Action Recorder for InDesign

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Rorohiko just released beta version of Action Recorder — an extension panel which allows recording and replaying repetitive actions and saving recordings as scripts.

However it doesn't work for me in InDesign CS6 for Windows for some reason: nothing happens when I click controls and, unlike it's shown in the demo movie, the default set and action are missing in the panel.

I'd like to know if it works for other people and in other versions of InDesign (both Mac and Windows).

[_Pico_]

Hi Kasyan,

I've just checked and indeed it looks like we broke the windows functionality entirely in this prerelease build. Thanks for pointing it out!

We will have a new build up within a couple of days that should work fine on Windows.

If you are interested in becoming a beta tester just send us an email at beta@rorohiko.com and for helping us test this product as we develop it we will give you a free single activation code.

I will post back here when a more windows-friendly build is available.

Thanks again,

Pico @ Rorohiko

[_Pico_]

Hi Kasyan,

We've just released version 1.0.1 which fixes the initialization issues that were occuring on Microsoft Windows systems.

You can download the latest version at:

http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/action-recorder/

If you run into any more issues feel free to send us an email.

Thanks,

Pico @ Rorohiko.

[aanavaras]

Hi Pico,

I downloaded and recorded a simple action, Created a TextFrame and wrote "Hello World\n\nI'm Action Recorder"

When i played the recorded action, TextFrame was created and the text is written without 'Hello World'.

below, i shared the screenshot and the exported action file's content. what could be the prob?

Action1.action:

{name:"Action-1", repeats:"1", commands:[({name:"ItemCreate", collection:"textFrames", properties:"({geometricBounds:[36, 36, 229.606299212598, 559.275590551], itemLayer:\"Layer 1\"})", multilevel:false, bounds:[], relativePosition:[], method:"relative"}),({name:"AddText", text:"Hello World"}),({name:"ApplyMenuAction", actionName:"Paragraph Return", actionId:119743}),({name:"ApplyMenuAction", actionName:"Paragraph Return", actionId:119743}),({name:"AddText", text:"I'm Action Recorder"})]}

[_Pico_]

Hi Aanavaras,

It looks like you uncovered an issue where inserting characters using menu items was overwriting text-contents.

There's a new build on the website (1.0.2) which should fix this issue!

I'll warn you that recording text changes is not something we have put a lot of work into. However styling text with action-recorder should be very simple!

Thanks,

Pico

[aanavaras]

Thanks Pico...

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Hi Pico,

I downloaded the new version and it works for me now. Thank you very much for quick reply and fixing the bug.

Are you planning to add controls for adding new and removing existing sets? So far only the "Default" set is available in the list.

Regards,
Kasyan

[_Pico_]

Hi Kasyan,

You can add/remove/rename sets from the panel-flyout menu.

This is also where you can invoke the export to javascript functionality.

Thanks,

Pico

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Thanks, Pico.

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Dear all,

Inspired by action recorder, I wrote a script to run actions exported from action recorder against multiple InDesign documents. This is not final version yet. I'd like to get your feedback: suggestions, reports about found bugs.

I am going to continue testing it after I get back from vacation in a week.

Regards,

Kas

[_Pico_]

Hi Kasyan,

Looks good! The automatic back-ups is a nice touch.

A few bugs I noticed:

I noticed it fails when you run it with "Backup original" selected on an unsaved doc.

I also noticed that you use a backslash to denote your back-up path. Fine for Windows - but it places backups

in the user folder with an incorrect path on a Mac.

Extendscript supports a forward slash as a delimiter for both Windows and Mac so that may be safer to use while still being cross-platform.

Thanks!

Pico

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Hi Pico,

Thanks for pointing out the bugs. I'm going to fix them soon. I'll be able to test it on Mac only on Wednesday when I get to my work.

As far as I understand, you implemented the approach described in this article.

Regards,
Kasyan

[_Pico_]

Hi Kasyan,

Spying on menu actions is indeed a part of what Action recorder does, albeit a very small one.

Action recorder also spys on a large amount of the properties and items that make up an InDesign document.

It observes and performs diffs on a number of collections and individual page items and also observes

geometric relationships between page items.

It currently only displays a small fraction of what can possibly be recorded. The real issue is choosing which changes to the to record as actions and which changes to ignore!

We're getting some good feedback from beta-testers on what actions they would like to record so the possiblities

will just keep growing.

Thanks,

Pico

[GoSv]

Seems it doesn't work on latest CC15 anymore? Are there any other options to have actions in Indesign?

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Unfortunately no: scripting is the only way to automate things in InDesign. Action Recorder is not supported any more.

[GoSv]

Yes I got answer from the script writers also.

Pitty, we all urgently need this for production.    

[Harbs.]

How badly do you need it?

If you offer enough money, maybe it will be worthwhile for Rorohiko to update the panel. The problem with these types of projects is that they are rarely profitable...