Creating Transparencies in Quark redux.

Hello-

Posted a few times before, still attempting to fully automate the creation of overhead transparenices. This script is adapted from several sources - thanks to all who have helped so far.

The task is to grab a folder full of images, place them, and then surround them with appropriate text boxes. The below works pretty well, but I have some questions about how to implement some further improvements…

  • If the graphic inserted is wider than it is tall, I would like for it to be rotated 270 degrees before it is expanded to fill up the image box. If it’s not too complicated, I would like for the orientation of some of the text boves to change if this is the case.
  • I would like the “Graphic Title” text box to suck diagram titles from a list in excel (or even a plain text file). These would be ordered to correlate one to one with the images.
  • I don’t think I quite understand how content for the various text boxes should be metted out. The copyright info is ending up in the “Title” box.
  • I would like the “Transparency #” to increase sequentially with each new slide.

tell application "QuarkXPress"
	activate
	set thepath to (choose folder with prompt "Choose Folders") as text
	set ItemList to list folder thepath without invisibles
	set fileList to {}
	tell default document 1
		set page height to "215.9 mm"
		set page width to "279.4 mm"
		set left margin to "12.7 mm"
		set right margin to "12.7 mm"
		set top margin to "12.7 mm"
		set bottom margin to "12.7 mm"
		set automatic text box to false
		set guides showing to true
		set guides in front to true
		set horizontal measure to millimeters
		set vertical measure to millimeters
	end tell
	make document at beginning
	tell document 1
		set bounds to {22, 50, 1150, 200}
		set view scale to 35
	end tell
-- Insert figure/table
	tell spread 1 of master document 1
		make picture box at beginning with properties ¬
			{bounds:{"34.445 mm", "12.7 mm", "194.263 mm", "266.7 mm"}, color:"None"}
	end tell
-- Graphic Title
	tell spread 1 of master document 1
		make text box at beginning with properties ¬
			{bounds:{"19.638 mm", "12.7 mm", "32.691 mm", "266.7 mm"}}
		tell text box 1
			set color to "none"
		end tell
		tell story 1 of text box 1
			set contents of it to (item 1 of ItemList) as text
			set size to 14
			set leading to 20
			set justification to centered
		end tell
		
	end tell
-- Graphic Title small	
	tell spread 1 of master document 1
		make text box at beginning with properties ¬
			{bounds:{"196.027 mm", "138.289 mm", "209.55 mm", "266.7 mm"}}
		tell text box 2
			set color to "none"
		end tell		
	end tell
-- Copyright	
	tell spread 1 of master document 1
		make text box at beginning with properties ¬
			{bounds:{"196.027 mm", "12.7 mm", "209.55 mm", "120.65 mm"}}
		tell text box 3
			set color to "none"
		end tell
		tell story 1 of text box 3
			set contents of it to ("Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.") as text
			set size to 14
			set leading to 20
			set justification to centered
		end tell
	end tell
-- Transparency #
	tell spread 1 of master document 1
		make text box at beginning with properties ¬
			{bounds:{"161.807 mm", "266.7 mm", "205.551 mm", "274.461 mm"}}
		tell text box 4
			set color to "none"
		end tell
	end tell
	
	set ThisItem to item 1 of ItemList
	try
		tell page 1 of document 1
			set image 1 of picture box 1 to alias (thepath & (ThisItem))
			set bounds of image 1 of picture box 1 to proportional fit
		end tell
	on error
		beep
	end try
	repeat with x from 2 to count of ItemList
		set ThisItem to item x of ItemList
		tell document 1
			make new page at end
			set page x to current page
			try
				set image 1 of picture box x to alias (thepath & (ThisItem))
				set bounds of image 1 of picture box x to proportional fit
				tell story 1 of text box 1 of page x
					set contents of it to (item x of ItemList) as text
				end tell
			on error
				beep
			end try
		end tell
	end repeat
	set guides showing of document 1 to true
	
end tell

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Operating System: Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hey,

Since I found this old post and used it as a model for setting up a new QuarkXPress document (thanks!), I thought I’d post that I found out how to create new text boxes and put text in them (re: the third “-” in the post).

When you make a text box, specify a name in the properties. You can later tell the text box with that name what the contents should be. For example:


-- Copyright    
   tell spread 1 of master document 1
       make text box at beginning with properties ¬
           {bounds:{"196.027 mm", "12.7 mm", "209.55 mm", "120.65 mm"}, name: "Copyright"}

       tell text box "Copyright"
           set color to "none"
           set contents of story 1 to ("Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.") as text

           --I'm not sure the following lines will work. It might need to be something like
           --set leading of every paragraph of story 1 to 20

           set size to 14
           set leading to 20
           set justification to centered
       end tell
   end tell

I’m making up that code based on the post and what worked for me, but haven’t tested it (there may be typos).