CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • April 3, 2015 at 5:47 am #74357
    Matt Mayerchak

    Participant

    Hi all,

    I am replacing lots of art in some textbooks, and I need to repeatedly do the same set of actions after relinking or replacing the images. In this case, I need to 1) change the image scale to 100%, and 2) center the image in its picture frame.

    I can do these 2 steps and then use Object>Transform Sequence Again (for which I have a keyboard shortcut); but every 3-4 times I end up having to do something else to an image frame, so the latest “sequence” InDesign remembers is no longer the 2 steps I want. So, I have to do those 2 again manually to “record” that and then I can do it again using the keyboard shortcut until I have to move a frame again or something else.

    Seems to me that somebody must have a plugin or script for this. Ideally, it would allow me to “record” a set of actions and then play them back. I do still use QuickKeys, but since there isn’t a menu option to change the scaling of the content to 100%, I can’t see how I can use that to record the step. I don’t want to rescale the container (picture box); just the image within it.

    I also thought of QuickApply, but that doesn’t seem to work either. But I really don’t use that much so maybe I’m missing something about how it works.

    Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

  • April 3, 2015 at 5:58 am #74358
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Hi Matt, Rorohiko was starting down this path with this tool:
    https://creativepro.com/repeat-supercharges-production-single-step-action.php
    Not sure how far they got, or if it would help.

  • April 3, 2015 at 6:13 am #74359
    Matt Mayerchak

    Participant

    David – yeah, Repeat After Me was officially “deprecated” meaning they no longer are working on it or supporting it. I do have it, but it doesn’t quite do what I am looking for.

    For now, using a keystroke for Transform Sequence Again is working OK – but every few images I have to fix rotation or something so I have to re-record it. Doing the whole chapter at once would not be a big help since I need to watch each one and compare it to what was there before.

    This project is an interesting cautionary tale for publishers/designer: We have files that were sent to a printer about 5 years ago, for a textbook with LOTS of low res FPO images. The printer/prepress bureau swapped in the high res and printed the books, but the publisher never asked for those packaged InDesign files back. So, I got the old Indesign files with low res images, and the high-res PDFS (which they did get back). I extracted the images from the PDF (using either PDF2DTP or PDF2ID, I have both) and they come out at 100% size cropped as printed, and all named image001, 002, etc. So, we have to a) rename the image files, then b)re-link them and c)make sure they are scaled at 100% and centered in the picture box. A LOT of work because someone did not make sure to get their files back from the printer and the printers have gone through industry shakeups and no longer have the files. The moral is, always get the packaged hi-res files, and back them up!

  • March 1, 2016 at 2:14 pm #82451
    Weston Cox

    Member

    I’m in a similar boat. I have 422 images that I have to scale to 75% of their current size, while keeping their frames the current size. I’ve used RepeatAfterMe with great success in the past, but this task seems to be beyond its capabilities.

  • March 1, 2016 at 3:37 pm #82466
    Matt Mayerchak

    Participant

    Hi – do you need to resize them and reimport them at that size?

    Have you looked at Link Optimizer? I use it to bring images back in at 100% at a specified resolution, but I haven’t tried changing the settings to see if it would do wha you want. It’s made by Zevrix.

• Author
  Posts