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I've worked with many different apps with many different API's to program ways to open, set things, and export or render the result.

I however have little to no experience with in design.

I've googled around today and found a few scripts for changing text in very basic ways, but here's what I'm looking for :

A way to have a "template file", which I can then, 100 percent programmatically open, change the text on specified layers (is that what they're called in Indesign?) by name for instance, and then export either as a save file or as a pdf.

Id prefer Python but I hear that's not possible in Indesign so I'm open to JavaScript or whatever language it takes.

Is this even possible with this app? If so, anyone have any tips or links on how I'd do so?

Thanks so much in advance!

aescript
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1 Answers1

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Everything is pretty much straight forward InDesign programming.There are plenty of things on the net, try to search by topic.

A fairly good start is the official scripting manual and tutorial: http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/indesign/sdk/cs6/scripting/InDesign_ScriptingGuide_JS.pdf

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/indesign/sdk/cs6/scripting/InDesign_ScriptingTutorial.pdf

Nicolai Kant
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  • It looks like based on this theres not a DIRECT way to do what I want, and I may have to do something like create a bat file that puts a script in the startup scripts area, then launches indesign - and then the script can at startup do its thing and export, then possible close indesign? In any case - this is very helpful, not sure why i wasnt able to find these based on what i was googling. I'll leave this for a day or so to see if anyone has something exactly specific to what im doing but youll get the answer checkmark by tomorrow if not! I can definitely do it with wharts here. Thanks! – aescript Aug 23 '17 at 23:41
  • @aescript What do you mean no direct way? It is absolutely possible to do what you want. You don't need any .bat file that puts a script anywhere, you can just write a simple .jsx-Script that will start InDesign for you, do its thing and then close InDesign in the end. All these functions are part of InDesign's object model. Basically you can control any InDesign function programmatically. – mdomino Aug 24 '17 at 10:05
  • Oh and by the way, imho the best viewer for the InDesign object model is [this one](http://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#about.html). – mdomino Aug 24 '17 at 10:11
  • What i mean to say is (and I haven't tested this yet, just going by what it sounds like via the docs) It doesnt SOUND as if indesign runs terminal mode (maybe im wrong) - And it sounds as if sartup scripts run ALWAYS at startup - which is where the bat comes in. ie, bat file that puts the startup script in place for a list of specified files, runs in deisgn, processes each one, exports, closes indesign, removes start up script so the program can be used without it running. Will take a lok at the new viewer you linked! Thanks. Starting on this this weekend. – aescript Aug 25 '17 at 22:03
  • Indesign does not have terminal mode as it is a desktop client. You will need to look into InDesign Server. You can trigger the script execution on the server from scheduled python script, it is just a soap call. – Nicolai Kant Aug 26 '17 at 11:16