1 Correct answer
If you want them to be considered, post feature requests here:
https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests
I think generally speaking if a script or third party plugin can solve the problem a feature will not get added.
24
Replies
You might consider using the Page Attributes > Color Label to provide a way of indicating special kinds of pages. The command is available from the Pages panel menu:
Depending on what you want to do with the named pages a scripting approach could be to label pages with the Script Label panel and then a script could get the labeled pages as a dropdown list and do something with the selected page.
You can manually label a page using the Pages tool, or the naming could be done with a script dialog. This displays a dialog to label (name) the active page:
var n;
var ap = app.activeWindow.activePage.name
var cl = app.activeWindow.activePage.label
makeDialog();
function makeDialog(){
var theDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Name Active Page", canCancel:true});
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Name Page " + ap + ":"});
}
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
n = textEditboxes.add({editContents:cl, minWidth:150});
}
if(theDialog.show() == true){
n = n.editContents;
app.activeWindow.activePage.label = n
theDialog.destroy();
}
}
The dialog
This gets and shows a list of the named pages and makes the chosen page active, but the script could do anything with the chosen page, e.g. Export it to a JPEG with the page name as a prefix.
makeDialog();
var pSel, pList;
function makeDialog(){
var theDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Named pages", canCancel:true});
with(theDialog){
with(dialogColumns.add()){
with(dialogColumns.add()){
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Go To Page:"});
}
with(dialogColumns.add()){
pList = getPageLabels();
pSel = dropdowns.add({stringList:pList, selectedIndex:0, minWidth:80});
}
}
if(theDialog.show() == true){
pSel = pList[pSel.selectedIndex];
gotoPage();
theDialog.destroy();
}
}
}
function gotoPage(){
var p = app.activeDocument.pages.everyItem().getElements()
for (var i = 0; i < p.length; i++){
if (p[i].label == pSel) {
app.activeWindow.activePage = p[i]
}
};
}
/**
* Gets an array of page labels
* @ return page name array
*/
function getPageLabels(){
var la = [];
var cnt = 1;
var nn;
var pg = app.activeDocument.pages.everyItem().getElements()
for (var i = 0; i < pg.length; i++){
if (pg[i].label == "") {
nn = "Unnamed Page " + cnt++;
pg[i].label = nn
la.push(nn)
} else {
la.push(pg[i].label)
}
};
return la
}
Probably the best solution we can hope for at this stage 👍
I doubt a page naming feature will get added. In the DOM pages do have names, but the name is read only. The Numbering and Section Options has the Include Prefix option, which can change a page’s returned name, but it already creates some ambiguity—here absolute page 3 can return the name 1 or Chap1-1 depending on the Numbering and Section Options:
If page naming could be explicitly set, it would ad yet another layer of complexity and ambiguity to page ranges. When you go to Print or Export would your page range be Absolute Numbering, Section Numbering, or a set page name?
I don't see the problem - it can be called "name" or "label" or whatever
Pages already have a name (read-only) and label (read/write) properties. Consider the current page range complexity and how much more complex it would get if we could overwrite any name. Here’s the helpx for setting page ranges:
What happens if the document page has both Section Prefixes and custom names? And the page name in the pages panel already depends on the General Preferences Page Numbering View, would a custom name get added to the Pages panel, or would it be another Page Numbering View?
AdChoices