IndexMatic³ | Compatibility Patch for InDesign 2024
November 11, 2023 | IndexMatic³ | en | fr
Every release of InDesign — even as paltry as version 19 (labeled 2024) — finds a way to break a deep feature that has worked perfectly since the Neolithic era. This time around, Adobe disabled ScriptUI colors for text labels, sabotaging the readability of the IndexMatic³ dialog. A compatibility update is available now…
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Adobe script developers spend most of their time not implementing the brilliant algorithms they have in mind, but fixing or working around the magma of bugs, inconsistencies and instabilities that the host application inflicts on us year after year. If end users were aware of this waste, they would better understand why it is so difficult for us to maintain and improve the tools we offer them.
So, from InDesign 6.0 to 18.5, the IndexMatic³ console looks something like this:
But, starting with InDesign 19.0, the text will lose its colors, producing the following result:
“Not so catastrophic!” you think. You can still read the report. But the screenshot above only reflects what happens when your InDesign preferences are set to a dark theme. Here's actually what users of a light theme had the pleasure of seeing:
Tech Note. — The lack of foreground color support in InDesign ScriptUI 2024 now concerns StaticText widgets as well as EditText controls, while custom background colors are still available for most components. According to a recent forum thread, this new sneaky bug specifically affects InDesign (all platforms), not necessarily other Creative Cloud applications. My colleague Sergey Osokin reported that “in Adobe Illustrator CC 2024, color statictext in ScriptUI still works.”
When I received a screenshot from the first user — thanks again Camilo! — who reported a problem in the IndexMatic console, I thought my program was simply crashing. It was only when I looked more closely at the image that I realized that the text was, in fact, displayed in black on a black background. With Adobe, you have to expect stupid things like this at any time. Before you question the internal logic of thousands of lines of code, first ask yourself if they might have just turned off the lights!
As a result of all these adventures, a “compatibility patch” for InDesign 2024 has just been released (v. 3.23111) which attempts to work around Adobe's bug as much as possible. It can't resurrect colors, but at least it adjusts the console background such that you can read text from a light theme:
About Updating IndexMatic³
I would like to take advantage of this post to remind PRO users that iX³ updates — there have been seventeen since the inaugural version — are all notified by email. Make sure you have access to it, check that your email system is not blocking messages served by indiscripts.com as spam. They definitely are not.
Also be aware that updating InDesign to a new major version may create disruptions when migrating scripts. Users who keep their preferences have reported that the update process tends to create aliases to older script files.
It is therefore sometimes necessary to check the contents of the Scripts panel folder to which the last InDesign release refers. Remember to always exit the application before replacing the IndexMatic3Pro.jsx (or IndexMatic3Try.jsx) file. When you restart InDesign, run IndexMatic³ once from the Scripts panel to be sure you are executing the correct JSX file. The Indiscripts menu should then update itself in the event of multiple file references.
