Lightning Brain Place Auto-Synchronizer
This is a free download; it supports Mac & Windows versions of InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 or CS4.
Goal
Create an auto-updating text or image frame.
Download
This is a free download. Before you can use the Lightning Brain Place Auto-Synchronizer Plug-In you also have to install our free APID ToolAssistant Plug-In, which is available as a second, separate download.
LB Place Auto-Synchronizer supports InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4 on Mac or Windows.
Download the LB Place Auto-Synchronizer 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 Place Auto-Synchronizer 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 Place Auto-Synchronizer 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 PlaceAutoSynchronizer.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
To place a synchronized image or text file, proceed as follows:
- Create a text or image box
- 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 the palette where you can define a label for the box.
- Label the box with the word subscribe (all lowercase).
- A file selection dialog should pop up – pick and choose a placeable file to place into the box (an image, a text file, an RTF file, a PDF file…).
If you want styled text, you can use RTF files. You can create RTF files with Apple’s TextEdit (which comes with Mac OS X), and with Microsoft’s WordPad (which comes with Windows). Make sure you always use fonts that are both available in your text editor and in InDesign – you might need to juggle with your fonts a bit.
This operation creates a ‘live’ placed file: each time the placed file changes or gets overwritten, the box contents will be updated automatically.
Also keep in mind that it is allowed to have multiple boxes subscribe to the same disk file – so you can have multiple boxes that display the same, synchronized data.
To later disable the automated place for a particular box: 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 the palette where you can modify the label for the box.
The selected box’s label should be activesubscribe. Delete this label to disable any future ‘Place Auto-Synchronization’ for the box.
You can use this plug-in for a wide range of solutions – a few ideas:
- Automated publishing: copy new images and text descriptions over the previous ones and have the layout auto-update.
- Synchronized text: multiple boxes can ’subscribe’ to the same boilerplate text. Each time the text changes, all subscribing boxes auto-update.
Let us know if this Scripted Plug-In is useful to you, at pluginsupport@rorohiko.com. Thanks!
If you find the user interface a bit odd – we agree. Have a look at our Frequently Asked Questions.
Limitations
The LB Place Auto-Synchronizer is not terribly smart, and only handles unlinked text boxes – it does not work if you link multiple boxes together. Let us know if this is an important issue for you, at pluginsupport@rorohiko.com. Or post a message on our Message Board! Thanks!
Cookbook
Below a step-by-step example on a Mac (Windows would be very similar).
First I’ll show you what happens if you try to use the PlaceAutoSynchronizer.spln with an old runtime:
If you see this dialog: please download and install the latest APID ToolAssistant
Ok – suppose everything is properly installed. I first launch TextEdit (which resides in your Applications folder), and create a little RTF file; in this example, I save the RTF file as copyright.rtf on my desktop. The contents of the RTF file is some centered text. It’s some copyright message I want to sprinkle through my document.
I create a new InDesign CS document, and create some box.
In InDesign CS, if the Script Label palette is not visible, I make it visible through its menu item, Window – Scripting – Script Label.
In CS2 you’d use the Window – Automation – Script Label menu instead. The CS2 palette looks similar.
Then I select the box and type the word subscribe in the palette:
As soon as I hit the Tab-key or click somewhere outside the palette, a File Selection Dialog pops up. I use it to select the RTF file I just created.
The box auto-imports the content of the RTF file.
I create a few copies of the box and move them around a bit – for the sake of argument. All the copies are automatically subscribed to the same disk file, copyright.rtf - they ‘inherit’ that behavior from the first box.
Here, I also have made a small change to copyright.rtf in TextEdit but I have not yet saved the modified file (I added -2006).
As soon as I hit ‘Save’ in TextEdit, the boxes auto-update:
That’s All For Now, Folks!
Hope it works well for you.
Version history
2-Jun-2006- Version 1.0.2:
- Added support for text threads (linked text boxes)
23-Dec-2005- Version 1.0.1:
- Updated enclosed runtime to version 1.0.15a, and adjusted the ReadMe document for the new runtime
15-Nov-2005 – Version 1.0:
- Initial release