Illustrator action to embed all external objects

Question

To embed all external objects in Illustrator I do this:

• Open the Links panel
• Select all the linked objects (select first, shift+clik on last)
• Select Embed object(s) from the dropdown menu in the panel

But when recording those actions (macro), they are not being saved.

Is there a way to automate this process? Script?

Answer 1

Embed is one of the commands you can't execute with an action (perhaps someone else can explain specifically why, I'm not sure).

You can do this with a really short script, here's an example of the code:

#target Illustrator

if ( app.documents.length > 0 ) {
    while ( app.activeDocument.placedItems.length > 0 ) {
        placedArt = app.activeDocument.placedItems[0];
        placedArt.embed();
    }
}

Save this as a plain text file with the extension .jsx into this folder : "[install directory]Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CC 2015\Presets\en_US\Scripts", restart Illustrator and run the script from File->Scripts.

Answer 2

(Illustrator) To play a set of actions, select the set name, and click the Play button in the Actions panel, or choose Play from the panel menu.

To play an entire single action, select the action name, and click the Play button in the Actions panel, or choose Play from the panel menu.

If you assigned a key combination to the action, press that combination to play the action automatically.

To play only a part of an action, select the command from which you want to start playing, and click the Play button in the Actions panel, or choose Play from the panel menu.

To play a single command, select the command, and then Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the Play button in the Actions panel. You can also press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and double-click the command.