InData Release History

Changes at 4/5.1.3.3 Release

• With this release we're relaxing our long-standing policy that InData statements must be formatted in a single character style (pg. 182 of the InData User's Guide). The result of an InData statement is now formatted with the character formatting that's applied to the statement's opening chevron, and all character formatting after the opening chevron is simply ignored. Thus, formatting changes within an InData statement will no longer result in the infamous [P1] You can't change character styles here, inside an InData statement error.

  We hope this change removes a frequent and unnecessary source of frustration from the development and maintainence of InData prototypes.

• Fixed a problem where InDesign would crash if the InData menu was selected while the insertion point was in a footnote.

• Fixed a performance issue that was slowing down the import of lengthy fields.

• The plug-in's registration information is now properly retained for all users. Previously, Windows XP and Vista users whose accounts had limited privileges were being asked for a serial number each time they started InDesign.

Changes at 4/5.1.3.2 Release

• Applying a master to a document's initial page now works properly. Before, the master was being applied but, on overflow, new pages with multiple autoflow text threads were being generated.

• An import is now halted and an error is issued if an applied master doesn't contain an autoflow text thread.

• Starting an import in a document where the prototype story is missing (has been deleted) no longer causes InDesign to crash.

• Fixed a long-standing problem with prototypes containing key-from-link catalog links where, on import, a resolved link's key was losing its first character. InCatalog links are now generated correctly. (Mac OS only)

Changes at 4/5.1.3.1 Release

• Fixed an import problem that could, in some situations, cause styles and text attributes to be misapplied.

• The numtochar() operator now produces an empty string if given a value that wouldn't produce a valid Unicode character (and might otherwise cause InDesign to become unstable). For example, numtochar(11), which produces a next-column character in QuarkXPress, now produces an empty string in InDesign.

• Fixed a problem where importing via scripting could cause CS3 to crash.

• Fixed the File to Import dialog's new per-import settings so they're not partially hidden. (Windows only)

Changes at 4/5.1.3 Release

• As of this release we're officially adding support for InDesign CS3. Just drop the InData 5.x.indesignplugin file into your CS3 plug-ins folder (or, better, into an Em Software folder within the plug-ins folder) and you'll be ready to import and format your text and graphics.

  Note that if you're currently a licensed InData user, this upgrade will require a new serial number. Please contact sales if you're ready to purchase an upgrade (or receive a free upgrade if you've bought InData within the previous 12 months).

  As of this release we're officially dropping support for InDesign CS; only InDesign CS2 and CS3 are supported.

• Simplified the import progress dialog and added per-import Format, Range and Encoding settings to the File to Import dialog.

• Fixed a problem where having too many fields (where there are more fields in the data than are defined by the prototype's fields statement) in an ignored header row was causing the header row to be imported as a normal row. InData now ignores a header row even if it has too many fields.

• InData now supports CS2/CS3's anchored object settings on inline prototype frames (graphics only, for now). This means you can float objects on the page relative to the insertion point of the object, using the Custom position and other settings in the Anchored Object > Options... dialog.

• Pictures specified as being relative to the document's file are now found for "converted" documents (those templates and documents from previous versions of InDesign).

• Fixed a problem where the filecontents function was always issuing a "string too long" error.

• Fixed filetype statement such that

  set filetype to "Tab-delimited"

  now works properly.

• Fixed a problem where some valid data files weren't showing as selectable in the Import from File dialog.

• Added support for XPress Tagged data fields when used in conjunction with our Xtags for InDesign plug-in (versions 4/5). Whether tags are treated as InDesign tags (the default) or XPress Tags is controlled by a new "Styled text contains" setting in the General Preferences dialog (InData > Preferences > General...).

  XPress Tags handling is currently limited to character and paragraph settings; Xtags tags which create and group frames, etc., are not supported at this time.

  Note that you'll have to have the Xtags for InDesign plug-in installed to use the Styled text contains: XPress Tags preference.

• Fixed a long-standing problem where an empty picture path (in a "set filename of picture" statement, for example) could trigger a crash if the picture folders list happened to contain an entry lacking a terminating folder separator.

• Catalog links may now be used in conjunction with put styled. Before, any style changes during the put would cause the catalog link to disappear.

• Right-clicking in a story editor window no longer causes a crash.

• Resolved several minor memory leaks.

New features/changes at 3/4.1.2 release

• The InData 4.x series runs under InDesign Creative Suite 2 (CS2).

• Fixed a problem where prototype initialization would fail with an [M3] error on non-English systems. (Windows only)

• Fixed a minor problem where InDesign was reluctant to display updated headers.

• Added special characters (chevrons, etc.) to the Find/Change dialog's special character lists.

• Fixed a problem where the last record's pictures weren't being loaded if a loop was attempting to access the next record (past the last record).

New features/changes at 2.1.1/3.1.1 release

• Fixed a problem where scaling images using "Size to Fit Horizontally, then Size Frame Vertically" was occasionally failing.

• Fixed a problem with the open statement where providing a data file name (e.g. open "mydata.txt") in the prototype wasn't finding the file in the document's folder unless its specification contained an initital path separator (e.g. open ":mydata.txt"). (Mac OS only)

• When putting tagged text, paragraph and character overrides are no longer cleared when a paragraph marker is encountered. Instead, applying a paragraph style will clear all paragraph and character-level overrides as well as reset the active character style (to No Style, currently). Applying a character style will now clear only character-level overrides. Otherwise, extant styles and overrides persist across paragraph markers.

• Fixed a problem where manually updating headers/footers associated with a text frame on the pasteboard might result in a crash.

• All InData scripting events' story parameters now accept either a story name (which can be an InData-applied label, an InDesign-native script label, or an InCopy label), a story object, or an arbitrary text-based story element object (any element of a story resulting in a text "selection"). So you can now do something crazy like:

  import data from myData using prototype story (line 1 of myProtoStory) into story (character 5 of myTargetStory)

• When scripting, InData will now work properly with window-less documents. Since there's no concept of a front-most document in this case, however, you'll need to use the import event that now sits on the document object. (So all of InData's events now sit on both the InDesign application object and the document object.) For example:

  tell myWindowlessDoc to import data from myData using prototype story "proto" into story "target"

  NB: an import event sent to the application object will always attempt to use the front-most document (i.e. AppleScript's document 1), while an event issued to a particular document will always attempt to use that document. Additionally, the specified prototype and target stories must exist within the target document.

• When scripting, InData will now obey the user interaction setting.

• For scripting, we added an optional "showing dialog" boolean parameter (default: true) to the import and headers update events which may be used to block the display of the import dialog without changing the user interaction level. For example:

  import data form myData using prototype story myStory into story myTargetStory without showing dialog

  Note, however, that if the user interaction level is set to never interact, then this parameter will have no effect (i.e. never interact always wins).

• When scripting, not showing the import dialog will inhibit document updating and scrolling.

• Added "using InData" suffix to all scripting event descriptions to make InData-specific events easier to find.

• Importing InDesign tagged text containing mark reference tags (used in headers/footers) will now import without issuing an error.

• Fixed a problem where InData could crash when inserting continued text in a header/footer.

• An extant selection is now properly restored after manually updating headers/footers.

• Expanded the import dialog slightly to better display the names of data files with long paths or filenames.

• The "About" dialog entry in the InDesign (on MacOS) and Help (on Windows) menus has been moved from an "About Plug-ins" sub-menu to a new "About Em Software Plug-ins" sub-menu.

Changes at 2.1/3.1 release

• InData now imports full Unicode on input, where "full" is determined by InDesign (UTF-16 in 2.x and UTF-32 in CS).

• InData now handles Unicode and long filenames in OS X (although some Unicode characters won't display correctly in 2.x due to InDesign limitations). (Mac OS X only)

• Headers/footers updating initiated from the UI (InCatalog > Update Headers/Footers) or via scripting (see below) are now undoable. Headers/footers updating performed automatically after an import remains not undoable.

• Added new update headers scripting event (UpdateHeaders method on Windows) which triggers a headers update for the currently selected text story (just like the menuitem). Optionally, a story name may be specified with the using story parameter, to update that story's headers.

• Due to new features and limitations in InDesign CS, we made some changes to InData's existing scripting language which may or may not affect you.

  On Mac OS we've had to eliminate our use of the so-called "direct object", but we've managed to do this without changing the event syntax. Unfortunately, compiled scripts using InData events will need to be recompiled to work with this new event structure.

  What was the import data from file event has become import data with optional but mutually exclusive parameters from and from file that specify the data source. As before, a source provided using the from file parameter will be coerced, if necessary, to a file reference. The new from parameter may be used to provide text data directly or as an explicit file alias. For example:

        set DataRecord to ¬
            "12345,RoboFlip,Battery powered pancake flipper,5.99"
        tell application "InDesign CS"
           import data from DataRecord ¬
             using prototype story "prototype" ¬
             into story "target"
        end tell
  
  

  would import data directly from the DataRecord string rather than from a file.

  On Windows, we've removed the InData prefix from the scripting methods. We've also added the ImportDataFrom method, which allows data to be drawn directly from a string, as well as the UpdateHeaders method (discussed above).

• Data records containing more fields than those declared in the prototype (and more than the default a-thru-z fields) were causing phantom records to appear in the resulting document. These extra fields are now properly ignored so that each data record generates one (and only one) record within the document.

• Frameinfo(2) (aka boxinfo) now returns the 1-based index of the text frame on the page instead of unrelated and somewhat random values.

• Pageinfo(1) now returns the 1-based page number within the document rather than the page's position on the spread.

• Quoted subfields are now handled correctly, where each subfield may or may not be quoted on its own. Before, all subfields were expected to be within a single set of quotes placed on the field.

• Multiple quotes at the end of a field (or subfield) are now handled correctly. The quoted field """foo""" now produces "foo" (quotes are part of the data) rather than "foo"".

• Fixed a problem with subfields where the subfield delimiter was being ignored. Subfields and the subfield operator now work correctly. (If you insert a whole field with subfields, the subfields are separated by discretionary returns (ZeroSpaceBreak characters), just as in Xdata.)

• The filecontents() function should now work properly. Before, it was always producing an error stating the specified file could not be found.

• Fixed a problem where Import from clipboard wasn't always available when text was put on the clipboard in an application other than InDesign.

• High-ASCII and Unicode characters may now be used as data delimiters in the Data Preferences dialog.

  Characters in the high-ASCII range (those whose codes are in the range 128 to 255) may be entered either directly (e.g. using Alt-0166 on Windows) or by entering the character's code value (e.g. 166). Unicode characters may be specified using the 0xNNNN format, where character U+00A6 would be entered as 0x00A6.

• An invalid delimiter entered in the Data Preferences dialog will now properly hilite the offending entry after the error dialog has been displayed.

• Disabled automatic recomposition after every record, the original intent of which was to prevent all recomposition from being deferred to the end of the job (which could take a long time and make the machine appear frozen) but which significantly decreased performance when there were many records per page. If you're concerned about long (potentially disconcerting) pauses at the end of your job, you can use View every n records in the control panel.

• Text files created in Mac OS X and ending with one of the extensions .txt, .csv, or .tsv are now selectable in InData's File to Import dialog. (Mac OS only)

• Fixed a problem which would crash InData if an illegal picture filename was specified (like "c:\images\foo.tif\"). (Windows only)

• Fixed a problem reading Windows-generated Unicode data files using the UCS-2LE format (little-endian), where InData would appear to run but not process any data.

• Fixed a problem where InData wasn't consuming a UTF-8 format data file's byte order mark, which could cause the first record's first field to begin with a Zero-Space-No-Break character.

• InData will now auto-sense Unicode data that begins with a byte order mark even if the Data Preferences specify a Mac OS or Windows character set.

• Fixed a problem where some InDesign tags, including the encoding tag (e.g. <ASCII-WIN>), the version tag (Version/vsn), and the feature set tag (FeatureSet/fset), were being treated as plain text rather than being absorbed.

Changes at 2.0 release

• Fixed a preferences dialog problem where sometimes only one panel would be available, or the panels would be mislabeled, or all panels would display at the same time.

• Fixed the headers update progress dialog which wasn't closing automatically after encountering an error and displaying an error message (e.g., incorrectly ordered frames). Before, the user would need to click on the Stop button to dismiss the dialog.

• Imported data now correctly replaces all selected text (or a substory as specified in an external script) when that selection doesn't start at the beginning of the story. Before, a selection that was part way into a story would be left after the imported data, rather than removed.

• Fixed a problem that was causing master pages to be applied to the wrong page. This occured when InData was used in conjunction with InFlow to automatically add pages.

• Fixed an obscure problem with specifying a data file within a prototype that could cause the import to fail. [WinOS only]

• A registered copy of InData will now "enable" the InFlow plug-in, which is now a separate product.

• Exporting to PDF after running an InData import no longer crashes InDesign. (InDesign should now be more stable in general after an InData import.)

• A page within a PDF may now be selected using the new picture property pictureimportpage. E.g., <<set pictureimportpage of pic 1 to n>> where n is an expression resulting in a non-negative integer. Page numbers begin at 1 (one), but page 0 (zero) may be specified in order to use InDesign's global default (the page last set in the PDF import options dialog).

  Specifying page zero is the same as not setting the pictureimportpage property at all. Invalid page numbers (negative or out-of-range values) result in the first page being imported.

• The cropping of an imported PDF image may now be controlled on a per-picture basis using the new picture property pictureimportcrop. E.g. <<set pictureimportcrop of pic 1 to n>> where n is an expression resulting in one of the following values:

  • 0 (zero) - uses the InDesign global default (the cropping last set in the PDF import options dialog).

  • 1 - crops to the media

  • 2 - crops to the page

  • 3 - crops to the content (bounding box)

  An invalid value is ignored.

• Using the frameinfo property name no longer results in an error.

• Long file paths now fit better in the import dialog's status display. (Windows only)

• Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur immediately after selecting the data file to import.

• Fixed a crash when when the preferences dialog was initially opened from the InData dialog rather than from the menu.

• Grouped header/footer text frames are now updated by Update Headers/Footers. Previously, they were being ignored.

• InData now works more closely with InFlow in order to add pages when needed, rather than, in some cases, waiting until all records have been imported before adding pages. This may slow the import somewhat, depending on the complexity of the pages being added, but removes the potentially lengthy pause (that was looking like a hang for large documents) while Waiting for document view to update... at the end of the import.

• Tables (and other non-frame inlines) in prototypes are now ignored. Before, they were causing InData to insert garbage into the resulting story. (Intelligent handling of tables is coming at a later date, after InData 2.0.)

• The view preference Hide document window now actually prevents window updates. Before, it was working like Dont show document changes which still allows updates on certain actions. (Mac OS only)

• Implemented various performance enhancements which reduce the need to close palettes in order to increase processing speed (although we still recommend closing the Links and Pages palettes for maximum import speed).

• The progress bar now correctly resets to 0% when switching from skipping records to importing records. Before, it was remaining at 100% until progress reached 1% whereupon it would reset to 1% (and work correctly thereafter).

• InData will now find pictures relative to a template document, or to a document that's been converted while being read (an InDesign 1.5 document, for example).

• Fixed user interface problems under OS X. (Mac OS X only)

• InData's import file selection dialog now supports the selection of any file type in addition to just text files. (Mac OS only)

• When attempting to use an empty prototype, an error is now issued instead of displaying the import dialog with nonsensical values as beta 1 did.

• Added InData's About... menu to InDesign's About Plug-ins... menu.

• InData will no longer crash when trying to import into the same text frame as the prototype with the cursor resting after the last character of the prototype.

• Fixed a potential crash that could occur while opening the preferences dialog from InData's import dialog.

• Fixed a condition where a "stale" undo would still be available after an import, the selection of which might crash InDesign.

• InData preferences modified from the import dialog no longer "stick". They were overwriting the document's preferences in beta 1.

• Supports Unicode snapshots. Select the snapshot character set (Mac OS, Windows, or Unicode) in the data preferences panel.

• Substory names, marks, and mark references are now included in tagged text operations (import & export).

• Keyboard shortcuts for InData's various special characters are no longer pre-defined. (Plugins are essentially prohibited from pre-defining shortcuts in InDesign 2.0, a "feature" that's supposed to protect the user.)

  Instead, you can insert chevrons and the various prototype equal sign characters via the Type | Insert Special Character menu (also available via text context menus with a right-click on Windows or a control-click on Mac OS).

Changes at 1.2 release

• Putting styled text that ends with a hyphen (e.g., "abc-") no longer causes InDesign to hang.

• Added frameinfo, framefit, and fithframev aliases (for boxinfo, boxfit, and fithboxv respectively).

• Fixed an intermittent crash when trying to display InData's preference dialog.

• Fixed a problem where some of the prototype's character attributes might not be applied correctly.

• Fixed problems with framefit (nee boxfit) and image positioning and sizing where the operation could occasionally be ignored or fail.

• Fixed a problem with loops where errors occuring inside the loop wouldn't terminate execution of the prototype. (Instead, you'd see the error dialog for each record.)

• Absolute Windows paths are no longer treated like Mac paths and converted to Windows paths. E.g., "c:\pictures\mypic.tif" was being converted to "\c\\pictures\mypic.tif", resulting in a missing picture report. (Windows only)

• Pressing the InData panel's cancel button before starting a job no longer causes a crash.

• The boxinfo statement now correctly returns page and spread numbers that start at 1 (one).

• Characters preceeding an inline object and sharing the same character formatting as the inline are no longer dropped.

• Paragraph styles are now applied only when the paragraph's terminating return is encountered (which is how Xdata, InData's sister product, works).

Changes at 1.1 release

• Fixed "Convert vertical tab to: Shift-Return", as VTs were incorrectly becoming indent-to-heres.

• Fixed VT and CR conversion to Nothing.

• Added InCatalog link tag support.

• Fixed the text insertion point for back-to-back runs when externally scripted.

• The InData dialog is now closed immediately when externally scripted.

• Fixed potential crash that can occur when an InData document is saved on a machine without InData and then is re-opened on a machine with InData (InDesign 1.5 & 1.5.2).

• Saved documents containing InData information no longer cause a warning to be issued when opened on machines without InData.

• Failed picture imports no longer cause multiple error messages.

• Headers/footers update no longer fails when the selection is in overset text.

• Fixed program hang if error encountered during headers/footers update.

• Fixed "boxfit" picture positioning directive (which had been ignoring margins).

• "First record is header (ignore)" import option no longer ignores more than just the first record (was ignoring 1st, 3rd, 5th, ...).

• Fixed potential crash when opening data file on Windows.

• Fixed headers/footers update crash when Last on Spread selected.

• Added support for Pi-type fonts.

• Fixed problem that was slowing data import if the cursor wasn't left over the import dialog.

• (InFlow 1.01 beta 1 change from 1.0:) Improved compatability with InData's "set master" command.