i’m a complete novice at this, so apologies first…
i’m trying to write a script that will retrieve from InDesign a list of the links and some of their properties and place that info into an Excel document. I’ve managed to get as far as retrieving a list of the links to an MSWord file, but i can’t figure out how to add a delimiter so the list returns as one big clump. i haven’t even tried to get to the Excel part…
my full end-result need is to have the file name, the file type, and the file path, each in it’s own column of the Excel file. it would also be nice if it would indicate which files were missing, but i know i’m already pushing it…
here’s what i have now:
tell application “InDesign CS”
activate
tell active document
set LinkName to (name of every link as list)
end tell
end tell
tell application “Microsoft Word”
activate
insert text (LinkName as string) at end of text object of active document
end tell
any help is greatly appreciated
thanks in advance
ray.
I don’t know excell, or how to refer to the text fields to fill them, but this should work for word. You might also want to consider just writing a tab delimited file which could be imported by Excell or a database into the fields that you need to populate.
tell application "InDesign CS"
activate
tell document 1
set LinkFiles to name of every link
end tell
end tell
tell application "Microsoft Word"
activate
tell document 1
repeat with i from 1 to count of LinkFiles
set contents of selection to item i of LinkFiles & return
end repeat
end tell
end tell
thanks for the help! unfortunately, i received this error: Microsoft Word got an error: Can’t set contents of selection of document 1 to “logo_black.ai”.
your suggestion of a tab-delimited file is fine as well. how could i make that happen?
set LinkFiles to {}
set fileTypes to {}
set filePaths to {}
set nameInput to (display dialog "Enter name for the image link listing file:" default answer short date string of (current date) & " - links list")
set newFileName to text returned of nameInput
set outputFile to (path to current user folder as text) & "Desktop:" & newFileName
tell application "InDesign CS"
tell document 1
set LinkFiles to name of every link
set fileTypes to link type of every link
set filePaths to file path of every link
end tell
end tell
--creates (or opens if exists) a named file on the users desktop.
set WiP to open for access file outputFile with write permission
--then empties the file, just in case.
set eof WiP to 0
--and loops thru all list items and writes each in turn to the file.
repeat with w from 1 to count of LinkFiles
write item w of LinkFiles & tab & item w of fileTypes & tab & item w of filePaths & return to WiP starting at eof
end repeat
close access WiP
Basically this will pull the image link names, link types (image file types) and complete file paths for all links in the current InDesign document. Then it runs a loop writing matching sets of items, separated by tabs, to a simple text file on your desktop. Then open the text file in whatever program you want. If you want to use the list in Excel, either import it or drag and drop on Excel’s icon.
Kind of quick and dirty, but it seems to do what you are asking for.
DUDE! that works so well i think i’m going to cry… as a matter of fact, if you send me your address i’ll send you a bottle of wine or some chocolate or something…
got the error “InDesign CS got an error: File some object wasn’t found.”
Does it not work if you’re missing a link? It’s what I was trying to use it for… a report of missing files.
Yep, looks like it stumbles over missing links (or more accurately, their file paths). Try this version:
set LinkFiles to {}
set fileTypes to {}
set filePaths to {}
set nameInput to (display dialog "Enter name for the image link report:" default answer short date string of (current date) & " - links list.txt")
set newFileName to text returned of nameInput
set outputFile to (path to current user folder as text) & "Desktop:" & newFileName
tell application "InDesign CS"
tell document 1
set allLinks to id of every link
repeat with theLink from 1 to count allLinks
copy name of link theLink to end of LinkFiles
copy link type of link theLink to end of fileTypes
--get link paths, or set message if missing...
set linkStat to status of link theLink
if linkStat = normal then
copy file path of link theLink to end of filePaths
else if linkStat = link missing then
copy "** LINK MISSING **" to end of filePaths
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell
set WiP to open for access file outputFile with write permission
set eof WiP to 0
repeat with w from 1 to count of LinkFiles
write item w of LinkFiles & tab & item w of fileTypes & tab & item w of filePaths & return to WiP starting at eof
end repeat
close access WiP
Hi, Thanks a LOT for this script!!! I am trying to set up additional script that will process all Indesign files in the folder. But I do not know how to set up just one output file for this. What I am trying to do is to have a list of lets say 100 indesign files with all images in one document (no file path) just image #.
Can you help resolve ? Thanks Dawid
set LinkFiles to {}
set nameInput to (display dialog "Enter name for the image link listing file:" default answer short date string of (current date) & " - links list")
set newFileName to text returned of nameInput
set outputFile to (path to current user folder as text) & "Desktop:" & newFileName
on open sourceFolders
repeat with sourceFolder in sourceFolders
tell application "Finder"
try
-- If you would like to include subfolders, you say - every file of entire contents of folder.
set idFiles to (every file of folder sourceFolder whose file type is "IDd3") as alias list
on error -- work around bug if there is only one file
set idFiles to (every file of folder sourceFolder whose file type is "IDd3") as alias as list
end try
end tell
if idFiles is not {} then
tell application "InDesign CS"
set user interaction level to never interact
repeat with i from 1 to count of idFiles
open item i of idFiles
tell document 1
set LinkFiles to name of every link
end tell
--creates (or opens if exists) a named file on the users desktop.
set WiP to open for access file outputFile with write permission
--and loops thru all list items and writes each in turn to the file.
repeat with w from 1 to count of LinkFiles
write item w of LinkFiles & return to WiP starting at eof
end repeat
close access WiP
end repeat
set user interaction level to interact with all
end tell
end if
return 10 -- try again in 10 seconds
end repeat
end open
For this script, which finds the name, link type and file path of all the links:
set LinkFiles to {}
set fileTypes to {}
set filePaths to {}
set nameInput to (display dialog "Enter name for the image link listing file:" default answer short date string of (current date) & " - links list")
set newFileName to text returned of nameInput
set outputFile to (path to current user folder as text) & "Desktop:" & newFileName
tell application "InDesign CS"
tell document 1
set LinkFiles to name of every link
set fileTypes to link type of every link
set filePaths to file path of every link
end tell
end tell
--creates (or opens if exists) a named file on the users desktop.
set WiP to open for access file outputFile with write permission
--then empties the file, just in case.
set eof WiP to 0
--and loops thru all list items and writes each in turn to the file.
repeat with w from 1 to count of LinkFiles
write item w of LinkFiles & tab & item w of fileTypes & tab & item w of filePaths & return to WiP starting at eof
end repeat
close access WiP
How would I get the page number that the link is on, and the scale it is used at?
Maybe there is a shorter way, but this should work.
set nameInput to (display dialog "Enter name for the image link listing file:" default answer short date string of (current date) & " - links list")
set newFileName to text returned of nameInput
set outputFile to (path to current user folder as text) & "Desktop:" & newFileName & ".txt"
--creates (or opens if exists) a named file on the users desktop.
try
set WIP to open for access file outputFile with write permission
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"
tell document 1
repeat with oneLink in (get links)
set {name:linkFile, link type:fileType, file path:filePath, parent:parentElement} to oneLink
repeat until class of parentElement is image
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
tell parentElement to set imageScale to "h: " & horizontal scale & " v: " & vertical scale of parentElement
repeat until class of parentElement is page
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
set pageName to name of parentElement
set writeString to linkFile & tab & fileType & tab & filePath & tab & imageScale & tab & pageName & return
tell me to write writeString to WIP starting at eof
end repeat
end tell
end tell
close access WIP
on error
try
close access file outputFile
end try
end try
Then, when I remove the writing to a file parts
Now, while trying to debug, I am getting the error message “The variable parentElement is not defined.”
actually I test all my scripts before posting them. It works fine on Leopard.
In Snow Leopard maybe the write command within the Indesign block causes the error.
Here is a version with a extern writeToFile handler
set nameInput to (display dialog "Enter name for the image link listing file:" default answer short date string of (current date) & " - links list")
set newFileName to text returned of nameInput
set outputFile to (path to desktop as text) & newFileName & ".txt"
--creates (or opens if exists) a named file on the users desktop.
try
set WIP to open for access file outputFile with write permission
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"
tell document 1
repeat with oneLink in (get links)
set {name:linkFile, link type:fileType, file path:filePath, parent:parentElement} to oneLink
repeat until class of parentElement is image
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
tell parentElement to set imageScale to "h: " & horizontal scale & " v: " & vertical scale of parentElement
repeat until class of parentElement is page
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
set pageName to name of parentElement
set writeString to linkFile & tab & fileType & tab & filePath & tab & imageScale & tab & pageName & return
writeToFile of me from writeString into WIP
end repeat
end tell
end tell
close access WIP
on error
try
close access file outputFile
end try
end try
on writeToFile from theText into theID
write theText to theID starting at eof
end writeToFile
Thanks Stefan this is exactly what I need but I need to change it to batch a group of ID selected files from a folder. I’m getting an error:
File file Macintosh HD:Users:user:Desktop:List of Linked files.txt is already open
Why? this file is not even open
set source_folder to choose file with prompt "Select folder containing Indesign Docs to get a list of files linked" with multiple selections allowed without invisibles
tell application "Finder" to set item_list to every item of source_folder
set thisFile to (path to desktop as text) & "List of Linked files.txt"
repeat with this_item in item_list
try
set WIP to open for access file thisFile with write permission
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"
--ignore dialogs
set user interaction level of script preferences to never interact
open this_item
-->>from Macsripter -StefanK
repeat with oneLink in (get links)
set {name:linkFile, link type:fileType, file path:filePath, parent:parentElement} to oneLink
repeat until class of parentElement is image
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
tell parentElement to set imageScale to "h: " & horizontal scale & " v: " & vertical scale of parentElement
repeat until class of parentElement is page
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
set pageName to name of parentElement
set writeString to linkFile & tab & fileType & tab & filePath & tab & imageScale & tab & pageName & return
writeToFile of me from writeString into WIP
end repeat
--=========
end tell
close access WIP
on error
try
close access file thisFile
end try
end try
end repeat
on writeToFile from theText into theID
write theText to theID starting at eof
end writeToFile
Browser: Safari 537.36
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.8)
There are two major issues in your script
¢ Indesign does not recognize Finder object specifier
¢ The document reference is missing
Regarding the write routine I recommend to put the output into a list and write the list to disk at the end of the script
set source_folder to choose file with prompt "Select folder containing Indesign Docs to get a list of files linked" with multiple selections allowed without invisibles
tell application "Finder" to set item_list to every item of source_folder
set thisFile to (path to desktop as text) & "List of Linked files.txt"
set outputList to {}
repeat with this_item in item_list
set currentDocument to this_item as text
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"
--ignore dialogs
set user interaction level of script preferences to never interact
open currentDocument
tell document 1
set end of outputList to {name of it, ""}
repeat with oneLink in (get links)
set {name:linkFile, link type:fileType, file path:filePath, parent:parentElement} to oneLink
repeat until class of parentElement is image
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
tell parentElement to set imageScale to "h: " & horizontal scale & " v: " & vertical scale of parentElement
repeat until class of parentElement is page
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
set pageName to name of parentElement
set writeString to linkFile & tab & fileType & tab & filePath & tab & imageScale & tab & pageName
set end of outputList to writeString
end repeat
set end of outputList to ""
end tell
close document 1
--=========
end tell
end repeat
set {TID, text item delimiters} to {text item delimiters, return}
set outputList to outputList as text
set text item delimiters to TID
try
set WIP to open for access file thisFile with write permission
write outputList to WIP starting at eof
close access WIP
on error
try
close access file thisFile
end try
end try
If you get an error “The variable parentElement is not defined” replace
repeat until class of parentElement is page
set parentElement to parent of parentElement
end repeat
set pageName to name of parentElement
with
set pageName to name of parent page of parentElement
