Overview

Our InDesign Scripting course shows users how to automate InDesign page layout tasks using JavaScript. Although InDesign scripts can also be created using Visual Basic (Windows only) or AppleScript (Macintosh only), JavaScript has the adavantage of being cross platform. The course is aimed at experienced users of InDesign CS2 and assumes little or no programming experience.

Course Outline

Scripting Basics

Introduction to scripting , What is scripting, Why use scripting, What about macros, Making script files readable, Commenting the script, Continuing long lines in JavaScript, Objects and classes, Object references, Values, Variables, Variable names, Assigning values to variables, Array variables, Converting values from one type to another, Finding the value type of a variable, Operators, Methods, Control structures, Conditional statements, Loops, Subroutines and handlers, , Getting Started with InDesign Scripting

Measurements and positioning, Coordinates, Measurement units, The InDesign document object model, Looking at the InDesign object model, Using palettes to manage scripts, Using the Scripts palette, Using the Script Label palette, Testing and troubleshooting, JavaScript debugging, , Using ExtendScript Tools and Features

The ExtendScript Toolkit, Configuring the Toolkit window, Selecting a debugging target, Selecting scripts, Tracking data, The JavaScript console, The call stack, The Script Editor, Debugging in the Toolkit

Basic document management

Creating a new document, Opening a document, Closing a document, Saving a document

Basic page layout

Defining page size and document length, Defining bleed and slug areas, Setting page margins and columns, Changing the pasteboard's appearance, , Using guides and grids

Defining guides, Setting grid preferences, Snapping to guides and grids, Changing measurement units and ruler, , Defining and applying document presets

Creating a preset by copying values, Creating a preset using new values, Using a preset, Setting up master spreads

Setting text-formatting defaults

Setting application text defaults, Setting the active document's defaults, Using text defaults, Adding XMP metadata, Creating a document template

Printing a document

Printing using page ranges, Setting print preferences, Using printer presets, Creating printer presets from printing preferences, , Exporting a document as PDF, , Using current PDF export options, Setting PDF export options and exporting pages separately, Exporting a range of pages

, Exporting pages as EPS, , Exporting all pages, Exporting a range of pages, Controlling export options