Lightning Brain Boxed Step and Repeat
This is a free download; it supports Mac & Windows versions of InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 or CS4.
Goal
This Scripted Plug-In allows you to create a ’smart’ step-and repeat system. See below under ‘Usage‘ for more details.
Download
This is a free download. Before you can use the Lightning Brain Boxed Step And Repeat Plug-In you also have to install our free APID ToolAssistant Plug-In, which is available as a second, separate download.
LB Boxed Step And Repeat supports InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4 on Mac or Windows.
Download the LB Boxed Step And Repeat Scripted Plugin (version 1.0.2 – Free download – does not include the APID ToolAssistant. Don’t worry about the icon of the .spln file: it might not be a ‘regular’ icon, and that’s OK)
Download APID ToolAssistant for InDesign (version 1.0.46 – Free)
You don’t need to purchase a license for APID ToolAssistant (but we’re always grateful if you do – it helps us fund further development). The LB Boxed Step And Repeat Plug-In will work fine with an unlicensed APID ToolAssistant.
To encourage us by purchasing the US$25 optional license, select the API – APID ToolAssistant… menu item, select the ‘APID ToolAssistant’ entry in the list, and click the Get License… button. Purchasing a license helps us fund further development of cool stuff!
If you don’t purchase a license, APID ToolAssistant will show itself as ‘Demo’ for the first 20 days after it was first installed, and after the 20 days are up, it will change to ‘Unlicensed’. Don’t be alarmed by this. It will not stop working. LB Boxed Step And Repeat works with an unlicensed version of APID ToolAssistant, and purchasing a license is optional.
Let us know if this tool is useful to you, at pluginsupport@rorohiko.com. Thanks!
Installation
Please make sure you have a copy of the APID ToolAssistant plug-in installed.
Make sure you install the proper plug-in for your version of InDesign. InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4 plug-ins are mutually incompatible.
If you already have an APID ToolAssistant plug-in installed (e.g. because you use one of our other Scripted Plug-Ins), make sure it is up-to-date.
APID ToolAssistant used to be called ‘Active Page Item Runtime‘ – if you have any copies of Active Page Item Runtime or Active Page Item Developer installed, please remove them, and replace them with APID ToolAssistant.
When installing plug-ins make sure you copy plug-in files, not the folders they are contained in.
Copy the BoxedStepAndRepeat.spln into the same folder as the APID ToolAssistant plug-in you installed (typically that will be the InDesign Plug-Ins folder). Don’t worry about the icon of the .spln file: it might not be a ‘regular’ icon, and that’s OK.
Usage
This Scripted Plug-In allows you to create a ’smart’ step-and repeat system. Included in the download is an example InDesign CS document that shows you how to use the plugin and create your own repeatable patterns – (it works both in InDesign CS and InDesign CS2).
It’s easier to explain what it does visually, with a few examples. To the left of the table below you can see the original ‘basic cell’ I created – two or three smaller page items ‘pasted into’ a surrounding box. Each basic cell tells the plugin what needs to be repeated, and how much margin to leave around the repeated items on the four sides.
To the right you see the result of resizing the basic cell – the basic cell is repeated a number of times horizontally, vertically or both, and the surrounding box is ’shrunk’ as necessary to respect the same amount of margin that was used in the original basic cell – it will never cut any elements in half. The left and bottom margins of the resized result are the same as the margins of the basic cell.
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Basic cell
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After Resizing
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In order to make a basic cell, you need to proceed as follows.
First you get hold of two or three basic elements. Position them as desired. In case you are using three elements you must make sure the first and third element are identical in shape, color and size. Once everything is positioned the way you like, you must group the elements.
Then create a box, and paste the grouped elements into it (cut the group away, select the box, and select Edit – Paste Into to paste the group inside the box).
Drag the four sides of the box in or out until the amount of margin around the group of pasted-in elements is the way you like it.
Select the box, and use the Window – Automation – Script Label menu (in InDesign CS2) or the Window – Scripting – Script Label menu (in InDesign CS) to bring up a palette where you can define a label for the box.
Label the box with the single word (all lowercase) repeater – this is a ‘magic word’ that tells the plugin it should jump into action when this particular box is resized. It is allowed to have many boxes all labeled with this same magic word.
You can use the same palette to remove the word repeater from a box at some later point in time, after which the box becomes a normal box again.
Let us know if this Scripted Plug-In is useful to you, at pluginsupport@rorohiko.com. Thanks!
Version history
23-Dec-2005 – Version 1.0.2:
- Adjusted the example document to the 1.0.15a runtime
24-Oct-2005 – Version 1.0:
- Initial release