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BreachofMind
BreachofMind
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Datamerge Preview in custom palette?

May 10, 2012 11:05 AM

Tags: #script #preview #checkbox #palette #datamerge

Fellow scripters,

 

I'm building a bunch of new applications to help improve our productivity of our graphics department and eliminate some tedium.

One application is a custom datamerge palette that allows users to change just the information they edit often, such as the bottom margin and the space between rows/columns. Instead of manually entering the numbers in edittext fields, my palette has nice +/- buttons.

 

However, the great thing about InDesign's datamerge panel is the wonderful 'preview' checkbox, which I can't figure out how to code! I figured there may be a method in the DOM that I'm completely not seeing.

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

794 Views   4 Replies   Latest reply: Dek, Jun 1, 2012 7:40 AM
 
Replies
  • John Hawkinson
    5,527 posts
    Jun 25, 2009
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    1. John Hawkinson,
    May 10, 2012 4:39 PM   in reply to BreachofMind
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    You can display the panel and check the checkbox:

    app.panels.item("$ID/DataMergePanelName").visible=true;
app.menus.item("$ID/DataMergeUIPanelPopup").menuItems.item("$ID/Preview Records").associatedMenuAction.invoke();
app.panels.item("$ID/DataMergePanelName").visible=false;

     

    Awkward to be sure.

     
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  • Dek
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    2. Dek,
    Jun 1, 2012 2:32 AM   in reply to John Hawkinson
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    Does the last line switch off the preview, could this be used at end of script before closing file?

     

    (AppleScript newbie!)

     
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  • John Hawkinson
    5,527 posts
    Jun 25, 2009
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    3. John Hawkinson,
    Jun 1, 2012 7:31 AM   in reply to Dek
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    This is in Javascript, not applescript.

    The last line hides the panel, it does not switch off the preview.

    Not sure what you mean about "end of script before closing file?".

     
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  • Dek
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    4. Dek,
    Jun 1, 2012 7:40 AM   in reply to John Hawkinson
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    What I have been trying to find out how to do it is add a script into an automator action I created which will open an InDesign file, update links, export as pdf then save and close file.

     

    If a script could be added to preview datamerge, export PDF then switch off preview before saving it would save hours!

     
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