Can InDesign.exe be run with any command line switches?

[James_M_S]

Using InDesign 17.1 in Windows 11.

Can InDesign.exe be run with any command line switches?

Making "InDesign.exe [path\document.indd]" the target in a Windows shortcut will open document.indd in ID.

What I'm wondering is if there is command line switch that would allow a template to be opened as original in ID using a shortcut in a similar way? Say, "InDesign.exe [template.indt] /o" or something?

Thanks.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Probably not; at least, I've never seen references to command line switches for any of the Adobe apps.

It's not comprehensive and you undoubtedly know it, but you can right-click on the ID icon and get all the recently-opened documents, and pin some good number of them for permanent access. I use this continually for my current project line up, and all I have to so is take a moment to pin and unpin whatever's currently in the heap. Presto, two click access to any document.

(Of course, this ignores everything MS screwed up with the Win11 taskbar, including the infuriating feature of having the app name pop up and block your right-click unless you're fast enough... sigh.)

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[Joel Cherney]

I'm medium sure that InDesign Server allows for this, but it's not as easy to do with your desktop install of InDesign. I have never done it myself, but I've summarized this posting to StackExchange for other people in your position, and it apparently works okay, even if it's a bit cumbersome.  Basically, you can't run InDesign from the command prompt but you can run ExtendScript host, which you can then use to run an InDesign script. A side-conversation from that post (featuring Loic Aigon!) shows how to pull it off with Visual Basic. 

Anyways, I don't know if this will help your forced-template-automation or not, but good luck! In your shoes, I'd maybe think about doing something in the GUI, maybe with AutoHotkey.

[Dirk Becker]

You can write a startup script.

A startup script can read environment variables via $.getenv("variable") or you modify the script itself to refer to the file name.

[James_M_S]

Thanks for the replies. I couldn't find anything in the documentation about startup switches. But I thought I'd ask because word processors and other software often allows you to do things like this from the command line.

I was working on a template and  hoped there was a simple way of opening it as original without opening ID first. If I have to do it very often, I'll look at doing it with a script.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If it's just one template, a desktop icon to the template file will work as well as any of these around-the-barn methods. Even if you have several templates, keeping them (or their shortcuts) in a group on the desktop, in a desktop folder or in any similar organized manner will let you open ID to that template, and away you go.

If you want to force a save to a new file... just tag the template file read-only.

And I'll point back to right-click/pin, with an RO file, as possibly the most integral and simple solution of all.

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[James_M_S]

But I think clicking on a shortcut to a template that will open a new file based on the template. What I was hoping to be able to do is click on a shortcut to the template and have it open as original so it can be changed.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If you click on MyTemplate.indd, it will open ID with that file, with which you can do anything you like, including modify and save.

If you click on MyTemplate.indd that is tagged read-only, it will open ID with that file, with which you can do anything you like including modify... but when you save it, it will ask for a new filename (and location, etc.) unless you take deliberate steps to save over the existing file.

Was there something else you wanted to achieve?

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[James_M_S]

I was hoping to do something similar to that, not with an ID document, MyTemplate.indd, but with an ID template file, MyTemplate.indT. But, as you say I can probably accomplish the same thing using a regular document and maybe setting the read-only attribute. I'm going to play around with that.

Thanks again for all the replies.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

So click on — or create a shortcut to — MyTemplate.indt. It will work the same way, without the need to tag it read-only (unless you really want to protect the template against even attempted overwrites).

ID's default behavior when you open an .indt file is to assume you want to save a new version to a different .indd file and name. So if you already have your templates saved/named as *.indt... you shouldn't have to do anything extra at all except give child files a new name and location when you first save them.

Unless there's some other aspect you didn't include (or that I overlooked), this is a really simple, inherent file/ID task needing no special steps, scripts, command-line arguments, anything... 🙂

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