InDesign Applescript: "override master page items" glitch?

Question

Here's a very simple script that overrides all master page items on page 1:

tell application id "com.adobe.InDesign"
    tell active document
        override every item of master page items of page 1 destination page page 1
    end tell
end tell

For some reason, this results in the page items shifting up and to the left of their original location. I cannot figure out why this is happening. Overriding page items should NEVER move the items. In fact, when I manually override in InDesign, nothing shifts. It appears to be affecting a specific layout. When I do a test document, the problem goes away. This particular document has many levels of master pages applied to each other, then applied to a layout.

Anyone else encountered this issue?

See [this long discussion on Adobe's forum](https://forums.adobe.com/message/6315798) (intermitted by a wine toast). Unfortunately, while the thread does a good bit of exploration and offers a solution, it ends on the next page with a downer note that it "appears to not work with CC". So apparently the exact version you are using is of importance. Nevertheless, you may find a base to explore and experiment. — Jongware, Aug 16 '15 at 09:56
I'm seeing this same problem with certain layouts. Not sure why it happens... — user1754036, Jun 15 '16 at 16:40

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 16 '19 at 10:54

I encountered the same issue. This is my workaround:

set myPageRef to object reference of myPage
        set myMPitems to master page items of myPageRef
        if (count of myMPitems) > 0 then
            repeat with myMPnumber from 1 to count of myMPitems
                tell item myMPnumber of myMPitems
                    set temp_bounds to geometric bounds
                    set myOverridden_pageItem to override destination page myPageRef
                    tell myOverridden_pageItem
                        set geometric bounds to temp_bounds
                        try -- in case of an image
                            fit given center content
                        end try
                    end tell
                end tell
            end repeat
        end if

This works for me, InDesign 2019, OSX 10.12. None of the other suggested answers worked, as they do the same thing as the code in the original question. — Nicolai Kant, Jul 22 '19 at 10:34

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 04 '17 at 16:09

This here worked for me https://forums.adobe.com/message/4294636#4294636 in cc2014

function main() {  
    var doc = app.activeDocument,  
        i, l, page, j, k;  

    for (i = 0, l = doc.pages.length; i < l; i++) {  
        page = doc.pages[i];  
        if (page.appliedMaster !== null) {  
            for (j = 0, k = page.appliedMaster.pageItems.length; j < k; j++) {  
                try {  
                    page.appliedMaster.pageItems[j].override(page);  
                } catch(e) {}  
            }  
        }  
        page.pageItems.everyItem().detach();      
    }  
}  

if (app.documents.length > 0) {  
    app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, "Detach Master Page Items");  
}

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 05 '17 at 19:36

This works for me in CC 2018 (13.0.1) and Sierra 10.12.6:

tell application id "com.adobe.indesign"
    tell document 1
        repeat with i from 1 to count of pages
            try
                override (every item of master page items of page i whose allow overrides is true) destination page page i
            on error
                --
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

InDesign Applescript: "override master page items" glitch?

3 Answers3