How to export a list of links from indesign cc 2020

[northern_twinkle888]

Does anyone know how I can save out/export a text file list of all the links in my inDesign file please?

Cheers.

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Choose File>Package, click Report, then Cancel. The saved text file will list links and link info.

[northern_twinkle888]

Good stuff.

Thank you Rob.

[Manan Joshi · Accepted solution]

Select the links in the links panel and the in the flyout menu(accessed by clicking the 3 horizontal lines on the top right of panel), select Copy Info and then Copy Info for selected links. Then you can paste the info in a text file

-Manan

[northern_twinkle888]

Nice one!

Both ways work – both have pros and cons.

But this is great help.

Thank you.

[Mike Bro]

Hello,

Try the .jsx version for your needs.

doc = app.activeDocument;
myDocFolder = app.activeDocument.filePath;
var fileName = doc.name.replace(/.indd/, "");
var linkNames = fileName + '_Links-list.txt';

var file = new File(myDocFolder.fsName + "/" + linkNames);

var myLinkName = new Array();
myLinks = app.activeDocument.links;
for(var i=0; i < myLinks.length; i++){
myLinkName.push(myLinks[i].name);
}

var mylist = myLinkName;
var myNewlist = (String(mylist).replace(/,/g, '\r'));

file.encoding = 'UTF-8';
file.open('w');
file.write(myNewlist);
file.close();
alert('Done creating links list!');

Regards,

Mike

[MiodragZ]

Hello, could you please make modification of yours script so it would use one report log file for multiple documents.

For example log can be placed at fixed location as root of C (C:\links_log.txt)

Script should make one line name of the file and than list of links followed by separation of few dashes.

Is this very complicated to be done?

[2adps]

Hi Mike,

    thank you for such a great script!  It works fine.

I need also the page number of the image on the list.

Is that possible ?

Best regards

[Tydence!]

This code works great!
Do you know if it's possible to get the entire path? I'm not seeing anything on how to do it in the documentation.

[Mike Bro]

@Tydence! 

Give this a try...

doc = app.activeDocument;
myDocFolder = app.activeDocument.filePath;
var fileName = doc.name.replace(/.indd/, "");
var linkNames = fileName + '_Links-list.txt';

var file = new File(myDocFolder.fsName + "/" + linkNames);

var myLinkName = new Array();
myLinks = app.activeDocument.links;
for(var i=0; i < myLinks.length; i++){
myLinkName.push(myLinks[i].filePath);
}

var mylist = myLinkName;
var myNewlist = (String(mylist).replace(/,/g, '\r'));

file.encoding = 'UTF-8';
file.open('w');
file.write(myNewlist);
file.close();
alert('Done creating links list!');

Regards,

Mike

[Tydence!]

Yes! That works great! Thanks for the help, I was really stumped on this one!

[Mike Bro · Accepted solution]

Hello,

If you're on a Mac check out the link below....

https://indesignsecrets.com/create-a-list-of-linked-files.php

Regards,

Mike

[northern_twinkle888]

Thank you Mike.

[eriks3]

Is it possible to export a list of every link in the order they appear in the document? Or alphabetical? This would be very useful for a back of book catalog. 

[rob day]

Hi @eriks3 , You could add a sorting function to @Mike Bro ’s script—this would be alphanumeric:

doc = app.activeDocument;
myDocFolder = app.activeDocument.filePath;
var fileName = doc.name.replace(/.indd/, "");
var linkNames = fileName + '_Links-list.txt';

var file = new File(myDocFolder.fsName + "/" + linkNames);

var myLinkName = new Array();
myLinks = app.activeDocument.links;
for(var i=0; i < myLinks.length; i++){
    myLinkName.push(myLinks[i].name);
}
myLinkName.sort(sortAlphaNum);

var mylist = myLinkName;
var myNewlist = (String(mylist).replace(/,/g, '\r'));


file.encoding = 'UTF-8';
file.open('w');
file.write(myNewlist);
file.close();
alert('Done creating links list!');


function sortAlphaNum(a, b) {
    var reA = /[^a-zA-Z]/g;
    var reN = /[^0-9]/g;
    var aA = a.replace(reA, "");
    var bA = b.replace(reA, "");
    if (aA === bA) {
        var aN = parseInt(a.replace(reN, ""), 10);
        var bN = parseInt(b.replace(reN, ""), 10);
        return aN === bN ? 0 : aN > bN ? 1 : -1;
    } else {
        return aA > bA ? 1 : -1;
    }
}

[willcampbell7]

This will make CSV (among a few formats). Open in a spreadsheet and sort however you like.

http://www.marspremedia.com/software/indesign/links-report