Duplicate swatch problem.

Question

I work for a publishing company and we are running on Indesign CS. We print from Indesign and use Separations to make plates for our press. We print in red and blue ink, so we make red and blue plates.
Our problem is that we keep getting Blue 2, Blue 3, etc. swatches added to the swatch palette. We don't know what is causing this problem because the CMYK value for the Blue 2 is the exact same as the Blue we print from.
We use Ink Manager to make an alias as a work around, but we really want to know what causes these multiple instance of Blue to occur.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I believe this JavaScript will work with CS. I use it often to merge down these kinds of duplicate swatches. I know for sure it works in CS2 and CS3.
//DESCRIPTION: Merge Down Swatch Dupes
    ©Copyright 2006 PDS Associates
    This script must not be distributed without first obtaining written permission of:
    Dave Saunders, proprietor
    PDS Associates
    P.O. Box 127
    Allenhurst, NJ 07711-0127
    e-mail: [email protected]
// Merges down duplicate swatches in either the active document
// or the application defaults.
if (app.documents.length > 0) {
  myTarg = app.activeDocument;
} else {
  myTarg = app;
var mySwatches = myTarg.swatches;
var myNames = mySwatches.everyItem().name;
myNames.sort();
for (var j = myNames.length - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
  myParts = myNames[j].split(" ");
  if (myParts.length == 1) { continue }
  lastPart = myParts.pop();
  if ((isNaN(lastPart)) && (lastPart != "copy")) { continue }
  var mySwatch = myTarg.swatches.item(myParts.join(" "));
  if (mySwatch == null) { continue }
  mySwatches.item(myNames[j]).remove(mySwatch);
  Discussion: there are two sources of duplicate swatches and two naming schemes.
  If you bring into a document an item that uses named swatches that are present in
  the document but with different definitions, new swatches are created with names
  based on the original names with numbers appended after a space. This can result
  in very large numbers of swatches being created (I personally experienced a situation
  where importing a table resulted in over 8,500 swatches).
  However, you can also load swatches from a .ase file or another InDesign document.
  Swatches with conflicting names from the former are added with " copy" appended to
  their names. If that name already exists, a number is also added.
  This version of the script merges down either kind of duplicate to the original base
  swatch (that is, the one with the base name in the original document).
To use the script in CS, copy and paste to a text editor and save as a plain text file with an appropriate name in the form YourName.js in the Scripts folder of the Presets folder of your InDesign CS folder (you could put it in a subfolder if you wish). Then to run the script, double-click its name in the Scripts palette.
Dave