Mass edit different files

[Jeroen5E3C]

Hi all,

I have received .ai files which are illustrations of  football/soccer shirts. (See image for an example) Each shirt has a number on the back side and there are 24 different shirts in total. For each shirt I would like to adjust the numbers on the back, so that I have a copy for numbers 1 up until 99 for each shirt, resulting in 24 * 99 = a lot of different files. Doing this manually clearly is a horrible task, so I thought scripting would come in handy. 

What I would like to do is the following:

1. Open each file (country shirt)
2. Run the script which changes the default number 1 to 2
3. Center the number (number 3 for instance is wider than 1, so it is off-centered)
4. Save copy of the file with name: $country_name$_$number$
5. Repeat step 2, 3, 4 until number 99 is reached
6. Repeat step 1 for all shirts (this can also be done manually, since doing this 24 times is not too bad)

I might be terrible at searching, but since I'm fairly new to Illustrator I'm not sure which keywords I should look for. 

Does anyone have an idea on where to start, or if there's a topic/video of someone doing something similar?

Thanks in advance!

Jeroen 

[CarlosCanto · Accepted solution]

Use Variable Data to replace the numbers, and Action (in Batch Mode) to save the different files.

check this tutorial to an awesome Illustrator Script and a Demo of the whole process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBrK8tZAXQ

[Jeroen5E3C]

Perfect, thank you so much. This indeed seems to be exactly what I need. Will try it out tomorrow! 

[Jeroen5E3C]

This seems to be working so far, so I am happy with that. I do have one problem though that I cannot solve and maybe you can guide a bit. When my variables become double digit, the numbers are no longer aligned in the center of the shirt/artboard. 

I tried the following. I selected the number on the back and clicked Align -> Horizontal Align Center, which worked, but only for the currently active shirt.

Do you know how I can solve this? 

[Jeroen5E3C]

Ignore my message above. I cannot delete it unfortunately. I solved it by using a batched action.

[Kurt Gold]

There may be different ways, but in order to think about an appropriate approach, one thing is definitely required: At least one sample .ai file, so one can take a look.

[Jeroen5E3C]

Good suggestion indeed. Sorry, I should've added that directly. I cannot seem to edit my original message though and I cannot add .ai files to the reply. Here's the link to the file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12g0QaiAMqHD4P9i_t_YitE6z0dCQMr1L/view?usp=sharing