positioning objects with applescript

[ascotto]

Hi all, i'm an applescript noob and i began to learn its basics to automate some tricky tasks of my daily work.

I wrote a very simple code - and it actually works - , but i need to refine it.

Here it is:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2014"

    tell active document

        tell every master spread

            tell every page to make rectangle with properties {stroke weight:0, absolute horizontal scale:1, absolute vertical scale:1, fill color:"Paper", transparency settings:{blending settings:{opacity:0.1}}}

        end tell

    end tell

end tell

This script automatically places my rectangle somewhere on the top left corner - why? - of every page; i tried it on another mac but it doesn't work as well, because the rectangle appears outside the page.

So, is there a way to tell my rectangle to, for example, snap to the top margin of every page, in the middle? This way there shouldn't be problems anymore...

Hope to find a way, thanks all.

Alessandro

[rob day · Accepted solution]

You position a rectangle via geometric bounds:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS6"   

    tell active document

        --get the view prefs and set units to inches and the origin to page

        set viewprefs to properties of view preferences

        set properties of view preferences to {horizontal measurement units:inches, vertical measurement units:inches, ruler origin:page origin}

        --the bounds of the rectangle in y1,x1,y2,x2 format

        --y1 and x1 are the x,y coordinates of the upper left corner relative to the ruler settings

        --y2 and x2 are the bottom right corner

        --so this makes a 3" square

        set mybounds to {1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 5.0}

        tell every master spread

            tell every page to make rectangle with properties {geometric bounds:mybounds, stroke weight:0, fill color:"Black"}

        end tell

          --reset rulers

        set properties of view preferences to viewprefs

    end tell

end tell

[ascotto]

Thanks a lot, I'll try it asap, it seems it could work

Since you're the only one who answered, is there a way to run the script as a "single" action? I mean, with a click I can run several automatic actions, but when I cmd+z it undoes actions one by one: it would be great if I could undo the entire script with a single cmd+z...

Thanks again, bye!

[rob day]

I don't think so. You could run a save at the beginning of a script and then there would be the option to revert.