CS4 — ouch! Did you read my post CS4: The dreaded index …? That was on a just slightly larger document (and, from the complaints I have read on Adobe's Indesign Forum, I think index troubles are not even related to document size).

To get my index up and running, I had to write lots of custom scripts, so at least I now know how to gather all entries into a file, for example.

The tour de farce (so to speak) I mention at the end — a fully custom script that gathers index entries and their page numbers by itself, sorted & all — worked for me and my index; but that was only an easy one, relatively speaking, consisting only of single-level entries. It won't work for you without some serious re-writing, I'm afraid.

(I also don't feel like picking up the slack where Adobe fails to get it right! It's their job, and they ought to do something about it, what with us being paying clients suffering under some serious bugs that virtually makes the index function useless.)

(I'm fuming — sorry, I know.)

Okay — perhaps this javascript is all you need. It will change the first row of each table in your entire document to the height you specify (in regular shorthand notation, e.g., “0.125in” or “1.2cm”). Fortunately — or not –, it doesn't matter whether it's a “header” row or a regular one.

Pay attention now, because last time I inserted a script of this length it was completely overlooked. (…)

Ready?

app.activeDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().rows[0].height = “12mm”; // <- Change me!

Okay — that was it. Don't let its length fool you; a lot of thought went into it :-)

Copy, paste into a plain text editor (Notepad, Textedit — in plain text mode — or Adobe's own ESTK Editor), and save as “ChangeFirstRowsTo20mm.jsx” into your User Scripts folder. You don't have to do anything but double-click the script and sit back.

(Given the speed it works at, you might not even have time to sit back.)

What you describe works just fine for me … If I select one single Index marker (using shift-arrows and a little try-and-error, or the Story Editor), the selected entry in the Index panel will be the reference to that marker.

Perhaps you could try exporting the document to IDML and re-opening that — it might clear some gunk from the corners of your file.

Okay — perhaps this javascript is all you need. It will change the first row of each table in your entire document to the height you specify (in regular shorthand notation, e.g., “0.125in” or “1.2cm”). Fortunately — or not –, it doesn't matter whether it's a “header” row or a regular one.

Pay attention now, because last time I inserted a script of this length it was completely overlooked. (…)

Ready?

app.activeDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().rows[0].height = “12mm”; // <- Change me!

Okay — that was it. Don't let its length fool you; a lot of thought went into it :-)

Copy, paste into a plain text editor (Notepad, Textedit — in plain text mode — or Adobe's own ESTK Editor), and save as “ChangeFirstRowsTo20mm.jsx” into your User Scripts folder. You don't have to do anything but double-click the script and sit back.

(Given the speed it works at, you might not even have time to sit back.)

Try this script. It will create a NON-PRINTING layer “ImageScales” — just to remind you have to manually switch between printing and non-printing! — as well as a paragraph style “ImageScales”. If the layer and/or style already exist, you can adjust them to what you want; it won't change them any further.

Then it goes over all images and inserts their scale.

Make a version with the ImageScales layer set to printable for your clients, and one with the layer non-printable for production (don't do it the other way around, or you'll make your clients less happy, rather than more).

Written on a CS4 machine but it ought to work, methinks.

(Edit: changed 'horizontalScale' to 'absoluteHorizontalScale, and the same for vertical.) (!)

//DESCRIPTION:Label Images with their Scale

// Jongware, 20-May-2010

// No Guarantees, Etc.

try {

app.activeDocument.layers.add({name:”ImageScales”, layerColor: [255,192,0], printable: false});

} catch (_) { }

try {

app.activeDocument.paragraphStyles.add({name:”ImageScales”, justification: Justification.CENTER_ALIGN});

} catch (_) { }

reportLayer = app.activeDocument.layers.item(“ImageScales”);

reportStyle = app.activeDocument.paragraphStyles.item(“ImageScales”);

imageList = app.activeDocument.allGraphics;

for (im=0; im<imageList.length; im++)

{

try { showScaleFor (imageList[im]); } catch (_) {}

}

function showScaleFor (anImage)

{

var gb,fr,pg;

gb = anImage.parent.geometricBounds;

pg = anImage.parent;

while (1)

{

if (pg instanceof InsertionPoint)

pg = pg.parentTextframes[0];

if (pg instanceof Document || pg instanceof Spread || pg instanceof Page)

break;

pg = pg.parent;

}

fr = pg.textFrames.add(reportLayer, {geometricBounds: gb, textFramePreferences: {verticalJustification: VerticalJustification.CENTER_ALIGN}});

fr.insertionPoints[0].appliedParagraphStyle = reportStyle;

if (anImage.absoluteHorizontalScale == anImage.absoluteVerticalScale)

fr.contents = twoDec(anImage.absoluteHorizontalScale)+”%”;

else

fr.contents = twoDec(anImage.absoluteHorizontalScale) + “%/” + twoDec(anImage.absoluteVerticalScale) + “%”;

}

function twoDec(x)

{

return Math.round(x*100)/100;

}

It's possible, but it highly depends on your InDesign version how easy it is.

For CS4 and later, check the Help on Cross-References. That's one way to do it.

In the Help?

But … you're in for some treats! (Well — as long as you don't need indexes …)

* GREP is a programmers' way of finding text; it's vastly superior to ID's “normal” searching (it takes some time to get the basics, but after that …)

* You can even apply character styles automatically. Imagine every time you see a word “Wow!” you have to make it Comic Sans. Put this in a GREP style and ID will automatically do that for you!

* Ehm. … Did you read all of InDesignSecrets.com of the past 5 years?