JavaScripting InDesign

Once again, I have used the making of a booklet as a proof of concept for a script of a new version of InDesign. Two releases ago, my BuildBooklet.js (as it was then) filled a gap in the InDesign CS feature set by making it possible to create booklets from documents; the only proviso was that the documents had to have a page count that was exactly a multiple of four. I based the script on a concept I'd heard about from Shane Stanley and used it to learn about managing sections in InDesign documents. I had no expectations that others would find this script useful.

But it took off. And even after InBooklet was added to InDesign (first to CS via the terribly-named PageMaker Plug-ins and then as part of CS2), some people advocated using my script because it was so simple to use. Well, here we are with CS3 and I've done it again. This time, I've called the script MakeBooklet.jsxbin. I've published it as a binary to emphasize that it works only with CS3. Unlike its predecessor, this script creates a new double-sized, single-sided document, placing the contents of the pages of the original document side-by-side in printer spread order.

The ability to place pages from one document to another is new in InDesign CS3 and that opens up all kinds of possibilities for scripts to perform these kinds of imposition tasks. If you'd like to try the script, I've put a link to it in the downloads area (or will have shortly, if it's not there yet).

What does all this have to do with Edit Original?

Well, the first time I created a booklet with my MakeBooklet script, I immediately tested the Edit Original feature and was very disappointed to discover that the original document didn't open at the page I had asked to edit. Yuck!

So, let's write a script to do the job. I think it's possible; it'll be very disappointing if I fail. Obviously, the script must start in the usual way checking for a selection:

//DESCRIPTION: Edit Original for Placed InDesign Pages

if (app.documents.length == 0 || app.selection.length == 0) { exit() }
editOriginalIDPage(app.selection[0]);

function editOriginalIDPage(sel) {

} // end editOriginalIDPage

Also, obviously, the user ought to be able to do this with either the page selected or its frame. So, the first thing that my editOriginalIDPage function must do is get a reference to the graphic from the selection.

Here's my untested first attempt to do this:

//DESCRIPTION: Edit Original for Placed InDesign Pages

if (app.documents.length == 0 || app.selection.length == 0) { exit() }
editOriginalIDPage(app.selection[0]);

function editOriginalIDPage(sel) {
    var myImpPage = getImpPage(sel);
    if (myImpPage == null) return;
    alert("Got Here");
   
    function getImpPage(obj) {
        if (obj.constructor.name == "ImportedPage") return obj;
        try {
            return obj.importedPages[0];
        } catch(e) {
            return null;
        }
    } // end of getImpPage
} // end editOriginalIDPage

Well, golly, it didn't work. What am I doing wrong. Clearly, I need to single step through the script and see what happens. Hello! importPages doesn't exist as a collection. That's weird. That forces a different approach. I rewrote the getImpPage function like this:

    function getImpPage(obj) {
        if (obj.constructor.name == "ImportedPage") return obj;
        if (!obj.hasOwnProperty("graphics")) return null;
        if (obj.graphics.length == 0) return null;
        var myImpPage = obj.graphics[0].getElements()[0];
        return getImpPage(myImpPage);
    } // enf of getImpPage

And that gets the job done. Notice the neat use of recursion to avoid having to essentially rewrite out the first two lines of the function again at the end.

This is getting a bit long so I'll follow up in the next message.