Scripting is a great tool for performing a variety of tasks. A script can be as simple as an automated common task or as complex as an entire new feature. You can create your own scripts, and you can run scripts that other people have created. For more information on scripting, see Scripting Guide, scripting requirements, and other developer resources. 

The Scripting Guide contains an introduction to scripting and tutorials. You can also find a number of useful scripts that you can run, such as a script that draws guides around the selected object. Some of these scripts appear by default in the Scripts panel.

Scripts panel and Script Label panel overview

InDesign includes two panels for scripting: the Scripts panel and the Script Label panel.

The Scripts panel is where you run scripts without leaving InDesign. The Scripts panel displays the scripts that are located in the Scripts folders in the InDesign application folder and in your Preferences folders. If you create or receive a script, you can place it in the Scripts Panel folder so that it shows up in the Scripts panel.

Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/[version]/[language]/Scripts/Scripts Panel

Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\[version]\[language]\Scripts\Scripts Panel

Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\[version]\[language]\Scripts\Scripts Panel

You can then double-click a script in the Scripts panel to run it, or you can run scripts using Quick Apply.

The Script Label panel lets you specify a label for a page item, such as a text frame or shape. Specifying labels for page items is especially useful for writing scripts in which you need to identify an object.

Open the Scripts panel

Open the Script Label panel

Sample scripts

Adds guides around the selected object or objects.

Adds points to the paths of the selected object or objects.

Moves objects by specified distances on right/left pages.

Aligns objects to specified positions on a page.

Automatically creates buttons with different animation properties.

Removes a selected text frame and its contents from a story.

Re-draws the path of the selected item or items using a variety of corner effects. Corner effects can be applied to selected points on the path.

Defines a complete character style based on the selected text.

Adds crop and/or registration marks around the selected object or objects.

Exports all stories in a document to a series of text files.

Performs a series of common text find/change operations by reading a tab-delimited text file.

Places all graphics in a specified folder in a “contact sheet” layout.

Creates a grid by subdividing or duplicating the selected object or objects.

Applies a “blend” effect to the selected object or objects.

Changes the position of path points on the selected object or objects to add a creative effect.

Places all pages of a PDF.

Selects objects on the active spread by their object type.

Sorts the paragraphs in the selection alphabetically.

Splits the text frames in the selected story into separate, unlinked text frames.

Applies tab stops and indents to the selected text.

For more information on installing and using these sample scripts, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_id_scripting_readme_cs5_en (PDF).

Community-contributed scripts

InDesign also provides more scripts that are created by the InDesign community. 

• Unicode Injector by Kris Coppieters - Use keyboard shortcuts to easily insert one or more Unicode characters into InDesign text. For more information, see Instructions. 
• Insert Typographer Quote by Stefan Rakete - Use keyboard shortcuts to add defined typographic quotes before and after the selected text. For more information, see Instructions. 
• Layer Cloner by Paolo Agostinetto - This script allows you to copy one layer and its elements from one document to another. For more information, see Instructions. 
• Get x-Height by Roland Dreger - Determine the x-height of a text passage. For more information, see Instructions.
• Snap Margins to Text Frame by Ariel Walden - A script to modify the document's margins throughout to match the selected text frame. For more information, see Instructions.
• Break Text Thread by Ariel Walden - An InDesign script that makes breaking the thread between text frames easy. For more information, see Instructions.
• InCopy Note Alert by Kris Coppieters - A startup script for Adobe® InDesign® and Adobe InCopy® which alerts to the presence of notes. For more information, see Instructions.
• Copy Paste Coordinates by Kris Coppieters - Script to copy-paste coordinates onto page items. For more information, see Instructions.
• Chain Grep by Gregor Fellenz - Chain InDesign GREP Queries to new Scripts. For more information, see Instructions.
• Clear Overrides by Gregor Fellenz - Clear style overrides from InDesign Text, Tables or Objects. For more information, see Instructions.
• Invert Selection by Luis Felipe Corullón - Script to invert the selection in InDesign document. For more information, see Instructions.
• Layer Cloner by Paolo Agostinetto - This script allows you to copy a layer and its elements from one document to another. For more information, see Instructions. 
  
• End Notes to End of Book Notes by Peter Kahrel - Convert end-of-document endnotes to end-of-book endnotes. For more information, see Instructions. 
  
• Renumbering Endnote References by Peter Kahrel - Script creates endnotes whose references do not update automatically when you add or remove endnotes. For more information, see Instructions. 
  
• Size Thing to Page by Olav Kvern - Resizes the current selection such as an image to the size of the page. For more information, see Instructions. 
• Size Page to Thing by Olav Kvern - Resizes the page to the size of the current selection such as an image. For more information, see Instructions.

Adobe maintains a repository of open source community scripts on GitHub. For more information about the InDesign Community Script repository, see the ReadMe file. This ReadMe file includes details about contributing a script and links to the scripters.