aescripts + aeplugins

Daan Dirk de Jonge

Great script, just what I needed.

Just so you know: in CC 2014.1 when the ShapeRepeaterBaker script is or was opened, it breaks this script so it only saves the ultimate textlayer.

mamoworld Möhl

Thanks for reporting this, Daan!
Could you please open a support ticket and send me the project file that doesn't export properly? I just need the aep, no footage.
https://aescripts.com/contact/
Or does it work again if you open the project later without having ShapeRepeaterBaker open?

Cheers,
Mathias

mamoworld Möhl

No need for the support ticket anymore.
I just looked into ShapeRepeaterBaker and it modifies the basic Object type of Javascript. This manipulation is something Text2Spreadsheet is not prepared for.
I will see what I can do...

Thanks again for reporting the issue.

Daan Dirk de Jonge

Having scripts that interfere, is a result of me dressing up AE like a Christmas tree.
I will probably only use these scripts occasionally, so I'm not in a hurry for a fix.
I just turned off ShapeRepeaterBaker.

mamoworld Möhl

Just released version 1.001 which fixes the incompatibility with ShapeRepeaterBaker and probably also some other scripts.

Charles Ray

I was testing the script and found that it looses the paragraph formatting such as centering when the text is changed.  I didn't check any other paragraph formatting besides the centering.  I'm using the latest version of AE.  Looks like a useful tool.  Thanks. 

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Charles,

normally the formatting should be preserved, but if individual parts of a
text have separate formatting (say just a few words have a specific
color or are aligned differently) this individual formatting will be
lost.

Steve Blacker

Trying out trial and I'm getting an error message:  "Function bM.get is undefined".  Any clues as to what might be happening?  Thanks.

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Steve,

thanks a lot for reporting this issue. You are the first one reporting it, but I am very interested in finding the issue and making Text2Spreadsheet more robust.
Can you explain what steps you do exactly before you get the error message?
Best open a support ticket here:
https://aescripts.com/contact
and if possible also attach your AE project file (no footage needed, just the aep)
The more infos I have, the quicker I will be able to help.

Cheers,
Mathias

Jared Flynn

Hallo folks!

In case it's helpful, I just found what I believe to be a solution to the "Function bM.get is undefined" error.  I was receiving the same thing myself, and found that some of the line items in my Translated Text column were blank-- the expected result would be that these lines are simply skipped and left as-is on import, but once I copied the original data into these blank spaces, the spreadsheet imported as expected.

I hope that helps!

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Jared,
thank you for this feedback, this is in deed very interesting!
I have to think about what is the best way to deal with empty cells. Empty cell could mean "don't change this text" as you suggest or "set this text to be the empty string". Not sure what makes sense in most situations or feels natural for people.

Cheers,
Mathias

Cristian Koch

Mathias, am working now with your script, and just wanted to tell you that you a fuckin genius!, thanks for the great tool!

mamoworld Möhl

Thank you, Cristian :-)

Tobias Steiner

Mathius this look like a great tool!  Any chance you will add support for timecode entries in the spreadsheet so that the text layers will line up to specific timecodes?  We have projects that have a large volume of text layers for long videos.  This tool is almost perfect but our process also includes specific indication of timecodes where text is to appear.

Ideally what would really be helpful is to be able to import a spreadsheet that has Id, Text, Timecode start, and duration.  Then be able to modify from there as your script presently does.

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Tobias,
thank you for sharing your idea! To be honest, this sounds like a feature that only very few people will need, so it is unlikely that I will add it. But I am always happy about any feedback, so thank you for sharing :-)

Cheers,
Mathias

Tom Ireland

Hello,

Im running AE CC14 on Mac osx 10.10 with Text2spreadsheets 1.0004 .  I keep getting an error on opening the xml file in Excel "Problems came up in the following areas during load: Workbook Setting."

Tom Ireland

The only thing theat may be throwing your script is there are carriage returns in some cells

Tom Ireland

I had to come out as csv in to Numbers(Mac) then save as excel .xlsx then open in excel erase an extra header row ,then output xml, then back into AE. In case anybody else runs into this, im pretty sure its the carriage return in a cell thats throwing the xml error, csv can handle it I guess.

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Tom,
in principle, carriage returns are supported by Text2Spreadsheet. Could you maybe send me your xlsx file and also your Ae project (no footage necessary, the bare project file is fine)? Then I can check what is going on. Best open a support ticket here and attach the files
https://aescripts.com/contact/

Cheers,
Mathias

Filip Tarczewski

Hi Mathias.

This looks like a great script, almost perfect for my needs. Just a question / suggestion.

Imagine layers got assigned 2 sets of IDs instead of one - ID1 for Row, ID2 for Column, and you could assign / modify them manually in AE for selected layers. That way you could duplicate language1 layers, the duplicates would inherit ID1 and ID2, and then you'd change their ID2 to 2 to another switch language to Column2.

Is that something that could be easily done and you'd be interested in doing? It would make Text2Spreadsheet the perfect tool for me. I need to have multiple language versions in the same AEP, or things get messy pretty quickly. I'd be willing to pay double for such functionality.

Cheers,

Filip

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Filip,

I think this would make Text2Spreadsheet a bit too complicated for the average user.

Here is what you can do to have several language versions in one aep:

Structure your project such that each language has its own folder (containing duplicates of the original comps that should later contain the respective language). Then select one language folder and in Text2Spreadsheet in the import tab use the function "for SELECTED FOLDER load spreadsheet" (instead of "for entire project load spreadsheet"). This will only update the texts inside the comps of the respective folder (and its subfolders). This way you have have different folders with different languages.

Cheers,

Mathias

Filip Tarczewski said:

Hi Mathias.

This looks like a great script, almost perfect for my needs. Just a question / suggestion.

Imagine layers got assigned 2 sets of IDs instead of one - ID1 for Row, ID2 for Column, and you could assign / modify them manually in AE for selected layers. That way you could duplicate language1 layers, the duplicates would inherit ID1 and ID2, and then you'd change their ID2 to 2 to another switch language to Column2.

Is that something that could be easily done and you'd be interested in doing? It would make Text2Spreadsheet the perfect tool for me. I need to have multiple language versions in the same AEP, or things get messy pretty quickly. I'd be willing to pay double for such functionality.

Cheers,

Filip

Filip Tarczewski

Hi Mathias,

thank you for proposing a solution, I'll try it out.

As for the difficulty for the average user, perhaps I made it sound more complicated than it needed to be. I think for the end user it could be one button - choose language for selected layers. Anyway, great script.

Cheers,

Filip

Thomas Fenkart

We're trying to export a text - but the ID just says: #XMLTextIds:[NaN]


The spreadsheet looks like this:

"ID";"original text"

"NaN";"Tips"

"NaN";"Together with the Twister you can clean even hard-to-reach areas fast and simple."

"NaN";"CAUTION  If window panes are very dusty, pre-clean them with plenty of water."

"NaN";"Step 9"

"NaN";"DRAW OFF"

"NaN";"Draw off the water without pressure."

The script settings are:
- select Folder
- show options
- replace (ID)

Any idea?

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Thomas,
this is strange, I never had a support case so far with NaN IDs.
Could you please open a support ticket at
https://aescripts.com/contact/
and attach the project file? (just the aep file without footage is good enough)

The more details I know, the better and quicker I will be able to help.

Cheers,
Mathias

Caitlin O'Rorke

Hi!

This is such a great tool, really happy I found it.

I'd like to know if you've thought about the option of detecting bold, Italic, or even different colors from the .xml text.

Cheers, 

Caitlin

mamoworld Möhl

Thank you for this suggestion, Caitlin,
unfortunately, the support of the scripting API of After Effects is very limited for those properties. I could, for example, set a text color, but only one for the entire text and not for individual characters. If future versions of Ae get more flexible in that respect, I might consider to add such a feature to Text2Spreadsheet.

Austyn Farrell

Hey,

I was wondering if Text2Spreadsheet will work with Google Spreadsheets? I found an app that allows me to export .xml files from Google Spreadsheets, i'm just not sure that it will work.

Thank you

mamoworld Möhl

As far as I know, Google Spreadsheets does not support Excel XML. You can import Text2Spreadsheet data to Google Spreadsheets by
1) exporting with Text2Spreadsheet to csv file
2) in Google docs choose file->import (not file->open!) and then choose the file and in the import options enter a ; symbol as custom separator symbol (since Text2Spreadsheet uses ; instead of , to support Apple Numbers app)
see https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/docs/g2nacXlIuI4/HHC2SqKYzhwJ


For the export of the data from Google docs again, the problem is that Google docs neither support export to Excel XML, nor to CSV files with ; as separator symbol (it always uses , as separator when exporting).
If you found an app that can do that, it should work as long as the produced XML is Excel XML. Alternatively I would try to export CSV from google and then find some kind of converter that can convert csv with , as separator to csv with ; as separator.

I notice that this is not ideal. In the long term I should extend Text2Spreadsheet to support both , and ; as separator symbol.

Please experiment with the trial version before buying.

Cheers,
Mathias

Austyn Farrell said:

Hey,

I was wondering if Text2Spreadsheet will work with Google Spreadsheets? I found an app that allows me to export .xml files from Google Spreadsheets, i'm just not sure that it will work.

Thank you

Caitlin O'Rorke

Hello!

I was wondering if I can execute the script on command line with Mac?

Many thanks!
Caitlin

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Caitlin,
no, currently Text2Spreadsheet does not offer an API to be remote-executed by other scripts.

Cheers,
Mathias

Oliver Abegg

Hi Mathias,

I currently used your script Text2Spreadsheet for my actual project. 

Unfortunally if I open the XML in Excel an alert says: Error: Arbeitsmappeneinstellungen (Workbook Settings) and then during saving process it crashes.

Is there anything that I can do? 

Best,

Oliver

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Oliver,
I have never heard of such an issue. Does it work if you export as csv?
Alternatively can you please open a support ticket here and attach the xml file?
https://aescripts.com/contact/
The more details we know (OS, Excel version, screenshot of the error message) the quicker and better I am able to help.

Cheers,
Mathias

Sam Doughty

Oliver Abegg said:

Hi Mathias,

I currently used your script Text2Spreadsheet for my actual project. 

Unfortunally if I open the XML in Excel an alert says: Error: Arbeitsmappeneinstellungen (Workbook Settings) and then during saving process it crashes.

Is there anything that I can do? 

Best,

Oliver

This exact thing is happening to me and I can't figure out what it could be

mamoworld Möhl

@Sam: Does it work if you export as csv instead of xml? Does it only happen for one specific Ae project or always? Maybe only when the text that is exported contains some specific symbols or so? The more details I know, the better I am able to help.
Best let me know all details in a support ticket:
https://aescripts.com/contact/

luke bosshard

Hi! 

Text2Spreadsheet has been saving my life for the last 6 months. I'm moving to more and more complex spreadsheets now, and it would be very useful if i could use different names for the variables on the ID column instead of just numbers. Is there any way i can do that?

thanks

Luke.

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Luke,

Text2Spreadsheet will always just generate numbers as IDs. For each exported text layer,  Text2Spreadsheet stores its ID in the layer comment field. So you could try to replace the IDs there manually by texts and then export to spreadsheet again (make sure to choose the option to reexport all entries, not just new ones). But I am not 100% sure whether this will break anything, since I never tested it.

luke bosshard said:

Hi! 

Text2Spreadsheet has been saving my life for the last 6 months. I'm moving to more and more complex spreadsheets now, and it would be very useful if i could use different names for the variables on the ID column instead of just numbers. Is there any way i can do that?

thanks

Luke.

Vasily Burnashev

Hi!

It would be great if the text layers were duplicated in the project. Then you would not have to change the text position again.

mamoworld Möhl

Thank you for this suggestion, Vasily. I will put it on my list of feature requests!

Vasily Burnashev said:

Hi!

It would be great if the text layers were duplicated in the project. Then you would not have to change the text position again.

Kevin O'Nearth

Hi,

I have a dense Premiere Pro project with text layers in various sequences & was wondering if Text2Spreadsheet works with PP or if there is a different solution?

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Kevin,

Text2Spreadsheet only works with After Effects. Unfortunately I am not aware of something similar for Premiere Pro.

Kevin O'Nearth said:

Hi,

I have a dense Premiere Pro project with text layers in various sequences & was wondering if Text2Spreadsheet works with PP or if there is a different solution?

Rodrigo Eller

Hi There!

Thanks for this awesome script.

I'm having some trouble here... When I try to import a new sheet with a lot of columns, I'm not able to scroll them down, to look for the one I need.

Could you add a scroll feature or divide the window into columns, so we can properly choose the option I need?

You can see the issue I'm trying to describe in the following link: https://imgur.com/a/qvC7kaE

I'm pretty sure that this is an easy fix for you. 

Thank you very much. 

mamoworld Möhl

Thank you for pointing me to this issue, Rodrigo. I was not aware of it (and didn't expect anyone to use spreadsheets with so many columns). Actually, inserting scrollbars is surprisingly difficult in ExtendScript, but I will see what I can do.

Cheers,

Mathias

Mark Donohoe

Hi There,
Quick question, how does the script orgainse the data in the spreadsheet, Ive tested on a project and was hoping the text in the xml would be listed in order of it appearing in the project, but it seems to generate randomly, for example "Work Situation" is the first piece of text in my project timeline, however:

https://i.imgur.com/BFFBdXE.png
However in the xml file it is near the bottom
https://i.imgur.com/8hTV8nn.png

Is there a way i need to organise my layers for them to be listed in timeline order in the xml file?

Thanks

mark

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Mark,

Text2Spreadsheet iterates over all folders of your project and processes each comp it finds.

Inside each comp it processes the layers from top to bottom. So if all texts are inside a single comp, you need to arrange them such that the ones you want to have at the top of the spreadsheet are at the top of the layer stack in the composition. If they are spread over several comps, there is no easy way to enforce a certain order.

You can also be able to swap the columns in your spreadsheet application however you want. So if you want "Work Situation" to be at the top, you can move it to the top, as long as you move its ID 17 with it.

Cheers,

Mathias

mamoworld Möhl

I just released a new version 1.007 which fixes this issue and shows a scrollbar if there are more than 15 entries to choose from

Rodrigo Eller said:

Hi There!

Thanks for this awesome script.

I'm having some trouble here... When I try to import a new sheet with a lot of columns, I'm not able to scroll them down, to look for the one I need.

Could you add a scroll feature or divide the window into columns, so we can properly choose the option I need?

You can see the issue I'm trying to describe in the following link: https://imgur.com/a/qvC7kaE

I'm pretty sure that this is an easy fix for you. 

Thank you very much. 

Conor Beattie

Hi,

I've been using the trial version to test it out before purchasing. 

 

Replacing text via a spreadsheet is great, but I'm also hoping to replace images with the same script. I essentially have a composition that has 50 text layers & 50 image layers that I'd like replacing using one bulk action via a spreadsheet. 

Let me know if there's a workaround here or if you are planning on implementing this in the future.

Thanks!

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Conor,

Text2Spreadsheet only focuses on text. If you want to do more complex manipulations of the comps, see tools like CompsFromSpreadsheet or Templates. For more details on your options see section "Is Text2Spreadsheet the right tool for me" on the product page of Text2Spreadsheet.

Conor Beattie said:

Hi,

I've been using the trial version to test it out before purchasing. 

 

Replacing text via a spreadsheet is great, but I'm also hoping to replace images with the same script. I essentially have a composition that has 50 text layers & 50 image layers that I'd like replacing using one bulk action via a spreadsheet. 

Let me know if there's a workaround here or if you are planning on implementing this in the future.

Thanks!

Dorian Williams

Hi,

I've been using the full version and it's working great.

Our only problem is that some words feature as bold within our After Effects project.

Is there are work around that exports these individual bold words that occur in our AE project into our spreadsheet ready for re-importing with the same format?

Thanks

mamoworld Möhl

Hi Dorian,

unfortunately, the Ae scripting interface does not provide scripts information about the formatting of individual words or characters. If scripts "look at" a text, they only see the style of the very first character and there is no way for them to know if other parts of the text have a different color, font, are bold etc.

We would love to support that, but we can only do it if Adobe changes their API.

I just created a user voice request about this. Please vote for it - the more people vote, the more likely Adobe is going to add this:

https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/37888861-scripting-access-to-text-properties-of-individual

Dorian Williams said:

Hi,

I've been using the full version and it's working great.

Our only problem is that some words feature as bold within our After Effects project.

Is there are work around that exports these individual bold words that occur in our AE project into our spreadsheet ready for re-importing with the same format?

Thanks

Lukas Thorsson

It may have been adressed before: The script doesn't seem to take Texts from Essential Graphics Panel. Iam working on complex projects and have my Textinserts programmed as on Essential Graphics Template. I hoped that I could extract all texts with that script, but I only got the few texts that I had as normal text layers. Great Script and one great idea! But not for my use case (if im not missing something completely).