InDesign Menu Mapper Plugin

This InDesign script generates InDesign menus based on a directory/file structure on disk. It allows you to create dynamic menus and menu items by simply organizing files and folders.

Directory Structure

Place your menus/submenus/commands in the menu_mapper/menus directory.

• directory names become the name of the menu or submenu
• file names for any scripts become the name of the command
• you can use optional numeric-string prefixes to control the order they will appear in the format 00100_. These can be any numeric strings, using the leading and trailing zeros allows you to insert new menus/commands where you want them at a later date without renaming all the other files.
• any file found with loads of dashes will become a divider. This system means that when you're looking at the directory contents in your file browser you get a visual clue as the what the menu contents will look like.

Allowed Script Types

• .js
• .jsx
• .scptd
• .scpt
• .applescript

I've not yet used a UXP script, so these are not allowed at the moment. I don't know if it's possible to allow them from extendscript.

Location on Disk

You must place the file _menu_mapper.jsx in the startup scripts directory.

On macOS this would be something like /Applications/Adobe InDesign $YEAR/Scripts/startup scripts/

This script is what creates the menus based on the directory structure it finds in the menu directory menu_mapper/menus/**.

By default the menu_mapper directory is assumed to be next to the startup scripts directory, ie /Applications/Adobe InDesign $YEAR/Scripts/menu_mapper.

If you want to put this somewhere else, change the menuMapperDirectory setting in _menu_mapper.jsx, using an absolute path.

Example Directory Structure

By default, menu_mapper should go in your InDesign Scripts directory, /Applications/Adobe InDesign $YEAR/Scripts/menu_mapper

menu_mapper/
    menus/
        00100_example menu/
            00100_example command.jsx
            00200_----------------------- example divider
            00300_another command.jsx
        00200_another example menu/
            00100_example command.jsx
            00200_----------------------- example divider
            00300_another command.jsx
        003200_third menu/
            00100_example command.jsx
            00200_----------------------- example divider
            00300_another command.jsx