InDesign Scripting and InDesign Automation

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InDesign Scripting and InDesign Automation

Automating and Scripting InDesign

One of the great strengths of Adobe InDesign is its ability to be automated using scripting. InDesign scripting and automation is available on the desktop version and the InDesign server version. Both Mac OS and Windows versions of InDesign can use scripting to automate layout and repetitive tasks. AGI can help you automate either the desktop of server version of InDesign.

Automate InDesign document creation with InDesign scripting. Using InDesign scripting and automation processes, the entire document creation process can be automated. Financial services documents, advertising, catalog production and any document creation can all occur through automated importing, placement, and styling of text and images into an InDesign document. This occurs through InDesign scripting, which can be done on both Mac OS and Windows computer platforms, or using InDesign Server, and can even be managed via a web interface.

American Graphics Institute offers InDesign automation consulting and InDesign scripting consulting. We work with financial services firms, retailers, publishers and others that need to publish data in an updated and efficient way.

We can help your organization automate InDesign or InDesign Server, creating efficient workflow solutions. Our staff can do the work for you, establishing the automation, or we can teach your staff how to implement the scripting and automation within InDesign.

Automating InDesign using scripting

You can automate InDesign using scripts by either having a professional write scripts for you, or learn the scripting language on your own. AGI offers InDesign scripting and automation services, and can develop complete automation processes and scripts, or can teach you to script InDesign. Using our expertise with InDesign, deep experience with publishing workflows, and extensive InDesign skills to create automations, AGI can help you automate the most complex layout and publishing tasks, and eliminate repetitive work. 

Types of tasks InDesign Scripting can automate

Many InDesign tasks can be automated with scripting, including:

  • Layout and design: InDesign layout can be fully automated or partially automated using scripting.
  • Text formatting: Any text on a page can be formatted to apply styles, adjust typeface, positioning, color, or alignment.
  • Text standardization and proofing: InDesign can automate the checking for specific text that may be required for your publication. Whether specific financial notes, footnotes, special characters, or unique spelling, InDesign can automate this process.
  • Image placement: You can automate the placement and layout of images, including resizing and cropping.
  • Database publishing: InDesign can take data from a database and place it into a predefined layout at the click of a button, going far beyond the standard data merge options. 
  • Table of contents: Create and format an InDesign table of contents as part of the overall building of a publication, including adding links from the table of contents to the references parts of the document.
  • Final publishing and archiving: Automate the exporting of InDesign documents to PDF, using specific PDF presets, and archive completed files with scripting.
  • XML Publishing: Connect structured data to an InDesign document and have a complete layout with no manual intervention through scripting and automation.

Overall, InDesign scripting can be used to automate the complete layout or eliminate repetitive tasks, saving time and increasing productivity.

About InDesign Scripting

InDesign's scripting language uses a JavaScript-based scripting language called ExtendScript, which has been developed by Adobe. ExtendScript is a variation of JavaScript, and shares many of the same syntax and features as JavaScript. ExtendScript also has some additional features and limitations that are specific to InDesign. If you prefer to learn InDesing’s scripting language, it is useful to start by first learning JavaScript, because InDesign's scripting language is based on this. Because of this JavaScript foundation, you are not locked into a proprietary publishing solution when you choose to automate InDesign. The scripts are accessible and editable by anyone qualified. Yet InDesign scripts are most successful when created by those who know the scripting language, publishing workflows, and InDesign. This combination allows AGI’s experienced InDesign automation professionals to solve the most complex publishing tasks for major publishers.

InDesign Automation and Scripting options 

AGI offers the ability to either develop complete InDesign scripts and automation, or to teach the scripting and automation process, or provide a hybrid option. Under a hybrid option, AGI develops automation systems, then teaches the process to in-house developers your organization.

Who uses InDesign automation and scripting

AGI has helped hundreds of organizations use InDesign more efficiently with automation. This includes the largest publishers in North America including large mutual funds who need to publish monthly and quarterly data, retailers needing to publish catalogs, magazine publishers producing thousands of custom publications annually, and financial publishers wishing to publish on-demand data. AGI develops customized, fully automated InDesign workflow solutions using both InDesign and InDesign Server.

InDesign Scripting and automation example

The following example show an automation script for InDesign created by AGI consultants to automate the production of a retail catalog using InDesign, accessed entirely via a web interface. Our scripting and automation services help you to create your publications with greater efficiency, including on-demand publishing using InDesign, and web-based publishing with InDesign.

Our staff have written more than 10 InDesign books, ranging from the InDesign Digital Classroom to the Creative Cloud for Dummies. Our InDesign scripting and InDesign automation experts can assist with a variety of projects.

For more information about our InDesign automation and scripting services, call 781-376-6044 or 800-851-9237, or use the contact form on this page, or click the chat button in the bottom corner if during business hours.

Additional InDesign Services