| In Chapter 15, "Automating Your Work," we describe a number of ways in which you can automate recurrent tasks, including using actions, scripts, and plug-ins. If you don't want to write or build your own, here are some places where you can find them. Plug-ins Plug-ins allow you to extend an application by adding new features to it (beyond what you can do with an action or a script). While Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat have always had plenty of plug-ins, InDesign now has a nice set of plug-in resources. Some are free, some offer demo versions, and some are for sale from third-party vendors from their own web sites. Adobe Studio Exchange The best place to find free plug-ins or demos of commercial products is Adobe Studio Exchange. Here you'll find plug-ins for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. See the listing in "Adobe Web Site" above. Third-Party Plug-ins Mentioned in This Book In addition to the plug-ins on Adobe's site, we mention a number of third-party plug-ins for CS2 applications in this book. Here's some more information on some of these plug-ins and where to find them: Acrobat and PDF Enhancements ARTS PDF Aerialist and Aerialist Pro from ARTS PDF Aerialist offers advanced tools for splitting or merging documents, stamping, bookmarks, hyperlinks and process automation that don't come with Acrobat. $379. The Professional version adds a number of new extensions and capabilities, such as watched folders, automatic linking, and more powerful layer control. $699. www.artspdf.com PDF/Mergician from Tall Applications Create personalized mailings or reports using PDF forms as templates. Import data from any database or XML document. Apply master/detail relations to documents, pages, and field groups. $749. www.tallapplications.com Quite Imposing and Quite Imposing Plus from Quite Software These plug-ins make it easy to convert PDF documents from reader spreads, which are arranged in consecutive page numbers, to printer spreads, which are arranged in a more complicated configuration for printing presses. £249 and £499. (Prices are converted to US dollars based on the current exchange rates.) www.quite.com PitStop Professional from Enfocus Software This Acrobat plug-in features PDF pre-flight, auto-correction, and editing tools for graphics and publishing professionals. $599. www.enfocus.com
Drawing Tools Plug-ins CADTools from Hot Door Allows you to draw in any scale and numerically control the size and location of objects or points inside Adobe Illustrator. $249. www.hotdoor.com MAPublisher from Avenza A suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand that allows you to convert GIF (Geographic Information Systems) data into accurate maps and cartographic illustrations. $999. www.avenza.com
InDesign History Panel Plug-ins EasyHistoryCS from 65bit Software In addition to providing a History palette for InDesign, this plug-in allows you to automatically take snapshots of the current spread when the document is saved. $39.99. www.65bit.com History from DTP Tools Another plug-in that brings the useful, but missing, History panel to InDesign, with added and improved features. $39. www.dtptools.com
Effects Plug-ins Eye Candy from Alien Skin Software The Eye Candy 5 Bundle offers three complete products for Photoshop for one low price. The bundle includes full, retail copies of Eye Candy 5: Textures, Eye Candy 5: Nature, and Eye Candy 5: Impact. $199. www.alienskin.com FILTERiT from CValley, Inc. A powerhouse of effects for Illustrator that allow you to create intricate Flash animations, 3D transformations, and even motion blurs. $129. www.cvalley.com Photo/Graphic Edges from Auto FX Software A suite of 14 visual effects for Photoshop that add borders, frames, and edges around your pictures. It includes over 10,000 traditional media effects such as watercolor edges. It also has unlimited undos and redos as well as advanced layers that work inside the plug-in interface. $179. www.autofx.com
Workflow Tools K4 Publishing System from Managing Editor Inc. The K4 Publishing System is a collaborative workflow system that integrates InDesign CS and InCopy CS with an open and scalable SQL database. K4 is used by magazines, book publishers, and newspapers to manage copyediting and layout. Contact the company for pricing information. www.maned.com Smart Connection Pro and Smart Connection Enterprise from Woodwing Software Turns Adobe InDesign and InCopy into a sophisticated publishing/production system. $849 for Smart Connection Pro. Contact the company for pricing on Smart Connection Enterprise. www.woodwing.com
Formatting Plug-ins Smart Styles from Woodwing Software Adds powerful formatting capabilities to InDesign. With just a single click, you can format an entire page with object styles, text styles, and table styles. $199. www.woodwing.com TableStyles and CellStyles from Teacup Software This plug-in for InDesign lets you apply intricate styles to an entire table or to its individual cells, and redefine style definitions that will then automatically update throughout the document. $99. www.teacupsoftware.com uDirect from XMPie Adds sophisticated variable-data publishing to InDesign layouts. In addition to personalizing files with names, addresses, and so on, you can easily modify various elements in a layout to appeal to a specific user. $2,500. www.xmpie.com
Searching for Other Plug-ins The list above is only a small sampling of the plug-ins available for the CS2 applications. If you feel one of the applications is missing a specific feature that would help your workflow, there may be a commercial (or even free) product that could add that feature for you. While most plug-ins cost money, some are available in a trial version, which allows you to try before you buy. Demo plug-ins typically have limited features compared to the full version, or else they stop working after the demo period expires. Using a plug-in in a demo mode is a great way to tell if it will meet your needs. Here are some places to search for plug-ins: Adobe Store The Store has a plug-in finder feature. You can search either by Adobe product, or by developer name. www.store.adobe.com The Power Xchange Search by plug-in type, or look through their What's New list. www.thepowerxchange.com PDF Store The place to look for Acrobat plug-ins. Search the PDF software categories, download a demo, or contact the support team for free advice. www.pdfstore.com
Actions, Scripts, and Templates Bar none, the best place to look for actions, scripts, templates, and other resources for Adobe Creative Suite products is Adobe Studio Exchange at http//share.studio.adobe.com. |