How to install scripts in InDesign _ InDesignSecrets.pdf

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HOME > SECRETS > Plugins and Scripts > How to install scripts in InDesign

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By: Anne-Marie Concepcion

How to install scripts in InDesign

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Download the script onto your computer and if necessary, decompress it (unstuff or unzip it). You should end up with a plain text file with a special filename extension:

Javascript files can be run on Mac or Windows and have a .jsx extension — “script.jsx” Applescript files are Mac-only and have an .as extension — “script.as” (or .scpt) Visual Basic files are Windows-only and have a .vbs extension — “script.vbs”

If you need to change a setting inside of a script, you can edit it in a text editor. Be sure to save the file as a plain text file with the original extension.

[ed note: updated 2/2009 for CS3 and CS4, updated 7/2011 for CS5 and 5.5]

There are two places you can install scripts in InDesign: The application folder and the user script folder. The easiest way to find these folders is to open the Scripts panel in InDesign (Window > Automation > Scripts in CS3 and CS4; or Window > Utilities > Scripts in CS5 or later), then right-click on either Application or User. We tend to use “User” for scripts that we’ve downloaded, but it’s up to you and the permissions you have on your computer. From the context menu, choose Reveal in Finder (or Reveal in Windows Explorer).

Inside the folder that opens there is a folder called Scripts panel. Put your scripts inside that.

Any script inside the Scripts Panel folder will show up immediately in InDesign. No need to restart the program.

If you’re still using CS or CS2, follow this info: To install the script, locate the Adobe InDesign program on your computer and drag and drop the script file into the Adobe InDesign CS2 > Presets > Scripts folder. If you don’t see a folder called Scripts inside of Presets, you can make one yourself.

Note that you may need to have an admin account on your computer in order to add plug-ins and scripts to InDesign … but once they’re in there, any type of user account can use them.

To run the script, open a document in InDesign, then open the Scripts palette (see above) and double-click the script name. Some scripts require you make a selection first before you run them, because they act on the selection. See if the script writer provided any sort of documentation if you can’t figure it out.

If you are having trouble running older scripts in a new version of InDesign, read this post. 5

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65 Responses discussing this post. Add yours below.

1. José Ramos

June 7th, 2006 • 2:22 pm • Link

Beautiful!!! It worked like a charm. Actually better, ‘cuz charms never work.

Now, if I only had a script to unlink all stories in a given document, I’d be set. How hard can that be, right? 2. José Ramos

June 7th, 2006 • 2:25 pm • Link

Sorry, I meant to write this in another thread. Guess that’s the draw back of tabbed browsing. 3. Tricia

June 29th, 2006 • 5:40 am • Link

this is absolutely amazing!! thanks so much!!! 4. Gary Spedding

July 4th, 2006 • 12:28 am • Link

Can this be made (for a novice) to work in CS? i d not have the luxury of CS2 and with CS3 on the way soon it may not be worth moving to CS2.

5. Tina Delceg

July 12th, 2006 • 9:43 pm • Link

Had a little trouble editing the script for zooming to actual size, but finally found a script editor on my mac that did it. Great help, thanks very much.

6. Hamish Symington

August 10th, 2006 • 12:59 pm • Link

You need to make sure it’s a .as and not anything else. .scpt or .app won’t work. Save your script as ‘text’ from Script Editor, then rename it from .applescript to .as (took me half an hour to work this out…)

7. Anne-Marie

I’m curious why a person would need the Script Editor … I just open or copy/paste ID scripts in TextEdit (switching to Plain Text mode if necessary), then save them from there as .jsx or .as.

8. yassaman

September 22nd, 2006 • 9:03 am • Link

It cant add pages between pages. Only adds in end 9. buddygal

October 7th, 2006 • 8:32 pm • Link

How can i install PDF presets that seem to be missing in my CS2? just trying to get in on the correct topic here. Thanks!

10. Scott_the_Geek

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11. Anne-Marie

Scott, I think CS1 Javascripts end with just “.js” … but sometimes the scripts call for CS2-only functions, so just changing .jsx to .js might not work. Look on your CS1 install CD for the folder containing the CS1 scripts. (They’re in the Extras/Resources CD, I think in the Technical folder.) Adobe doesn’t offer the CS1 scripts for downloading at the site I mentioned in the post, only the CS2 ones.

Renaming a .jsx file to .vbs doesn’t do a thing, the coding the file actually contains is still Javascript, not VBScript. Sorry … 12. laura k

May 5th, 2007 • 1:45 pm • Link

Thank you for describing this process! I could not find it anywhere in the CS2 documentation. (It tells you to install but never tells you how.) Thanks also for including how to open the Scripts palette — the menus are not intuitive, and I don’t use InDesign often enough to remember everything from use to use. It would be a big help for Adobe to include that sort of stuff when they write their manuals.

13. Adolfo Meneses

July 21st, 2007 • 1:14 am • Link

Thank you, I almost have tears on my eyes, I’ve been looking for this procedure for hours. I wonder what the adobe guys was thinking when they wrote the online help.

14. Caryn

Great stuff! However, I tried to use Clever Find/Change Dialog Box Closer and it isn’t working. I can set the shortcut, but there isn’t a way to get out of the find or change boxes. So, when I hit the key it simply places the stroke in the box and doesn’t close the box. I’m sure it’s something simple, but what am I doing wrong?

15. David Blatner

Caryn, this plug-in may only work in CS2. Are you trying it with CS3? 16. John

September 19th, 2007 • 5:59 pm • Link

to:David Blatner

Yes. Its working in CS3 too. 17. ioanna

May 14th, 2008 • 1:41 pm • Link

Hello

Altough I have

place a script into the scripts folder indesign cs2 doesnt read it..

could you please give me an advice ??

I don’t how i can eddit or save a txt to a script format

but i have also tried to fix it with a scipt editor and stil doesnt work 18. Home Luxury

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Awesome. Works great. Thank you. 19. Paulo Picotto

July 17th, 2008 • 4:54 am • Link

Is there a website on the web with free InDesign scripts available ? 20. Stuart

October 3rd, 2008 • 10:58 am • Link

WOW! Life saving script! (a little over the top, I know, but you don’t know how much this has helped me in a very time critical situation.)

21. andre

November 4th, 2008 • 3:17 pm • Link

Big Thanks! But… the script doesn’t work correctly with the changing of Hebrew vowel’s punctuation of MSS text… does any body could help me to adjust the script?

22. neomi

December 18th, 2008 • 6:51 pm • Link

Thank You SO much David for this action script. It’s a

life saver for those of us who don’t want to plunk down another grand on the ME version. all the best

N. 23. profeivan

February 5th, 2009 • 8:12 am • Link

In InDesign CS3 I used the Dave Saunders´ Change Case of Selected Style script and it worked fine. Now, in CS4 the script reports an error on line 41:

app.findPreferences = null;

Any suggestions? this is a very usefull script I use all the time. Thanks in advance. 24. Michael

March 25th, 2009 • 6:24 am • Link

Hello,

I’m French, so sorry for my english. I want change the price Euro on my doc. How do that ?

Because the prefixe, for me, is at the end. Ex : 1500,50 € -> 1500.50 x 1.78 Thk you in advance.

25. Katarina

June 5th, 2009 • 7:28 am • Link

In Cs3 it just doesn’t work, When a double klick it, I mean the script, in the script folder in indesign, it does nothing, I even made the Version 4.0 Scripts folder, installed java again…

I’m new at this, It just doesn’t work 26. Old Jeremy

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June 5th, 2009 • 8:14 am • Link

That is quite a common problem, and the solution is discussed here:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1973478

Basically, your preferences are probably set so that scripts don’t interact with anyone.

What you should do is copy and paste the following technical-looking line into a text file, save it with the extension .jsx, then put that file into the scripts panel folder (where the other scripts are). Then run it by double-clicking on its name in InDesign’s Scripts Panel. After that, all the scripts should work.

app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevels.interactWithAll; 27. Anna

July 9th, 2009 • 12:55 am • Link

That script saved me … and so much time million thanx!

28. Drew

August 10th, 2009 • 8:07 am • Link

I’m on cs1 and I just can’t get this script to work. I’ve followed the above comments and tried saving the file in various formats both from TextEdit and ScriptEditor and nothing seems to work for me. Please help! I need this script desperately.

29. jitesh

i am getting error in document system freezes & crashes 30. borash

October 27th, 2009 • 9:32 am • Link

breath taking! Works perfect. thank you again

31. Chai

January 13th, 2010 • 1:27 am • Link

Answer to ioanna

remove the word .txt from ReverseText.jsx.txt so it should read ReverseText.jsx instead of ReverseText.jsx.txt then place it in your javascript of indesign.

32. Esam Qoul

January 19th, 2010 • 7:02 am • Link

It worked like a charm Thanks

33. ecols

February 2nd, 2010 • 3:02 pm • Link

This is an AMAZING script. I love it! 34. Anne-Marie Concepcion

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Which script are you talking about? 35. Anastasia Lattanand

I can’t thank you enough! It worked just fine in CS3. 36. stretchs

May 4th, 2010 • 6:11 am • Link

awesome script, just saved me an hour on a 105 page layout import. thanks a ton 37. Ahmed Maher

July 24th, 2010 • 8:06 am • Link

Many thanks 38. Rehan

I am using InDesign CS4, I tried it for Arabic, but it’s not working. If anyone knows how to deal it with CS4, it would be great help. Thanks…

39. Rehan

Sorry, I got solution from this link/post: http://www.indesigning.net/right-to-left-arabic-hebrew-hindi-in-indesign-cs4-none-me

40. Steve

September 8th, 2010 • 1:13 pm • Link

Man! This is great! Thank you so much! 41. Annalee

September 9th, 2010 • 10:53 am • Link

This script is a lifesaver!! 42. Reza Haniff

October 22nd, 2010 • 7:01 am • Link

Thank you so much , well done on the script ,it’s amazing how something so small can have such a huge impact on your productivity.

43. Jim Morgan

Hello;

I’m using “InDesign CS4 Middle-Eastern” on win XP SP2 32-bit , But I got A problem

When I copy scripts to the User folder or the App folder, nothing shows up in InDesign Scripts Panel.

I tried a variety of script types, I even copied (duplicated) some of the default scripts (the default is working fine for me) .. but also nothing shows up

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also the script doesn’t show up in InDesign. Any help will be great !

44. Jim Morgan

I’m also enabling the “Enable Attached Scripts” in Preferences > General 45. David Blatner

@Jim: Are you putting them inside the user folder or inside the Scripts Panel folder? They have to go inside Scripts panel. Also, make sure they are .jsx or .js or something like that, not .zip files.

46. Jim Morgan

I do exactly as you said, David, I even open those folders from InDesign “Reveal in Explorer” command, even more I copied one or 2 of the default scripts to the destination folders, but InDesign acts like there is nothing.

By the way, thanks for the great work 47. David Blatner

@Jim: Thanks! I don’t know what the problem could be. Perhaps rebuild preferences? Restart? Very mysterious. 48. Jim Morgan

oh, I reinstalled InDesign and it’s working fine now Thanks David for your replies

49. taz

Yes, thank you for your explanation. Bye~ 50. Kris

Thank you so much! It actually worked – wow. 51. Karunamurthi

November 9th, 2011 • 2:33 pm • Link

Hi,

I need, how to layout for head level and body matter in script method.

For example: Head level 1 is 46p and body matter is 32p how to split in script. (ID-xml workflow) Any help will be great !

52. Kevin Krows

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current and future years? 53. David Blatner

@Kevin: Which script are you talking about? Sounds like a calendar script. Do you mean the calendarwizard script I talked about

here?

54. linds

thanks, super helpful to a new script user! 55. Andrzej Michalski

March 9th, 2012 • 3:28 am • Link

I am writing a script in JSX to modify the text in an anchored text frame and modify the size of a graphic frame, but when I run it the anchored object disappears (it seems that the anchor vanishes). I’m really stuck with the main problem being lack of detailed documentation.

If anyone has experience of the above that would be great, but just as importantly does anyone have any proper documentation for scripting InDesign CS5.5 via jsx?

Thanks! Andrzej 56. Jongware

March 9th, 2012 • 3:45 am • Link

Andrzej, you can ask specific questions in the Scripting forum (you have to register as forum member first but it’s free).

On documentation: there is a lot of basic how-to’s in the PDFs in Adobe’s own Scripting Resources section. For a detailed item-by-item description, you can consult the built-in Help in the Toolkit Editor, or see the list at the end of my article JavaScript for the Absolute Beginner.

57. kapooostin

April 11th, 2012 • 12:52 pm • Link

Does anybody still need a script to unlink stories in document/book? 58. Bill

June 4th, 2012 • 9:52 am • Link

The scripts folder won’t open. “Application” and “user” won’t open. How do I get it to open. I have Indesign CS5. I am trying to import a multi-page PDF file into an Indesign CS5 document. Why should this simple task be so difficult and time-consuming? If somebody can help, I would appreciate it. Adobe Tech Support could not fine an answer for this. Thanks, Bill

59. Jongware

June 4th, 2012 • 10:38 am • Link

Bill, are you trying Scott Zanelli’s Multipage importer script?

Not being able to open must be some sort of local issue with your computer — you don’t mention your OS, but if it is Windows 7 it might be something related to your user account.

For the time being: if you get stuck by this and can’t get on with the job at hand, try the Manual way. Use “Place” the usual way to select your PDF, but make sure “Show options” is selected. In the little Import Options dialog, choose “All” for page range. This ‘loads’ your Place Gun with all pages, and you can click once per page to place all of them.

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60. stefg

June 26th, 2012 • 8:51 am • Link

very, very nice – thank you so much! 61. Shorty

For anyone still needing to split threaded stories using a script, try Story Splitter, mentioned here:

http://indesignsecrets.com/splitting-up-threaded-stories-into-separate-frames.php 62. firtree October 18th, 2012 • 9:43 pm • Link thank you! 63. Alissa January 14th, 2013 • 4:42 pm • Link

has anyone gotten this “multi-page pdf placing” script to work with CS6? I’ve placed the script file in the correct place as described above…but when I click on the script to launch it, InDesign thinks about it forever and nothing actually happens. Thanks

64. ptr

January 31st, 2013 • 10:02 am • Link

Is it just me or does this script only place the pages of the PDF as images? 65. Natalia

April 12th, 2013 • 10:18 am • Link

Thank you very much, it’s great script! Subscribe to the Discussion

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