🚀 go-pugleaf

The problem is all the undos; you can clear them by periodically doing a
'save as" -- save to the same file path.

-- 
Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>
AppleScript Pro Sessions <http://scriptingmatters.com/aspro>

Thanks for the tip! Sounds exactly like that could be the issue.

Though InDesign pops up this message when i try to save the document to the same file path: Adobe InDesign CS4 got an error: Cannot save �test_4.indd� under a new name.
(Error code: 1).

I am doing it like this:

tell document
save to file path
end tell

You probably want something like:

save document 1 to (get full path of document 1)

-- 
Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>
AppleScript Pro Sessions <http://scriptingmatters.com/aspro>

Thanks, fixed it.. Found out that "file path" didn't include the document name, "full name" did.

Thanks!

I can feel a clear difference from before to now, but still the script runs a little slower and slower. Do you know of any other ways of optimizing?

I fired the script from the script palette in InDesign instead, helped a lot ;)

Without seeing your code it's hard to say what you can optimize. Repeat loops are your first area to target, to make them as fast as possible. There are some very tricky ways to deal with lists in repeats that can yeild amazing results, but need to be studied carefully. Check MacScripter.net for examples. You might also want to try to limit the size of any lists, or try to filter down a list of objects to a shorter list of objects. Or instead of looking at all page items only look at page items of page X.

Hi Thomas,

In InDesign CS4, you can also run your script using the do script method--if you do that, you can turn off undo altogether (or, really, package all of the script actions as a single undo step).

Thanks,

Ole

Thanks for the latest tips as well!

I have launched a new InDesign blog where my latest post shows what I accomplished with this script. And I must say, executing a script from the scripting palette in InDesign makes scripts run waaay faster than from the AppleScript editor. What took an hour to run through now is done in minutes.

Blog post and video can be seen at <http://indesigning.net/the-power-of-scripting>

The other potential speed booster is to open the document you're working on
without a window. just make sure you handle any potential errors.

-- 
Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>
AppleScript Pro Sessions <http://scriptingmatters.com/aspro>

Would it be the same result as turning redraw off?

Hi Thomas,

Here's a general purpose "do script" script--it'll just run a script file you select using the "fast entire script" undo mode:



--RunScriptFromFile.applescript 
--An InDesign CS4 AppleScript 
-- 
--Runs a script file using the do script method. 
set myScriptFile to choose file with prompt "Select an AppleScript" 
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4" 
do script myScriptFile language applescript language undo mode fast entire script undo name (myScriptFile as string) 
end tell

Should be quite a bit faster. Let me know how it works for you!

Thanks,

Ole

I'm not sure that turning redraw off did anything in CS3; I haven't checked
in CS4.

I did a rough test with a script that had to draw several hundred
transparent ovals. To make it go faster, the script made the layer they were
on invisible, so no redraw was needed. Even so, it took maybe 3-4 minutes;
doing it without a window took closer to half-a-minute.

-- 
Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>
AppleScript Pro Sessions <http://scriptingmatters.com/aspro>

On 18/3/09 9:13 AM, "Olav Kvern" <member@adobeforums.com> wrote:

> it'll just run a script file you select using the "fast entire script" undo
> mode

Can you explain the difference between "fast entire script" and "entire
script"? It doesn't seem to be documented anywhere. The word fast is
enticing, but I fear there are strings attached.

-- 
Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>
AppleScript Pro Sessions <http://scriptingmatters.com/aspro>

Thanks for all the tips! I will do some more testing when I get to the office again.

I tried running the script with redraw off, but didn't take time. Seemed a little faster though. Could you explain how to run a script without a window?

I think ill try to run the script with redraw on, off, through a do script and without a window and compare the times.

On 18/3/09 6:17 PM, "Thomas Silkjaer" <member@adobeforums.com> wrote:

> Could you explain how to run a script without a window?

You have to open it that way. Something like:

set theDocument to open fileAlias without showing window
-- do your stuff, then open widow with...
tell theDocument to make window

-- 
Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>
AppleScript Pro Sessions <http://scriptingmatters.com/aspro>

I did some tests. Running the script with:

1. Using "save as" to flush undo's, with redraw on: 3:28min
2. Using "save as" to flush undo's, with redraw off: 1:55min
3. Using "do script" and don't do "save as", with redraw on: 3:02min
4. Using "do script" and don't do "save as", with redraw off: 1:37min

I tried opening the document without a window, but since my script is doing a lot of selections etc., the script as it is now, wouldn't work without a window.

But clearly from these timings I will assume, turning off redraw and using do script to not save undo's is the fasted method!

Thanks!

But since my script doesn't handle all errors that well, ill just run it without redraw and flush the undos by saving once in a while.

Hi Thomas,

Ah, if your script is doing lots of selections, that's probably another performance bottleneck. Most of the time, you can work without selecting objects. What are you trying to do that requires selection?

Thanks,

Ole

I do the selections, to search using "find grep" within the selections. I suppose i could pass a text style range instead?

My script depends a lot wether things are located in a text style range on the current page or not.

But the time the script takes now is OK for this purpose. Turning redraw off almost cut the time in two.

Hi Thomas,

You'd probably want to pass a text object, not a text style range.

Thanks,

Ole

Ill experiment a little with it. I create a lot of object references to text, select the referenced text and search it using grep find. I should probably just skip the selection part, don't know why i did it :)

Thanks.

Hi Thomas,

Should be fairly easy to make the change--you can just tell the text object reference to find grep.:-)

Thanks,

Ole

Thomas_Silkjaer@adobeforums.com wrote:
> but since my script is doing a lot of selections etc...

If you are using selections in your script, chances are, there's better 
ways to accomplish what you're doing...

-- 
Harbs
http://www.in-tools.com