Problem with overriding objects on custom size pages

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Hi forum,

InDesign CC 2017.0 (12.0.0.81 x64 Build), Windows 10

I am trying to mimic the following manual steps by script:

The starting point: I have two master pages in the document – H-Horizontal and V-Vertical (both are of A3 page size). [None] is applied to the first and only page which has horizontal orientation (also A3).

Step 1: I apply V-Vertical master page to the first page and at this moment a warning pops-up: “Page 1 has a custom page size. This page can retain its current size or be resized to match the new master”. I choose “Use master page”.

Step 2 I Ctrl+Shift Click the four text frames to override the text frames and get the result I want

Now, let’s try to do the same by script:

Main();
function Main() {
    var doc = app.activeDocument;
    var page = doc.pages[0];
    var orientation = "V";
    var verMaster = doc.masterSpreads.itemByName("V-Vertical");
    var horMaster = doc.masterSpreads.itemByName("H-Horizontal");
    if (verMaster.isValid && horMaster.isValid) {
        if (orientation == "V") {
            page.appliedMaster = verMaster;
        }
        else if (orientation == "H") {
            page.appliedMaster = horMaster;
        }
        var allMasterTextFtrames = page.appliedMaster.textFrames.everyItem().getElements();
        for (var i = allMasterTextFtrames.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
            if (allMasterTextFtrames.label != "") {
                allMasterTextFtrames.override(page);
            }
        }
     }
}

Note: the text frames have been moved, for some unconceivable  reason, to bottom left. This happens at the moment when the script executes the override command: it happens even if I manually apply the master page and then override frames by script. I guess this is a bug.

Off the top of my head, I can work around this problem by recording x, y coordinates (or geometricBounds) of the frames with insertLabel first, and then, after applying override, read them using extractLabel and restore the original position.

Any ideas?

Here's the test file I used for testing.

— Kas

P.S. This happens only when the page size is different: if I use the horizontal master page -- var orientation = "H"; -- it works as expected. I haven't found the options available when I do this manually -- use master page size or keep current page size -- in the scripting DOM.

[Kasyan Servetsky]

It seems thinking aloud helps me -- here's another idea:

I can create a template with two pages: vertical and horizontal.

Then, instead of adding new pages and applying master pages to them, I can duplicate them as necessary and finally remove the original two pages.

[Kasyan Servetsky · Accepted solution]

The idea I set forth in my previous post worked well in practice so I'd like to expound on it a little:

The script uses a several templates to create indd-files for different products which are finally exported to pdf (for print).

The script (js) reads the data directly from Excel workbook consisting of several spreadsheets used as a sort of database (vbs called from js) to fill in pages with text and pictures (using labeled boxes).

A spreadsheet has a column indicating which orientation should be used for each page -- landscape or portrait.

The template has two master pages – named L- landscape and P-Portrait – and two 'original' pages: 1^st – portrait, 2^nd – landscape which are duplicated as much as necessary and deleted at the end:

Here's the relative code snippet:

function ProcessProduct(obj) {
    try {
        var spread, page, bylineTextFtrames, pageNum,
        template = new File(templatesFolderPath + obj.product +".indt"),
        pdfFile = new File(obj.pdfExportFolderPath + obj.schoolNameShort + " - " + obj.classNameShort + " - " + obj.product + " - Print Files.pdf");
        if (obj.product == "Order forms") {
            pageNum = obj.data.length / 4 - 1;
        }
        else if (obj.product == "Placemat") {    
            pageNum = obj.data.length;
        }
        else {
            pageNum = obj.data.length - 1;
        }
        if (pdfFile.exists && !set.cbOverwriteExistingPdfsValue && pdfFile.length >= pdfSizeLimit) {
            return;
        }
        progressTxt.text = "Processing school: " + obj.schoolNameShort + ", class: " + obj.classNameShort + " (" + countClass + " out of " + countClasses + ") -- Making " + obj.product;
        progressTxt1.text = "Making InDesign document from template";
        if (obj.product == "Class order summary") {
            ProcessClassOrderSummary(obj);
        }
        else { // other products
            doc = app.open(template, !set.cbInvisibleModeValue);
            if (set.cbSaveInDesignFilesValue) {
                doc.save(new File(obj.inddFolderPath + obj.schoolNameShort + " - " + obj.classNameShort + " - " + obj.product + ".indd"));
            }
            var currPageNum = 1; // used only for Placemat  so far
            for (var i = 0; i < pageNum; i++) {
                progressTxt1.text = "Duplicating pages: " + (i + 1) + " out of " + pageNum;
                if (obj.product == "Placemat") { // Placemat
                    if (obj.data[0] == "P") { // Portrait
                        spread = doc.spreads[0].duplicate(); // duplicate the spread instead of adding a new page because of the bug
                    }
                    else { // Landscape
                        spread = doc.spreads[1].duplicate();
                    }
                    var page = spread.pages[0];
                    var allMasterTextFrames = page.appliedMaster.textFrames.everyItem().getElements();
                    for (var j = allMasterTextFrames.length - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
                        var textFrame = allMasterTextFrames;
                        if (textFrame.label != "") {
                            textFrame.override(page);
                        }
                    }
                    IncrementLabels(spread, obj.product, currPageNum);
                    currPageNum++;
                }
                else { // Other products
                    spread = doc.spreads[doc.spreads.length -1].duplicate(); // duplicate the spread instead of adding a new page because of the bug
                    IncrementLabels(spread, obj.product);
                }
            }
            if (obj.product == "Placemat") { // Placemat - remove the first two pages
                doc.spreads[0].remove();
                doc.spreads[0].remove();
            }
            if (obj.product == "Order forms") {
                PlaceImagesOrderForms(doc, obj.imageFiles);
            }
            else {
                for (var j = 0; j < doc.pages.length; j++) {
                    page = doc.pages;
                    imageFile = GetImageForPage(page.name, obj.imageFiles);
                    if (imageFile != null) {
                        PlaceImages(page, imageFile);
                    }
                    else {
                        $.writeln("Can't find the image for page:" + page);
                    }
                }
            }
            var allTextFtrames = doc.textFrames.everyItem().getElements();
            FillInTextFrames(obj, allTextFtrames);
            ExportPDF(doc, obj);
        }
    }
    catch(err) {
        try {
            LogError("Error: " + err.message + ", file: " + doc.name + ", line: " + err.line);
            $.writeln(err.message + ", line: " + err.line);
            doc.close(SaveOptions.NO);
        }
        catch(err) {
            $.writeln(err.message + ", line: " + err.line);
        }
    }
}

[tobias.wantzen]

While answering Uwe’s post on uservoice, I stumpled across your workaround. That’s a very nice idea to work around this bug!

To cross reference for others with the same problem – here’s a solution from 2014 in the forum:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/override-elements-by-script-problems/m-p/6072078

Please leave a vote to get this fixed here:

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/913162-adobe-indesign-sdk-scripting-bugs-and-features/suggesti...