a lot of the sample scripts provided via the adobe application don't do anything spectacular but rather show functionality via extendscript. Its up to you to extrapolate how the script is being demonstrated and use it in a different way.  opening the file to edit it would show you via the comments and the small amount of code how the desired result is achieved and what you would need to change to benefit your needs. ... View more

when editting the contents of text via scripting you need to use insertion points to add text to maintain text styling. simply altering the contents will cause all of the contents to be reformatted to the same format as the first character. ... View more

Trying to use data sets to link data but my template has two cards on a printable sheet. 2 - 5x7 sheets printed on a letter size paper.  can I have two duplicate data sets on a single page or format to print/save as two on a single page? What would be best to do this? ... View more

Everything RobOctopus said, this is totally doable. I created a load/preflight script for my group that detects the art on a client proof, replaces all fpo images with high-res links, adds bleed, checks rich blacks, and scales from letter size proofs to production 1:12 or 1:24 scale billboards in over 216 unique sizesk on over 14substrates... all while checking all the usual trap/overprint/etc issues that production art needs for each type of material and press requirements. We tripled our work capacity and reduced prepress time investment by 75% in three months with much of what you are looking to do. My advice for you is that start by organizing your tasks, put them in the order you wish them to be run and work on each section independently until you're happy with each result... then afterwards combine into the larger "finished" script for deployment. It will make your troubleshooting and dev cycle much easier to manage, and enable you to focus on specific roadblocks you may encounter. It will also give you a "toolbox" of mini scripts that you can use to achieve specific tasks without running the entire script only. ... View more

My brain is the same as yours, I swear they used to append when copying and pasting, I have the same problem with a job that has a ton of them, I've popped the question on another forum, check boxes still do it! ... View more

Leaving a comment to let you know that this solution helped me out in a big way! Thank you! ... View more

I spent some time learning about the regex search pattern options once RobOctopus pointed me in the right direction. At some point I tried the 1,2 but I had it as [1,2] and never got it to resolve. The best I came up with was (/^XX T\d+$/g) but now with your help I can see I can use the ( /$) to include the space at the end ... and much more importantly limit the pattern to only two digits. Much appreciated. ... View more

Thank you, that option using a Rect works for me, ... View more

Hi, Connection issue: When using ScriptUI palette windows, you may sometimes be unable to access the active document in Illustrator. This is because the script window loses its connection to the active document. See the following discussion. Is ScriptUI in Illustrator broken? - Adobe Community - 13640854 ... View more

I tried it with that additional line and it works now, thank you for your help! ... View more

good approach, but change PANTONE 288 C to PANTONE 195 C or vice versa,  also there no need to declare second  _pantoneColor, assinning is enough ... View more

sorry for posting in wrong forum ... View more

@jduncan  great tip! Thank you so much! from the design perspectiv this is not beautiful but if I'll use the txt above as column title this will do the job 😉   ... View more

As @Robert38512781pn4f mentioned, they may be better ways to do this. But since I had a function already that does most of this, I will share this script, too. - Mark /** * @file Make Numbered Text Frames On Artboards.js * * Makes numbered text frames on available artboards. * Adjust the constants START, END, ITEMS_PER_ARTBOARD, * GAP_PTS and TEXT_SIZE_PTS. * * @author m1b * @version 2024-07-10 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/need-help-with-making-308-different-numbered-text-boxes/m-p/14728931 */ (function () { const START = 1, END = 308, ITEMS_PER_ARTBOARD = 30; const GAP_PTS = 60, TEXT_SIZE_PTS = 30; var doc = app.activeDocument, total = END - START, len = Math.ceil(total / ITEMS_PER_ARTBOARD); if (doc.artboards.length < len) return alert('Not enough artboards to fit ' + ITEMS_PER_ARTBOARD + ' numbers per artboard.\n(' + doc.artboards.length + ' available, ' + len + ' required).'); for (var i = 0, ab, bounds, remainder = total + 1, counter, frame, frames; i < len; i++) { frames = []; counter = Math.min(ITEMS_PER_ARTBOARD, remainder); while (counter--) { frame = doc.textFrames.add(); frame.contents = total - (--remainder) + START; frame.textRange.size = TEXT_SIZE_PTS; frames.push(frame); } ab = doc.artboards[i]; bounds = ab.artboardRect; arrangeItems({ items: frames, gap: GAP_PTS, maxWidth: bounds[2] - bounds[0], origin: [bounds[0], bounds[1]], }); if (remainder < START) break; } })(); /** * Positions page items in a simple L-R, T-B grid, * given `maxWidth`, with `gap` between each item. * The `lineHeight` variable is the largest height * in a given row. * @author m1b * @version 2023-11-01 * @param {Object} options * @param {Array<Number>} options.origin - the origin [x,y] of the top-left of the grid. * @param {Array<PageItem>} options.items - the items to position. * @param {Number} [options.maxWidth] - the maximum width of the grid area, in points (default: no maximum). * @param {Number} [options.gap] - the gap between items (default: 0). */ arrangeItems = function arrangeItems(options) { options = options || {}; var origin = options.origin, items = options.items, maxWidth = options.maxWidth || Infinity, gap = options.gap || 0; var x = 0, y = 0, lineHeight = 0; for (var i = 0; i < items.length; i++) { var item = items[i]; if (x + item.width > maxWidth) { // move down x = 0; y -= (lineHeight || item.height) + gap; lineHeight = 0; } // position the item items[i].position = [origin[0] + x, origin[1] + y]; // move right x += item.width + gap; if (item.height > lineHeight) lineHeight = item.height; } }; ... View more

@RobOctopus, yep this works but still leaves a hidden extra stroke in the appearance panel that bugs me. I was hoping for a native way to accomplish this but I'm beginning to think there isn't one.   As for turning off the visibility in the actual appearance, it is something I have seen on occasion and something I do from time to time, especially with prebuilt styles. For example, in the attached image I have a prebuilt style for the name (top object), but I can easily turn off the pink accents and inner gradient to quickly achieve an alternate look without having to keep two separate styles in sync.   Thanks for thr suggestion! ... View more

Welp you did tell me that already. And sonofagun, it worked!   Thanks for all the help!     ... View more

No Problem @Aidan_C . Unfortunately, aligning stroke is really goofy via scripting, but doable. Add the following to the previous code. /*the original code i sent had layers being created around line 23/24 add this there*/ var BackgroundRectangle = FindLayerCreate(app.activeDocument, "WHITE RECTANGLE") /*previous code things here*/ /*then after the circles are made add this it will create a rectangle on the background rectangle layer we make earlier then we make sure the stroke is white, the width is equal to the circle sizes, and that there isnt a fill. then we call the align stroke function and finally move it to the bottom of the stack as a redudancy*/ var WhiteRectangle = BackgroundRectangle.pathItems.rectangle(ATop+Bleed,ALeft-Bleed, AWidth+(Bleed*2), -(AHeight-(Bleed*2))) WhiteRectangle.stroked = true WhiteRectangle.strokeWidth = CircleWidthHeight WhiteRectangle.strokeColor = new CMYKColor(); WhiteRectangle.filled = false WhiteRectangle.fillColor = new NoColor(); AlignStroke(WhiteRectangle, 1) BackgroundRectangle.move(app.activeDocument,ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND) /* somewhere at the bottom of the code, copy/paste this function does some goofy things to align the stroke by creating an action to do it for us and then deleting the action */ /** * Will change the alignment of a stroked path. * @param {Object} FrameToAlign - PathItem to edit * @param {String|Number} AlignNumber - 0=Center, 1=Inside, 2=Outside */ function AlignStroke(FrameToAlign, AlignNumber){ /* need to grab the previous stroke join and cap as they are overwritten for some reason. will reset them back to their previous state at the end of the function */ var PreviousJoin = FrameToAlign.strokeJoin var PreviousCap = FrameToAlign.strokeCap switch(AlignNumber){ case "0": case 0: var AlignInsert = [ '/name [ 6', '43656e746572', ']', '/value 0'] break; case "1": case 1: var AlignInsert = [ '/name [ 6', '496e73696465', ']', '/value 1'] break; case "2": case 2: var AlignInsert = [ '/name [ 7', '4f757473696465', ']', '/value 2'] break } var ActionString = [ '/version 3', '/name [ 14', '5374726f6b65416c69676e536574', ']', '/isOpen 1', '/actionCount 1', '/action-1 {', '/name [ 17', '5374726f6b65416c69676e416374696f6e', ']', '/keyIndex 0', '/colorIndex 0', '/isOpen 1', '/eventCount 1', '/event-1 {', '/useRulersIn1stQuadrant 0', '/internalName (ai_plugin_setStroke)', '/localizedName [ 10', '536574205374726f6b65', ']', '/isOpen 1', '/isOn 1', '/hasDialog 0', '/parameterCount 1', '/parameter-1 {', '/key 1634494318', '/showInPalette 4294967295', '/type (enumerated)'].concat(AlignInsert, '}', '}', '}').join("\n") var f = File(Folder.desktop+"/StrokeAlignment.aia"); f.open('w'); f.write(ActionString); f.close(); app.executeMenuCommand("deselectall") FrameToAlign.selected = true; app.loadAction(f); app.doScript('StrokeAlignAction', 'StrokeAlignSet'); app.unloadAction('StrokeAlignSet', ''); f.remove(); FrameToAlign.strokeJoin = PreviousJoin FrameToAlign.strokeCap = PreviousCap }   ... View more

thanks for a detailed answer, RobOctobus it cleared my confusion between menu command and that setting - I was clicking menu command and reading setting to no avail, never tried to set set the setting by code. ..meanwhile menu command was modifyng actual text ... View more

Ah, yes I should have mentioned that. If there is no return value from the bt.body, then no callback get's triggered. Glad you sorted it out! ... View more

Thank you very much. Your solution wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I suspect it's because I didn't explain my needs well enough. Regardless, I was able to figure out how the coordinate system works now using your simplified approach, and I managed to get it working for my use-case. I'll paste the code below for future reference if someone needs something like this. Thank you again! // Top-left corner drawMark(x1 + bleedPoints, y1, lengthPoints, true); // Vertical drawMark(x1 - lengthPoints, y1 - bleedPoints, lengthPoints, false); // Horizontal // Top-right corner drawMark(x2 - bleedPoints, y1, lengthPoints, true); // Vertical drawMark(x2, y1 - bleedPoints, lengthPoints, false); // Horizontal // Bottom-left corner drawMark(x1 + bleedPoints, y2 - lengthPoints, lengthPoints, true); // Vertical drawMark(x1 - lengthPoints, y2 + bleedPoints, lengthPoints, false); // Horizontal // Bottom-right corner drawMark(x2 - bleedPoints, y2 - lengthPoints, lengthPoints, true); // Vertical drawMark(x2, y2 + bleedPoints, lengthPoints, false); // Horizontal ... View more

 Rob, thank you very much for sharing the above code here,  I followed the above steps i got below errors, can you please help     ... View more

alternative approach if you dont want to keep the 2.83... constant anytime you want to use it. There is a built in function to create and convert units UnitValue(Value,Unit) This will create a value in the specified unit. so you can do UnitValue(8,"mm") and it would be an 8 mm value. the problem specifically with Illustrator is all values are point based. There's another function with UnitValue to convert UV.as(conversion) so you can do UnitValue(8,"mm").as("pt") and it will convert the 8 mm to points for use. so the above could be  var newWidth = width + UnitValue(8,"mm").as("pt") more documentation here https://extendscript.docsforadobe.dev/extendscript-tools-features/specifying-measurement-values.html once I found this, I started using this method over having to keep the units I needed as a global value or put into each function. Cheers ... View more

Thank you so much @RobOctopus , its working as expect ... View more

Thanks @RobOctopus that's great info! - Mark ... View more

Hi Mark,   Thanks for your support. Now I get the kerning values.   ... View more

Great! Hope your project goes well. ... View more