Actions Panel
An Actions Panel that runs the same type of Recording/Playing features as Photoshop and Illustrator already have would be fantastic.
Tom Miatke
shared this idea
Hello All,
Kindly provide more information about this ask. How do you plan to use the Action Panel in InDesign? Do you want it to work exactly like that in Photoshop? What are the most important actions/operations that you want to record?
Thanks
Abhinav Agarwal
Product Manger – InDesign
79 comments
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Anonymous
commented
I would love to be able to record the following operations, which I do every day with a lot of documents, in order to clean them up prior to printing:
• Select all unused character styles, replace with none and keep formatting, then sort the rest by name
• Delete all unused paragraph styles, table styles, cell styles and object styles, and sort the rest by name
• Delete all unused color swatches, and add unnamed colors
• Delete all notes
• Delete all imported PDF comments
• Set conditional text indicators to hide
• Delete all bookmarks
• Delete all hyperlinks to web pages
• Delete unused layers
• Delete all images on pasteboard
• Turn off smart text reflow -
Alessio Azzolini
commented
Usually, I work with different clients, so it's difficult for a list of operations to record. For every project that could be something new to recording, for example, export in a fast way or find and replace something, in particular, displace/move/copy. I saw a lot of people ask this function (record something) in different years, so I think that it's a very important feature for us and for our work. I know that there is the script function but recording 4-5-7 operations with 1 click it's the fastest way.
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Anonymous
commented
If you want actions to do find and replace, there are several scripts which will do the job just as well by chaining saved queries. I can warmly recommend the one described here: https://www.creativepro.com/automate-grep-find-change-indesign-chaingrep/
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Pam Stevenson
commented
I typeset study guides in Indesign and I place the text from Word and then have to do the same with every single file,
find superscript > replace Superscript character style
find bold > replace Bold character style
find italic > replace Italic character style
find font size 14 > replace Subheader character style
find font size 13 > replace MinorSubheader character style
find font size 12 > replace Body character styleHaving the Actions palette would allow me to automatize these actions and to have a consistent work flow for each file.
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Jandos
commented
I would love this feature, and would use it mostly for serial find/change operations. Texts come from clients with various idiosyncrasies and house styles, I use Find Change by List often, but it is more or less useful depending on whose house style you are converting to typographical style. To have access to a saved series of F/C operations for each client would be great.
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Mait
commented
It is so wierd that Indesign does not have actions panel. Character and Paragraph styles have shortcut capablity. Think of it if there were none.
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Tom Miatke
commented
Hi Abhinav,
I realise this has been a long time in response, but would love to hear if this idea is any closer to being a reality?The way I see it working is very similar to how Photoshop's Actions panel works. Recording functions, methods and the workings of what we do on screen. I think there would need to be a way to specify actions and/or workflows happening per page or in the entire document, but I can definitely see its benefit. I think it would really bring a whole new level of automation to the program.
I think by reading the comments everyone can see various uses and how it could be implemented so I think it would be a valuable asset to the program. By the looks of it, people want to be able to record their various repetitive workings... so its hard to define exactly WHAT, but to be able to record repetitive functions is key. On a daily I use InDesign... but I think I could efficiency by about 50-60% with an actions panel.
I could definitely see it increasing Character/Paragraph styling, Find and Change queries, Scripting functions, Exporting file types, Placing in Data, File Naming, Tables and so much more.
Hopefully this can be implemented soon, I can see how well it could work and I'm excited!
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Vinoth Kumar
commented
Hi Team, If we add the Actions Panel in the newer version of the InDesign as in Photoshop, it would be great to use it and it will reduce the AHT and increase the Quality.
Thank you!
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Anonymous
commented
Dear Abhinav,
when we import MSWord document into our beloved indesign, somethings are going to be handled manually. including find/replace superscript (local) to Superscript style you made earlier. This as you know is to prevent the override of the superscripts when you override a paragraph style which you would inevitably do.
This I do with saving find/replace query.
The list of manual things goes on. for example when you want to override local formatting of all paragraph styles in your text you have to make a unique query for each of the styles. This gets extremely frustrating when you have to do it over and over again. A simple action recorder would solve this issue easily.Regards
Kian
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Jackson
commented
Actions would be useful for me when it comes to prepping files to send to print vendors. The vendors I use still expect outlined versions of all fonts, so I want to create an action that does the following:
1.) Override all Master Page Items
2.) Select All
3.) Ungroup
4.) Outline TextIdeally there would be a way to do this for every page in a document at the same time, but barring that having an action that I could run with a single key command would save a lot of time over the multi-step way I currently have to do it.
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Thomas Hilstad
commented
import settings from another document. Example Paragraph styles, table styles, map tags to styles...
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Anonymous
commented
Yes, exactly like Photoshop would be great!
I have to:
open a doc
document setup/adjust the size height to 13.5"
select all
move the y: to 3.4"
step and repeat/emter
object/transform/rotate 180°
export as a preset PDF/enter
save
closeThere are a lot of images that I would like very much to do this. Please get'r done ASAP. I won't hold my breath. Thanks.
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Anonymous
commented
I have to create rectangular varnishes for more than 1500 images. Some of the images will get 40% gloss varnish, while others will get 100%. Without an action, I have to copy and paste the image in place, then delete the image, fill the image box it with the SGV swatch (set to overprint) and, if needed, adjust the tint to 40%. Imagine doing that 1500 plus times. (I don't have to imagine...I have to do it.) Being able to create an ACTION would be a dream –– especially since I could create one for 100% varnish and one for 40%. Hey Adobe, please wake me from this nightmare and give me an ACTION panel. Thanks.
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D
commented
Right now I'd like to use it to make the "span columns" feature a little faster. In the past, I could have used it for a series of Find-Change operations I had to do. Please make this a reality, I've been wanting it for years.
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Anonymous
commented
I have 36 pages where I have to switch column one's content and column two's content. This is really tedious.
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Jason
commented
For the love of all things! How would I use it??? However I want, for whatever I need... just like Photoshop.
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Klaas
commented
This would be a very good feature, to be able to record action just like in Photoshop, with the option to record tools or not.
Right now, any automation has to be done using scripts which is powerful but much harder to learn.
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Abdullah Saleem
commented
I would like to create action in Indesign for Table as I work on Annual Reports of different Clients and I have to set their Excel Accounts into Indesign and present them in a better way. The biggest issue I get is that and Its repetitive as well like adding stroke in total figure the Upper stroke of a cell is single and down stroke is double or thick.
When I bring excel Sheets into the Indesign even using bring all elements selected in Pasteboard options inside preferences it doesn't bring it properly into the InDesign. I wish Adobe could develop a feature to create to delete hidden columns in Actions & resize the sheet to document Margins, and the column width should be equal throughout the document.
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Alan Gilbertson
commented
Typical case: I have 30 separate textbook covers in a series and I need to make the same changes on each one, export to PDF, save and close. Of course this can be done by scripting, but that's stupidly complex compared to doing it one time and recording an Action, like in Photoshop, then repeat it for each document. Would have saved me at least a couple of hours yesterday, and would save me more than that tomorrow on a different project with similar repetitive operations.
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Caitlin
commented
I'd use actions for:
- exporting multiple files with the same settings
- or printing multiple files with a changed preset, but not saving after
(useful for printing initial proofs, but keeping settings for printing the final order on a different printer)it'd save a lot of time & clicks!