Adobe 0046100128056 - InDesign - Mac - Introduction; How to Use the Scripts in this Document

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Introduction
This document shows how to do the following:
X Work with the Adobe® InDesign® scripting environment.
X Use advanced scripting features.
X Perform basic document tasks like setting up master spreads, printing, and exporting.
X Work with page items (rectangles, ellipses, graphic lines, polygons, text frames, and groups).
X Work with text and type in an InDesign document, including finding and changing text.
X Create dialog boxes and other user-interface items.
X Customize and add menus and create menu actions.
X Respond to user-interface events.
X Work with XML, from creating XML elements and importing XML to adding XML elements to a layout.
X Apply XML rules, a new scripting feature that makes working with XML in InDesign faster and easier.
We assume that you have already read the Adobe InDesign CS5 Scripting Tutorial and know how to create,
install, and run scripts. If you need to know how to connect with your scripting environment or view the
InDesign scripting object model from your script editor, that information can be found in the Adobe
InDesign CS5 Scripting Tutorial.
How to Use the Scripts in this Document
For the most part, the scripts shown in this document are not complete scripts. They are only fragments of
scripts, and are intended to show only the specific part of a script relevant to the point being discussed in
the text. You can copy the script lines shown in this document and paste them into your script editor, but
you should not expect them to run without further editing. Note, in addition, that scripts copied out of this
document may contain line breaks and other characters (due to the document layout) that will prevent
them from executing properly.
A zip archive of all of the scripts shown in this document is available at the InDesign scripting home page,
at: http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting/index.html
. After you have downloaded and
expanded the archive, move the folders corresponding to the scripting language(s) of your choice into the
Scripts Panel folder inside the Scripts folder in your InDesign folder. At that point, you can run the scripts
from the Scripts panel inside InDesign.
About the Structure of the Scripts
The script examples are all written using a common template that includes the functions “main,”
“mySetup,” “mySnippet,” and “myTeardown.” We did this to simplify automated testing and
publication—there is no reason for you to construct your scripts this way. Most of the time, the part of the
script you will be interested in will be inside the “mySnippet” function.