Showing/hiding language layers in Illustrator .ai graphics in InDesign

[yves.barbion]

I've got an InDesign file in which I have placed 200 Illustrator .AI files. The Illustrator graphics have layers:

• A layer named EN-US for the English text
• A layer named NL for the Dutch text

 I'm using InDesign version 18. How can I toggle these layers for all graphics at once, i.e. show the EN-US layer for all images (and hide the NL layer) and vice versa?

Can I do this with an Extendscript?

Kind regards

Yves

[Laubender]

Hi @yves.barbion ,

if you can see the language layers in InDesign with a placed Illustrator file one can handle the visibility of the layers in all placed Illustrator files using ExtendScript. The task is not that easy, because of a long-standing bug with InDesign where changing the layer's view of placed Illustrator, PDF files or InDesign pages will generate new IDs on the placed Illustrator files or PDFs.

For a working script see into:

Layer Visibility Overrides for all Instances of a linked file

crazyPanda, Jul 23, 2019
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/layer-visibility-overrides-for-all-instances-of-...

For script writers and all interested see also:

Place specific pdf layer into indesign with javascript
Yuliascript, Jun 18, 2018
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/place-specific-pdf-layer-into-indesign-with-java...

Important note:

You can see only main layers in your placed Illustrator files on InDesign pages and not Illustrator's sub layers.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )