Lightning Brain Text Exporter
This is a free download; it supports Mac & Windows versions of InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 or CS4.
Goal
Export all the stories of an InDesign document into a single file.
Supported output file formats:
- Rich Text Format (RTF)
- InDesign Tagged Text
- Text
Get More Text Exporter Features with a licensed APID ToolAssistant:
The APID ToolAssistant can be used in two modes: either in unlicensed (free) mode, or in licensed mode.
As an enticement, some optional features of TextExporter are only available with a licensed copy of the APID ToolAssistant. After the demo period of APID ToolAssistant lapses, these optional features of TextExporter will cease to be available until a license for APID ToolAssistant is installed.
These optional features are:
- To be able to suppress text items on invisible layers
- To be able to predefine export preferences, and then use a fast, dialog-less export function (handy if you need to export a succession of multiple documents)
- To be able to be automate TextExporter from AppleScript, VBScript, ExtendScript.
To purchase such a license, selected the API – APID ToolAssistant… menu item, select the ‘APID ToolAssistant’ entry in the list, and click the Get License… button. Purchasing an APID ToolAssistant license helps us fund further development of cool stuff!
After installing the APID ToolAssistant for the first time, it will work in licensed mode for a limited time, for demo purposes, so the optional features for TextExporter might be available to you for a limited time without purchasing a license.
If you don’t purchase a license, APID ToolAssistant will show itself as ‘Demo’ for the first 20 days, and after the 20 days are up, it will change to ‘Unlicensed’. Don’t be alarmed by this. It will not stop working. TextExporter works fine with the unlicensed version of APID ToolAssistant, and purchasing a license is optional. The only effect of you’ll notice is that
the optional TextExporter features listed earlier become unavailable.
Download
This is a free download. Before you can use the Lightning Brain TextExporter Plug-In you also have to install our free APID ToolAssistant Plug-In, which is available as a second, separate download.
LB TextExporter supports InDesign CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4 on Mac or Windows.
Download LB Text Exporter Plugin (version 2.0.7 – 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)
LB TextExporter and APID ToolAssistant are both 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 TextExporter Plug-In will work fine with an unlicensed APID ToolAssistant.
However, if you do purchase the US$25 license for APID ToolAssistant, some additional LB TextExporter features are made available:
- To be able to suppress text items on invisible layers
- To be able to predefine export preferences, and then use a fast, dialog-less export function (handy if you need to export a series of multiple documents)
- To be able to be automate LB TextExporter from AppleScript, VBScript, ExtendScript.
To encourage us by purchasing such the 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!
After installing the APID ToolAssistant for the first time, it will work in licensed mode for a limited time, for demo purposes, so the optional features for LB TextExporter might be available to you for a limited time without purchasing a license.
If you don’t purchase a license, APID ToolAssistant will show itself as ‘Demo’ for the first 20 days, and after the 20 days are up, it will change to ‘Unlicensed’. Don’t be alarmed by this. It will not stop working. LB TextExporter works fine with the unlicensed version of APID ToolAssistant, and purchasing a license is optional. The only effect of you’ll notice is that the optional LB TextExporter features listed earlier become unavailable.
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 TextExporter.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
- Open the InDesign document you wish to export text from.
- Select the ‘API – Text Exporter – Export With Dialog…’ menu item.
- A “Text Export Options” dialog should come up. Select the text gathering method you want (see the text gathering section below for more details).
- Select the page range you want to export text from.
- Click ‘OK’ to start the export. After a little while, a file-save dialog will appear, so you can select the location of the exported text. Choose a destination folder and a filename and click ‘OK’.
Text Gathering:
This plug-in supports two methods of text gathering:
- Horizontal, then vertical (letter gathering order)
- Vertical, then horizontal (newspaper columnar gathering order)
Additionally, you can also define the reading order as left-to-right (most European languages) or right-to-left (Hebrew, Arabic,…)
The first method ‘Horizontal, then vertical’ will sort all text frames you wish to export text from in terms of their position relative to the top of the page. The text frame that is closest to the top will be exported first and the one closest to the bottom will be exported last. If two or more text frames are at the same distance from the top, then the text frame that is earlier in the natural reading order of the page will be exported first.
The second method ‘Vertical, then horizontal’ will sort all text frames you wish to export text from in terms of their horizontal reading order. The text frame that is first in the natural reading order will be exported first. If two or more text frames are at the same horizontal reading order position, then the text frame that is closest to the top of the page will be exported first and then the second closest and so on.
If the plug-in encounters a text frame that is linked to other text frames via a story then the text gathering method will be temporarily ignored. The plug-in will then find all the linked text frames on the page or document (depending which type of export you chose) and sort them consecutively in story order regardless of their position on the page or document. Then the plug-in will resume the normal text gathering method.
Ignore Stories on Master Pages:
Uncheck this option to export master page stories.
Ignore Stories on Pasteboard:
Uncheck this option to export stories on the pasteboard.
Ignore Invisible Stories (only with licensed version of APID ToolAssistant):
Check this option to exclude stories that are fully contained on an invisible layer. Remark: as soon as one or more frames of a story are on a visible layer, the story will be exported, even if the bulk of its text frames is invisible.
Ignore Stories With Less than # Characters:
Check this option to exclude stories with less than a certain number of characters.
Export As:
Supported file formats:
- Rich Text Format (RTF)
- InDesign Tagged Text
- Text
Additional options available with a licensed APID ToolAssistant:
If your copy of APID ToolAssistant is licensed, (or if APID ToolAssistant is still in its time-limited demo mode), you’ll have additional TextExporter options available.
You can pre-define export options via the ‘API – Text Exporter – Default Export Settings…’ menu item.
This will make a “‘Text Exporter’ Default Settings” dialog appear. Any settings you define here will serve as default settings for subsequent exports.
If you want to export text from a document using these default settings, you can also choose the ‘API – Text Exporter – Export’ menu item – this will export the text without any further ado. It will use a filename based on your document’s name, but with a .rtf or .txt file name extension.
Be careful when using this option – any existing .rtf or .txt file with the same name will be overwritten without further warning.
If you need to batch-process many InDesign files, you could create an AppleScript or VBScript or ExtendScript to open/export/close these documents. In the subfolder ‘Automation’ are some short sample scripts that demonstrate how to call the Text Exporter ‘Export’ function from a script.
Let us know if this Scripted Plug-In is useful to you, at pluginsupport@rorohiko.com. Thanks!
Version history
5-December-2008 – Version 2.0.7:
- CS4 support
- InCopy Support
- Workaround for a CS4 ExtendScript bug that caused InDesign crashes on startup
<not dated> – Version 2.0.2-2.0.6:
- Internal releases – not officially released
17-May-2008 – Version 2.0.1:
- Fixed automation samples (AppleScript/VBScript/ExtendScript)
15-May-2008 – Version 2.0:
- Now uses APID ToolAssistant instead of Active Page Items Runtime
- Support for right-to-left reading order (e.g. for Hebrew or Arabic)
- Additional features are available with licensed copy of APID ToolAssistant:
- Allows suppression of invisible stories
- Can define Default settings
- Dialog-less Export function
- Can be automated from AppleScript/VBScript/ExtendScript
15-June-2007 – Version 1.0.2:
- Added CS3 support
3-August-2006 – Version 1.0.1:
- “Export Text” command is now available in the API menu (in the menubar)
- Fixes issue related to the exclusion of some stories during export.
3-July-2006 – Version 1.0:
- Initial release