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.

(Added note 6-Nov-2008: Please check the added notes at the end of the article. Yes, FM 8.x works too, and I’ve also added a way to do the patching much faster)

Recently, I was testing some ideas with various versions of FileMaker, and I found out that Instant Web Publishing with FileMaker 7 Developer on Mac OS X Leopard did not work.

I reinstalled FileMaker 7 Developer, upgraded to 7.0v3, installed the fm_70v3_osx_iwp update from the FileMaker website – and things seemed to work fine.

That is – until I quit and restarted FileMaker

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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.

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We’ve got version 3.0 of GREPGrokker available – click here to check it out. This one’s main new feature is that it uses a brand new GREP engine we’ve developed, which allows it to emulate InDesign’s GREP functionality much better than the previous versions.

There’s a new GREPGrokker version available – click here to check it out. Main new features: you can now see live text replacements, and there is a new ‘InDesign GREP Dialect’ simulation mode. Click here to try it out.

There’s a new version of MagnetoGuides available – click here for more info!

We’d also like to introduce the alpha release of Lightning Brain GREPGrokker – a free on-line tutor teaching GREP in a visual, interactive way. It’s a work in progress, and it is still early days, but it already works well, and it’s fun! Please have a look and give us some feedback. Click here to try it out.

Finally, Rorohiko has become an Adobe Approved Training Center (AATC), and Kris is now an Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) for Flex.

LightningBrain MagnetoGuides has been upgraded to version 1.0.3 and has now officialy been released. This is one of those things where you wonder why this is not a standard part of InDesign – once you’ve seen it it is hard to imagine no-one thought of this before. Licenses for this tool cost US$59.00. Click here to read more and watch an on-line demo.

Keyboard navigation in InDesign CS3! Ever wondered about using keyboard navigation on an InDesign layout (i.e. use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the selection from one page item to the other)?

Kris created a bunch of free, open source scripts to do exactly that – with these installed you can edit an InDesign CS3 document and rarely need to lift your hands off the keyboard to reach for the mouse. Simply ‘jump’ from page item to page item with a keystroke, edit text here and there, nudge an item up or down,…

We’ve made the scripts available for download via the mogomedia web site (the people behind The InDesign Conference, The Creative Suite Conference, and a whole lot of other great events. Their conferences are must-do stuff – for most people in the trade, attending one of these conferences pays back for itself in increased efficiency after a few weeks).

Click here to read David Blatner’s blog post, and to find the download link for the scripts. The download is free – all you need to do is register on the mogomedia web site (which is free as well). And if you like these scripts, leave some feedback on the mogomedia site!

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.

Kris’s introductory course on InDesign C++ SDK programming is now available in book form via Lulu – if you are interested in purchasing a copy, click here.

The goal of the book is not to teach you how to develop for Adobe InDesign; it’s intent is rather to show you how to approach that task. It is an accelerated introduction to the Adobe InDesign CSx Products Programming Guide. It helps to make sense of the information in that otherwise overwhelming tome.