Adobe InDesign vs quantum physics applied to text paths
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 11 avril 2012
Recently I came to the conclusion that scripting Adobe InDesign could lean to fundamental science. Of course, scripting IS science. We use algorithms, mathematics, logic…But I am talking about a much larger thought. Indeed, there are a few topics that clearly made me think about physics. Today I am daring the comparison between text paths and quantum physics. So I will introduce quantum mechanics and talk about text paths specificities. Don’t be afraid, I promise it will be fun 
Easily switch artboards orientation with this extension for Adobe Illustrator
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 25 mars 2012
Since Illustrator CS4 introduced artboards, switching orientation has become a four-steps process. You have to request document setup and edit arboard orientation. For me it just doesn’t make any sense. Every time I need to switch an artboard orientation, I am wondering : « Could it be one step process ? » I have developed a very very very simple extension. Let’s see that !
WHOIS: Get quick info on multiple people thanks to a webservice and Yatedo.com
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 10 février 2012
Business Networking is a great key to develop your business. In this idea, I am planning to go and meet a lot of people at some interesting events. This time, I am going at some cocktail and got the list of the attendees. I was then curious about who they are and mostly what they do. Could I have interest in meeting specific people ?
So my idea was could I get these informations for the whole group in one click ? Looking for infos was meaning spending a lot of time in Google. I knew some websites specialised in grabbing infos about people around the web like 123people or yatedo. Beyond the ethical questions that these websites raise, they still are a way to collect some informations if you keep in mind that they can be imprecise or even wrong maybe.
I have decided to spend my time in a more valuable approach from my point of view. Rather than digging people after people, I have thought about an application that could read a list of persons and interrogate informative website to get detail back for every user. Don’t get too excited, if I got something working, it’s far from accurate. But if you use it with care, it may help. Let’s have a look.
InDesign script : Add User & Computer name as Indesign Text Variables
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 30 janvier 2012
InDesign text variables are really powerful. I recently saw a forum post where some people was asking if it was possible to add the computer name to the InDesign text variables. At first, I was about to answer him « no, you can’t ». And the fact is you normally can’t…Unless you get some InDesign Scripting in the loop
QuickOpener for Desktop: An AIR Application to get quick access to all your files [BETA]
As a former graphic designer, I had to work on hundreds of files over years. My company wasn’t a big corporate and though it was amazing the time I spent running after all the documents located on so many locations. Browse, browse, browse, etc. About four years ago, I finally decided to create an utility to speed up my productivity. QuickOpener for InDesign was born. This script allowed used to create sets of shortcuts towards InDesign documents. The idea was to replace browse operations by a simple shortcut to the file.
I was really happy with this tool and I often thought about converting it into an extension for the Adobe Creative Suite. As for ScriptBay, I envisioned a global panel, accessible from every CS apps. I started coding it when I finally came to that conclusion: Why even reduce the tool for Adobe products only? Then it became logic to go beyond the scope of Adobe and create a more universal tool. Eventually, not only it could help graphic designers but whoever may want to get access to its own files right away. Ans so that project turned into an air application that everyone could install and use: QuickOpener for desktop.
After a few days of coding, I finally got a beta version. It’s not the sexier application you may ever see but it’s a beta version. I wanted to get a running product and then, according to people feedback, maybe spend more time on it and make this tool up a bit. Wanna learn more ? Let’s go !
(re) Découvrez les extensions pour la Creative Suite
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 15 décembre 2011
Jusqu’à l’apparition de la CS4, les possibilités de développement pour la Creative Suite se résumaient aux scripts et aux plugins. Quand les premiers étaient simples d’accès pour tout un chacun, les seconds demandaient et demandent encore des compétences avancées en programmation. En termes d’UI, même si la balance script/plugin penche encore en termes de difficulté pour le premier, il n’était pas pour autant aisé de mettre au point des interfaces élégantes avec un minimum d’effort. De fait, les possibilités amenées par ScriptUI exigent quand même un certain degré de programmation dès lors que l’on veut s’échapper d’un checkbox primaire.
Il restait donc une voie à explorer pour Adobe, un entre-deux offrant l’aisance du design d’interface, un comportement proche du plugin natif sans en exiger la complexité et une continuité avec les usages liés au scripting. Cette nouvelle voie s’appelle l’extensibilité. Il s’agit rien de moins que de créer des RIA basées sur les technologies Flex/AIR. Ces extensions peuvent dès lors être intégrées dans la Creative Suite et se comporter comme des panneaux natifs.
Je vais essayer de démontrer pourquoi elle peut intéresser de nombreuses companies tant en termes d’ingénierie que d’investissements humains et financiers !
Is it a « best way » to script XML within InDesign ?
Posté par admin dans Indesign, Non classé, Scripting Adobe, XML/XSL le 9 novembre 2011
A long time ago, I noticed that scripting xml elements could be very slooooooowwww. But it was my bad, at least at this time cause I was doing it the most horrible way. In the same time, I have started hearing about xml rules and it looked like a great tool for handling xml elements. However, I never played with them until recently. And doing so, I have tested another method which is evaluateXPathExpression(). So given these three approaches, the question was : which one is better ? Let’s see this.
Back from IDUG Paris: A deeper introspection of XML/XSL
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 11 octobre 2011
September 27th, I had the priviledge to make a presentation of XSL/XML workflow at the Indesign User Group of Paris. It was a great opportunity to demonstrate how XSL can extend the XML workflow. Plus, I was thrilled to share the spotlight with the InDesign XML Guru: Jim Maivald. Sincerely, I owe him every XML Knowledge I have.
It was a very cool moment and I hope also a good show. But it was quick and my explanations was a bit fast. So I wanted to go back on the demo and slow down a litlle. So if you want to learn how to play with XSL, let’s go !
Import XML into Indesign directly from Web (Mac)
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 9 septembre 2011
Last year, I have been stuck to learn that you could import XML directly from the web into Indesign. Indeed, you just have to type in the url into the XML import dialog and that’s it. However, it’s only working on PCs. On Macs, you just can’t type any url, you can only pick a file. So I thought it could be some help to have this feature within Indesign and Mac. Here is a short script for Macs.
ScriptUI & Flash: A Indesign locked objects Manager plugin
Posté par admin dans Non classé le 29 juillet 2011
Recently, I just handled communication between Adobe ScriptUI interfaces and SWFs thanks to the ExternalInterface object. I then decided to apply this new knowledge on a very simple project to go step by step towards more elaborated projects.
At this time, I thought that it wasn’t that easy to manage locked objects within Indesign. Since, I have read this great article* from Keith Gilbert on this topic that made this project a bit less useful but that’s ok. Once again, I wanted a dummy project to feel more confident on this ScriptUI/SWF workflow.
So I have decided to conceive a locked objects manager with these technologies in mind. My first thought was that a few hours should be enough to get it but I have faced many issues that came to a quick solution once I realize I was not using the good component for my context. Let’s see that !
*Thanks to Keith for the link reminder