartBounds[3]+margins+fontSize; 

                                                            var abcenter = ableft+(abright-ableft)/2; 

                                                            if (radRight.value == true) 

                                                                      { 

                                                                                //var msg = "right"; 

                                                                                itext.left = abright; 

                                                                                itext.textRange.paragraphAttributes.justification = Justification.RIGHT; 

                                                                      } 

                                                            else if (radCenter.value == true) 

                                                                      { 

                                                                                //var msg = "center"; 

                                                                                itext.left = abcenter; 

                                                                                itext.textRange.paragraphAttributes.justification = Justification.CENTER; 

                                                                      } 

                                                            else 

                                                                      { 

                                                                                //var msg = "Left"; 

                                                                                itext.left = ableft; 

                                                                                itext.textRange.paragraphAttributes.justification = Justification.LEFT; 

                                                                      } 

                                                            if (radTop.value == true) 

                                                                      { 

                                                                                var msg = "top"; 

                                                                                itext.top = abtop; 

                                                                      } 

                                                            else 

                                                                      { 

                                                                                var msg = "bottom"; 

                                                                                itext.top = abbottom; 

                                                                      } 

                                                  } // end for loop thru all artboards 

                              } // end function doSomething(); 

     } 

else  

    { 

        alert ("there's no open documents"); 

    } 

or visit the link

Insert Page Numbers v2 | Ai Scripts

[Egor Chistyakov]

This is not quite what I wanted.

I guess my English is to blame.

I'm speaking of artboard names, seen as labels in top left corner when Artboard tool is active, or as list items in Artboards palete.

For example, I have created 4 artboards:

01 - Artboard 1

02 - Artboard 2

03 - Artboard 3

04 - Artboard 4

These are their names by default, right?

Then I rearrange them by dragging in pallete (or delete one from the middle); now they look like these:

01 - Artboard 3

02 - Artboard 1

03 - Artboard 2

04 - Artboard 4

I want something that will rename 'Artboard X' to their actula numbers, so they will look like they are just created.

I think even better would be something similar that illustrator-scripts/batchTextEdit.jsx at master · shspage/illustrator-scripts · GitHub does.

[LeoMari-eL6mBl]

I understand, I'll try and answer as soon as a solution.

hug

[Disposition_Dev · Accepted solution]

function renameArtboards(){

     var docRef = app.activeDocument;

     var aB = docRef.artboards;

     for(var a=0;a<aB.length;a++){

          var curAB = aB;

          curAB.name = "Artboard " + [a+1];

     }

}

renameArtboards();

[LeoMari-eL6mBl]

Good #williamadowling.

It was missing just a } at the end.

function renameArtboards(){
     var docRef = app.activeDocument;
     var aB = docRef.artboards;
     for(var a=0;a<aB.length;a++){
          var curAB = aB;
          curAB.name = "00" + [a+1];
     }
}
renameArtboards();

[Disposition_Dev]

woops. you are totally right. i just typed that out here in the editor and didn't even test it. I hope that works for you. 😃

[Egor Chistyakov]

And it's working.

I only edited this line to get correct name:

curAB.name = "Artboard " + [a+1];

When I look at the code, I understand everything, but I couldn't have done it myself for unknown reason. It might be my imperfect knowledge of syntax or DOM, I guess.

Thanks!

[LeoMari-eL6mBl]

You can put anything in the string that precedes the number. If you prefer the number in front just reverse.

cruAB.name = [a+1] + "Artboard";

hug

[Disposition_Dev]

That's correct. You can concatenate essentially anything you want to the name of the artboard. And you can do so in any order.

Do post back here if you have any questions and we'll be glad to help.

[Egor Chistyakov]

Well, the script, as I said before, is working, but only by half.

It really does rename artboards, so their names looks like 'Artboard 1' and counting forth.

By when things go to the export, resulting tif-files have names like these:

exportedfile_Artboard 1.tif

while the result needed is more like:

exportedfile-01.tif

The problem is when I delete some of the artboards, don't use script, and then export stuff, I get order with gaps:

exportedfile-02.tif

exportedfile-04.tif

exportedfile-12.tif

and so on.

The script was intended to restore that order, resetting it rather than actual renaming.

It seems that artboard 'name' could be undefined, and the order is hidden somewhere deeper.

[Disposition_Dev]

Just change the artboard naming convention from "Artboard " + [index] to simply [index]. For example:

function renameArtboards(){

     var docRef = app.activeDocument;

     var aB = docRef.artboards;

     for(var a=0;a<aB.length;a++){

          var curAB = aB;

          if(a<10){

               curAB.name = "'0" + (a+1) + "'"; // this line makes sure there's a 0 in front of single digit numbers (eg. exportedfile-02.tif)

          }else{

               curAB.name = "'" + (a+1) + "'";

     }

}

renameArtboards();

[pixxxelschubser]

Hi williamadowling‌,

how about

// regards pixxxel schubser

var aDoc = app.activeDocument;
var aB = aDoc.artboards;

function renameArtboards() {    
    for( i=0; i<aB.length; i++) {
        var curAB = aB;
        curAB.name = "Artboard " + (i+1).toString().replace(/^.$/, "0" + (i+1));
        }
    }

renameArtboards();

- without if else

Have fun

[Disposition_Dev]

I'm sure that would work. Although i honestly don't know what's going on inside that replace method (or any replace methods for that matter..) i need to spend some time studying up on that.

[Qwertyfly___]

google Regex.

very handy to have an understanding of.

/ / these enclose the Regular expression

^ says to match at start of string

$ says to match end of string

. says match any single char

in essence it is:

if(i.length == 1) {

     curAB.name = "Artboard 0" + i;

}else{

   curAB.name = "Artboard " + i;

}

so out put would go:

Artboard 01

Artboard 02

...

Artboard 09

Artboard 10

...

[Egor Chistyakov]

Well, nobody noticed the difference.

This one has undercore after filename — exportedfile_Artboard 1.tif

This one, exported from unrenamed artboard, has not, it has hypen instead — exportedfile-01.tif

Even if get rid of 'Artboard' it will still differ:
exportedfile-01.tif vs exportedfile_01.tif

I have a whole pipeline for editing these files after exporting, so this change is very irritating, becuase I have both renamed and unrenamed ways to work with, manually choose the set of scripts, put changes in both sets and so on.

So the problem turn out to be not about renaming artboards, but resetting numbering order. And I'm very suspicious it's not possible. Cruel world!

[Disposition_Dev]

Well I'm out of ideas. Sorry friend. It appears that once you name an artboard, you forever lose the hyphen and you always get an underscore. Unless someone knows how to remove any associated name from an artboard (and just set it back to the default generic name), i've got nothing. Sorry.

[CarlosCanto]

that's exactly what happens, unnamed Artboards just append Dash/Index at export time, while named Artboards append Underscore/ArtboardName...

so your options are

1. rename all your artboards to 01, 02, etc to get filename_01, filename_02, etc

2. rename your files after exporting to get standard filename-01, filename-02, etc

[Hura5FAE]

Hi, williamadowling 

Can you show me how to use your script. Thanks you

[femkeblanco]

There's a missing } in the correct answer.  Add one to the line before last.  I.e it should look like this

function renameArtboards(){
  var docRef = app.activeDocument;
  var aB = docRef.artboards;
  for(var a=0; a<aB.length; a++){
    var curAB = aB;
    curAB.name = "Artboard " + [a+1];
  }
}
renameArtboards();

[Hura5FAE]

I don't really know how to use this script. I opened the file and then used the script but nothing happened

[femkeblanco]

The purpose of the script appears to be to match the number and name of the artboard, i.e. X - Artboard X.  So try this:

var AB = app.activeDocument.artboards;
for(var i = 0; i < AB.length; i++){
  AB[i].name = "Artboard " + (i + 1);
}

[defaultuwljl34ncs5l]

It really worked! Thank you so much. Is there an option that number coud be: 01, 02... 10, 11 instead of 01, 02...010, 011? (there's an extra zero) Greetings!

[Albeitadrift]

So total novice here - how do we use this code? I read to save as text file and rename to .jsx

I'm using text edit but only option is richtext? 

any help these years later be epic! 

[Albeitadrift]

So now I'm in script editor, but I'm getting the error below. Thanks again!