[JS] "InDiCode" : Unicode toolbox for InDesign (beta-test)

[__pablo__]

"InDiCode.js" allows users to:

- insert characters by Unicode id (or set of id's)
- identify "special characters"
- check available glyphs in the current font

It's supposed to work on ID CS, CS2 and CS3.
I hope you'll enjoy to beta-test it.

Overview and download here:
http://marcautret.free.fr/geek/indd/unicode/part3.php

Thanks for your feedbacks!

[Peter Kahrel]

Marc,

That's a magnifique script! Works very well.Just one question: you've hard-coded the unicode ranges for the dropdown--is it not possible to get that information from the font?

Peter

[__pablo__]

Thanks Peter,

As you see, the dropdown list is just a predefined collection of ranges which make easier the inspection of usual Unicode sets. The "javascripter" is highly requested to customize these sets for his own convenience. Alternately, it's possible to stipulate any range directly from the Unicode field, using comma separated values and/or dashes for Unicode segments.

You have a point : the glyphs/ranges available in the current font are certainly documented in the font file itself. The problem is that I don't know how to extract and parse this information! For the moment, the glyph-checking process is "empirical", thanks to the Dave Saunder's outline-trick:

http://jsid.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-and-wheres-that-glyph.html

[Precision: SpecialCharacters names and id's exposed from the script are also hard-coded, despite of your great method using the array SpecialCharacters.reflect.properties. The point is that I wanted InDiCode to be InDesign CS-compatible.]

I rely on users feedbacks and requests to improve and extend the process in the future. InDiCode has been primarly designed as a library and the script hosts a lot of "sleeping" features (exporting methods, UTF8 translation...).

[_Olav_Kvern_]

Hi _pablo_,

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing it with the community.

We have some work to do, though--not all special characters can be entered using Unicode, and some ranges cannot be entered via script. I really hope we can provide for Unicode entry of all characters in a future release.

Thanks,

Ole

[__pablo__]

Thanks Olav.

"(...) not all special characters can be entered using Unicode (...)"

Yes, that's one of the problem I focused in the introduction of my paper (http://marcautret.free.fr/geek/indd/unicode/part1.php -- in French, sorry!)

See also this PDF built form CS2 specialchars set:
http://marcautret.free.fr/geek/indd/unicode/InDesignSpecialCharacters.pdf

And a short diagram illustrating how to deal with SpecialChars-vs-Unicode problem:
http://marcautret.free.fr/geek/indd/unicode/fig10.png

In CS3, the main innovation is SpecialCharacters.textVariable, which seems to behave as a read-only non-Unicode pseudo-character.