Basically, I downloaded the script from Ian's site and then followed his advice to read Matt Neuberg's instructions on how to get rb-appscript up and running.

Then I opened Terminal and pasted this, as per Matt's instructions:

$ sudo gem install rb-appscript

Nothing happened so I deleted the space between the $ and sudo. Then this message came up:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

WARNING: Installing to ~/.gem since /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8 and

/usr/bin aren't both writable.

WARNING: You don't have /Users/MYNAME/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin in your PATH,

gem executables will not run.

Building native extensions. This could take a while...

ERROR: Error installing rb-appscript:

ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb

mkmf.rb can't find header files for ruby at /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/ruby.h

Gem files will remain installed in /Users/MYNAME/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rb-appscript-0.6.1 for inspection.

Results logged to /Users/MYNAME/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rb-appscript-0.6.1/gem_make.out

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Did I screw something up???? Can this be reversed?

Help!

B.

Ms Kyo

Participant

There's a nice Ruby script that makes renumbering artboards a breeze. You will just need to install Ruby, download the relevant ruby script, and then type in the terminal window "Ruby "renumber artboards.rb" "

http://thejoyofappscript.com/2009/12/illustrator-renumber-artboards/

A

Anonymous

The biggest problem I find with the artboard numbering is when I export as PDF. I like to build various multi page UI design docs within Illustrator, then export to show clients. Well, you can't control the page numbering if you decide to re-arrange pages, which always happens. Say you decide to make a TOC, or add a page in-between, etc. Out of luck. Artboards keep the number they were created as.

It seems the most obvious UI change should be that the pages re-number themselves according to how you arrange them. This is how other apps work. I actually thought it was a convention. Adobe even does it for inDesign. It's silly to not let these pages self-adjust in this way.

maccoutinho

Participating Frequently

Absolutely, I underline every single word you wrote!

RogerPaine

Participating Frequently

Yay for renumberable artboards - currently I get around it by reshuffling them in acrobat but that only works for rearranging the order of the pdf pages; doesn't help in ai - but then they have to hold back something for the next upgrade

Z

Zetuoshi

Participant

The work around mentioned before is a great idea, but there is one problem, the "art board navigator" docked at the bottom left hand corner of the entire app. Each number is place based on the prior setting (or original numbering of the art board), and no matter how much time you change the arrangement, art board 1 will be display in the "art board navigator" as 1. Unfortunately

_

__simon_

Participating Frequently

Not quiet enough, but it's a start.

"I want Illustrator to be exactly like FreeHand and anyone who disagrees with me is a moron." says the ex-Freehand user.

"Why did Macromedia drop all support for FreeHand and disband the development team years ago?" asks everyone else.

A

Anonymous

ah maybe because Adobe bought them out?

Re-order artboards through the artboards panel, similar to InDesign
Option to name artboards
Option to save all artboards for web (just for proofing purposes as opposed to saving PDFs)
Paste in place across artboards (at least artboards of the same size, or dependent on the 0 point of the axis)

M

MWHebert

Participating Frequently

Last time I looked they were still in business selling Multipage and CADtools.

Steve Fairbairn

Inspiring

Reckon you've hit the thingummy on the other thingummy :-)
At least it's good to know that there's someone out there who's in touch with a semblance of reality.

_

__simon_

Participating Frequently

It keeps the whining ex-freehand users a bit quieter.

Steve Fairbairn

Inspiring

I have never dared to ask until now (after a few beers :-)), but what is the point of multiple artboards? If you use 1 artboard and have it big enough, with page tiling set as you want it, can you do something with multiple artboards that you couldn't do before? Are multiple artboards really necessary? What do you gain by them? They don't even seem to have independent X/Y axes, so you can't use Cmd-F to paste in place between artboards. Isn't this just a sort of Freehand thingummy that hasn't been properly implemented in Illy?

W

Wade_Zimmerman1

Inspiring

steve fairbairn wrote:
I have never dared to ask until now (after a few beers :-)), but what is the point of multiple artboards? If you use 1 artboard and have it big enough, with page tiling set as you want it, can you do something with multiple artboards that you couldn't do before? Are multiple artboards really necessary? What do you gain by them? They don't even seem to have independent X/Y axes, so you can't use Cmd-F to paste in place between artboards. Isn't this just a sort of Freehand thingummy that hasn't been properly implemented in Illy?

It is not fully implemented but there is a feature request to be able to name the artboards for instance, tiling was something that most users that came to the forum did not understand and we continually had to explain it to them and many still could not get it to properly work, there was no bleed for tiled pages, you could not print a specific tile as you can with artboards, you could not print a specific range or place a specific tile in say ID there are lots of advantages already implemented, besides multiple size artboards which only happened in tiling is the page size was odd and did not divide accordingly.

There may be some features that would be nice to have but keep in mind artboards are not pages, to think of them as pages is not quite the right approach although there will eventually be a feature I assume to make artboard pages if one desired but that would mean all artboards would be restricted to the same size, unless of course Adobe does something really innovated and allow you to have custom page inserts.

Artboards are a bit like FreeHand but not the same by any means and it has come along way from CS3 and hopefully the same will happen in CS5.

I agree with James on the notion of insulting FreeHand users over this issue it is out of place and it is a very excellent feature and much needed for many users though perhaps not for all users.