Loading ContentPlacerObject

[rasmussvanejensen]

Hi.

I am trying to load the ContentPlacerObject using the load() method.

The load method takes a pageItem as an input.

Question

Is it possible to create a pageItem (a textFrame) and load it to the ContentPlacerObject without outputting the pageItem to the document.

Have a nice day 🙂

[m1b]

Hi @rasmussvanejensen, I'm not knowledgeable about this question, but I guess that you cannot create a pageItem that isn't on a page. What is your reason why you don't want to create it on a page? I'm assuming it is because loading to the ContentPlacerObject is the end of the script and you won't have a chance to clean up. Hmmm. Perhaps you could define an event handler that did the cleanup (eg. closing a hidden temp document without saving)? I'm not knowledgeable about that proecss either. Sorry I'm not much help, but maybe you have something to explore.

- Mark

[rasmussvanejensen]

Hi @m1b.

Thanks for your reply 🙂

I'll quickly sum up the script:

The script creates a textframe containing an ID as content.The user will then place the textframe manualy using the mouse. The textframe and ID is used to quickly create crossreferences.

I have a working version, where I output the textframe to the current page and then use app.cut() to move it to the clipboard for the user to paste out.

I have found two issues I would like to improve:

1: The textframe is outputted to the upper left corner of the page, which can cause the screen to "jump" to the corner if zoomed in.

2: It would be nice to place the textframe in the Content placer tool or otherwise load it to the mouse to improve UX.

I was hoping to solve both problems in one go if I could skip placing the textframe before adding it to the clipboard or content placer.

Maybe the solution is to place the textframe inside the "view" of the screen to fix the "jump".

[m1b]

It's an interesting project. You can set the view position using @Laubender's answer to this question but I couldn't see how to read the current view position. I have asked my own question to see if anyone knows how to do it.

- Mark

[rasmussvanejensen]

Hi Mark.

Thank you for your help! I'll dive into the posts 🙂

[Laubender]

@rasmussvanejensen said:

"2: It would be nice to place the textframe in the Content placer tool or otherwise load it to the mouse to improve UX."

You can do this be exporting the text frame to an IDMS snippet file and load it to the place gun.

When this is done remove the snippet file.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

[rasmussvanejensen]

Hi @Laubender.

Thank you for your reply.

I will have a look into that approach!

Thank you 🙂

[Laubender]

Here very simple ExtendScript code that shows this:

var folderToSave = Folder( "~/Desktop" );
var uniqueString = Date.now().toString();
var tempIdmsFile = File( folderToSave +"/"+ uniqueString +".idms" );

// Text frame selected:
var itemToExport = app.selection[0];

itemToExport.exportFile( ExportFormat.INDESIGN_SNIPPET , tempIdmsFile );

var placeGun = app.documents[0].placeGuns;
placeGun.loadPlaceGun( tempIdmsFile );

tempIdmsFile.remove();

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

[rasmussvanejensen]

Thank you! That was a great example!