simple slug script

Report · Feb 20, 2012

im trying to create a simple bottom of document, slug for cs5 ID in applescript on 10.6.8

within the slug should sit 3 words, 'one', 'two' 'three' each word on a separate line, not 1 continuous line. im struggling to understand how to position a text frame rather than one continuous line

can anyone assist?

kl73

Report · Feb 20, 2012

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

tell the first spread

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(item 3 of page 1's bounds), 0, ((item 3 of page 1's bounds) + 15), 30}}

set contents of slugText to "one" & return & "two" & return & "three"

end tell

--adds it bottom left for me…

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

set a to document bleed bottom offset of document preferences

set b to slug bottom offset of document preferences

tell the first spread

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(c + a), 0, (c + b), 30}}

set contents of slugText to "one" & return & "two" & return & "three"

end tell

--some tabbing madness here… a little better but it does presume bleeds and slugs

Report · Feb 20, 2012

mark

thanks, you make it look so easy! another question if i may?!!

i have adapted;

how can i put more space between each line of type and to format to an arial bold 10pt for example?? i tried to increase 15 and 30 figures but no change???, you can see ive added some text tags in replacement of one two three, the slug grame is not big enough now!!

cheers, really appreciate assistance, whih country are you in?

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

tell the first spread

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(item 3 of page 1's bounds), 0, ((item 3 of page 1's bounds) + 15), 30}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & return & "Qty:{{*comment1_es_signer}}" & return & "Invoiced to:{{*comment1_es_signer}}"

end tell

Report · Feb 20, 2012

This goes inside the tell spread block… after you set the contents… I wouldn't have guessed applied font

set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Arial MT Bold"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 10

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 20

Report · Feb 21, 2012

im understanding the 'returns'! and im nearly there i think,

this code

set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Verdana"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 10

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 16

is only working on the 1st line of type for some reason mark?, i presume its because ive added 2 more returns? (see below), i need these extra 2 returns after 1st line as the tag in line 1 produces a rather deep box, also the text frame is way too small, i need to extend the handles on the box to make the type visible, is there a way to make the frame the width of the document?

thanks alot.

k

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

tell the first spread

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(item 3 of page 1's bounds), 0, ((item 3 of page 1's bounds) + 15), 30}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & return & return & return & "Qty:{{*comment1_es_signer}}" & return & "Invoiced to:{{*comment1_es_signer}}"

set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Verdana"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 10

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 16

end tell

Report · Feb 21, 2012

Well you can do that in a couple of ways… Adding returns is going to give you blank paragraphs of 16pt leading… Or you could set the leading for each paragraph to suit…

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

set a to document bleed bottom offset of document preferences

set b to slug bottom offset of document preferences

tell the first spread

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds

set d to item 4 of page 1's bounds

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(c + a), 0, (c + b), d}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & return ¬

& "Qty:{{*comment1_es_signer}}" & return ¬

& "Invoiced to:{{*comment1_es_signer}}"

--set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Arial MT Bold"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 10

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 20

set leading of second paragraph of slugText to 40

end tell

I just commented out the font swap line as don't have that loaded now… The box is page width from bleed offset to slug offset

Report · Feb 21, 2012

excellent, i was getting errors but i worked that out, because slug on doc was not big enough

is there a way i can automate a slug creation to fit also?

scripting is awesome!!! i would love to learn more.

thanks mark

Report · Feb 21, 2012

Hi Muppet Mark,

I've just been reading through this thread, and was wondering if you could help me. I'm looking to set up a script sort of along these lines, excpet that I would want the script to create a new indesign document and then add in a indesign snippet into the slug. The doucment sizes would vairey each time so the cordinates of the placed snippet would also change each time. I've been looking on line for some help on this as my scripting knowledge isnt that good. Do think it possible to do this?

Sorry for tagging onto the topic, but you seem pretty clued up on the scripting side and its in the same area.

Thanks

Marsman

Report · Feb 21, 2012

Using snippets and events scripting are 2 things I have not done yet… It may be possible though… You may get more luck/answers if you are open to using JavaScript for this… ( more popular )

Report · Feb 21, 2012

Yes you can set both the slug and bleed offsets… They are read/write properties… As I stated the script as is was expecting these to be set but if they aren't then it could set them first… I mostly use new document presets where this can be defined…

Report · Feb 21, 2012

something like this?

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell document preferences of active document

set document bleed bottom offset to "8p"

set document bleed top offset to "8p"

set document bleed inside or left offset to "8p"

set document bleed outside or right offset to "8p"

set slug bottom offset to "6p"

set slug top offset to "0p"

set slug inside or left offset to "0p"

set slug right or outside offset to "0p"

end tell

tell the active document

set a to document bleed bottom offset of document preferences

set b to slug bottom offset of document preferences

tell the first spread

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds

set d to item 4 of page 1's bounds

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(c + a), 0, (c + b), d}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & return ¬

& "Qty:{{*comment1_es_signer}}" & return ¬

& "Invoiced to:{{*comment2_es_signer}}"

set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Minion Pro"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 12

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 20

set leading of second paragraph of slugText to 40

end tell

dont work so i presume its wrong!

Report · Feb 21, 2012

Slugs and bleed can be set using 4 separate values or all 4 linked to one value… Your slug values are less than your bleeds… I would not expect that… A quickly hashed example… Uniform bleeds but but a deeper bottom slug

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

tell document preferences

if document bleed uniform size ≠ true then

set document bleed uniform size to true

set document bleed top offset to 5

end if

if document slug uniform size ≠ false then

set document slug uniform size to false

set slug top offset to 10

set slug inside or left offset to 10

set slug right or outside offset to 10

set slug bottom offset to 30

end if

end tell

tell the first spread

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds

set d to item 4 of page 1's bounds

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(c + 5), 0, (c + 30), d}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & return ¬

& "Qty:{{*comment1_es_signer}}" & return ¬

& "Invoiced to:{{*comment1_es_signer}}"

--set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Arial MT Bold"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 10

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 20

set leading of second paragraph of slugText to 40

end tell

Report · Feb 21, 2012

i need to study this... to understand the difference.

i changed the second return to a tab, due to aesthetics! but on a short width document e.g. a business card, the text frame is not wide enough, because it adheres to the page bounds, i tried to do the obvious, change bounds to other descriptions but wont work....?

Report · Feb 21, 2012

to understand how to adjust a tab value would be good also.

Report · Feb 22, 2012

mark

ive got around my issue by just repeating & tab & tab & tab!

i dont understand what item 3 and item 4 is in this piece of code

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds, set d to item 4 of page 1's bounds

i presume this is the key to making the text frame larger than page size?

thanks

Report · Feb 22, 2012

The bounds of an object are a 4 ltem list in AppleScript… So if I ask for the bounds of a page like so…

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

get bounds of the first page

end tell

It will return {0.0, 0.0, 296.999999999461, 209.999999999936} my default A4… So the script is just using the values of the 3rd and 4th items out of the list to do a little math with…

As for your tabs then they belong to paragraphs so apply them there here is an example using 2

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell the active document

tell the first text frame

tell the first paragraph

make new tab stop at beginning with properties ¬

{alignment:left align, position:10}

make new tab stop at end with properties ¬

{alignment:left align, position:30}

end tell

tab, tab, tab, tut, tut I'll take that keyboard off ya…

Report · Feb 22, 2012

these wireless keyboards are no good!!!

get the bounds thing, makes sense, not sure how to position your last code into existing?? see below

im sure its something so simple to you experts!

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell document preferences of active document

set document bleed bottom offset to "1p"

set document bleed top offset to "1p"

set document bleed inside or left offset to "1p"

set document bleed outside or right offset to "1p"

set slug bottom offset to "8p"

set slug top offset to "0p"

set slug inside or left offset to "0p"

set slug right or outside offset to "8p"

end tell

tell the active document

set a to document bleed bottom offset of document preferences

set b to slug bottom offset of document preferences

tell the first spread

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds

set d to item 4 of page 1's bounds

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(c + a), 0, (c + b), d}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & tab ¬

& "Qty: {{*comment1_es_signer}}" & return ¬

& "Invoiced to: {{*comment2_es_signer}}"

end tell

tell the active document

tell the first text frame

tell the first paragraph

make new tab stop at beginning with properties ¬

{alignment:left align, position:10}

make new tab stop at end with properties ¬

{alignment:left align, position:30}

end tell

set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Arial"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 12

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 20

set leading of second paragraph of slugText to 24

end tell

Report · Feb 23, 2012

still struggling with the tab, tab, tab, however i position your code it doesnt alter the position of tabs??? ive prob got it in wrong place

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

tell document preferences of active document

set document bleed bottom offset to "1p"

set document bleed top offset to "1p"

set document bleed inside or left offset to "1p"

set document bleed outside or right offset to "1p"

set slug bottom offset to "14p"

set slug top offset to "0p"

set slug inside or left offset to "0p"

set slug right or outside offset to "10p"

end tell

tell the active document

set a to document bleed bottom offset of document preferences

set b to slug bottom offset of document preferences

tell the first spread

set c to item 3 of page 1's bounds

set d to item 4 of page 1's bounds

set slugText to make new text frame with properties ¬

{geometric bounds:{(c + a), 0, (c + b), d}}

set contents of slugText to "{{_es_signer_signatureblock}}" & return ¬

& "Qty:{{*comment1_es_signer}}" & tab ¬

& "Invoiced to:{{*comment2_es_signer}}"

tell the first text frame

tell the first paragraph

make new tab stop at beginning with properties ¬

{alignment:left align, position:10}

make new tab stop at end with properties ¬

{alignment:left align, position:30}

end tell

set applied font of every paragraph of slugText to "Times"

set point size of every paragraph of slugText to 12

set leading of every paragraph of slugText to 60

end tell