How to Modify or Configure These Scripts

Scripts are plain-text files and can be edited in any plain-text editor (Notepad, BBEdit, etc.).

Note that even though all word processors can open plain-text files, most will want to save them in their default rich-text formats. Be sure to select “text” and retain the script’s original file extension (JS or JSX).

For many years, Adobe provided the ExtendScript Toolkit (ESTK) – InDesign’s JavaScript editor — but it will no longer run on exclusively 64-bit computers or on Apple’s M-series processors, and it has discontinued its development. But on Windows, which can handle the compatibility issue better, it’s still very much alive, and it’s the only app to boast an object-model viewer. On macOS and newer Windows systems, your only choice is to install Microsoft’s free Visual Studio Code and configure it with the ExtendScript Debugger Extension. Follow Kris Coppieters’ guidance here.

To locate the script you want to edit if you’ve already installed it in InDesign, open the Script panel (Utilities > Scripts and right-click the script’s name. Click “Reveal in Finder” or “Reveal in Explorer” from the panel menu to navigate to the file. Or you can pick Edit Script from the panel menu and directly open the file for editing.

Don’t be intimidated by all kinds of windows you see or the different colours you see in the text: It’s just plain text. The colors are there to differentiate the script language syntax. Make any changes you want or are instructed to make, then save the script (File > Save) and exit the editor.

You should consider working on a duplicate of the file in case you accidentally break your script! From the Script panel, reveal the file and create a duplicate. Then, once it’s working, you can back up the previous version.

Make any changes you want or are instructed to make, then save the script (File > Save) and exit the program. Generally, well-written scripts will include comments (lines of text that are there to inform and are not part of the code itself) with instructions for replacing values, measurements, and other settings that users are expected to configure.

Incidentally, one great way to learn scripting is to get comfortable with opening, configuring, and reading through existing scripts.

Note: Scripts with the extension JSXBIN cannot be modified.

InDesign versions

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