Editor plugins
How to use the menus, tools, objects and panels that installed plugins add to the editor. Installing plugins and turning them on and off is done in the portal (see the "Plugins" article).
Loading plugins
When you open a layout, the editor loads the plugins you installed and switched on in the dashboard's Plugins tab. A plugin installed or switched on after the editor opened appears only after you refresh the tab.
Paid plugins are loaded only if you bought them or are on a trial. If a paid plugin's trial has ended or you haven't bought it, a notice appears when you open a layout and the Plugins menu gets an item saying a purchase is required. Clicking it opens Gallery › Plugins in the portal in a new tab. After buying, refresh the tab.
Plugins aren't loaded in observer mode, guest mode, reader mode or windows opened from a public link. Objects made with plugins still look exactly as saved in those windows.
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Plugins menu
A puzzle-shaped Plugins menu appears on the right of the top bar, between Layout info and the File menu. Each plugin has a submenu holding the commands it adds. If a command has a shortcut, it is shown at the right of the item.
If there is nothing to put in it, the Plugins menu isn't shown at all. Some plugins add only tools or shortcuts, so a plugin may be working even when there is no menu.
If a plugin has a new version you can upgrade to, this menu gets an item for it (if the new version uses new permissions, the item says consent to new permissions is needed). Clicking it opens the portal's Plugins tab in a new tab, where you upgrade. Until you upgrade, the version you use now keeps running.
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Plugin tools and shortcuts
Tools added by plugins appear as buttons at the end of the toolbar on the left. A tool that creates objects works like the Rectangle tool: drag on the canvas to make one (hold Shift for a square), or just click to place one at the plugin's default size. Other tools behave differently from plugin to plugin.
Plugins can also add keyboard shortcuts. If one clashes with a shortcut the editor already uses, it isn't attached and the editor's own command keeps working. In that case, choose the command from the Plugins menu.
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Plugin objects
An object made with a plugin tool (for example a manuscript grid) has a shape drawn by the plugin. When you select it, the Attributes tab becomes Plugin Object and shows the common sections such as position and effects, plus a section named after the object type (for example, the grid's name). Change its fields (number of cells, colours and whatever else the plugin defines) and the plugin redraws the shape. Each change is one undo step. The fill and stroke sections appear only if the plugin uses fill and stroke.
A plugin object's drawing is saved together with the layout. So where the plugin isn't available — a person without the plugin receives the layout, reader mode, PDF — it still displays and prints the same. Without the plugin, though, its content can't be changed: you can only move, resize and delete it. The Attributes tab tells you so.
When exported to InDesign (IDML), plugin objects become path groups that look exactly as saved, and the report shows how many. Their plugin properties can't be edited in InDesign.
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Plugin panels
When a plugin opens a panel, a small window appears at the top right of the editor. Its title shows the plugin name and the panel name; drag the title bar to move it and close it with the X on the right. The plugin draws what's inside the panel, and it runs in an isolated window apart from the editor.
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Batch progress window
While a plugin makes large changes to the layout (for example, one that builds many pages from data), a progress window covers the whole editor. It shows the plugin name and progress, and you can't edit in the meantime.
- Click Cancel to stop the job and return the layout to how it was before.
- When it finishes, everything the plugin did is a single undo step. One
⌘/Ctrl+Zreverts it all. - If an error occurs during the job, the layout also returns to how it was before.
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When a plugin is turned off
If a plugin stops responding for a while, the editor turns it off and shows "The plugin … stopped responding and was turned off". You can keep using the editor and the layout, but that plugin's menus and tools are unavailable until the editor is opened again. Refreshing the tab loads it again. If it keeps happening, turn the plugin off in the Plugins tab and let the developer know.
If a plugin command or drawing fails, a notification says so and the layout isn't changed.
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Development mode
Approved plugin developers open the editor with pluginDev added to its address to load a plugin they are building on their own computer (localhost) (see "Plugin developer page" in the "Plugins" article). The Plugins menu then has these extra items:
- Reload Development Plugins — loads your changed code again. If you changed the manifest, refresh the tab.
- A log item for each plugin — shows the plugin's messages and errors in a small window. A plugin that failed to start is marked as failed.
In development mode, settings a plugin saves aren't written to the server; they stay only in that window.
If you start the SDK's development server with --open, the sandbox editor opens without signing in. It loads only the plugin under development into a new layout with default settings and saves nothing to the server (no saving, output or uploads, and the layout is gone when you close the tab). The title bar shows Sandbox · Not saved, and developers can run commands in this editor and get page images back from the terminal. CMYK colours are shown as screen approximations.
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