Hi ram,

You probably want to ask this question in the InDesign SDK forum--that's where the third-party API developers hang out.

You can work with the InDesign scripting object model using C++, but I think you're probably asking about developing InDesign plug-ins using the C++ SDK.

Thanks,

Ole

My friends think you should ask about COM objects in a VC group, not a typesetters' hangout.

They also appreciate the odd capital and think l33tsp33k is so 2001.

Hi ram<br /><br />As Olav has pointed out, you need to decide whether to use COM or SDK.<br /><br />SDK is hard core - and I really mean HARD CORE. I consider myself to be a reasonably good VC++ programmer, but when I tried to develop an InDesign plug-in using SDK and VC++ I was completely lost.<br /><br />However it is possible to use VC++ to control InDesign via the COM object.<br /><br />Here is what you should do:<br /><br />1) Make a new VC++ project (MFC, MFC Application)<br />2) In Wizard dialog select Dialog Based and leave everything else unchanged (simply press Next)<br />3) You now have a simple empty dialog with 2 buttons<br />4) Double-click the OK button<br />5) Insert the following code (before OnOK()):<br /><br />// COM support required for this<br />//  Call CoInitialize() to initialize the COM library on the current thread<br />if(::CoInitialize(NULL) != S_OK) return;<br /><br />// Create instance of InDesign Application<br />InDesign::_ApplicationPtr app;<br />// Use the appropriate version here<br />//  This string will be used to search the registry for the application<br />//  associated with it and the same is invoked. <br />//  If you have different builds of the same version and you want to work<br />//  with a specific build, call CreateProcess() for that build and then<br />//  call CreateInstance() so that the currently running instance is returned.<br />app.CreateInstance(L"InDesign.Application.CS3");<br /><br />// Open existing document<br />InDesign::DocumentPtr doc = app->Open("C:\\InDesign\\myDocument.indd", true);<br />InDesign::PagePtr page = doc->Pages->FirstItem();<br />InDesign::TextFramePtr textFrame = doc->TextFrames->FirstItem();<br />textFrame->Contents = "Hello world";<br /><br />6) Go to the start of the file<br />7) Insert the following code before // CAboutDlg dialog used for App About<br /><br />// Required for calling COM initialization methods<br />#include <objbase.h><br /><br />// Import InDesign's Type Library<br />#import "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 5.0\Scripting Support\5.0\Resources for Visual Basic.tlb"<br /><br />8} Build and run the project (F5). When you press OK, InDesign should launch, open your document, find the first page, find the first TextFrame and replace the text (contents) with "Hello world"<br /><br />How to get in contact with your third-party API is a completely different ball game (not in the scope of this forum), but at least you now have a VC++ project with header files etc.<br /><br />If your third-party API is indeed an InDesign plug-in, I totally agree with Olav that you have to direct your questions to the SDK forum.<br /><br />Best regards,<br />Bo

Hi ram,

re: "but i need to know how to access the textframe->content with font and colours, so i will get some ideas of accessing the InMath Third Party Plug-in."

Does InMath support InDesign scripting? I don't know. If it doesn't, learning about the native InDesign scripting objects/properties/methods will not do you any good. If they gave you C++ header files, chances are good that they do not support scripting, but do provide a C++ API. These are two very different things. Do you understand the difference?

Thanks,

Ole

>i also dont know that the InMath plugin support the InDesign scripting

An easy way to check is if you can access it through JavaScript. If so, you can do the same in C++ as you can do in JS -- that is, using the objects, properties, and methods they provide to use the plugin.

The alternative way is, in effect, writing your
i own
plugin. That is definitely NOT for the faint hearted, let alone for the casual explorer you appear.
In that case you need the original C++ header files for the plugin, just as Adobe provided the original C++ header files to all InDesign components -- scriptable and other.

>please explain the differences

I think Ole's point was, if you need the differences explained to you, you're already in more trouble than you can handle.