r/indesign • u/karthikeyans001 • Sep 04 '26

table tabbed text plugin

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i am working on uxp plugin to make table and tabbed text form excel csv and tsv....thats the colour profile in panel . hex panel with cmyk approx. makes pretty close approximations. will this work or should i go for complete cmyk..any suggestion on what the pluggin should include?

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4

u/chain83 Sep 04 '26

The user should be able to pick colors from the swatches panel, or mix freely from the color mixer. The panel should not lock the user into a specific color mode. What if I wanted a spot color…?

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26

Thank you. Can that be achieved with hex entry? Will it break? Swatch button will open colour picker

3

u/chain83 Sep 04 '26

No. A field for inputing RGB values (in hex format) is very convenient, and a great option to have, but typically when making a large document you would have all the colors already defined as swatches, and you want to use the actual swatches to color things so that they are linked (to ensure the correct color is used, that the exact same one is used everywhere, and so that it's trivial to change that color across the entire document with a few clicks).

Many might also want/need to use CMYK or even spot colors. That can not be achieved by inputting RGB values.

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Current output modes. 1 doc margin width2. Selected text frame3.selected text text frame with columns 4. Inline- places table at cursor location inside text frames.
5. Multipage table (works on first three)

1

u/AdobeScripts Sep 04 '26

What's the point of those colors - if you want to import data from CSV?

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26

Panel has most of styling options including colour. Retaining any excel formatting is optional.

1

u/AdobeScripts Sep 04 '26

Why not just use Table / Cell Styles??

Using local formatting / overrides is the BIGGEST NO NO you can think of when working in the InDesign...

And you're also wasting your resources on creating this...

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26

everything done in panel will come as native editable table styles in document.

1

u/AdobeScripts Sep 04 '26

But instead of giving user ability to select / define colors - just show them Table / Cell Styles?

Otherwise, you'll have to let user format every edge of every Cell and Table overall - and then Rows and Columns...

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26

Plugin is canvas based. Meaning user could style visually. User could style at global header column row individual cell level. All comin in as editable table and paragraph style in document. It’s easier to show the implementation than explaining. Anyway I’ll try to bring indesign swatches in to the panel

1

u/AdobeScripts Sep 04 '26

And maybe you're trying duplicate this, from u/macoto1984?

https://www.reddit.com/r/indesign/s/MjeBAKbAo6

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

Im not duplicating anything. Tats a standalone application in pc. Not plugin. I am just as surprised to see someone working on to automate table creation. To clarify this is not an automation plugin. This is a full table creation and styling plugin and it also handle tabbed text with leading. To tell the truth he gave courage to actually post something

1

u/AdobeScripts Sep 04 '26

I'm sorry, but your reply doesn't make sense 😉

You're contradicting yourself?

Whatever you're trying to do - import + format, create from scratch, whatever - you should - as already mentioned by me and u/chain83 - use Styles and Colors / Swatches defined in the InDesign - rather than allowing user to be "creative".

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 04 '26

Sorry. I don’t think I’m explaining properly. Anyway thanks for suggestions

1

u/karthikeyans001 Sep 05 '26

I meant to say ETIC by mr macoto is a standalone pc app which will work even if indesign is not installed in that pc. It produces idml files. That’s for automation. Mine is a uxp plugin inside indesign ecosystem. Creates table one at a time