Plug-Ins and Tools for InDesign

Tools

There are several utilities that are specific to InDesign, even though they run outside the program. Note that preflight software is covered on the Utilities page, since it works with other layout programs, not just InDesign.

Scripts

See the Scripts page for information on AppleScripting, JavaScripting, VB Scripting, and InDesign.

Plug-Ins

Be sure that any plug-in you purchase works in your version of InDesign. Plug-ins rarely work in more than one version of InDesign. I've listed supported versions where available, but check periodically at the vendor site in case it's come out with a new version before I find out about it.

Note that vendors may no longer sell anything prior to the most recent one or two versions listed; older versions may be available through various online sites as unsupported software.

Version 5 (CS3) Plug-Ins

Some popular plug-ins have been revised for InDesign CS3, with more to come:

• Adobe Systems InCopy.
• Cacidi Systems Batch, Contact Sheet Pro, Cropmarks, Extreme Suite, LiveBrowse, and LiveMerge.
• CtrlPublishing Crosstalk.
• DTP Tools Cross-References, History, Keyboard Shortcuts, Layer Comps, MIF Filter, Page Control, and Text Count.
• ITIP InMath.
• Managing Editor K4 Publishing System.
• Markzware Q2ID.
• n'Pine MathMagic Pro
• Recosoft PDF2ID.
• 65bit Software EasyCatalog, EasyFlow, EasyHistory, MultiDo, and Reveal.
• SoftCare Notes Manager and Overset Manager.
• Teacup Software BarcodeMaker, DataLinker, PatternMaker, and TypeFitter.
• Triple Triangle Color Spec Cubed, Spec Cubed, Slug Cubed, Job Spec Cubed, and Mechanical Cubed.
• Virginia Systems InDex, InDex Pro, InFnote, InXref, and InSeq.
• WoodWing Software Smart Styles, Smart Catalog, and Smart Connection (available in Light, Pro, and Enterprise editions).
• Zevrix BatchOutput, InPreflight, and Link Optimizer.

Version 4 (CS2) Plug-Ins

Most popular plug-ins have been revised for InDesign CS2:

• Adobe Systems InCopy.
• Cacidi Systems Cropmarks, ContactSheet Pro, Q-to-InDesign Batch, Catalog Extreme, and Extreme Barcode.
• DTP Tools Cross-References, MIF Filter, History, Layer Comps, Layer Groups, Page Control, Text Count, and X-ray.
• Em Software InCopy, InData, and InFlow.
• Gluon Software Cropster, ProScale, Slugger, and StudioPack.
• ITIP InMath, InDitect, InDihyph, and Readabilities.
• J2S J2SAutodata and J2SCatalog.
• Managing Editor K4 Publishing System.
• Markzware Q2ID.
• n'Pine MathMagic Pro.
• Recosoft PDF2ID.
• Rorohiko Lightning Brain Story Parker, Sodoku Generator, History Log, Place Autosynchronizer, Place and Scale, Boxed Step and Repeat.
• Sansui Software Fractions'n'Prices.
• 65bit Software EasyCatalog, EasyFlow, EasyHistory, MultiDo, and Reveal.
• SoftCare Notes Manager and Overset Manager.
• Teacup Software BarcodeMaker, DataLinker, ImageSwapper, PatternMaker, and TypeFitter.
• Triple Triangle Color Spec Cubed, Spec Cubed, Slug Cubed, Job Spec Cubed, Mechanical Cubed, and RasterWrite Cubed.
• Virginia Systems InDex, InDex Pro, InFnote, InXref, and InSeq.
• WoodWing Software Smart Styles, Smart Catalog, and Smart Connection (available in Light, Pro, and Enterprise editions).
• Zevrix BatchOutput, InPreflight, and Link Optimizer.

Details of plug-ins for InDesign 2 and later are in the full plug-in list below.

Plug-In Developers

• Adobe Systems offers InCopy ($259, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) to enable workgroup publishing for collaborative environments. (If you're looking for a book on this tool, consider Lynda.com's book/DVD combination InCopy CS3 + InDesign CS3 Integration or Peachpit's Adobe InCopy CS2 Book.) Adobe also offers the PageMaker Plug-in Pack ($49CS), which adds several PageMaker features to InDesign; note that InDesign CS2 and later have this PageMaker functionality built-in.
• Arcadia (free, v2) has a plug-in that supplements the standard Place dialog box with a Clipboard-based alternative that permits multiple, simultaneous file placement.
• Cacidi Systems has several plug-ins, including Cropmarks ($20, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) for per-object cropmarks, ContactSheet Pro ($149, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) for creating photographic contact sheets, Batch ($85, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) for bulk conversion of QuarkXPress and PageMaker files, Extreme Suite ($3,150, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) for catalog creation and other automated content creation and management, Barcode ($149, v2,CS2,CS3) for barcode generation, LiveMerge ($795, CS3) for placement of live-updating elements, and LiveBrowse ($85, CS3), a visual file browser.
• Ctrl Publishing offers Crosstalk (no price info available, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) lets multiple users change and comment on artwork copy in an InDesign/InCopy workflow, while CtrlAttributeStrip (free, v2) removes formatting from text pasted from Word and other applications.
• DTP Tools offers MIF Filter, which converts FrameMaker MIF documents to InDesign's native format (45¢ per page converted [bought in packs of per-page conversion "credits"], CS2,CS3), Cross-References ($129, CS2,CS3), which lets you create and mange cross-references within InDesign documents, even to footnotes and external sources; History ($69, CS,CS2,CS3), which lets you save different versions within a single document so you can return to any state at any time, Keyboard Shortcuts (free CS3), which helps you find and assign shortcuts, Layer Comps ($29, CS,CS2,CS3), which lets you name and save your current view of layer visibility and editing state (à la Photoshop's same-named feature), Layer Groups ($29, CS,CS2), which lets you organize and manage layers within InDesign, Page Control ($59, CS,CS2,CS3), which lets you have multliple page sizes in a document, Text Count ($69, CS,CS2,CS3), which counts eight different text items in a wide selection of ranges, and X-ray ($19, CS,CS2), which lets you set the opacity for the InDesign panes and other interface elements so you can see through them to your layout.
• Em Software offers InData ($400, v2,CS,CS2) for database publishing, InFlow ($75, v2,CS,CS2) for autmatic page insertion, and InCatalog ($800 Standard, $1,200 Pro, v2,CS,CS2) for for catalogs and similar types of frequently updated, data-driven documents.
• Gluon Software offers several tools, including ProScale ID ($99, v2,CS,CS2) to scale multiple items and even whole documents, Cropster ID ($99, v2,CS,CS2) to set crop marks, Slugger ID ($200, v2,CS,CS2) to set tracking slug labels on output files, PageSlug ID ($99, CS,CS2) to provide a simpler version of Slugger ID, DocSplitter ID ($99, CS) to split multipage documents into multiple single-page documents, and StudioPack ID ($249, v2,CS,CS2,CS3), which combines the ProScale, Cropster, and Slugger utilities.
• ITIP offers InMath (€495, CS,CS2,CS3), which adds mathematical typesetting capabilities to InDesign; InDitect (€195, CS,CS2), a spell checker using the Dieckmann algorithm; InDihyph (€195, CS,CS2), a hyphenation setter using the Dieckmann algorithm; and Readabilities (€195, CS,CS2), a readability scorer.
• J2S offers J2SAutodata (€49, CS,CS2) to insert the total number of pages of a document and keep this number up to date as pages are added or removed; and J2SCatalog (€600, CS,CS2) to do document tagging and generation as part of the publishing of recurring pieces of information associating text and images from XML files.
• Managing Editor offers Fido (no price info available, v2,CS) to update lost-file links, Text-o-Meter ($59, v2) to calculate text lengths for both in-frame and overset text, Multi-Box (no price info available, CS) to create complex boxed ads, as well as K4 Publishing System (v2,CS,CS2,CS3), an editorial management and workflow system that requires system-integrator installation. Other workflow tools include TruEdit ($249, v2,CS) for multiuser access, plus InDesign connectivity plug-ins for its MagForce (v2) tool for ad and issue planning and its Ad Layout System (v2,CS) for ad-dummy creation.
• Markzware offers Q2ID ($199, CS,CS2,CS3) to convert QuarkXPress and QuarkXPress Passport 3.3, 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x files to InDesign's native format.
• n'Pine offer MathMagic Pro ($699, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) to integrate mathematical publishing into InDesign.
• Recosoft offers PDF2ID ($249, CS2,CS3), a plug-in that lets you import PDF files into InDesign as editable objects; multiple PDF pages are converted into multiple InDesign pages, all editable.
• Rorohiko offers several JavaScripts that act as plug-ins (be sure to install the free Active Page Item Runtime to enable these scripts): Lightning Brain Story Parker (free, CS,CS2) adds contextual menus to speed access to some InDesign features, Sodoku Generator ($49, CS,CS2) lets you create Sodoku puzzles, History Log (free, CS,CS2) provides easy access to a text frame in which you store change-history information, Place Autosynchronizer (free, CS,CS2) ensures that changes to a source text or image file in one location in your layout are made to all other copies in the layout, Place and Scale (free, CS,CS2) lets you specify a target dpi setting for JPEG images so all imported ones are placed at that target dpi, and Boxed Step and Repeat (free, CS,CS2) lets InDesign automatically add or delete components in a repeateable pattern, such as in table cell contents, as the object is enlarged or reduced.
• Sansui Software offers Fractions'n'Prices (v2,CS,CS2) for automated price and fraction building, InDesign HTTP (v2) to let InDesign search in any Web location for media management systems, SmartPage (v2,CS) provides greater control over element placement based on desired layout, and XPublisha (v2) provides simplified XML import for database publishing. Note: The company does not disclose pricing.
• 65bit Software has EasyCatalog ($1,299, CS,CS2,CS3) for data-driven publishing, EasyFlow ($59, CS,CS2,CS3) for automatic page insertion, EasyHistory ($20, CS,CS2) to add a History palette, MultiDo (free, CS,CS2,CS3) to add a quick menu for multiple undos and redos, and Reveal to add a Reeal in Finder flyout menu option to library and book panels (free, CS,CS2,CS3).
• SoftCare offers Notes Manager ($99, CS2,CS3) to enhance the native InDesign and InCopy notes function ad and Overset Manager ($99, CS2,CS3) to let you count, display, edit, and print overset text.
• Teacup Software offers Palette Manager ($60, v2), Workspace Manager ($60, v2,CS) to manage InDesign's many palettes and to create custom workspaces for different document types and users, Table Styles and Cell Styles ($99, CS) to create and manage table styles, Barcode Maker ($149, CS,CS2,CS3) to create barcodes, ImageSwapper ($199, CS2) to reapply all effects to a high-resolution image that has replaced a low-res FPO copy, DataLinker ($299, CS2) to merge and link data into pages and tables, TypeFitter ($59, CS,CS2,CS3) to simply typefitting through sophisticated algorithms, and PatternMaker ($99, CS,CS2,CS3) to apply PostScript patterns to InDesign objects.
• Triple Triangle offers Color Spec Cubed ($99, CS,CS2,CS3), which reduces errors and improves communication by visually annotating InDesign documents with color usage information; Spec Cubed ($199, CS,CS2,CS3), which improves designer productivity and communication by visually annotating InDesign documents; Job Spec Cubed ($129, CS,CS2,CS3), which lets you create or update your entire mechanical, including the document itself, crop marks, and fold marks, based on information stored in a job-tracking database or a PDF form; Slug Cubed ($199, CS,CS2,CS3), which improves workflow tracking by maintaining accurate, up-to-date slugs, eliminating tedious and error-prone manual slug maintenance; Crop Cubed ($149, CS2,CS3), which adds crop marks, masurement arrows, and guides based on your bleed, trim, and safety margins; and Raster Write Cubed ($169, CS,CS2), which produces raster proofs, submits print-quality TIFF versions of posters or advertisements, and works around RIP errors by exporting TIFF, JPEG, or GIF versions of your InDesign documents. Note that Color Spec Cubes, Job Spec Cubed, Slug Cubed, and Crop Cubed are sold together as MechanicalCubed ($326, CS2,CS3).
• Virginia Systems offers several plug-ins for indexing and related bibliographic tasks, including InDex ($195, v2,CS,CS2,CS3), InDex Pro ($395, v2,CS,CS2,CS3), InFnote ($195, v2,CS,CS2,CS3), and InXref ($195, v2,CS,CS2,CS3), as well as InSeq ($195, v2,CS,CS2,CS3), which automatically numbers figures and table sequences.
• WoodWing Software offers several tools for catalog publishing, including Smart Styles ($149, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) to create sophisticated text and object styles, Smart Layout ($499, v2,CS) to combine multiple text segments (such as headlines, bylines, and body copy) into single articles, Smart Catalog ($999, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) to create catalogs, and Smart Connection ($529 Light, $799 Pro, v2,CS,CS2,CS3) to manage multiuser workflow.
• Zevrix Solutions offers BatchOutput ($80, CS,CS2,CS3) to automatically print, export to PDF, and save to PostScript multiple InDesign documents using user-specified options; InPreflight ($70, CS,CS2,CS3) to do more sophisticated preflighting and output collection than what InDesign's native feature can; and Link Optimizer ($100, CS,CS2,CS3) to automatically resize, crop, and standardize the resolution of linked images based on the layout specifications, reducing the disk space and processing overhead for images in your layout.

REMEMBER:
Adobe Creative Suite does not come with a printed manual for InDesign!

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