Using the InDesign AppleScripts
The most important scripts are outlined here
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Script Palette |
| This is the script palette, which lists all the scripts, or automated features, that are programmed for InDesign. They are designed to help you save time, retrieve important imformation, and enhance the appearance of your pages. | |
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Caption Identifier |
| This is the caption identifier script. Photographers are required to write captions for digital pictures you choose for your pages. They’ll compose it in the Comments box of the file's Info window once you have cropped it for your page. You won’t even have to open the Info window. Instead, just place a cursor in a caption block next to the relevant picture, run the script, choose the correct file (this is obviously important!), and the caption magically appears, in the right font and size. | |
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Highlight Names |
| This script will find words starting with Capital Letters and convert them to bold style. Highlight the text and run the script. It will skip the first word in the selection, but if you highlight more than one sentence at a time, it will restyle the first word of a new sentence, so be careful! Since captions identify names in the first sentence, this will only involve highlighting one sentence at a time. This script must be run, since it also will help pull names into the index. | |
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Initial Letter |
| Once all your captions are inserted and names are styled, it’s time to lend that tiny text some attention. Use the Initial Letter script to restyle the first letter of your captions to a font and size that draws the eye to it. You must make sure only text blocks containing captions are designated for the Captions style in your Paragraph Styles palette for it to work properly, or initial letters will pop up in strange places on your page. | |
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Photo Credit |
| Tagging captions with the photo credits is probably the most monotonous task, involving setting off the text, restyling it and typing the photographer’s name while hoping you don’t misspell it. All these worries are now gone! Just place a cursor at the end of your caption, run the script, choose your photographer’s name from the list, and the credit appears, properly styled, where you want it. The only hazard to this is when writing a credit for multiple photos, you must pluralize ‘Photo by’. | |
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Width and Height |
Now let’s suppose you have to crop a bunch of photos in Photoshop, and the system of converting from points to decimals by rounding up makes your head hurt. No problem! Now you don’t even have to search for that pesky Transform palette. Just select a photo block, run the Width and Height script, and you get the exact dimensions in decimal form, ready to transfer to the Crop Options task bar. |
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