Moving items from a template file to active document

Question

Hello Everyone,
What I am currently doing is I will leave a template file open and I will have to go to that file really quick and copy what I have selected in that file, go back to the file I am currently working on, then I will use an action that will paste it in the correct place. I was wondering if a script could copy what I have selected in my template file and paste it into my active file so I won't even have to leave my active file. Here is what I have so far.
var template = app.documents.getByName ("sig.ai");
var tempSelected = template.selection;
var docRef = app.activeDocument;
if ( tempSelected.length > 0 ) {
for ( i = 0; i < tempSelected.length; i++ ) {
newItem = tempSelected[i].duplicate( docRef,
ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND );
else {
alert( "Please select one or more art objects in your temp file" );
It is not working, I just get the alert message, unless my template is my active file too, which does me no good. Not sure if this is possible to do I have trouble finding scripts that involve files other than the active file so I am not sure what all is capable. Thanks for taking the time to look at this for me I really appreciate it. I tried messing around with placing files but it is not editable enough for me to use.

Answer 1

Hi djbgraphicdesign,
please try this:
if (documents.length == 2) {
    // your template should be the active document and one item should be selected (as minimum)
    // a second document should be opened in the "background"
    var template = app.activeDocument;
    var tempSelected = template.selection;
    var anotherDoc = app.documents[1];
    if ( tempSelected.length > 0 ) {
        for ( i = 0; i < tempSelected.length; i++ ) {
            newItem = tempSelected[i].duplicate( anotherDoc, ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND );
        alert (i + " items duplicated");
        //app.activeDocument = anotherDoc;
        } else {
            alert( "Please select one or more art objects in your temp file" );
Have fun