InDesign third party plugin - howto turn it off

[tomaleb]

Hello,

Is it possible to turn off a third party plugin from InDesign, without deleting it from the Plugins folder?

And the second question - if it's a plugin that works on Windows will it work also on MacOS?

[Steve Werner]

I think you'd have to ask the developer of the third party plug-in. The answers could vary depending on the way they wrote the plug-in.

What plug-in are you referring to? What InDesign versions? What operating system?

[tomaleb]

It's a inside plugin from publishing house where I work. It's a VB script as fair I can check. ID CC 19, Windows

[Steve Werner]

Then you'll need to talk to the IT person at your publishing house, or the person responsible for the plug-in.

[tomaleb]

OK, I'll ask from the other side.

I remember that in earlier versions, like CS4 or later there Was something like "Manage Plug-Ins".

I also remember something like Extension Manager.

Is there something like that in CC 2019?

[Steve Werner]

A script and a plug-in are two different things are are handled quite differently. That's why you really need to talk to the person(s) who installed it, or who know about it.

[Laubender]

tomaleb  wrote

It's a inside plugin from publishing house where I work. It's a VB script as fair I can check. ID CC 19, Windows

Hi tomaleb ,

a VB script will not work on Mac OS X.

You'd need an AppleScript equivalent or a script that is based on ExtendScript ( JavaScript ) that will work on both platforms, Windows and Mac OS X.

That said: First check if it's really a script.

Regards,
Uwe

[tomaleb]

It's not a script, it's a plugin. I've used "script" by mistake. The plugin is written in VB. Is it a way to easily port it some way into other language to work on iMac?

[Laubender]

Are you sure that it is written in VB?

Usually plugins are written in C++. They may come with scripting capabilities. VB, AppleScript or ExtendScript.

AFAIK: Plugins for InDesign have to be rewritten from ground up. For every version of InDesign separately. For every version of OS separately.

Regards,
Uwe

[Test Screen Name]

C++ plugins are pretty portable between platforms if  you don’t use platform specific APIs. Doesn’t sound as if you have a plugin as we know the word.

[tomaleb]

Unfortunately it doesn't fork on OSX, so there where probably used these specific APIs. So as I understand - the only way is to write and compile it from scratch for OSX?

[Geоrge · Accepted solution]

Indd to idml then indd can delete external plugins info from indd-file.

[Test Screen Name]

You said it was vbscript. We need to get to the bottom of what you rely have. “Portable” for a C++ plugin, by the way, means you can compile it in Visual Studio or Xcode without change. No plugin just works on both. If it is a plugin. Details please.

[tomaleb]

@Test Screen Name Details:

* Plugin. Probably a Visual Basic plugin.

* I don't have source files to compile it by myself - just the plugin files in VB.

* Works fine on Wndows. Doesn't even appear in Menu on OSX.

* I used "script" by mistake - my bad. I've written it a few posts earlier.

The question is: is there a way to run it on OSX?

[Laubender]

As I already said: The answer is "no".

You cannot run VB on OS X.

Regards,
Uwe

[Laubender]

What you could do:

You could run Windows on a Mac.

With Bootcamp or Parallels or a different emulation mechanism.

On top of that you could run a Windows version of InDesign that itself uses the VB script, plugin or extension or whatever it is. But this requires an extra version of Windows and an extra version of InDesign. If you have a spare version of InDesign for Windows this might work.

Regards,
Uwe