InDesign Image Cataglog FAQ/Troubleshooting:
Q: Does it work on a PC?
A: NO NO NO It does NOT work on any PC! I'm a real Pro-Mac guy and love to do cool stuff with Applescript. I just don't do anything on PCs... ever. I hate Windows! I will never program for Windows.
Q: I get an Error -43 when I try to make the catalog.
A: This is related to the Mac OS itself. It is generally caused by "illegal" characters in file names or perhaps folder names, or even names that are way too long. If you clean up most of the bad characters, you should have success. Look for / \ [ ] { } @ # $ % & * • | = - + ; , and see if you can remove them.
Even though the Finder may tolerate long file names with lots of odd characters, apparently the underpinnings of the system don't like to deal with them. This is not a shortcoming of the program, but OS limitations. Try shortening your filenames to the classis 32 character limit. You can check out these links for some additional information and background:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=9805
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107032
http://www.macwindows.com/MacOSX.html
http://mailman.lyra.org/pipermail/dav-dev/2004-February/005320.html
http://mailman.lyra.org/pipermail/dav-dev/2003-December/005217.html
http://www.discreet.com/support/cleaner/faq/answer.php3?prod=cleaner&id=1022
Q: Why do my image boxes have a colored background?
A: Your InDesign defaults must be set to no fill color. When you have *no* document open in InDesign, set the fill color to "none" on the toolbar using the swatches pallet, or press D, which should default the fill to none and stroke to black.
Q: Can the program catalog images in sub-folders?
A: Yes it can! Version 1.3 addresses this. Choose the "include all subfolders" option before selecting your folder, or select a folder, click the option, then refresh the folder listing with the R button.
Q: Sometimes I get an error that a file isn't found?
A: If you selected a folder to catalog, then deleted items in the folder, or changed their names, the items aren't found when you make a second catalog, and you get an error from InDesign. Make sure you press the REFRESH button after you make any changes to the files or folders of a folder that you already had selected.
On a side note, the folder and file information isn't dynamically updated, so you can get a count of the number of files before you make a catalog. You probably want to change the number of boxes per page so you don't have 1 image on the last page.
Q: Must I always see the "OK it's finished dialog box"?
A: Your catalog may be small and be very fast to be finished, but some users may be making a catalog from a CD or DVD, or on a slower network; so if you wander away from your computer, you'd want a way to know that it's done. That's why the dialog is there.
Q: Can I use master pages?
A: By default ID Image Catalog doesn't apply master pages to the new pages that are created. Master A is applied to a new document page by default, so the first page has that. If you'd like to have masters applied to the rest of the document, you can go to the Pages pallet and apply a master page to the rest of the document. My view is that primarily, most users will want to have a generic page, aimed at quickly getting a printable or PDFable record of a large number of graphics, without a lot of fuss. If you want to have a fancy layout, you can customize a document preset (the margins) to suit some graphics on the margins, and apply that master post facto.
Version History
v3.3 (6/23/2008)
Preference saving bug fixed. Auto updates ID document presets popup.
v3.1 (5/15/2007)
Universal application. Updated for CS3. No new features. Known issue of some preferences not saving correctly upon quitting.
v3.0 (3/23/06)
Drag and drop has been disabled due to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) handling interface elements differently, its now a lot harder to code, if not impossible. Added Use, Center, Disable, Remove, Hyperlink, Document Preset, Gap size options. Recalculated the way boxes are created so the boxes evenly space out to all 4 margins. Include subfolders option now works as a toggle when clicked. Prefs are saved when quitting, of most options, not selected folder.
v2.0 (04/06/05) Added drag and drop for folder selection. Added counter for number of frames and number of pages. Fixed potential error with long file names (32+ chars). Added ability to disable done message.
v1.32 (11/21/04
Text label width fix produced an error with catalogs with items with short names. Fixed subsequent error.
v1.31 (11/17/04)
Fixed an interface bugaboo with OS X 10.2, and a problem with text label width being recognized at the wrong time.
v1.3 (11/14/04)
The catalog pages are now created using the margin sizes set in the default document size setup, or the last selected document preset that was used. Added the “Include all subfolders” option to parse all subfolders within the selected folder. Aliases of folders are not used. Fixed a bug that caused some text boxes with long unhyphenated words to be removed wrongly.
v1.1
Initial release, I think it does what it should!
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