Scripting with InDesign

I’ve got a few projects over the next week or so which are going to require a substantial amount of writing in the form of documentation, proposals and contracts. My preferred writing format is Markdown, and although I’d usually output these documents as PDFs, via a web browser, in this instance I am going to be working into InDesign.

In this instance we’re building out a more complicated document which will need a bit of fine tuning. As the majority of the team are designers getting a InDesign file will be the most useful format for edits going forward.

I found a great post from Wouter Soudan, which introduced a variety of techniques and potential workflows. I had no idea about the potential of InDesign scripting, so really interesting to read up about.

An example applying the Markdown script to a block of text

I forked one of these tools adding support for my preferred heading styles and setting it so that Heading 1 elements always appear at the start of a new page.

Heading 1
===

Heading 2
---

Github: Scripts for Adobe InDesign

Reading

Designus | Making a book in InDesign from Word Useful script(s) for Adobe InDesign®©™. How to Install InDesign & InCopy Scripts
Indesign GREP Help Designing For Print With CSS via Smashing Magazine