Indiscripts Top 80 Autumn Links
December 23, 2009 | Extras | en | fr
As a present for Christmas, here is a compilation of the greatest links we've tweeted during those last 3 months. An overwhelming majority regards InDesign scripting, plug-ins, GREP and/or JavaScript resources for ‘InDevelopers’.
Script Directories & Collections
01 | KahrelPlus (EN):
the famous Peter Kahrel's free InDesign scripts.
02 | Cristian Eslava's ID Scripts & Plug-ins review (ES):
“Dándole de comer a Adobe InDesign — Más de 30 Scripts y extensiones”.
03 | †Branislav Milic InDesign Scripting (FR):
Huge ID scripting page of Branislav Milic (howtos, built-in scripts, resources).
04 | †InDesignSecrets Scripting Subforum (EN):
InDesign Add-ons (Scripts, Scripting, and Plug-ins).
05 | †InDesign Scripting Ressourcen (DE):
German review, by Gerald Singelmann.
06 | †Mediabox CS Scripts & Plugins (FR):
Creative Suite “scripts & plug-ins” subforum (Mediabox community).
07 | †Exploring Adobe InDesign CS4’s Built in Scripts (EN):
Overview of the CS4 “built-in” scripts, by Robert Underwood.
08 | Kasyan's Personal Website (EN):
Cool Indesign and Photoshop script collection on Kasyan's new website.
Cool scripts (and reviews)
09 | †Custom PDF Export (EN) (loicaigon.com):
Export PDFs by slices from all or a part of your InDesign document (Loic Aigon).
10 | Custom Balance Ragged Lines (EN):
Tweak the “Balance Ragged Lines” feature (Keith Gilbert).
11 | †LoadScript2Menu (EN):
Link any script into your menu (Gerald Singelmann).
12 | Language-aware Paragraph Sorter (EN):
Define language specific sort orders in a separate, editable, file (Peter Kahrel).
13 | †Multiple Character Styles Script (EN):
Script for marking text with multiple character styles (Thomas Silkjær).
14 | Equalizer Tutorials (FR) | (PT):
Our script Equalizer for Indesign CS3/CS4 demonstrated on Urbanbike (French) and Incunábulo (Portuguese).
15 | †Moving all page items (EN) (forums.adobe.com/message/2215108):
Various ways to offset the components of your InDesign document (ID Scripting Forum thread).
16 | †QuickOpener for InDesign CS3/CS4 (EN) (loicaigon.com):
the script that puts all your InDesign files at click (Loic Aigon).
17 | †3D Extrude Object Script (EN) (forums.adobe.com/message/2128865):
An amazing InDesign ‘extrusion’ script, by the genius scripter Jongware.
18 | †SetVisualCharSize (EN) (indesign-faq.de):
“Define cap- or x-height, not the slug”, by Gerald Singelmann.
GREP Stuff
19 | GREP Editor (EN):
Write and manage easily your InDesign GREP patterns (Peter Kahrel).
20 | †Grep & InDesign CS3, Mac vs. Windows (FR):
understanding the generic meta-characters and the Posix classes (Indigrep — in French).
21 | †JS match() vs. findGrep (EN) (forums.adobe.com/thread/511503):
When JavaScript RegExp does not match InDesign GREP (ID Scripting Forum).
22 | Fill your cell with GREP Styles! (FR):
Another great tip demonstrated by Indigrep (in French).
23 | Chaining queries and testing GREP expressions (EN):
Run and/or test several GREP queries with one keystroke (Peter Kahrel).
24 | †Building Blocks for Text and GREP Expressions (EN, PDF):
One-page overview on the ID CS4 GREP submenus, by Marvin E. Sable.
25 | Adventures in GREP with InDesign CS4 (EN):
16 useful GREP search examples, by Michael S. Witherell.
26 | †InDesign CS3/CS4 GREP Memento for your iPhone (FR, PDF):
Gorgeous GREP cheat sheet including undocumented metacharacters (thanks to Laurent Tournier — in French).
Advanced Plug-ins
27 | Blatner Tools for Adobe InDesign (EN):
100+ features making InDesign even better compiled by David Blatner (DTP Tools).
28 | ScribeDOOR for InDesign (EN, FR):
Use InDesign international versions for occasional support of Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi and Indian languages (WinSoft).
29 | Lightning Brain ImageLibraryLoader (EN):
Get a floating library-palette filled with images that are automatically retrieved from one or more folders (freeware), by Rorohiko.
30 | †Indys Timer (EN):
Timing your work on InDesign documents (Stanislav Antos).
31 | Zevrix Output Factory (formerly BatchOutput) (EN):
Automate printing and exporting from InDesign (PDF, PostScript, EPS, JPEG, SWF, XFL, INX), by Zevrix.
32 | PDF2ID 2.1 (EN):
The incredible PDF document conversion tool for InDesign, by Recosoft.
33 | †Typefi AutoFit (EN):
Now released as a free plug-in, AutoFit enables ‘soft-bottom’ text frames and dynamic relationships between InDesign objects (Typefi)
InDeveloper's Corner
34 | †QuickScript (EN) (loicaigon.com):
Quickly test your JS, VB or AS code into InDesign (Loic Aigon).
35 | †AutoLayoutCreator (EN):
Construction of UI-dialog by Automatic Layout (free plug-in).
36 | †“What's the future of Creative Suite scripting?” (EN) (forums.adobe.com/thread/535777):
Crucial discussion about Adobe scripting on the Indesign Scripting Forum.
37 | †“Flash UIs with InDesign CS4” (EN) prsync.com/adobe:
Scripting Approach vs. Plug-In Approach clearly illustrated on prsync.
38 | †“Understanding the Transformation Matrix” (EN):
Good ‘TransformationMatrices’ tutorial intended for Flash guys but readable by InDesign scripters too (Trevor McCauley).
39 | †Inject on the fly an image in ScriptUI code (EN) (forums.adobe.com/message/2326630):
A Bob Stucky's killer tip to create/embed an image file (PNG) in your ScriptUI code — for advanced scripters!
40 | †Persistence and Memory Leak in InDesign JavaScript:
Another smart discussion about object persistence and memory leak regarding targetengine and garbage collection (InDesign Scripting forum).
41 | “How To Avoid Confusing File Duplications” (EN):
How to avoid copying or shuffling scripts and plug-ins during development on Mac or Windows, by Kris Coppieters (Rorohiko).
42 | †.bat Files with Arguments from InDesign JS (forums.adobe.com/thread/470608):
The File.execute() method cannot launch ‘.bat’ file with arguments but the gurus have various workarounds...
Javascript Reference
43 | ECMAScript Language Specification (EN, PDF):
Standard ECMA-262 “ECMAScript Language Spec.” 5th edition (December 2009).
44 | Eloquent JavaScript (EN):
“Eloquent JavaScript, an opinionated guide to programming”, by Marijn Haverbeke.
45 | JavaScript Quick Reference Card (EN, PDF):
Compact 2-page cheat sheet (BrandsPatch).
46 | JavaScript Object Notation (EN, PDF):
JSON syntax, by Douglas Crockford (RFC4627, 2006).
47 | Regular Expressions in JavaScript (EN):
“You Don’t Know Anything About Regular Expressions: A Complete Guide”, by Jeffrey Way (NetTuts+).
48 | †“Mastering Javascript Arrays” (EN, PDF):
All you need to know about JS arrays (free PDF), by Patrick Hunlock.
JavaScript: Beyond the Basics
49 | “Learning Advanced JavaScript” (EN):
The best tutorial ever about JavaScript functions and closures, by John Resig (creator of jQuery).
50 | “What are good JavaScript OOP resources?” (EN):
Essential link compilation at Stack Overflow.
51 | Javascript Type-Conversion (EN):
Converting and parsing native types (Boolean, String, Number), many tips and tricks on Jibbering.
52 | †“The Death of if-else” (EN):
Change your approach of conditional branches, by Aaron Feng. See also “More On The Death of If-Else”, by K. Scott Allen.
53 | †“JavaScript and its love for zeroes” (EN):
Demystifying the parseInt function, by Sergio Pereira.
54 | “with, the World's Most Misunderstood Statement” (EN):
Must we see the with statement as a bad boy? (Andrea Giammarchi.)
55 | Functions as Namespaces (EN):
...“and How to Peek Inside”, by David Flanagan.
56 | “Inheritance Patterns in JavaScript” (EN):
advantages of the “pseudoclassical pattern” over the “functional pattern” in JS inheritance, by Michael Bolin.
57 | †“JavaScript for people who are in a hurry” (EN):
Higher-order functions + prototypal inheritance, by Kai Jäger.
JavaScript Utilities & Reusable Snippets
58 | JSLint (EN):
A JavaScript program that looks for problems in JavaScript programs!
59 | Deduplicate any array in JavaScript (EN):
Creating a function that dedups anything (UnScriptable).
60 | †Sugar Arrays (EN):
Porting JavaScript 1.6 Array methods, the famous “sugar arrays” (Dustin Diaz).
61 | “Sorting Values with JavaScript” (EN):
A great lesson around the sort method, by Andrew Burgess (NetTuts+).
62 | JavaScript md5 (EN):
Calculate the md5 hash of a string.
63 | “JavaScript comment removal – revisited” (EN):
An incredible JS “comment removal” function, by James Padolsey. (Good way to improve your RegExp skills.)
64 | †“String Multiplication in JavaScript” (EN):
...using the Array.prototype.join.call approach — by David Flanagan.
Interesting JS Libraries
65 | JsPdf (EN):
An open-source library for generating PDF documents using nothing but JavaScript (Google Code).
66 | XRegExp (EN):
“The one of a kind JavaScript regular expression library”.
67 | Underscore.js (EN):
“A utility-belt library for JavaScript which does not extend any of the built-in JS objects”.
Misc. (Flash, Flex, Air, PDF...)
68 | †Adobe Flash Builder 4 (EN) (labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder4):
formerly “Flex Builder” (Adobe Labs).
69 | Indispensable Plugin for Flash Builder: Flex Formatter (EN):
by Grant Skinner.
70 | †“Flex – Multi View Design Pattern” (EN):
by Vinay.
71 | †Flex Paper (EN) (www.devaldi.com):
PDF viewing for Adobe Flex (Devaldi).
72 | †Flex Frameworks (EN) (corlan.org/flex-frameworks/):
directory maintained by Mihai Corlan.
73 | Flex 4 Bidirectional Data Binding (EN):
by Holly Schinsky.
74 | †“Compiling Actionscript 3 classes into a SWF with Flex Builder for use in JavaScript AIR applications” (EN) (andymatthews.net/read/2009/11/01/):
by Andy Matthews.
75 | †JSInterface (EN) (code.google.com/p/jsinterface/):
JavaScript API for ActionScript3 (Google Code).
76 | “Converting a Blogger Blog to InDesign Tagged Text with Perl” (EN):
by Andrew Heiss.
77 | †“InDesign to Kindle white paper” (EN):
on Adobe Developer Connection.
78 | “Booknology — Technology And Books For All” (auth. Marie Lebert) (PDF, EN):
interactive PDF built with InDesign + Acrobat JavaScript.
79 | “Custom document search using JavaScript” (EN):
Use Acrobat Javascript to customize a PDF search interface, by Thom Parker.
80 | †“Using ant for Flex – A No B.S. Guide” (EN):
on DispatchEvent blog.
Comments
Merci beaucoup Marc pour ce beau cadeau de Noël. Joyeuses fêtes de fin d'année.
Laurent
Thank you very much for mentioning ScribeDOOR. Bonne fêtes!
Some scripts from russians :))
For math equations in Indesign CS4 (EN)
www.mt-script.narod2.ru/inenglish/
Script collections (RU)
http://adobescripts.info
adobeindesign.ru/rubrica/scripts/
for translation - translate.google.com
(Almost) Free plug-in to use Indic scripts in InDesign
I have been following up some of the threads on Typhophile and Indic Scripts for long. Information on this site is probably the best available and helps people like me to figure out the best solution :). I am an artist by nature and profession. To make my piece of contribution, I would like to share some information on IndicPlus Plug-in, which I found missing on this forum. The company which owns IndicPlus have slashed there prices for CS2 and CS3 version and they are selling there CS4 version at a special introductory price of 25 USD. Apart from standard world ready features, they have additional support for Numbering Styles in all Indian Languages and few others.
metadesignsolutions.com/adobe-plugins-portfolio/
There is also a free trial version of IndicPlus available at http://metadesignsolutions.com/download
I strongly recommend this plug-in for Indic and other Asian Scripts.
It has a large support of Asian and Indic scripts. Some of these include:
Arabic, Assamese, Azeri, Bengali, Farsi, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Khmer/Cambodian, Lao, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese, amongst others
Cheers
~ RC
How to use it , this is about importing the plugin
Step 1. : Right Click in Navigator to import the project.
Step 2. : Select "InDesign Plugin development -> InDesign Plugin project".
Step 3. : a ) Give the project name
b ) Give the Mac source folder ( the source folder of the project you want to import, e.g. if you are editing the SDK sample then " Adobe InDesign Products SDK\source\sdksamples\SampleProject"
c ) Give the Mac root FR file. ( it automaticaly show the files in the source folder selected above, select the .fr file from the folder.
d ) Give the Windows source folder.
e ) Give the Windows FR file.
Step 4. : Give the win project & Mac project file. Click Finish. It will show you the UI of the sample project, now you can drag drop the available widgets on the fr at your desired location of your desired size.
Note : you have to give the widget IDs , pluginIds in your SampleProject_ID.h manually
Thank you for the list, found some new resources for myself. May I also suggest one more for the plug-in category: SVG Kit for Adobe Creative Suite from svg.scand.com It adds SVG image support to InDesign. Scripting is also supported by the way.