Extract Texts From Linked INDD files

(based on the post from Adobe Forum)

Let’s assume that you have a lot of INDD files linked to your Main INDD file – and you need to extract some texts – or objects / tables / whatever – from those linked INDD(*) files – the reason can be as simple as “just for fun” or more serious – to include them in the Index, TOC, for translation, etc.

To complete the process – beside your INDD files – you will need 3x Tasks:

1st Task – Load – executed with “play” button :

This task is responsible for loading information about linked INDD files.

^{Click here if you would like to know more about how 1st Task works.}

Select Nothing – as per the name – as if anything is selected – will impact further processing
Clear List – “Texts” – clears “Texts” list – just in case
Show Extra Columns For Objects – “Item Link – File Path” – we will need this info to load linked INDD file – it’s a bit misleading as it stores FilePath+FileName but that’s how it’s in the API
Show Extra Columns For Objects – “PDF Attributes – Page Number” – we will need this info to go to the specific page in the linked INDD file
Load Objects – based on the current selection – will load all objects from the active document
Filter Objects – we want to hide everything that isn’t a page imported from another INDD file
Sort Objects – just in case – we want to sort by “Page Index”
Mark as (Un)Selected all Visible Lines – will select all Visible rows – for further processing

And the result of this Task:

2nd Task – Process each link – executed in BatchMode – :

This Task goes through each linked INDD file on the list, opens it, goes to the placed page and extracts text information and adds it to the Texts list.

^{Click here if you would like to know more about how 2nd Task works.}

Copy Value to Extra column for Objects – we need to duplicate value of the “Item Link – File Path” to “Extra 1” column – so we can use it later to load INDD Document
Copy Value to Extra column for Objects – we need to duplicate value of the “PDF Attributes – Page Number” to “Extra 2” column – so we can use it to go to the specific page
Copy Value from Extra column to Clipboard – it copies FilePath+FileName to the Clipboard (for now the process requires two separate operations – but will be integrated into “Copy Value to Extra Column”)
Open Document – opens INDD document based on the contents of the Clipboard
Copy Value from Extra column to Clipboard – copies imported Page Number of the Linked INDD file
Goto Page – goes to the imported page – based on the value from the Clipboard
Select ALL – same as hitting Ctrl+A
Load Text Search – will load text info from all selected objects – but, in this case, only with “activity” ParaStyle applied
Copy Value to Extra column for Objects – will copy “Page Name” to “Extra 2” column – we need this value for later to use it in the 3rd Task – Report
Copy Value from Extra column to Clipboard – will copy value from “Extra 2” column to the Clipboard (both steps will be reduced to one)
Activate List – will switch to Texts list – we need to do this in order to preserver “Page Name” for the 3rd Task – Report
Paste from Clipboard to Extra Col – will paste “Page Name” into “Extra 1” column
Activate List – will go back to Objects list (switching between the lists doesn’t change “active” row on each list so we can easily copy values between lists)
Close Document – will close – in this case without saving

And the result – extracted texts from the linked INDD files:

3rd Task – Generate Report – executed in BatchMode – :

This task also goes through each item on the list, but before you run it, you need to switch to the Texts list.

^{Click here if you would like to know more about how 3rd Task works.}

All three rows do the same – Export selected Field from the Texts List – each one copies value from a specified column.
Generated TXT file will – in this case – have the same names as INDD file.
– “INDD Doc” – name of the linked INDD file,
– “Extra 1” column that contains page where linked INDD file was placed in the main document,
– “Contents” – contents of the TextFrame that had to be extracted – with extra checkbox for “end of line”.

And the end result would be something like this:

Of course, you can use this method to extract more / different kinds of informations – you have access to 800+ Object and 400+ Text and Table properties, so…

And the number of files to process … well … there is no limit for that AND you can run this overnight – 2nd Task – instead of wasting your time during the day…

(*) You are not limited to INDD files – it’s possible – as long as you have original INDD files – to do the same with linked PDFs – open original INDD file instead of PDF…

Or PSD / TIFF files and extract information from Photoshop…

Or from Illustrator…

ID-Tasker