If you’ve ever used InDesign’s PDF form tools to make a List Box or Combo Box, you know what a pain it can be to add a long list of choices manually. So. Very. Boring.
That’s why InDesign scripter Chuck Weger created the ComboMambo script. It allows you to import a list of items directly into a form field to save all that error-prone typing (and your sanity).
You can download ComboMambo here.
To use ComboMambo, select a Combo Box or List Box form field with the Selection tool.
Then run the script. You can run it just by double-clicking it in macOS or Windows. Even better: install it in your InDesign Scripts panel. Need help installing the script? Check out this post.
You’ll be prompted to select a plain text file (with a .txt suffix) containing the set of items you want in the List or Combo Box.
That’s it! Each line of text in the file will be added as a separate choice in the InDesign Combo or List Box.
Note that you must have your list items in a plain text file. not a Word doc, RTF file, etc.
Thanks, Chuck!
This article was last modified on March 18, 2022
This article was first published on July 9, 2014
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