Script to "save as" to overwrite a file

[danielw42205661]

I was wondering if it is possible to write a script to do a save as that overwrites a file without having to deal with the warning dialog boxes e.g "...the file already existi. Do you want to replace it etc." 

The reason I want this;

I just found out that say you had a resource-heavy file with a bunch of images etc that was say 50MB, even if you delete all the content so it's a blank document and do a regular save, the file will still be 50MB. But if you did a save as and overwrote it it would go down to say 1MB. So doing regular saves causes a lot of file size bloating. If I could do save as's this would keep all my file sizes way down. I just dont like having to deal with the warning dialog boxes when doing so. 

Thanks!

[Charu Rajput]

Hi,

Try the following

// app.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevel.DONTDISPLAYALERTS;
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var file = File(Folder.desktop + '/test.ai');
doc.saveAs(file);
// app.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevel.DISPLAYALERTS;

I run it multiple times on same document, and it does not show any alert that file already exists. You can try and let us know if that works for you.

[danielw42205661]

Thanks for your reply.

When I try to run the script I get the error below. Do you know what I would be doing wrong?

[Charu Rajput]

My mistake. I have written that for Illustrator.

[Charu Rajput]

Hi,

Could you please the following version. I could not find direct methof saveAS but when I use stationary flag as true(second parameter), it keeps file size small

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var file = File(Folder.desktop + '/test.indd', true);
doc.save(file);

Also, I would like to have an expert's comment what does exactly stationary flag means here.

[danielw42205661]

Thanks again.

This doesnt overwrite the existing file I have open. It creates a new file on the desktop called "new", but it does indeed reduce the filesize down alot which is good. Is there a way to make it overwrite the initial file thats open and being worked on and not create a copy on the desktop? 

[Charu Rajput]

Did you try to change the path of the file?
I am using the hard code path, that's why it is saving at Desktop. Try following version assuming your file is saved once. 

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var _path = doc.fullName;
var file = File(_path);
doc.save(file, true);

[danielw42205661]

No sorry I hadn't.  I'm not very knowledgeable with code.

It seems like it has issues if the folder has spaces in it I think since I get the below error message.

I tested on an indesign document placed on the desktop and it ran without giving me the error. However, it created a copy on the desktop and replaced the spaces in the filename with %s.

[Mike Bro · Accepted solution]

Hello @danielw42205661,

Give this a try, it will save over the open document when you execute the script even if no changes were made ...

doc = app.documents[0];
myDocFolder = doc.filePath;
doc.save(File(myDocFolder.fsName + "/" + doc.name));

Regards,

Mike

[danielw42205661]

Thank you so much! This worked perfectly. I really appreciate your help, this will be a lifesaver. 

[Peter Kahrel]

And the short version of Mike's script is

app.documents[0].save (app.documents[0].fullName)