InDesign CS5 JavaScript

InDesign is now regarded as the industry standard in desktop publishing and is very widely used by publishing professionals and non-specialists alike. Many users have a pressing need for automation of their workflows but have been reluctant to get started because of the lack of a simple internal mechanism for recording steps, like Photoshop and Illustrator actions. Instead InDesign relies on scripting which, for many InDesign users, may seem a little too much like hard work. In fact, InDesign comes with all the tools necessary for creating scripts and scripting is not that difficult-it can even be fun!

This book is aimed at the general user and provides an introduction to scripting InDesign, using JavaScript to create simple cross-platform solutions.

• Learn proactively through step-by-step tutorials on creating JavaScript solutions: the "Try it for yourself!" approach allows you to learn how scripts are put together by actually writing them.
• Create scripts that manipulate text and images, build documents automatically and output them as interactive PDFs.
• Become familiar with the InDesign object model: as you work through the tutorials, you will make repeated use of the essential syntax for manipulating InDesign objects such as documents, master spreads, pages, text frames, graphics and preferences.
• Create user interfaces to make your scripts more flexible and user-friendly. Rather than just writing scripts which always perform the same steps, you will learn to use ScriptUI dialog windows to provide users with the ability to make choices that determine what the script will do.

Please note that this edition does not cover the use of XML in InDesign workflows. This topic is addressed in the longer version of this book: "InDesign CS5 Automation using XML and JavaScript", ISBN 978-1460915387.