An Introduction to Selection

Typically, objects are selected in a flow by giving the objects a name in the Fuga Object panel, and then using the Select action to select them.

Selection Basics

Fuga knows which action to perform on which object based on what’s selected. Although you can select objects manually before you run the Flow, typically you’ll want to use the Select action. This way you don’t have to remember to select the object you want to perform the flow on each time it runs, and you can change what’s selected while the flow is running.

Naming

Typically you tell Fuga which object or objects to select based on their name. The ability to name objects is a feature that Fuga introduced to InDesign. Objects that are in the layout prior to when the flow runs you normally want to name using the Object panel, and objects that are created in the flow through the Duplicate action can be renamed using the action’s parameters. You can also rename an object in the flow using the Rename action.

What Are Acceptable Object Names?

Object names can be upper or lowercase letters and numbers. They can include an underscore, but no other symbols or characters. Examples of object names:

• MyObject
• my_object
• box1
• Grid1Box10
• 1001023

Can two objects have the same name?

Normal objects and groups can have the same name, however Super Groups can’t.

How to Name an Object in the Fuga Object Panel

To name an object in the Fuga Object panel:

1. Go to Window>Fuga Object to open the Fuga Object panel if it isn’t already.
2. Make sure the object to name is selected (multiple objects can be selected at once if you wish to give them all the same name).
3. Enter the name in the top of the Fuga Object panel, without quotes (you have to enter the object name with quotes when you’re using it in the Select action).

Selection Specifics

The Select Action

The Select action has a large variety of parameters, which allow you to be very specific or flexible in your selection. For example, you can select all the actions who have a certain word in their name, or you can select only objects from a certain layer, only objects of a certain type, or only objects from a certain parent. You can also add or subtract from what’s already selected. To get to know the Select Action better, explore the action itself by clicking on it in the Fuga Workshop panel, or for an in depth outline of all the Select Action’s options see the Action Reference article on the Select Action.

How Do I Use The Select Action?

To use the Select Action to select an object directly by name:

1. In the Fuga Workshop panel:
   1. Select the Object Actions Category, and select the Select Action from the top of the action’s toolbox.
   2. Insert the name of the object you would like to select. The object name needs to have quotes around it, unless the object name is stored within a variable, in which case the variable name is typed without quotes.

When do Selections Change?

There are a few actions, besides the Select action, that change what’s selected, the main ones are:

• The Duplicate Action, which selects the new object created.
• The Loop Action with the Selected Objects option, which takes all the objects selected, and selects them each one at a time.
• The Delete Action, which removes objects from the document, thus deselecting them.
• The Restore Selection Action, which will deselect everything and attempt to restore the selection saved using the Save Selection Action.

Saving and Restoring a Selection

During the flow, you can tell Fuga to remember what’s selected, select different objects, then tell Fuga to restore the saved selection later on in the flow. To do this use the Save Selection and Restore Selection actions which are located under the Flow actions category. When you restore a selection, Fuga will deselect everything and reselect all objects from the original selection that are still in existence. Fuga will select the objects based on their names, so if their names change Fuga won’t be able to find them.

Where Can I Select From in my Document?

You can only select objects on the current spread, which includes the pasteboard (i.e., the area around the pages), and you can tell Fuga to select only from the active page as well. Fuga forgets your selection when you switch spreads, just like InDesign does when you’re working with it normally.

Naming Specifics

Renaming Options

When you use the Rename or Duplicate actions, the renaming options that appear give you quite a bit of control over how you can rename objects. For example, you can use the Add Suffix option to add text to the end of the name, or you can use the Replace option to replace a piece of text in the name with something else. For more information on each option, see the Duplicate Action or the Rename Action in the Action Reference.

Naming Conventions

Ultimately, the way you name objects are up to you, as long as you know what the names mean and are consistent in them. Here are some of the common naming conventions though. These are mostly for inspiration, but if Flow designers can become consistent with these names it can also make developing flows between different designers easier, since it’ll be easier to determine the function of each object.

• Pos – Stands for position. When laying out a grid with objects through a flow, each object inside the grid is commonly named Pos1, Pos2, Pos3, and so on.
• Grid – Each grid is also normally given its own name, Grid1, Grid2, etc.
• Ad – An advertisement box that contains an individual advertisement, normally relating to a single row from a CSV. Ads are commonly aligned to a Pos object. An Ad object will  commonly be named with an object’s UPC or other descriptive information (see below).
• AdType – The object that contains the general layout/look and feel for the advertising box, which is duplicated and renamed as Ad and the content for the ad is loaded into.  You might have AdTypeA, AdTypeB, etc., or AdTypePromo, AdTypeNormal.
• ImageFrame – A frame in an Ad that a product image will be loaded into. There might be multiple objects named ImageFrame in each Ad, since an ad may have multiple images.
• Logo – A logo in an Ad.

Descriptive Names

Often times you’ll want to give objects names that include descriptive information about the objects. This makes them easier to select later on. Individual frames within a Super Group or document should be either named or tagged with descriptive name For example, if you know that later you’ll need to select all ad Super Groups based on their advertisement type, you might give them names like Ad1TypeA, where the number after “Ad” is the advertisement number, and Type is the type of advertisement it is. You might also want to include a products unique product code (UPC) in its Super Group name for easy import from other documents using the Import Action. Once you have an understanding of variables and loops you can easily give objects names with incremental numbers and useful information through the flow using Expressions. Additionally, you should always name individual frames (inside Super Groups) consisitently, this way you can s