Layers

Introduction

When I started to develop and use this script, I found it a pain to create the calendar, type in one cell, tab to the next and promptly delete the date by typing over it. My solution was to generate the calendar as multiple super-imposed tables putting each on their own layer. This turned out to be a rather useful technique and I applied it for several more features.

The calendar currently supports up to 6 layers positioned in the following order:

• calendarText
• calendarHolidays
• calendarDates
• calendarMoons
• calendarPictures
• calendarBackground

By default, only the text layer is selected. If the calendarDates is not selected, the script will place the date table on the current layer (usually Layer 1) and stack the layers such that the current layer is at the same place as the calendarDates layer above.

In general the multi-layer scheme works really well; however, there is a complication. If you want to resize any of the cells in the calendar or the calendar itself, all three associated tables need identical modifications. This is rather painful to do manually. The solution to theseproblems are with two additional scripts included with the calendarWizard download: fitCalendarToFrame.js and realignCalendarTables.js.

Layer Descriptions

• Add Text Layer
  • When checked, the calendarText superimposed table and layer will be created. The calendarText table inherits from cal_baseNoEdges cell style and is designed to be a transparent table. The purpose it to provide a place for any arbitrary text to be added into the cell without disturbing the date, holidays, moons, etc. It is the the top layer so that no text will be hidden by information on other layers. See Tutorial 6: Calendar with Text.
• Add Holidays Layer
  • When checked, the calendarHolidays superimposed table and layer will be created. The calendarHolidays table inherits from cal_baseNoEdges cell style and is designed to be a transparent table. Any seleced holdays will be added entered into the appropriate cell of the holidays table. The holidays table and layer will be automaticaly generated if any of the holiday sets are selected. See Tutorial 7: Calendar with Holidays.
• Use Calendar Layer
  • If the "Use Calendar Layer" is selected, the table with the dates will be placed on a new layer called calendarDates; otherwise, the current layer (usually "Layer 1") will be used. The calendarDates tables inherits from the cal_base cell style. It is designed to be the layer/table that controls the stroke for the calendar.
• Add Moon Phases
  • When checked, the calendarMoons superimposed table and layer will be created. The calendarMoons table inherits from cal_baseNoEdges and is designed to be a transparent table. It will be created with the cal_moonText and cal_moonTitle cell and paragraphs styles applied. The new, full, half waxing, and half waning moons will be placed in the appropriate cell. The full moon will be a solid circle, the new moon a circle with no fill. See Tutorial 8: Calendar with Moons.
  • I don't completely trust the algorithm used to compute the phase of the moon, so use with caution.
• Add Picture Layer
  • When checked, the calendarPictures superimposed table and layer will be created. The calendarPictures table inherits from cal_baseNoEdges and is designed to be a transparent table.The picture cell and paragraphs styles will be applied. Each cell of the table contains an empty rectangular frame into which a picture may be placed. See Tutorial 9: Calendar with Pictures.
• Add Background Layer
  • When checked, the calendarBackground superimposed table and layer will be created. The calendarPictures table inherits from cal_baseNoEdges and is designed to have a transparent stroke, but provide solid background color for the calendar. The background is linked to the cal_background color swatch. See Tutorial 10: Styled 12 Month Calendar.

Aligning Scripts

fitCalendarToFrame.js

fitCalendarToFrame is another javascript which is used to resize all layers of the calendar with even cell spacing into the selected text frame. If the work week is included, it will be given a 0.25" cell width.

caution: The adobe script engine fails to work on cells that are not visible. This can be quite a pain when tring to reduce the size of the calendar. Sometimes it works to run the script several times because as cells in the top are reduced, cells in the bottom become visible.

When executed with a calendar table selected, it becomes the master. All of the layers of the calendar will be adjusted to the selected table. If no frame is selected, a dialog box is brought up and the user needs to specifiy which calendar and frame will be the master. Under the hood, each calendar table has a label such as calendarDates1, calendarHolidays1, and calendarText1. The number is the id of the calendar. So a page with four calendars will have calendarDates1, calendarDates2, , calendarDates3, and calendarDates4. To figure out which calendar has which label, select it and open up the "Scripts Labels" pallete. As an options, all may be selected in which case every calendar in the document will be adjusted. See Tutorial 11: Multi-Styled 12 Month Calendar

realignCalendarTables.js

realignCalendarTablse.js is another javascript which is used to align all of the calendar layers to a particular one. For example, if un-even column spacing is desired one layer can be tweeked into place and this script would push the other layers into an exact super-position of the tweeked table. The rules for selecting the table are the same as for the fitCalendarToFrame.js script.

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