3 Correct answers
quick troubleshooting help. try using a try/catch alert to help identify where some problems might be happening. here's what I did.
i took the mp.columnGutter=4 line and changed it to
button2.onClick = function () {
// Set gutter
alert(mp.columnGutter)
try{
//mp.columnGutter = 2;
} catch (e){alert(e.message)}
alert(mp.columnGutter)
// Set column count
//mp.columnCount = 12;
dialog.close();
}This alerts back that the column gutter cant be interacted with because "a modal dialog is still active
...
Hi @Daniel268281559oj9 , For simple dialogs like this I use InDesign’s built-in dialog object—less code. This creates integer only edit boxes:
//variables for columns and gutter
var cn, g;
var theDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Edit Columns", canCancel:true});
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
//dialog labels
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Number of Columns:"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Gutter:"});
}
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
//integer boxes
cn = integerE
Daniel -- The problem with your script is that it moans about a modal dialog or alert that's open. That's the alert that your script shows. You can get around that by using RobOctopus's approach, but in general the solution is to use a palette-style window instead of a dialog window. That's all, so change
var dialog = new Window("dialog");to
var dialog = new Window("palette");And you may have to define a target engine, which you do by adding this line at the top of your script:
#targetengine s
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Replies
Hi @Daniel268281559oj9 , For simple dialogs like this I use InDesign’s built-in dialog object—less code. This creates integer only edit boxes:
//variables for columns and gutter
var cn, g;
var theDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Edit Columns", canCancel:true});
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
//dialog labels
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Number of Columns:"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Gutter:"});
}
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
//integer boxes
cn = integerEditboxes.add({editValue:12, maximumValue:100, minimumValue:2, minWidth:100});
g = integerEditboxes.add({editValue:4, maximumValue:100, minimumValue:0, minWidth:100});
}
if(theDialog.show() == true){
//the returned dialog values
cn = cn.editValue;
g = g.editValue;
//the function to run
setColumns()
theDialog.destroy();
}
function setColumns(){
//using Points for the gutter dimension
app.scriptPreferences.measurementUnit = MeasurementUnits.POINTS;
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var selectedPage = doc.pages.item(0);
var mp = selectedPage.marginPreferences;
mp.columnCount = cn;
mp.columnGutter = g;
app.scriptPreferences.measurementUnit = AutoEnum.AUTO_VALUE;
}
I´ll find an adjustment for that 🙂
Another reason I prefer the InDesign dialog class is, it is easy to enforce dialog data types. So here I’ve set g to a measurementEditbox, which lets the user enter any kind of unit—4mm, 4in, 4px, etc. The returned units are automatically converted to Points:
//variables for columns and gutter
var cn, g;
var theDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Edit Columns", canCancel:true});
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
//dialog labels
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Number of Columns:"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Gutter:"});
}
with(theDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
//integer box
cn = integerEditboxes.add({editValue:12, maximumValue:100, minimumValue:2, minWidth:100});
//measurement box. Here the default unit is from the document’s horizontal ruler setting
g = measurementEditboxes.add({editUnits:app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits, editValue:0, minWidth:100});
}
if(theDialog.show() == true){
//the returned dialog values
cn = cn.editValue;
g = g.editValue;
//the function to run
setColumns()
theDialog.destroy();
}
function setColumns(){
//the returned value for a measurementEditbox is converted to Points,
//so use Points for the script
app.scriptPreferences.measurementUnit = MeasurementUnits.POINTS;
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var selectedPage = doc.pages.item(0);
var mp = selectedPage.marginPreferences;
mp.columnCount = cn;
mp.columnGutter = g;
app.scriptPreferences.measurementUnit = AutoEnum.AUTO_VALUE;
}
Ive never used the indesign dialog class, and frankly the look of the code is more confusing than scriptUI's. I use scriptUI since it has been more universal across Ai/Indd/Ps. Something I have started to use in some of my scripts is the UnitValue conversion function that's built in.
UnitValue(100,"mm").as("pt")This allows you to convert any number into other values.
https://extendscript.docsforadobe.dev/extendscript-tools-features/specifying-measurement-values.html
So a handful of my windows have been set up like so. any value can be entered and any unit can be used and on the return it'll just grab the value and the dropdown selection to convert them to whatever needs to be used. This was mostly an illustrator thing since you're forced to used pts.
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