[CS3 VB] Launching/activating InDesign from third program

Question

I need to activate (and if it is not running) start InDesign from another program - on Windows. Then InDesign should load some file. On the Mac I would call an AppleScript. I thought it should be possible with VB but I am not able to make it work. I tried this. (After this I would call JS to do the real work.)
Set myInDesign = CreateObject("InDesign.Application.CS3")
myInDesign.Activate
What is the correct approach?
Thank you,
Ralf

Answer 1

Hi Ralf
Sorry that I was not more specific.
I use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 to control InDesign.
Visual Studio contains C++, C# and Visual Basic and all 3 languages can be used to gain full control over InDesign.
I do not use scripts (although it is also possible to send a script to InDesign and execute it).
I communicate directly with InDesign from my code.
The code I use look a lot like scripting but there are slight differences in syntax.
In general the following applies:
Visual Basic code looks like VBScript
C++ code looks like JavaScript
C# code looks like JavaScript
Using any of the 3 languages gives me the advantage, that I can single step on line at a time, and inspect what happens in InDesign.
So to answer your question about the COM reference: Adding a reference to the InDesign COM object is a Visual Studio thing, so it only makes sense when you use this application.
Best regards,
Bo