Our LayerLifter freebie is a simple plug-in for Adobe InDesign that offers an alternative method for moving page items between layers, instead of using the InDesign Layers palette.

With LayerLifter, the names of the document layers appear in the context menu of any selected page item. You can move a page item between layers by right-clicking and selecting a layer name from the context menu.

This updated version adds an optional feature to nudge all items on a layer throughout the whole document, or across the current spread – only users that have a license for APID ToolAssistant installed have access to this optional feature.

To see a little bit more about this new feature, check this out – it’s a little article that explains how to nudge a whole collection of frames in one swoop:

http://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/2009/10/29/how-to-nudge-and-shift-a-whole-layer/

More info about LayerLifter can be found here:

http://www.rorohiko.com/layerlifter

The latest version of our LayerLifter tool includes an optional layer shifter feature, which allows you to do document-wide ‘layer nudging’

Imagine you made a picture grid layout, with captions below the pictures – something like this:

You’ve put pictures into the picture frames (to do that fast, you might have used our ImageLibraryLoader tool), and the caption text is all neatly styled using a paragraph style Caption.

The caption frames are on their own separate layer.

Imagine there are many tens of pages like this. Now, for the sake of the argument, suppose we want to make the caption frames overlap the pictures instead of sitting underneath.

First select the API – LayerLifter – Preferences menu item, and make sure the Drag Attached Layer On All Spreads option is enabled.

Select any one of the caption frames, and then pick the API – LayerLifter – Attach To Layer menu item.

The caption frame should now display a little paperclip icon near its top left corner.

The caption frame is now ‘attached’ to the layer it is on – anytime you move this particular frame, you will ‘drag’ the whole layer along, as well as any other page items on that layer.

Drag the caption frame so it overlaps the picture above it. As soon as you let go of the mouse button, all other caption frames on all pages will shift the same amount – so they now all overlap – they were all on the same layer, so they all move along. (Yeah, I know the result does not look good – good thing this is only a dummy layout just for the sake of the demo, eh).

Finally, with the attached caption frame still selected, use the API – LayerLifter -Detach From Layer menu item to remove the paperclip, and detach the caption frame from its layer.

Important: this layer shifter feature is only enabled for LayerLifter users that also have a valid APID ToolAssistant license installed.

We’ve been hard at work these last few months – a beta of StoryTweaker, a new version of TextExporter, and also a new version of FrameReporter for InDesign.

This update adds the ability to display the image file name and/or the image file path next to any placed image on the InDesign page.

Here’s a sample of what it can do for you – imagine you’ve been asked to place a whole lot of images, and it’s really important that the images are placed on the pages in alphabetical order of their file name.

The problem is that the images look very similar, and carry similar names – how do you verify quickly you’ve placed them correctly?

Furthermore, all images should be placed at the exact same scaling factor, so their effective resolution is the same. Again, how do you quickly find that out if there are any outliers?

Here’s a screen shot of my InDesign page – I can immediately see that DSC_8755 is out of order, that it is missing (hence the red background behind the name) and that the fourth image has been scaled to a different effective resolution than the other three.

With FrameReporter, it takes all of two seconds: Select All, and quickly inspect the file names.

And rest assured – these little labels are purely informational, and they are non-printing – they won’t appear on the printed page.

FrameReporter uses little non-printing labels to display interesting info about selected page items.  A lot of this info can also be found on the various InDesign palettes – but you need to click around to dig up the info. With FrameReporter, the relevant info is displayed exactly in the area where you are working, and you can immediately see the necessary info for multiple items in the flick of an eye.

Another example: FrameReporter will show overset text warnings on the frame of any text frame that’s part of a linked set of frames.

Check it out – click here for more info:

http://www.rorohiko.com/framereporter

Our ever more popular TextExporter tool has had a face-lift. TextExporter is a free plug-in for Adobe InCopy and Adobe InDesign that allows you to export all text from an InDesign file to a single file – in either Text, RTF or InDesign Tagged Text format

Yes, you read that right – you can use TextExporter with InCopy as well as with InDesign!

For users of CS3 and above, this latest version has an improved method for concatenating the InDesign content into a single RTF document. As a result the RTF export has better fidelity for users of CS3 and CS4. It’s still very much WYSSRWG (What You See Somewhat Resembles What You Get) but generally speaking, it’ll look closer to the original.

Furthermore, for those people who have (or will have) purchased the optional US$25 license for APID ToolAssistant, there are two additional features.

First of all, you can opt to export an InDesign document in frame-by-frame order instead of the default story-by-story order, so for some documents, the resulting RTF export file can be visually a bit closer to the original layout.

Secondly, you can convert all text to black during export – which is helpful when the InDesign document contains white text above a dark backdrop. Such white text becomes normally invisible in the exported RTF file, but with this new option, that’s a problem of the past.

More info and download links can be found by clicking here:

http://www.rorohiko.com/textexporter

ImageHorn is a free plug-in for Adobe InDesign to automatically resize or re-fit an image frame’s contents when the image frame is resized.

ImageHorn has a new feature – it is now possible to ‘pre-assign’ a fitting option to an empty frame (without any image). Later on, when an image is placed or pasted into the frame, the pre-assigned fitting option kicks in and will be applied to the image.

ImageLibraryLoader is another free plug-in. This one allows you to quickly set up a floating palette filled with images from one or more designated folders. In many cases, it is much faster than Adobe Bridge, as it uses standard InDesign library palette – so there is no external app to launch.

ImageLibraryLoader has been enhanced with a menu item that allows the user to directly paste a library item into an existing frame – which saves quite a few clicks.

There are a few limitations though – this new ImageLibraryLoader feature only works in Adobe InDesign CS3 or higher, and it only works for users that have a licensed version of APID ToolAssistant installed. Users of the free, unlicensed version of APID ToolAssistant miss out.

These two new features work great together – read all about it in this post:

How to Populate a Template With Images in No Time At All

This short article will explain how you can set up a template with a bunch of image frames, and then populate this template with images, much faster than you’d expect, using Adobe InDesign CS3 or above.

The secret to this are two of our popular tools: ImageHorn and ImageLibraryLoader.

Both are free, but for maximum efficiency you will also want a licensed version (or a non-lapsed demo version) of our APID ToolAssistant plug-in installed.

That’s because the Paste Into Selected Frame feature of ImageLibraryLoader is only available for people that have a licensed APID ToolAssistant installed – that particular feature is not available if you are using the free, unlicensed version of APID ToolAssistant.

Now, it works fine without the Paste Into Selected Frame feature, but as you’ll see, having this feature allows you to save even more mouse clicks.

Here’s how it works: first you need to install the plug-ins (three in total – ImageHorn.spln, ImageLibraryLoader.spln, and an appropriate copy of the APID ToolAssistant plug-in).

Launch InDesign CS3 or above, and create a new document. Create a few empty image frames – something like this:

Now, select all the frames (hit Command-A or Control-A), and then select the API – ImageHorn – Dynamic Fill Proportionally menu item. This will ‘mark’ all page items to (re)apply a ‘Fill Proportionally’ each time any of these frames changes – for example, when an image is placed into a frame.

The next step: fill the ImageLibraryLoader palette with images – select the API – ImageLibraryLoader – Reload Image Library… menu item, then navigate to a folder with some images you want to use as content for this layout. The ImageLibraryLoader will ‘grab’ all of these images, and quickly build a little floating palette with them – many people prefer this approach to using Adobe Bridge.

Now the magic bit: select any one of the frames on the page, and also select any one of the images on the AutoImageLibrary palette. Then select the API – ImageLibraryLoader – Paste Into Selected Frame menu item. The image will be copied from the palette, straight into the frame, and then ImageHorn kicks in, and the placed image will be resized to fill the frame proportionally – all in one quick operation.

To make it really fast, you’d assign a keyboard shortcut to the Paste Into Selected Frame menu item. Click-click-tap, done!

If you don’t have a licensed version of APID ToolAssistant, you won’t be able to use the Paste Into Selected Frame menu item. In that case you need a few more clicks to achieve the same effect. Drag the desired image from the AutoImageLibrary palette onto your pasteboard. This creates a new frame with the image inside it. Next, use the direct selection tool (hollow arrow) to select the frame content. Cut, and then Paste Into the destination frame. Delete the remaining empty frame from your pasteboard.

Of course, this trick is no panacea: it all depends on your workflow whether this approach is usable or not; in many cases, there are factors like image resolution to consider – but often, this is ‘good enough’.

Now, a bit more about APID ToolAssistant – it is a seemingly featureless plug-in, but it is actually a critical component for many popular plug-ins, and behind the screens it helps tools like ImageHorn and ImageLibraryLoader work their magic. APID ToolAssistant has two ‘modes’ – licensed and unlicensed.

When you install the downloadable demo of APID ToolAssistant for the very first time, it will work (for the purpose of demonstration) as a licensed version for about a month, and then it will fall back to the unlicensed mode.

If you’ve never installed APID ToolAssistant before, you’ll be able to try out the above trick during the demo period. On the other hand, if your demo version of APID ToolAssistant has already dropped back to unlicensed mode, you’ll need to shell out US$25 for a license before you can use the above trick.

Getting a license is easy – select the API – APID ToolAssistant… menu item. In the following dialog, click the line that says APID ToolAssistant and then click the Get License… button – you’ll be directed to a web page for purchase.

Follow the links below to read more about each of the three plug-ins:

• For info on ImageHorn, click here
• For info on ImageLibraryLoader, click here
• For info on APID ToolAssistant, click here

We’ve just released an update to the APID ToolAssistant plug-in – version 1.0.47.

This plug-in has no end-user features; it is mainly an invisible, yet critical component of many popular InDesign plug-ins, both developed by us or by other software developers.

As such, APID ToolAssistant provides support for many of our popular tools, like TextExporter, StoryParker, MagnetoGuides, FrameReporter…

If you are using any tools that rely on APID ToolAssistant, please update to the latest and greatest. In the 1.0.47 release, we’ve concentrated on performance and stability. The few new features we’ve added are mainly of interest to software developers who use APID ToolAssistant as a component for their tools.

In our own range of tools, especially FrameReporter benefits from using the latest APID ToolAssistant – the little info-labels now remain better ‘attached’ to the associated frame, even when rotated or stretched, and APID ToolAssistant now avoids drawing information ‘upside-down’.

Click here for more info about APID ToolAssistant.

The APIDToolAssistant 1.0.46 has been released. More info can be found here.

Download APID ToolAssistant (version 1.0.46. Includes versions for Mac, Windows, InDesign CS, InDesign CS2, InDesign CS3 and InDesign CS4).

This version is of interest to end-users and scripters alike. It adds a host of features that are of interest to the serious scripter, as well as CS4 compatibility.

For interested scripters, Kris also has made a blog post that highlights one of the new features - scripted page item adornments. Click here to read it on our new Rorohiko Documentation Pool blog.

Ingredients

- Adobe® InDesign® CS or higher (the APIDToolAssistant plug-in is available for InDesign CS, CS2, CS3, CS4, Mac and Windows).

- A licensed copy or a demo version of APIDToolAssistant 1.0.46 or higher. It also works with unlicensed versions, but then the word ‘DEMO’ will be prefixed to or superimposed on all page adornments. Download it from from http://www.rorohiko.com/downloads/APIDToolAssistant.1.0.46.zip

More info about APIDToolAssistant can be found at http://www.rorohiko.com/apidtoolassistant.html. Essentially, it’ll cost you US$25 to unlock the potential of APIDToolAssistant.

- One or more PNG files if you want graphical adornments. Higher-resolution PNG files will result in ’smoother’ adornments when the InDesign layout window is zoomed in.

(more…)

There is a new version of the free Lightning Brain Text Exporter; it adds better support for InDesign CS3, and support for text gathering for right-to-left languages. It also adds some optional new features whose availability is linked to the purchase of a license for APID ToolAssistant: for example, suppressing text on invisible layers. Click hereto read more.

We’ve also simplified our product structure and merged the two plug-ins formerly known as Active Page Item Runtime and Active Page Item Developer Kernel. The combined plug-in is now known as the APID ToolAssistant, a free download. Click here to read more. If you need to upgrade your Active Page Item Runtime, you’ll need to replace it with APID ToolAssistant.

Last, but not least, we have a new InDesign freebie available – it’s called Lightning Brain StylePainter. It allows you to easily assign a lot of styles in one go via the power of grep expressions. Works for InDesign CS/CS2/CS3.