Script to Sort Artboard List Alphabetically

[sensibleworld]

I'm on the lookout for a simple script to sort an Illustrator artboard list alphabetically. (I don't need the artboards themselves rearranged on the canvas, just the order of the artboards in the list.)

In the example (image) below, the artboard list reads:

1. life-ring

2. wheelchair-alt

3. wheelchair

4. information

...

30. blind-walking

The desired result would be for the artboard list itself to be sorted to read:

1. assistive-listening

2. assistive-listening-telecoil

3. blind-walking

4. braille

...

30. wheelchair-alt

I've scoured the forums for solutions to this. The closest I could find is here: Sort artboards by name, but it doesn't seem to work in Illustrator CC. Also found this (How to sort objects alphabetically (inside of a layer)?), but it is layer-specific, not artboard.

Thanks so much for any help!

[OMOTI · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Artboard object probably has no method for sorting.

Since it does not generate an Artboard object, it may run lightly.

This try it.

function sortArtboard() {
    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        properties = [],
        i,
        max;
    function copyProperties(source) {
        var props = {},
            key;
        for (key in source) {
            try {
                props[key] = source[key];
            } catch (e) {
            }
        }
        return props;
    }
    function pasteProperties(source, destination) {
        var key;
        for (key in source) {
            destination[key] = source[key];
        }
    }
    function compareName(a, b) {
        var comparison = 0;
        if (a.name > b.name) {
            comparison = 1;
        } else if (a.name < b.name) {
            comparison = -1;
        }
        return comparison;
    }
    for (i = 0, max = doc.artboards.length; i < max; i += 1) {
        properties.push(copyProperties(doc.artboards));
    }
    properties.sort(compareName);
    for (i = 0, max = doc.artboards.length; i < max; i += 1) {
        pasteProperties(properties, doc.artboards);
    }
}
sortArtboard();

[sensibleworld]

Awesome! That worked exactly as I needed it to. Thank you so much!

[zymox]

Sorry can you help me? I tried this script but it doesnt work. I'm using Illustrator cc.

[OMOTI]

Did you receive an error message when an error occurred?

Which is your "Illustrator cc" CC or CC2018?

It worked with the following versions in my environment. I have not installed CC.

• Illustrator CS6
• Illustrator CC 2017
• Illustrator CC(2018)

[zymox]

Thank you! I solved it. Needed to save the script as .js insteD of .jsx. Thank you again.

Von meinem iPhone gesendet

Am 27.07.2018 um 18:37 schrieb OMOTI <forums_noreply@adobe.com>:

Script to Sort Artboard List Alphabetically

created by OMOTI in Illustrator Scripting - View the full discussion

Did you receive an error message when an error occurred?

Which is your "Illustrator cc" CC or CC2018?

It worked with the following versions in my environment. I have not installed CC.

Illustrator CS6

Illustrator CC 2017

Illustrator CC(2018)

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[majliniok]

Hello

I'm using Illustrator 2020 and while running the script, I'm getting the error "Error:7 Language feature '0' is not supported. Line: 20   destination[key] = source[key];"

Any volonteer to help with this ? I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or there is some "new feature" in 2020 version.

[CarlosCanto · Accepted solution]

Hi majliniok, transitioning to the new forums ruined all scripts. 

Here's the original script posted by OMOTI

function sortArtboard() {  
    var doc = app.activeDocument,  
        properties = [],  
        i,  
        max;  
  
    function copyProperties(source) {  
        var props = {},  
            key;  
        for (key in source) {  
            try {  
                props[key] = source[key];  
            } catch (e) {  
            }  
        }  
        return props;  
    }  
  
    function pasteProperties(source, destination) {  
        var key;  
        for (key in source) {  
            destination[key] = source[key];  
        }  
    }  
  
    function compareName(a, b) {  
        var comparison = 0;  
        if (a.name > b.name) {  
            comparison = 1;  
        } else if (a.name < b.name) {  
            comparison = -1;  
        }  
        return comparison;  
    }  
  
    for (i = 0, max = doc.artboards.length; i < max; i += 1) {  
        properties.push(copyProperties(doc.artboards[i]));  
    }  
  
    properties.sort(compareName);  
  
    for (i = 0, max = doc.artboards.length; i < max; i += 1) {  
        pasteProperties(properties[i], doc.artboards[i]);  
    }  
  
}  
  
sortArtboard(); 

[majliniok]

Thank You ! Now working great 🙂

[soufianovitch]

is there is any script for reordering artboards by their position?

[CarlosCanto]

can you elaborate? screenshots would be helpful

[Rob.Wood]

Hello

I'm using CC2023 and I can't get this to work. I'm just getting a blank modal/dialogue box. 

I copied it into Script Editor and exported it as javascript but no joy. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Rob

[CarlosCanto]

copy the script from here, paste it into a text editor, save it as PLAIN TEXT (not RICH TEXT), save it with a jsx extension.

[Horst29621268rudt]

Great it also work prefectly, is there also a Methode to Reorder only one selectet artboard. Not via DragAndDrop (i have over 600 Artboards in the document and by Hand needs a lot of time), so its possible to reorder the ArtboardNumber by script?  So- Selectet Artboard is now number 522 and change to number 33? i found nothing about that.

[Service283589231bf1]

Thanks for this. I saved this script as a plain text .js using TextEdit and ran this on a file last week and it worked. Now when I try to run it on the same base file, nothing happens. With the AI file open, I'm going to File › Scripts › Other Scripts... and navigating to the .js and pressing the OPEN button. Nothing happens. I tried restarting illustrator and it didn't help. I tried changing the file extension to .jsx; no difference. Any tips?

[Service283589231bf1 · Accepted solution]

Never mind. It did alphabetize the artboards, it just didn't rearrange them. I forgot that I did that myself last week (using the Rearrange All artboard tool) so I thought it wasn't working at first. All good!