InDesign MCP Server

Apply an object style to a page item

Apply a paragraph style to all text in a text frame

Apply a paragraph, character, object, table or cell style, optionally clearing overrides, character styles, cell styles or attributes the style does not define, and for paragraph styles Apply Style then Next Style (the style panels' Apply commands)

Run a type keyboard command on text: step size, leading, kerning/tracking, baseline shift or scale; auto leading; reset kerning and tracking or scale; bold, italic, normal; toggle all caps, small caps, superscript, subscript, ligatures, No Break; paragraph alignment (incl. towards/away from spine); toggle align to baseline grid, hyphenation, Ignore Optical Margin; choose or switch composer (Paragraph, Single-line, World-Ready); paragraph direction; reset indents

Put type on a path (Type on a Path tool) or change its options (Type > Type on a Path > Options): effect (rainbow, skew, 3D ribbon, stair step, gravity), what part of the type aligns to which part of the path, spacing and flip. Works on rectangles, ovals, polygons, lines and frames; an item that already has type on its path is updated

Switch the active menu set, keyboard shortcut set or workspace by name (Edit > Menus, Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts, Window > Workspace)

Arrange document windows (Window > Arrange): open a new window on the active document, tile or cascade windows, minimise the active window, consolidate all windows into tabs, bring the next or previous document window to the front, or list the open windows

Change stacking order within each item's layer: Bring to Front, Bring Forward, Send Backward or Send to Back (Object > Arrange)

Build multi-page spreads (gatefolds and fold-outs, up to 10 pages) and split pages out of spreads, as dragging pages in the Pages panel does: keep a spread together (Allow Selected Spread to Shuffle off) or let it shuffle again, move a page into a spread, or split a page into a spread of its own

Assign the active document's RGB and CMYK profiles without converting colour values, set its colour policies, and set its rendering intents for solid colours, images and after blending (Edit > Assign Profiles)

List background export tasks with their status and progress, wait for them to finish, or cancel them (Window > Utilities > Background Tasks)

Break the link between the chosen text, objects, table or cells and their style, keeping the current formatting (Break Link to Style in the Paragraph, Character, Object, Table and Cell Styles panel menus). The chosen target is selected first

Change the case of text to UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case or Sentence case (Type > Change Case)

Clean up the document by removing unused paragraph/character styles, unused swatches, empty layers and/or hidden page items. Use dryRun to list what would be removed.

Remove items' effects (Object > Effects > Clear Effects), or reset opacity, blending and effects on the object, stroke, fill and content (Object > Effects > Clear All Transparency)

Clear all session data including page dimensions and document information

Clear local formatting that differs from the applied style: all, character-only or paragraph-only overrides on text; object style overrides or attributes not defined by the style; table style overrides; cell style overrides or attributes not defined by the style (Clear Overrides in the style panels)

Close the active document WITHOUT saving (unsaved changes are discarded)

Combine shapes with the Pathfinder (add, subtract, intersect, exclude overlap, minus back), or make or release a compound path (Object > Pathfinder, Object > Paths, Pathfinder panel)

Turn buttons or form fields back into ordinary page items, keeping the active appearance (Object > Interactive > Convert to Object)

Convert items to another shape: rectangle, rounded, beveled or inverse rounded rectangle, ellipse, triangle, polygon, line or orthogonal line, or an open or closed path (Object > Convert Shape; Pathfinder panel)

Convert a table back to delimited text (Table > Convert Table to Text); cell formatting other than text formatting is lost

Convert delimited text to a table (Table > Convert Text to Table): a whole story, a character range of it, or the selected text

Convert text variables to ordinary text: every instance of one variable, or the instances inside some text (Type > Text Variables > Convert Variable to Text). Optionally delete the variable afterwards.

Copy fill and stroke attributes from one item to others, as the Eyedropper tool does: colour, tint, overprint and gradient angle and length of the fill, and colour, tint, weight, type, alignment, overprint and gradient of the stroke; between items or between the texts of text frames

Copy or cut a block of cells with their text formatting into the same or another table: over existing cells, or into new rows or columns inserted before or after a row or column (Edit > Copy / Cut / Paste on table cells, and the Table panel's Paste Before / Paste After). Pasting a whole table after another table's last row and removing the source combines the two tables

Create an alternate layout: copy the pages of a layout to a new page size and orientation in the same document, with a liquid page rule, linked stories and copied text styles (Layout > Create Alternate Layout)

Create a new InDesign book file and leave it open (fails if a file already exists at the path)

Make a button from items (Object > Interactive > Convert to Button) or an empty button at a rectangle, with a name, PDF description and Rollover/Click appearances (Buttons and Forms panel)

Create a character style; only the attributes you pass are set

Create a color swatch from RGB values, stored as RGB or converted to CMYK

Create a new document and make it active. All measurements are in millimetres. Margins are applied to every page of the new document.

Create a hyperlink on the first occurrence of sourceText in the document. The destination is a URL, a page, or the first occurrence of some other text (a text anchor).

Start a new section at a page (or update the section that already starts there) with its own page numbering

Create a document with the options of the New Document dialog (File > New > Document): start from a document preset, set the intent (Print / Web / Mobile preset category), ruler units, page size, pages, facing pages, Start #, primary text frame, columns and gutter, margins (or one value for all sides), bleed and slug, and optionally save the settings as a document preset. With no options it makes a new default document without the dialog

Create an ellipse on the active page (or pageIndex)

Put items in a flex layout container that arranges them in rows or columns which resize and reflow together, for example a wrapping grid of profile cards for team pages; a group is converted (Flex Layout > Convert to Flex Layout / Add to Flex Layout). Needs InDesign 2026 (21.0) or later.

Make a PDF form field: text field, check box, radio button, combo box, list box or signature field, at a rectangle or over items, with its options (Buttons and Forms panel > Type)

Group the page items currently selected in InDesign (at least 2)

Create a group from specific page items by their indices

Create a new layer in the active document (fails if a layer with that name exists)

Create row/column guides on every page of a master spread (MasterSpread.createGuides)

Create a rectangle on a page of a master spread. Position and size are in mm from that master page's top-left corner.

Create a new master spread. Its full name is namePrefix + "-" + baseName (e.g. "B-Chapter").

Create a text frame on a page of a master spread. Position and size are in mm from that master page's top-left corner.

Make a multi-state object from items, each item (or list of items) becoming one state (Object States panel > New State); returns its id and states

Create an object style; only the attributes you pass are included in the style

Convert text frames' text to outlines (compound paths), replacing the text or keeping it (Type > Create Outlines)

Create row/column guides on one page (like Layout > Create Guides, limited to this page)

Create a paragraph style; only the attributes you pass are set

Create a regular polygon on the active page (or pageIndex)

Generate a QR code for a URL, plain text, email, text message or business card (vCard), in a new frame or in an existing frame; giving the frame of an existing QR code edits it (Object > Generate QR Code, Edit QR Code)

Create a rectangle on the active page (or pageIndex)

Create row/column guides on every page of a spread (Spread.createGuides). Set numberOfRows and/or numberOfColumns above 0; with both 0 nothing is created (the result reports the guide count before and after).

Create a swatch (Swatches panel menu > New Color Swatch, New Tint Swatch, New Mixed Ink Swatch, New Mixed Ink Group): a process or spot colour from RGB, CMYK or Lab values, a tint of a colour, a mixed ink from ink percentages, or a mixed ink group stepping ink percentages; optionally named with its colour values and placed in a colour group

Create a table in a new text frame on the active page (or pageIndex)

Create a text frame on the active page (or pageIndex). Styles are applied first; explicit formatting overrides them.

Generate a table of contents from a TOC style and place it on a page, or update the one already in the document (Layout > Table of Contents, Layout > Update Table of Contents). Can take entries from every document of a book and make the table interactive (PDF bookmarks and links).

Data merge: select a CSV or tab-delimited text data source for the active document and (optionally) merge records. The document must already contain data merge placeholders for merging to succeed.

Create or change a text variable (Type > Text Variables > Define): custom text, file name, last page number, chapter number, creation / modification / output date with its format, running header from a paragraph or character style, or a metadata caption; with text before and after.

Create or change a table of contents style: its title, the paragraph styles it collects, and the level, entry style, page number and separator of each (Layout > Table of Contents Styles). Keep one style per table (contents, figures, tables) to build several.

Delete all layout snapshots for a page

Delete a master spread (pages that used it are left with no master)

Delete a page from the document (the only page cannot be deleted)

Delete a page item (by index from list_page_items) from a page

Delete the page's layout snapshot for its current size and shape

Delete a spread and all its pages. The last remaining spread cannot be deleted.

Delete rows, columns or the whole table (Table > Delete > Row / Column / Table)

Delete XML tags (Tags panel menu > Delete Tag), retagging their elements with a replacement tag, or delete every tag no element uses (Select All Unused Tags, then Delete Tag)

Detach master page items onto a document page: each master item is overridden onto the page and the copy is detached so it no longer follows the master. Without itemIndex, all master items shown on the page (and items already overridden there) are detached.

Draw a path from anchor points with optional direction handles, open or closed, as with the Pen or Pencil tool; it takes the document's default object style unless colours are given. Returns the new item

Draw a rectangle, ellipse or polygon frame, or a straight line, on a page (Rectangle Frame, Ellipse Frame, Polygon Frame and Line tools). Frames are graphic placeholders by default; content "unassigned" draws a plain shape and "text" a text frame. Returns the new item's id

Duplicate a master spread; the copy gets newName as its base name (InDesign assigns a new prefix)

Duplicate a page and put the copy at the given position in the document

Duplicate a page item on the same page, optionally placing the copy at x/y; returns the copy ID

Duplicate a spread (Spread.duplicate) and place the copy at the given location in the document

Remove, turn on or off, or change the event of the actions on buttons or form fields (Buttons and Forms panel > Actions); list them with get_interactive_elements

Change a multi-state object: new state, delete, rename, reorder or show a state, add or paste items into a state, release one or all states to objects, Hidden Until Triggered (Object States panel)

Edit paths: open, close, reverse or join them, cut them with the scissors, add, move or delete anchor points, and convert points (Object > Paths, Object > Convert Point; Add, Delete and Convert Direction Point tools, Scissors tool)

Read or change any preference object of the application or the active document by name, such as textPreferences, guidePreferences or pasteboardPreferences: every preferences pane and default setting is one. get lists its properties; set changes properties given as booleans, numbers, strings, lists or { enum: "Enum.MEMBER" }. Lengths are millimetres (Application/Document preference objects)

Change a swatch's options (Swatch Options, from the Swatches panel menu or a swatch's context menu): rename it or name it with its colour values, switch a colour between process and spot, convert it to RGB, CMYK or Lab (Color panel menu), set its values, change a tint's percentage, change a mixed ink's ink percentages, or convert a mixed ink or mixed ink group to process

Merge or unmerge cells, split cells horizontally or vertically, convert cells to graphic or text cells, or convert rows to header, body or footer rows (Table > Merge Cells, Unmerge Cells, Split Cell Horizontally / Vertically, Convert Cell to Graphic Cell / Text Cell, Convert Rows)

Edit the content and/or formatting of an existing text frame

Change an XML element: retag it, replace its text, add, edit or delete attributes (Structure pane menu > New Attribute; Edit and Delete on an attribute), or move it before or after another element or into one

Execute custom InDesign ExtendScript code

Export an entire book to a single file

Merge records straight to a PDF file without creating a merged document (Data Merge panel menu > Export to PDF), with a PDF export preset and an optional overset text report

Export the document XML structure (the Structure pane content) to an XML file

Export the active document to EPUB (reflowable or fixed layout)

Export the document as a reflowable or fixed-layout EPUB with any option of the EPUB export dialogs: General, Text, Object and image conversion, CSS and JavaScript, Metadata, accessibility metadata, and fixed-layout range, cover, navigation and spreads (File > Export > EPUB (Reflowable / Fixed Layout))

Export the document or selection as HTML with any option of the HTML Export dialog (content order, lists, images, CSS, JavaScript), or as HTML5 fixed layout (File > Export > HTML / HTML5)

Export pages or spreads as JPEG, PNG or EPS with every option of the export dialog: quality, format method, resolution, colour space, profile, anti-aliasing, bleed, overprint, transparent background, PostScript level, preview, fonts, OPI and flattener (File > Export > JPEG / PNG / EPS)

Export pages as JPEG or PNG images, one file per page (page_<n>.jpg/png) in an output folder

Export the document as an interactive PDF with buttons, forms, media, hyperlinks and page transitions, setting any option of the Export to Interactive PDF dialog (File > Export > Adobe PDF (Interactive))

Export the active document to PDF using a built-in or named PDF export preset

Export the document as Adobe PDF (Print) with any option of the Export Adobe PDF dialog: General, Compression, Marks and Bleeds, Output (with Ink Manager), Advanced and Security, optionally starting from a preset and exporting in the background (File > Export > Adobe PDF (Print))

Export a story or the selected text as Rich Text (.rtf), Text Only (.txt) with a chosen platform and encoding, InDesign Tagged Text, or an InCopy document (.icml) (File > Export with text selected)

Export the XML structure, or one element of it, to a file with the XML Export Options: include the DTD declaration, view the XML afterwards, export from the selected element, untagged tables as CALS, remap break, whitespace and special characters, XSLT, encoding, ruby, and image copying and conversion (File > Export > XML; Structure pane menu > Export XML). The options given are kept as the document's XML export settings

Fill text frames with placeholder text (Type > Fill with Placeholder Text), in Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek or Hebrew script; existing text in the frames is replaced

Find text by paragraph or character style (and optionally by text) in the document or one story, and change it to another paragraph or character style (Find/Change with Find Format and Change Format styles). Without change, only counts the matches

Find and replace literal text throughout the document (InDesign text search; metacharacters such as ^p and ^t are honored)

Find (and optionally replace) text across the entire document. Uses Text find/change, or GREP when useRegex is true.

Run XML rules over the document's structure: match XPath expressions (such as "//Story/Head" or "//*[@type='note']") with an XML rule processor and return each match with the rules it matched, its tag and text (XML rules, XMLRuleProcessor)

Make captions for images from their metadata (Object > Captions > Caption Setup, Generate Live Caption, Generate Static Caption): a text frame beside each item with a live metadata caption variable, or its text; or convert live captions to static text (Convert to Static Caption). Can number captions through a numbering list that runs across stories (Figure 1, Figure 2...).

Write the RELAX NG schema that describes IDML into a folder, for a single-file IDML or the package (multi-file) format (Application.generateIDMLSchema)

Generate the index from its topics and place it on a page, or replace the index already generated (Index panel menu > Generate Index): title and title style, nested or run-in, section headings, level, heading, page number and cross-reference styles, and every separator.

Get detailed information about a book

Read colour management (Edit > Color Settings, Appearance of Black): the application's settings, working spaces, policies and conversion options; with a document open, its assigned profiles, policies and rendering intents (Edit > Assign Profiles) and the proofing of its window (View > Proof Setup, Proof Colors, Overprint Preview); optionally the presets, profiles and engines to choose from

List the colors (with color model) and optionally the swatches, gradients and tints in the document

Count the elements in the document (text frames, stories, shapes, graphics, tables, groups, layers), including items nested in groups

Get the document grid and baseline grid settings (measurements in millimetres). Property names match set_document_grid_settings.

List the hyperlinks in the document with their sources and destinations

Get information about the active document (name, path, page/spread/layer counts, page size, bleed and margins in millimetres)

List the layers in the document (top to bottom) with visibility, lock state, printability and item count

Get Adjust Layout preferences (document) and Align & Distribute and Smart Guides preferences (application-wide). Property names match set_document_layout_preferences.

Read document preferences. Measurements are reported in millimetres. Property names match set_document_preferences.

List the sections in the document with start page, numbering style, start number, prefix and marker

List the stories in the document with length, frame count, overset status and a short preview

List the styles of one type in the document (including styles inside style groups)

Show the document XML structure: the tag list and/or the element tree (tag, attribute and child counts, text preview)

Read the editorial preferences: Notes, Track Changes, Story Editor Display (font, size, spacing, colours, cursor, style name column, depth ruler) and Type preferences for text editing, plus the user name for notes and changes

Read flex layout containers: their settings, their items and how each sizes, and the liquid layout settings that also act on them and can conflict with the flex layout (Object > Flex Layout). Needs InDesign 2026 (21.0) or later.

Get information about a group, including its direct members and their indices

Get link, resolution, scale and position of a placed graphic on a page

Read the Preferences panes (Edit > Preferences, or InDesign > Settings on macOS): General, Interface, Type, Advanced Type, Composition, Units & Increments, Display Performance, GPU Performance, File Handling, Clipboard Handling, Guides & Pasteboard, Spelling, Autocorrect, Dictionary, Japanese layout grids and mojikumi, and Generative AI; for the application or the active document

List the active document's inks as the Ink Manager shows them: process or spot, alias, ink type, neutral density, trapping sequence, whether each prints and converts to process, screen frequency and angle, and whether standard Lab values are used for spots (Swatches panel menu > Ink Manager)

List the interactive elements of the document or a page: buttons with appearances and actions, form fields, multi-state objects and states, video and sound, animations, timing, page transitions and tab order (Buttons and Forms, Object States, Media, Animation and Timing panels)

Read items' opacity, blending and effects on their object, stroke, fill and content (Effects panel)

Report a document's long-document structure: TOC styles, footnotes and endnotes (with ids), index topics and sort options (Index panel), conditions, condition sets and hidden conditional text (Conditional Text panel), cross-reference formats, hyperlinks and text anchors (Hyperlinks and Cross-References panels), bookmarks (Bookmarks panel), text variables and chapter numbering.

Get detailed information about a master spread

Read items' Stroke panel options, Attributes panel options (nonprinting, overprint) and content type, Frame Fitting Options, and Anchored Object Options. Stroke weights and dash lengths are points; crops and offsets mm

Report what packaging the active document involves, as the Package dialog does: a summary with problems flagged, fonts and their status, links and images with status, colour space and resolution, colours and inks, and the print settings (File > Package: Summary, Fonts, Links and Images, Colors and Inks, Print Settings, Report)

Summarize what is on a page: counts of text frames, rectangles, ovals, polygons, lines, groups, placed graphics, guides and master items

Get detailed information about a specific page

Get detailed information about a specific page item

Read the paragraph formatting of text, paragraph by paragraph: indents and spacing, alignment, justification, hyphenation, keep options, rules, borders, shading, span and split columns, drop caps and nested styles (Paragraph panel and its menu). Distances are mm, line weights points

Read items' paths: whether each is open or closed, and every anchor point with its direction handles and point type

Read InDesign diagnostics: performance metrics such as CPU time, memory size, thread and handle counts and composition counts, with their long names, and the memory statistics where available (Application.performanceMetric)

Read the import and display options of placed graphics: type (image, PDF, InDesign page, EPS, SVG), link, resolution, colour profile and the profiles available, rendering intent, clipping path and alpha channels, layers and their visibility, the PDF or InDesign page and crop placed, and display quality (Object > Image Import Options, Object Layer Options, Display Performance)

Read preflight profiles (application and embedded in the document), one profile's rules with their settings, the preflight options, the catalog of rule ids, and the live preflight status of the document (Preflight panel; Define Profiles; Preflight Options; preflight status in the document window)

Read the active document's print settings (every Print dialog option), the printers, PPDs, paper sizes and screenings available, whether PDF pass-through is in use, and the saved print presets (File > Print; File > Print Presets)

Get current session information including page dimensions and active document

Summarize the content of a spread: item counts by type, overset text frames, placed graphics with link status, and items per layer

Get detailed information about a spread: pages, applied master, page shuffle, master item visibility, page transition, item and guide counts

Count the words, characters, lines and paragraphs of a story, or of the selected text, including how much is overset (the word and character counts of the Info panel)

List the tables in the document with their story id, index, frame and size, or describe one table: its rows (type, height, Exactly/At Least), column widths, merged cells, graphic cells, cells holding nested tables, and overset cells (Table panel; the red overset dot in a cell)

Read the Text Frame Options of text frames: columns, inset, vertical justification, baseline options, auto-sizing, footnotes and column rules (Object > Text Frame Options). Lengths in mm, stroke weight in points

Read the text wrap of page items: wrap type, invert, offsets, wrap to, contour options and the paths and alpha channels a placed image offers (Window > Text Wrap)

Read the transform preferences and reference point, and optionally items' rotation, shear, scale, flip and transformation matrix (Transform panel)

Read global light, transparency blend space, transparency display quality, transparency flattener presets and each spread's flattening (Object > Effects > Global Light; Edit > Transparency Blend Space; Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets; Pages panel > Spread Flattening)

List trap presets with all their options, the pages each is assigned to, and which are unused (Window > Output > Trap Presets; panel menu > Select All Unused)

Move the document window through the layout as the Layout menu does: First / Last / Next / Previous Page, First / Last / Next / Previous Spread, and Go Back / Go Forward through the pages viewed

Get help information about available tools and their usage

Import an XML file into the structure (File > Import XML; Structure pane menu > Import XML) with the XML Import Options: merge or append, link to the file, XSLT, clone repeating text elements, only import matching elements, import text into tables, skip whitespace-only elements, delete unmatched content, CALS tables, and import into an element. The options given are kept as the document's XML import settings

Health check: platform, resolved InDesign app name, optional live probe (version, open docs). Call with probe=true to round-trip a script; on the UXP backend it also reports backend.uxpProbe, how this InDesign's UXP DOM differs from ExtendScript, with any problems found.

Anchor an object in text (Object > Anchored Object > Insert): either a new rectangle, ellipse, polygon, text frame or line created at a text position, or an existing item moved into the text. Set its Anchored Object Options in the same call

Insert a cross-reference at a point in text that points to a paragraph or to a text anchor and shows it through a cross-reference format (Type > Hyperlinks & Cross-References > Insert Cross-Reference).

Insert a footnote or an endnote at a point in text, with its text (Type > Insert Footnote, Type > Insert Endnote). The reference number goes at the point; the note text follows the document's note options.

Insert a page number or section marker (Type > Insert Special Character > Markers): Current Page Number (usually on a parent page), Next or Previous Page Number for jump lines, or Section Marker; optionally set the section marker text of the page's section

Insert a special character, white space or break character (Type > Insert Special Character / Insert White Space / Insert Break Character), or any glyph by Unicode code point, optionally in a given font (Glyphs panel). Inserts before or after the chosen text, or replaces it (replace characters with a glyph)

Insert a new table at a point in existing text (Table > Insert Table), or inside a cell of another table to nest it. To make a table in a new frame, use create_table

Insert rows or columns before or after a row or column of a table (Table > Insert > Row / Column; also what dragging a table edge with the modifier key does)

Insert a text variable at a point in text, such as a running header, chapter number or last page number (Type > Text Variables > Insert Variable).

Run a long-document panel menu command that has no scripting equivalent: Index panel Show Find Field / Show Unused Topics; Conditional Text panel Show Options / Select All Unused; Hyperlinks panel Update Hyperlink, sort and Small Panel Rows; Book panel Reveal in Finder / Small Panel Rows; Paste as Cross-Reference. Each needs its panel open (or a selection) and fails with what to do when it is not available.

List the books currently open in InDesign with their file paths and document counts

List all swatches with color model, space and values

List the document's links as the Links panel shows them: name, status, full and platform-style path, URL links, size, date, the item that holds each link, image resolution, InCopy lock state, and optionally the linked file's XMP metadata (Links panel; Link Info; Utilities > XMP File Info; Copy Full Path / Copy Platform Style Path)

List the groups on a page with their index, name, item count and bounds

List all layers in the active document (top of the stack first) with visibility, lock, printable, color, item and guide counts

List all master spreads in the document

List all object styles in the document

List the page items on a page with their index in page.allPageItems (nested items included, such as the image inside a frame and group members). itemIndex and groupIndex in the page-item and group tools use this numbering.

List all spreads in the active document with their pages, applied master, item count and label

List all paragraph and/or character styles (including styles in style groups)

List the document's XML structure as a tree with element ids, tags, attributes, comments, processing instructions and what each element is tagged to (Structure pane). Ids are what the other XML tools take

List the document's XML tags with their colours and how many elements use each, marking unused tags (Tags panel; Select All Unused Tags)

Collect items onto the Content Collector conveyor, ready to place with the Content Placer, optionally as linked copies with style mapping (Content Collector tool; Load Conveyor)

Load styles from another InDesign document or template: paragraph, character, all text, object, table, cell, table and cell, TOC or stroke styles, choosing how name conflicts resolve (Load Styles in the style panel menus)

Load swatches into the active document (Swatches panel menu > Load Swatches) from an InDesign document or template or an Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) file, and/or import named colours from Adobe colour books such as PANTONE as spot or process colours

List the document's layouts (alternate layouts) with their page counts and page sizes, or delete an alternate layout and its pages (Pages panel > Alternate Layout menu > Delete Alternate Layout)

Work with the Articles panel: list articles and their members, create an article, add items or all document content, include or exclude it when exporting, rename, reorder, remove members, delete, and use articles for the reading order of tagged PDF (Window > Articles)

InCopy assignments (Assignments panel): list them with their content and status; create an assignment file with a user name, colour and what it includes; edit its options; add text frames' stories to it (exporting them for InCopy first); delete it; write changes to selected, all or out-of-date assignment files (optionally saving the layout first so geometry changes reach InCopy users); package it for InCopy or cancel a package; or reveal its file in Finder or Explorer

List, add, replace or remove the Autocorrect misspelled-word / correction pairs for a language, and report whether Autocorrect is on (Preferences > Autocorrect > Misspelled Word / Correction; turn Autocorrect on with set_indesign_preferences)

Work with a book's documents and the book file (Book panel menu): document information (path, size, date, status, pages), remove or replace a document, save the book under a new name (Save Book As), or close the book.

Manage PDF bookmarks (Window > Interactive > Bookmarks): add a bookmark to a page, text anchor or text, nested under another; delete, rename, go to, move (arrange and nest) and sort bookmarks by page order or name.

Creative Cloud Libraries: place a library asset in the document (linked to the library when its data says so, so library edits update the layout), export the selection as the files a library asset needs, with a thumbnail size, or choose whether new swatches, paragraph styles and character styles are added to the current library automatically (CC Libraries panel: Place Linked; Add Content; Add to CC Libraries in the New Swatch and New Style dialogs)

List, create, update or delete composite fonts (Type > Composite Fonts), mojikumi sets with detailed aki overrides per character class (Type > Mojikumi Settings) and kinsoku sets (Type > Kinsoku Shori Settings) in the active document. Apply them to text with set_character_attributes

Manage conditional text (Window > Type & Tables > Conditional Text): create, change and delete conditions and their indicators, show or hide all, show, hide or print indicators, load conditions and sets from another document, and create, redefine, activate and delete condition sets.

Create, change, delete or load cross-reference formats and their building blocks: paragraph text or number, page or chapter number, file or bookmark name, custom text, each with an optional character style (Hyperlinks panel menu > Define Cross-Reference Formats, Load Cross-Reference Formats).

Work with a document's data merge: report the fields, placeholders and options; update or remove the data source; preview a record in the placeholders; update the content of data fields in a merged document; or write a report of image files the records name that cannot be found (Data Merge panel menu: Update Data Source, Remove Data Source, Preview, Update Content in Data Fields)

List, read, save (create or update), delete document presets, or save the active document's setup as a preset (File > Document Presets > Define)

List, add or remove the e-reader applications that open an EPUB after export (EPUB export dialog > View EPUB after Exporting > Viewing Apps). Applications must be inside the allowed directories

Attach script files to application or document events, such as open, save, export, place, selection changes and before or after printing (print events); list the attached listeners or remove one by id (Application/Document addEventListener)

Read or set the document's File Info metadata (File > File Info): title, author, description, keywords, job name and copyright. Reading also reports the file, whether it is modified, converted from another version, or was opened from document recovery data after a crash

Saved Find/Change queries: list the user and Adobe-supplied queries by mode, save criteria as a named query, load a query into Find/Change (ready for Find Next), or delete a saved query (Find/Change dialog > Query menu, Save Query, Delete Query)

Create, edit, duplicate or delete transparency flattener presets used when printing or exporting (Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets)

Work with fonts: list the fonts used in the document or installed (family, style, type, status, variable axes), replace one font with another throughout the document and its styles (Type > Find Font), rescan font folders for missing fonts, or recompose every story

Work with existing footnotes and endnotes: convert footnotes to endnotes or back (Type > Convert Footnote and Endnote), turn footnotes into ordinary text, delete notes, or go to a note's reference or text (Go to Footnote Reference / Go to Endnote Reference). Note ids come from get_long_document_info.

List ruler guides, move them, lock or unlock them, make them liquid or ruler guides, or delete them, including every guide on a spread (select guides and drag, Lock Guide, View > Grids & Guides > Delete All Guides on Spread). Positions are mm from the top or left of the guide's page.

Change existing hyperlinks and cross-references (Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks): rename, set the appearance, point to a new URL, page, anchor or paragraph (Hyperlink Options, Edit Hyperlink, Relink Cross-Reference), change a cross-reference's format (Cross-Reference Options), reset the source to other text, delete, go to the source or destination, update cross-references, and rename a text anchor (Hyperlink Destination Options).

Idle tasks: script files InDesign runs when it is idle, after a delay in milliseconds. List them, add one, change a task's delay (0 stops it, -1 runs it once) or remove it (Application.idleTasks)

InCopy content in the layout: export stories for InCopy (chosen frames, a layer's frames, or all stories), check in all checked-out content, save checked-out content without checking it in, or report each story's workflow status (available, checked out, out of date, missing) as the workflow icons show it (Edit > InCopy > Export, Check In All, Save Content). Check out, check in, cancel a check-out, update, embed and go to content are run_document_link_action

Build the index (Window > Type & Tables > Index): add topics, page references and cross-references (New Page Reference, New Cross-reference), index selected text as a topic or a proper name (Last, First), duplicate, delete or capitalize topics, remove unused topics, import topics from another document, update the preview, go to a page reference's marker, and set sort options.

List the languages InDesign knows with their spelling, hyphenation and thesaurus vendors (such as Hunspell, Proximity or Duden), quotation marks and dictionary paths, or set a language's vendors, double and single quotes, and add or remove Hunspell dictionary folders (Preferences > Dictionary)

List the objects under each layer for a spread, as the Layers panel shows them when a layer is expanded, or rename, show, hide, lock or unlock individual objects there

Work with items in an object library: Add Item (store page items as one item), Add Items on Page (as one item or each separately), Place Item(s) into the document, Update Library Item with page items, Item Information (name, type, description), and Delete Item(s) (Library panel menu)

Math expressions (InDesign 2025 and later): add a MathML expression to a page, list the document's expressions, edit an expression's MathML, size or colour (Edit MathML), and set the document defaults for size, colour and whether EPUB export writes MathML or SVG (Export Math Objects, 2026). Takes MathML, not LaTeX

List, import, export, duplicate, rename and delete motion presets, or save an item's animation as a preset (Animation panel > Save; Manage Presets)

List, create, edit or delete named grids (frame grid formats), or load all named grids from another InDesign document (Named Grids panel: New Named Grid, Named Grid Options, Delete Named Grids, Load All Named Grids)

Work with notes (Type > Notes, Notes panel, Note tool): add a note at a text position, list notes with author and dates, convert text to a note or a note to text, split a note, expand or collapse notes, remove notes from a story or the document, go to the next, previous, first or last note, or invoke Notes Mode at a text position

List, create, update or delete numbering lists (Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists > Define Lists): named lists whose numbers can continue across stories, or across documents in a book, for running lists of figures and tables

List the items of an open object library (id, name, type, description; optionally filtered), close a library (Library panel menu > Close Library), and set the Library panel's view (thumbnails, large thumbnails, list) and sort order (Sort Items). To open or create a library use transfer_resource_file

Parent page commands (Pages panel menu > Parent Pages): base a parent on another parent, save a document spread as a parent, load parent pages from another document, select unused parents (and list them), copy a parent to another open document (Move Parent), allow or prevent overrides of parent items, or offset the parent page overlay on a resized page

Import comments from a reviewed PDF into the document (File > PDF Comments > Import PDF Comments), list them with type, text, reviewer, date, status and replies, mark them open or resolved, or delete them (PDF Comments panel)

List, read, create or update, delete, import and export Adobe PDF presets (File > Adobe PDF Presets > Define). save takes the same option groups as export_pdf_with_options, without security

Load files into the place cursor (loaded graphics) so they can be placed by clicking in InDesign, see what it holds, rotate through its contents, or empty it (File > Place with several files; the place cursor)

Create, edit, duplicate or delete preflight profiles and their rules (flag each rule as error, warning or information, or disable it, and set its data values); load a profile from an .idpp file, export one, or embed or unembed it in the active document (Preflight panel menu > Define Profiles, Load Profile, Export Profile, Embed/Unembed Profile)

Create, edit, rename, duplicate, delete or read print presets, optionally capturing the active document's current print settings (File > Print Presets > Define; File > Print > Save Preset)

Read or write the script labels scripts use to find objects: get, set or clear an item's label, read or write a keyed label (insertLabel / extractLabel), or find the items whose label contains some text (Window > Utilities > Script Label)

Extend InDesign's menus with scripts: list a menu's submenus and items, add a menu item that runs a script file (a script menu action placed in a menu or a new submenu), list the script menu actions, or remove one by title (Application.menus, scriptMenuActions)

Work with the Scripts panel: list the application and user scripts (optionally with files the panel cannot run, Display Unsupported Files), run a script file (ExtendScript .jsx/.js/.jsxbin or UXP .idjs) with name/value script arguments and an undo mode, reveal a script in Finder or Explorer, or delete a script file listed in the panel (Window > Utilities > Scripts; panel menu Run Script, Reveal in Finder, Delete Script File)

Open a story in Story Editor (Edit > Edit in Story Editor), close Story Editor windows and return to the same place in the layout (Edit > Edit in Layout), or expand/collapse all footnotes in the active Story Editor window

List, create, delete, save (export) and load (import) custom stroke styles: dashed, dotted and striped patterns (Stroke panel menu > Stroke Styles)

Create, rename, duplicate or delete style groups, or make a group from styles, for any kind of style (New Style Group, New Group from Styles, Style Group Options, Duplicate Group, Delete Group in the style panels)

List, add or remove the document's custom style mappings, which map source styles to other styles when linked content is placed or updated with style mapping on (Link Options > Define Custom Style Mapping; Content Placer > Edit Custom Style Mapping)

Duplicate, delete (with a replacement style), move or copy styles into a style group, for any kind of style (Duplicate Style, Delete Style, Copy to Group in the Paragraph, Character, Object, Table and Cell Styles panels); and turn a paragraph style's bullets and numbering into text

Swatches panel menu commands: duplicate, delete (replacing with another swatch), merge swatches into the first, list or delete unused swatches (Select All Unused), add unnamed colours to the swatches, add the colours of items to the swatches (Color panel > Add to Swatches), make or add to a colour group (New Color Group), or ungroup a colour group

Track changes (Type > Track Changes, Track Changes panel): turn tracking on or off for a story or every story, list tracked changes with type, author and date, accept or reject one change, all changes in a story or document, or only those by one user, and go to the next, previous, first or last change

Create, edit, rename, duplicate or delete trap presets, load them from another InDesign document, or delete every unused one (Trap Presets panel menu: New Preset, Duplicate Preset, Delete Presets, Preset Options, Load Trap Presets, Select All Unused); assign presets to pages with set_page_properties

Undo or redo changes to the active document, one or more steps (Edit > Undo / Redo; History panel > Step Backward / Step Forward), or list the states the History panel shows: what can be undone and redone, most recent first

Edit a language's user dictionary or the document's hyphenation exceptions: list the added and removed words, add or remove words (with ~ marking hyphenation points, e.g. "data~base"), or import or export a word list as a text file with one word per line (Edit > Spelling > User Dictionary; Import and Export)

Load a DTD for validating the XML structure (Structure pane menu > Load DTD), view it (View DTD), set its root element (DTD Options), or delete it (Delete DTD)

Map XML tags to paragraph, character, table or cell styles and style the tagged content (Structure pane or Tags panel menu > Map Tags to Styles), or map styles to tags and tag the styled content (Map Styles to Tags). Maps are kept in the document; map_by_name pairs tags and styles of the same name

Measure the distance and angle between two points, items or an item and a point, as the Measure tool shows them in the Info panel; for two items also the gaps between their edges

Move a page to a different position in the document

Move a page item so its top-left corner (geometric bounds) is at x, y mm on the page

Move a spread (Spread.move) to a different position in the document

Navigate to a page: make it the active page of the document's layout window

Nudge items by the keyboard increment, or step their scale or size by 1% or 5%, as the arrow keys and scale shortcuts do (Preferences > Units & Increments > Cursor Key; Object Editing shortcuts)

Open an existing InDesign book (it stays open)

Open an Adobe Creative Cloud document by its asset reference (app.openCloudDocument). Requires InDesign with cloud documents support and a signed-in Creative Cloud account.

Open an existing InDesign document (.indd, .indt, .idml) and make it active

Organize document layers: merge layers with duplicate names, delete empty layers, and/or sort layers alphabetically (A at top). Operations run in that order. The last remaining layer is never deleted.

Package a book for print production into a folder (created if missing)

Package the active (saved) document for printing into an output folder

Package the active document with every Package option: copy fonts, linked graphics and colour profiles, update links, use document hyphenation exceptions only, include hidden-layer content, IDML and PDF (with a PDF preset), write the report, and continue despite preflight errors (File > Package > Package)

Place many images as a contact sheet: an evenly spaced grid of frames, one file in each, fitted, flowing onto further pages as needed, optionally captioned (the place cursor's grid placing)

Place a file (image, PDF, text, InDesign snippet, ...) on a page. x/y are measured in mm from the page's top-left corner.

Place a file (image, PDF, text, InDesign snippet...) on a spread at a point (Spread.place)

Place an image, PDF or Illustrator page, InDesign page, EPS or SVG with its import options set without the dialog, on a page or into an existing frame (replacing its content), then optionally fit it and add a static caption (File > Place > Show Import Options: Image Import Options, Place PDF, Place InDesign Document, EPS Import Options; Replace Selected Item; Create Static Captions)

Place an image file in a new frame on the active page (or pageIndex). Omit width and height to size the frame to the image.

Place copies of items or stories on a page, in this or another open document, as linked content that updates when the source changes (Edit > Place and Link; the Content Placer tool)

Place a video or sound file, or a video from a URL, into a new frame or an existing frame, with its media options (File > Place; Media panel > Video from URL)

List or place the ready-made buttons and form fields of InDesign's Sample Buttons and Forms library (Buttons and Forms panel > Sample Buttons and Forms)

Place an Excel workbook (.xlsx or .xls) as a table, with the Microsoft Excel Import Options set without the dialog: sheet, cell range, formatted or unformatted table or tabbed text, cell alignment, decimal places, hidden cells, and whether the placed file stays linked for updates. Places at a point in text, or in a new text frame on a page

Place a Word, RTF, Excel, text or InDesign Tagged Text file (or any placeable file) with the options of its import dialog, on a page or into a frame; optionally apply a table style to imported tables and generate alt text for placed images (File > Place > Show Import Options)

Place an XML element (the first element whose tag matches xmlElementName) on a page. x/y are measured in mm from the page's top-left corner.

Place an element of the document's XML structure on a spread (Spread.placeXML). The element is found by tag name, searching the structure depth-first from the root.

Fill table cells from a 2-D array. Tables are numbered across the text frames of the page; cells outside the table are skipped and counted.

Preflight a book and save the preflight report (PDF, or text if the path ends in .txt). The report path is returned.

Run a preflight check on the active document with a preflight profile and list the problems found (optionally saving a report)

Play the selection, spread or document in the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel, or open the panel (Window > Interactive > EPUB Interactivity Preview); the preview shows in InDesign only

Print every document in a book with a printer preset, optionally showing the print dialog first

Print the active document as a booklet (saddle stitch, perfect bound or consecutive printer spreads) with its booklet setup and print settings, to a printer or a PostScript file, or only save those settings (File > Print Booklet)

Print the active document, or write it to a PostScript file, with any Print dialog option: printer, PPD, copies, pages, paper and scaling, marks and bleed, composite or separations output, trapping, screening, graphics, colour management and advanced options; or only save those settings in the document (File > Print)

Quick Apply for styles: find paragraph, character, object, table and cell styles whose names match a query (optionally prefixed p:, c:, o:, t: or e: to search one kind) and apply the best match to the selection, or only list the matches (Edit > Quick Apply)

Redefine a style to match the formatting of the chosen text, object, table or cell (Redefine Style in the Paragraph, Character, Object, Table and Cell Styles panel menus). The chosen target is selected first; the style redefined is the one applied to it

Reframe a page: set its bounding box from two opposing corners, in mm in the given coordinate space

Point links at other files: relink one link to a file or a web URL, relink links to files of the same name in a folder (optionally searching subfolders or with another extension), relink to the same names with another extension, or copy the linked files to a folder and relink to the copies (Links panel menu > Relink, Relink to Folder, Relink File Extension, Copy Link(s) To)

Remove a member from a group (the group is rebuilt with the remaining members, or dissolved if fewer than 2 remain)

Remove local overrides from master items on a document page, restoring the master version. Without itemIndex, all overrides on the page are removed.

Delete type from paths, leaving the paths (Type > Type on a Path > Delete Type from Path)

Delete XML elements, comments or processing instructions (Structure pane menu > Delete), or untag elements, keeping their content in the layout (Untag Element). Deleting an element deletes the content tagged to it, as the Structure pane does

Repaginate all documents in a book and save it

Show the Normal appearance of every button and the first state of every multi-state object (Buttons and Forms panel > Reset All Buttons to Normal State; Object States panel > Reset All Multi-state Objects to First State)

Resize a page (Page.resize). With REPLACING/ADDING, width and height are lengths in mm; with MULTIPLYING they are scale factors; with RESHAPING_* they are a width:height ratio.

Resize a page item to width x height mm around an anchor point

Resize rows and columns: set row heights or column widths, keep the table width by taking the change from the neighbouring column (as Shift-dragging a column border does), scale the whole table width or height proportionally, or distribute rows or columns evenly (Table > Distribute Rows Evenly / Distribute Columns Evenly)

Unlock every locked object and/or show every hidden object on a spread (Object > Unlock All on Spread, Show All on Spread)

Rotate how a spread is shown, to edit rotated content without changing output: 90° clockwise, 90° counter-clockwise, 180°, or clear the rotation (View > Rotate Spread; Pages panel menu > Rotate Spread View)

Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste without Formatting, Paste Into (into the selected frame, as a mask) or Paste in Place (Edit menu). Acts on the current selection, or selects target first; paste text at an insertion point chosen with select_text

Act on links: update modified links or all of them, embed or unembed, open the original in its editor, reveal the file in Finder/Explorer or Bridge, select the linked item on its page, go to the source of a shared-content link, and check InCopy content out, in, or cancel the check-out (Links panel menu > Update Link, Update All Links, Embed Link, Unembed Link, Edit Original, Reveal in Finder, Reveal in Bridge, Go To Link, Go to Source, Check Out, Check In, Cancel Check Out; Edit > Edit Original)

File menu commands on documents: Save a Copy (the open document keeps its name), Save All (every open document that has a file), Revert (back to the last save), Close All (saving or discarding changes), save for earlier InDesign versions as IDML, or remove a file from File > Open Recent (the recent list itself cannot be read by scripts)

Find, or find and change, with the Find/Change dialog's full criteria: text, GREP, glyph, object, colour or transliterate searches; Find Format and Change Format attributes; search scope (document, all documents, story, to end of story, selection); and the search options (locked, hidden and parent-page items, footnotes, case, whole word, kana, width, diacritics, kashidas, backwards). A saved query can supply the criteria. Returns the count and the first matches

Run an Edit menu Find/Change command on the current selection and the criteria in Find/Change (set them with run_find_change keepCriteria: true or a loaded query): Find Next, load the selected text into Find What or Change To, load it and find the next match, or replace the selection with the Change To text (and find the next). Returns the new selection

Run a Glyphs panel menu command: insert one of the five most recently used glyphs at the text selection, sort the panel by Unicode or by glyph ID, or clear the Recently Used row (Type > Glyphs)

Layers panel menu commands: Duplicate Layer, Show All Layers, Hide Others, Lock Others, Unlock All Layers, Select Item(s) on Layer (on a spread), and Small Panel Rows

Run a Links panel menu command: Search for Missing Links, copy link information as text (Utilities > Copy All Link Information, Copy Info for Selected Links), or change the panel display (Show Link Information Pane, Auto-Size Link Information, Hide Thumbnail). Optionally select items first so the command acts on their links

Look up and invoke InDesign menu actions: search the menu actions by name or area (id, title, area, enabled, checked), read one by id, invoke one by id when it is enabled and opens no dialog, or convert between localised UI strings and language-independent $ID/ key strings (Application.menuActions, findKeyStrings, translateKeyString)

Run a Table keyboard or panel command on the current selection: move the text cursor between cells, extend a cell selection, toggle between selecting the cell and its text, jump to the original header or footer rows (Table > Edit Header / Edit Footer), or set which lines the stroke proxy selects (Table panel menu > Select / Clear Border, Inner, All). Put the text cursor in a cell first, for example with select_table_part

Save the active document. With filePath, saves to that location (Save As); without it, saves in place (the document must have been saved before).

Save the active document as an Adobe Creative Cloud document (Document.saveAsCloud / saveACopyCloud). Requires InDesign with cloud documents support and a signed-in Creative Cloud account.

Save swatches to an Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) file for other documents and applications (Swatches panel menu > Save Swatches); by default every named colour and tint

Change the selection: select items, Select All, Deselect All (Edit menu); Container, Content, Previous / Next Object in Group, First Object Above, Next Object Above, Next Object Below, Last Object Below (Object > Select and the object context menu); the whole group an item is in (Group Selection); a parent item on a document page, overriding it so it can be edited; or every ruler guide on a spread

Select a page in the active document (for example before running a command that acts on the selection)

Select a page item (by index from list_page_items) in the document window

Select a spread (Spread.select) and optionally make it the active spread in the layout window

Select a table, cells, rows, columns, or the header, body or footer rows (Table > Select > Cell / Row / Column / Table / Header Rows / Body Rows / Footer Rows), and bring the page into view, which with one row is Table > Go to Row

Move the text cursor or extend the text selection by characters, words, lines or paragraphs, or to the start or end of the story (the arrow-key and Shift-arrow shortcuts), select the line at the cursor, or select a character range

Select an XML element in the Structure pane, or select its content in the layout (Go to Item); select the element of a tagged frame (Select in Structure); or move through the Structure pane with its navigation commands (expand, collapse, next validation error and so on)

Move items to another layer, as dragging the selection square in the Layers panel does; optionally create the layer first

Make an existing layer the active layer of the active document

Choose the active tool in the Tools panel, such as the Selection or Direct Selection tool (which selects frame contents, path points and items inside groups), or toggle between the Selection and Direct Selection tools as the keyboard shortcut does

Set the defaults for new anchored objects in the document: content type, object style, paragraph style and initial size (the Insert Anchored Object defaults). Returns the current values; give nothing to read them

Set Anchored Object Options on anchored items (Object > Anchored Object > Options), rotate and scale them within their anchor settings, or release them so they no longer move with the text (Object > Anchored Object > Release)

Animate items: motion preset, events (page load, page click, self click, self roll over), duration, plays and loop, speed, animate from/to current appearance, rotate, origin, scale, opacity, visibility, and a motion path drawn as points or converted from a path (Animation panel)

Set book options (only the ones given) and save the book

Apply and format bullets and numbering on the paragraphs of the chosen text (Type > Bulleted & Numbered Lists; Bullets and Numbering dialog): list type, list and level, bullet character and font, number expression and format, text after, character style, start/continue, restart after levels, alignment, indents and tab position; or restart numbering, continue numbering, or convert bullets and numbers to text

Set button appearances (Normal, Rollover, Click: turn on or off, add items, show one), the PDF description, printing and Hidden Until Triggered (Buttons and Forms panel, PDF Options)

Set Cell Options (Table > Cell Options) on a block of cells: text insets, vertical justification, paragraph spacing limit, first baseline, clipping, text rotation and writing direction, plus paragraph and character styles, size and alignment of the cell text; graphic cell insets and clipping; strokes on chosen edges and the fill; row height (Exactly or At Least, with a maximum), start row and keep with next; column width; and diagonal lines. Also the sizing and alignment controls of the Table panel

Create or edit a cell style without applying it (New Cell Style, Cell Style Options): name, Based On, paragraph style, text (insets, vertical justification, first baseline, clipping, rotation), graphic insets and clipping, edge strokes and fill, and diagonal lines

Set a document's chapter number, its style, and whether it continues from or matches the previous document in its book (Book panel menu > Document Numbering Options; Layout > Numbering & Section Options). Acts on the active document, or opens, changes and saves the document at documentPath.

Set character formatting on text: font, size, leading, kerning, tracking, scale, baseline shift, skew, rotation, case, position, ligatures, No Break, strikethrough, language, fill and stroke (Character panel, Advanced Character Formats); OpenType options; CJK options (ruby, kenten, warichu, shatai, tate-chu-yoko, mojikumi, kinsoku, aki, tsume, gyoudori); and Middle Eastern options (direction, digits, kashidas, diacritics). Only the attributes you pass change.

Create or edit a character style without applying it (Character Style Options): name, Based On, Reset To Base, and its font, size, leading, tracking, case, position, scale, colour and stroke attributes

Set Clipboard Handling preferences (Preferences > Clipboard Handling: prefer PDF when pasting, copy PDF to clipboard, preserve PDF data at quit, paste text as all information or text only), Paste Remembers Layers (Layers panel menu), and drag-and-drop text editing in layout view and Story Editor (Preferences > Type). With no options it reads them

Set an image's clipping path: none, detect edges, an alpha channel or a Photoshop path, with threshold, tolerance, inset and options, or convert the clipping path to a frame (Object > Clipping Path > Options; Convert Clipping Path to Frame)

Set the colour controls of the interface: which of fill or stroke is active and whether formatting affects the container or the text (Tools panel fill/stroke proxy), the Swatches panel view (Name, Small Name, Small Swatch, Large Swatch) and Show/Hide Options, and the Color panel's Lab, CMYK or RGB sliders and Show/Hide Options

Change the application's colour management (Edit > Color Settings): load a preset or a .csf settings file, turn colour management on or off, set the RGB and CMYK working spaces and policies, the profile mismatch and missing profile prompts, the engine, intent and black point compensation, accurate Lab spots, and the Appearance of Black preferences

Set the Content Collector and Content Placer options: show the conveyor, create links and map styles when placing (Content Placer options, View > Extras > Show Conveyor). Pass no options to read them.

Mark paragraph styles as accessible context breaks: their paragraphs export to EPUB as thematic breaks (<hr>), or remove the mark (Layout > Accessible context breaks; Paragraph Style Options > Export Tagging)

Set the corner shape and size of items' corners, all at once or individually (Object > Corner Options; live corners)

Set the data merge layout and content placement options and return them: Layout of Records (rows or columns first), margins and spacing between columns and rows for multiple records per page, image fitting, Center in Frame, Link Images, Remove Blank Lines and the record limit per document (Create Merged Document > Multiple Record Layout and Options; Content Placement Options)

Set document grid and baseline grid settings (GridPreference). Pass only the properties to change. Measurements are millimetres.

Set Adjust Layout preferences (stored in the document) and Align & Distribute / Smart Guides preferences (application-wide in InDesign). Pass one or more groups with the properties to change.

Set document preferences. Pass one or more groups (general, margins, guides, text, grid) with the properties to change. Measurements are millimetres. Margin changes are applied to the document defaults and to every existing document and master page.

Set editorial preferences (Preferences > Notes, Track Changes, Story Editor Display and Type; View > Story Editor): note colour and tooltips, which changes show and how they are marked, Story Editor font, colours and cursor, the style name column and depth ruler, triple-click and smart cut and paste behaviour, and the user name

Apply fills and strokes to items, to the text in text frames, or to placed grayscale and bitmap images (colourise): a colour, a gradient or None (Apply Color, Apply Gradient, Apply None), tint, overprint, and the gradient's angle, length and start as set with the Gradient panel or Gradient Swatch tool, or reverse it; or swap fill and stroke, or reset them to the defaults (Tools panel)

Set a flex layout container's direction, wrapping, alignment, gaps, padding and sizing, and how its items size (Object > Flex Layout). Needs InDesign 2026 (21.0) or later.

Set form field options: description, printable, required, read only, hidden until triggered, password, multiline, scrollable, font and size, selected by default, export value, list items, sort and multiple selection (Buttons and Forms panel)

Change frames' content type to graphic, text or unassigned (Object > Content). For the Attributes panel (Nonprinting, overprint) use set_print_attributes

Set Frame Fitting Options (Object > Fitting > Frame Fitting Options: fitting on empty frame, reference point, Auto-Fit and crop amounts), clear them (Clear Frame Fitting Options), and fit the content now, including Content-Aware Fit

Set frame grid options (font, size, scale, aki, alignment, view and character count), apply a named grid, or apply the grid format to the text so it matches the grid (Object > Frame Grid Options, Edit > Apply Grid Format)

Create or edit a gradient swatch (Swatches panel menu > New Gradient Swatch, Gradient panel): its type (linear or radial) and its colour stops with their locations and midpoints. Creates the gradient when no swatch has the name

Add, replace, clear or list GREP styles: character styles applied automatically to text matching a GREP expression (Paragraph panel menu > GREP Styles), on the paragraphs of the chosen text or on a paragraph style

Set a group's name, visibility and locked state

Override the colour profile and rendering intent of placed images (Object > Image Color Settings)

Change Preferences (Edit > Preferences, or InDesign > Settings on macOS), pane by pane: General (page numbering, scaling, locked objects, temporary folder), Interface (theme, tool tips, panels, hand tool, live screen drawing), Type and smart text reflow, Advanced Type, Composition highlighting and text wrap, Units & Increments, Display Performance (default view and each view level), GPU Performance, File Handling (previews, recent items, links, content placer, snippets), Clipboard Handling, Guides & Pasteboard (bleed, slug and preview colours, pasteboard size, snap zone), Spelling, Autocorrect…

Ink Manager (Swatches panel menu > Ink Manager): set each ink's type, neutral density, trapping sequence, alias and conversion to process, convert all spot inks to process, and use standard Lab values for spots; returns every ink with its settings and solidity. With no options, lists the inks

Set opacity, blending mode, isolate/knockout and effects (drop shadow, inner shadow, outer and inner glow, bevel and emboss, satin, basic, directional and gradient feather) on items' object, stroke, fill or content (Effects panel; Object > Effects). Only the options you pass change

Set Stroke panel options on items: weight, type (stroke style), colour and tint, cap, join and miter limit, stroke alignment, start and end arrowheads with their scale and alignment, gap colour and tint, dash corner adjustment and custom dash/gap lengths (Window > Stroke). Weights and lengths are points

Set Layer Options (Layers panel > Layer Options): rename, colour, show, lock, Print Layer, Suppress Text Wrap When Layer Is Hidden, Show Guides and Lock Guides

Set the document's layout grid (font, size, scale and aki of its character cells) and which grids show: layout grid, frame grids, character counts, and snapping to the layout grid (Layout > Layout Grid; View > Grids & Guides). Layout and frame grids are part of the Japanese (CJK) feature set.

Set how the layout is numbered and measured: page numbering view by section or absolute (Preferences > General > Page Numbering View), the content grabber on graphic frames (View > Extras > Show/Hide Content Grabber), the ruler origin per page, spread or on the spine, and the zero point (Preferences > Units & Increments; the ruler zero point). With no options it reads them

Set the link options of linked items and linked stories, or the document defaults: update when saving, warn before overwriting local edits, which local edits to preserve, removing forced line breaks and applying style mappings (Links panel > Link Options). Pass no options to read them.

Set how items adapt when their page is resized under the object-based liquid page rule: resize with the page (width, height) and pin to the page edges, plus Auto-Fit of frame content (Liquid Layout panel). The page rule itself is set with set_page_properties (layoutRule).

Read or set margins and columns (Layout > Margins and Columns) on document pages, on the pages of parent spreads, or as the document default for new pages: each margin or one value for all sides ("Make all settings the same"), columns, gutter, direction, and custom column positions (column guides moved by hand)

Set video and sound options: play on page load, loop, poster, controller, navigation points, floating window and PDF description, embedding, and relink legacy media to a new file (Media panel, PDF Options)

Set a paragraph style's nested styles (a character style up to a delimiter), nested line styles (a character style for N lines) or GREP styles (a character style wherever a GREP pattern matches): replace, add, remove one or clear them; or insert an End Nested Style Here character into text (Drop Caps and Nested Styles, GREP Style)

Set footnote and endnote options: numbering, prefix and suffix, reference and text styles, separator, spacing, rules, and the endnote header, scope and frame (Type > Document Footnote Options, Type > Document Endnote Options); and whether Word footnotes and endnotes come in on import (Word Import Options).

Set or read Object Export Options on items: alt text and its source, PDF tagging and actual text, and EPUB/HTML conversion (custom rasterization, size, resolution, format, alignment and spacing, page breaks, layout, epub:type, ARIA role and label) (Object > Object Export Options). With no option groups, reports the current settings

Set the Polygon Settings used by the polygon tools (number of sides, star inset; double-click the Polygon tool) and Prevent Selection of Locked Objects (Preferences > General). Returns the current values; give nothing to read them

Create or edit an object style without applying it (Object Style Options): name, Based On, which categories it includes, and its fill, stroke, corner, paragraph style, text frame general, baseline, auto-size and column rule, story, text wrap and other, anchored object, frame fitting and export options

Preview output on screen: turn Overprint Preview on or off, open the Separations Preview or Flattener Preview panel, show all plates or a single cyan, magenta, yellow, black or spot plate, and show single plates in black or desaturate black (View > Overprint Preview; Window > Output > Separations Preview and its panel menu; Window > Output > Flattener Preview)

Set a page background: adds a full-page rectangle filled with a swatch, sent to the back of its layer

Set fill, stroke, visibility and lock state of a page item (only the properties you pass are changed)

Set properties for a page (only the properties given are changed)

Apply a page transition to chosen or all spreads, clear all transitions, and set how an interactive PDF shows them (Page Transitions panel: Apply to All Spreads, Clear All; Export to Interactive PDF: Open in Full Screen Mode, Page Transitions)

Set paragraph formatting on text: indents and spacing, alignment, justification, hyphenation, keep options, rules above and below, borders and shading, span and split columns, drop caps and nested styles (Paragraph panel and its menu: Justification, Hyphenation, Keep Options, Paragraph Rules, Paragraph Borders and Shading, Span Columns, Drop Caps and Nested Styles). Only the options given change. Distances are mm, line weights points

Create or edit a paragraph style without applying it (Paragraph Style Options): name, Based On, Next Style, Reset To Base, and its character, indents and spacing, keep, hyphenation, justification, drop cap, rule, span column, shading, border and bullets and numbering attributes

Change the import options of placed graphics without the dialog: Photoshop clipping path, alpha channel, which layers are visible and what happens to them when the link updates, and the item's display quality (Object > Image Import Options, Object > Object Layer Options, Object > Display Performance). For colour profile and rendering intent use set_image_color_settings

Turn live preflight on or off for the active document or for all documents, choose the working profile and how embedded profiles are used, which layers, pasteboard objects, nonprinting objects and pages are checked, and how many rows per error the Preflight panel lists (Preflight panel menu > Preflight Options, Enable Preflight for All Documents, Limit Rows per Error; preflight status menu)

Set how objects and text print: overprint fill, stroke and gap and Nonprinting on items (Window > Output > Attributes), overprint on text fill and stroke and on paragraph rules, overprint of footnote rules, the [Black] overprint preference, and which layers print (Layer Options > Print Layer)

Soft-proof the active document's window: choose the output condition to simulate and turn Proof Colors on or off (View > Proof Setup, View > Proof Colors), with paper white, ink black and preserve numbers for a custom profile, and turn Overprint Preview on or off

Choose which kinds of items Quick Apply searches: paragraph, character, object, table and cell styles, menu commands (and hidden ones), scripts, text variables and conditions (the Include options in the Quick Apply menu); returns each filter's state

Show or hide the rulers and set their units, for both rulers or each one, or step both to the next unit (View > Show/Hide Rulers; ruler context menu; Preferences > Units & Increments). Pass no options to read them.

Set script preferences and return them: Enable Redraw while scripts run, whether scripts may show dialogs and alerts (user interaction level) and the measurement unit scripts use; also reports the object-model version scripts target and the Scripts folder (Scripts panel menu > Enable Redraw; Application.scriptPreferences)

Set inks for separations as the Ink Manager does: alias a spot ink to another ink, set ink type, neutral density and trapping sequence, convert spot inks (or all of them) to process, use standard Lab values for spots, and choose which ink plates print with their screen frequency and angle (Ink Manager; Print > Output > Inks)

Set how a spread is flattened: the document default, None (Ignore Transparency), or custom flattener settings (Pages panel menu > Spread Flattening)

Set writable properties of a spread. Only the properties you pass are changed; each is applied independently and any rejected value is reported.

Hide spreads from output and export or unhide them (Pages panel menu > Hide Spread / Unhide Spread, InDesign 2024 or later), and show or hide hidden spreads in the layout (View > Show Hidden Spreads, InDesign 2025 or later)

Set story options for the stories holding the chosen text: Optical Margin Alignment and its size, and story direction (Type > Story panel)

Set the default object styles for new text and graphic frames, the default paragraph and character styles for new text, and whether applying an object style always clears overrides (Default Text Frame Style, Default Graphic Frame Style, Clear Overrides When Applying Style); returns the current defaults

Set export tagging for paragraph and character styles in one call: the HTML/EPUB tag, class and attributes, the PDF tag, and whether to emit CSS or split the EPUB (Export Tagging in Style Options, Edit All Export Tags)

Set the order in which Tab moves between the buttons and form fields of a page in the PDF (Object > Interactive > Set Tab Order)

Set tab stops on the paragraphs of the chosen text (Type > Tabs): add or replace stops with alignment (left, centre, right, align on a character), leader and align-on character; delete stops; clear all; repeat a stop across the column (Repeat Tab); or list them. Positions are mm from the left edge of the text column

Set Table Options (Table > Table Options): row, column, header and footer counts, the table border, space before and after, stroke drawing order, table direction and alignment in the frame; alternating row and column strokes; alternating fills; and repeating headers and footers, which control how a long table breaks across columns, frames and pages

Create or edit a table style without applying it (New Table Style, Table Style Options): name, Based On, the cell styles for header, footer, body, left and right column regions, table setup (border, space before and after, stroke drawing order), alternating row and column strokes, and alternating fills

Set Text Frame Options on text frames: columns (fixed number, fixed width or flexible width, count, width, maximum, gutter, balance), inset spacing, vertical justification and paragraph spacing limit, ignore text wrap, baseline options and a custom baseline grid, auto-sizing, footnote overrides and column rules (Object > Text Frame Options)

Set text wrap on page items: no wrap, wrap around the bounding box, wrap around the object shape, jump object or jump to next column; invert, offsets, wrap to (sides, towards or away from the spine, largest area), contour options and Apply to Parent Page Only (Window > Text Wrap)

Arrange when animations play: reassign items to On Page Load or On Page Click, remove them, play them together or separately, and set delay, plays and loop (Timing panel)

Set how transformations behave and are shown: Transformations are Totals, Dimensions Include Stroke Weight, Show Content Offset, When Scaling options and the reference point (Transform panel menu; Preferences > General)

Set the global light shared by shadows and bevels (Object > Effects > Global Light), the transparency blend space (Edit > Transparency Blend Space) and how transparency is drawn on screen at each display performance level (Preferences > Display Performance)

Set type preferences: Type Contextual Controls (alternates and fraction badges on selected text), font locking for Roman and Asian characters, and the HarfBuzz shaping engine for Indic and Latin text. Returns the current values; with no arguments it only reports them

Turn underline and strikethrough on, off or toggle them, and set their options: weight, offset, type, colour, tint, overprint, gap colour, gap tint and gap overprint (Character panel menu > Underline Options and Strikethrough Options; the Underline and Strikethrough shortcuts). Weights and offsets are points

Add an XML comment or processing instruction to an element (Structure pane menu > New Comment, New Processing Instruction), or edit an existing one by id (Edit)

Set or read the XML view and preferences: show the Structure pane, tagged frames, tag markers, text snippets, attributes, comments and processing instructions (View > Structure; Structure pane menu), small rows in the Tags panel, the Tagging Preset Options (default tags and colours for autotagging), and whether deleting content deletes its element. With no options, returns the current settings

Create an XML tag (Tags panel menu > New Tag), or rename or recolour one (Tag Options)

Show or hide the Pages panel (Window > Pages) and the Layers panel (Window > Layers)

Show or hide text extras and editorial panels: text threads (View > Extras > Show Text Threads), note anchors (View > Extras > Show Notes), tracked changes (View > Show Changes), the Notes, Track Changes and Text Wrap panels, and the Text Wrap panel options. Each option is true to show, false to hide

Create a liquid-layout snapshot of the page layout for its current size and shape

Duplicate items with an offset, as Alt/Option-dragging or nudging with the duplicate modifier does, or make several copies at a fixed offset, optionally as a grid (Edit > Step and Repeat). The copies are made as one undoable step by default (script undo mode)

Run a style panel menu command: Open All Style Groups, Close All Style Groups, Sort by Name, Small Panel Rows or Select All Unused, in the Paragraph, Character, Object, Table or Cell Styles panel (the panel is shown first)

Synchronize styles, swatches and other enabled options from the book's style source document to all documents, then save the book

Tag frames, stories or text with an XML tag (Tag Element / Tag Frame / Tag Text), autotag frames and tables with the default tags (Tags panel > Autotag), untag frames (Tags panel > Untag), or add every untagged story and graphic to the structure (Structure pane menu > Add Untagged Items)

Thread text frames so a story flows through them, unthread a frame from the next or previous one, flow overset text into new frames on the following pages (adding pages if asked), list a thread, or go to the next, previous, first or last frame in a thread

Open or create an object library (.indl), load or save a preflight profile (.idpp), load or save swatches (.ase), or export items as a snippet (.idms) (Library panel, Preflight panel, Swatches panel, File > Export > InDesign Snippet)

Load XML tags from an XML or DTD file into the document (Tags panel menu > Load Tags), or save the document's tags to an XML file (Save Tags)

Repeat the last transformation or sequence of transformations on items, together or each individually (Object > Transform Again)

Scale, shear, rotate, move or transform items by exact amounts around a reference point, optionally on a copy (Object > Transform > Scale, Rotate, Shear and Move dialogs; Rotate, Scale, Shear and Free Transform tools; Transform panel)

Rotate items 90° clockwise, 90° counter-clockwise or 180°, flip them horizontally or vertically, or clear their transformations (Object > Transform)

Ungroup a group, releasing all its items

Update all cross references in a book

Update all numbers (page numbers, chapter numbers, paragraph numbers) in a book

Update chapter and paragraph numbers in a book

Check the document for problems: missing/modified links, missing fonts, missing or low-resolution images, overset text and unused styles

Validate the XML structure against the loaded DTD from the root element or from a chosen or selected element (Structure pane menu > Validate from Root Element / Validate from Selected Element), and list the errors (View List of Errors)

View document information and current state

Show a page in the document window: fit the page in the window, or zoom to a given percentage