Convert to Editable Text

Technical Support
1

Hello!
I have a question about executing Convert to Editable Text.
I asked on Aescripts’ comment section earlier and it was great to get an fast answer and got this website,
thank you.

So… about Convert to Editable Text,
It was amazing that I’ve got JSON file that execute the function,
but the thing is that I’d like to make all the Photoshop Texts into AE texts by one click.
Sweeping the whole layers of the project. (Because the projects I’m working on these days have a lot of those and they all need to be converted.)

Is it possible?

Also the JSON file I’ve got do the job, but it doesn’t work when there’s a precomp in the composition I selected. Which happens exactly same when I select all the layers and convert them editable by my hands.

If I can do this specific function, it will save a lot of time for me. I really hope this was possible !

Thank you in advance. Hopefully this is possible!

2

Hi @YourSoju,
So it looks like that this option doesn’t work when selecting layers other than the photoshop .psd layers, if there are solids, lights, cameras or adjustment layers it won’t work.

The Solution: you need to select only all of the .psd layers (it will add 3 more lines).

  1. I did it by first deselect the layer (so if there is a layer that has already been selected it will be deselected).
  2. then I created an item variable for the source layer, it represent the project item that linked to the layer, similar to “Reveal Layer Source in Project” ui option.
  3. I asked if the “file extension” property of this “Layer Source” equal to “.psd”.
  4. if it is I set the selection for this layer to true, so it will be selected.
  5. then I run the menu command.

Download -
Convert to Editable Text 2.zip (1.2 KB)

I also created another variant that converts the layers in the inner precomps of this composition as well
download -
Convert to Editable Text 3.zip (1.4 KB)

Thanks for posting on this forum and please let me know if you have more questions,

Alon

3

Hello!
I also created an automation that should work for you.
My approach is a bit different that Alon’s, and I think it’ll a bit easier to explain.

The automation is divided to 3 parts (I gave each part a different color in the automation editor).

  1. It goes through your entire project and opens each composition (the composition has to be open in the composition panel in order to use menu commands).
  2. It deselects all the layers in the composition.
  3. It selects them again one by one (not all at the same time) and uses the “Convert to Editable Text” command. The command only affects the layers that can actually be converted so nothing happens to the other layers.

The reason you need to select the layers one by one is that After Effects won’t let you use the “Convert to Editable Text” command when multiple layers are selected and only some of the can be converted.

The downside of this automation is that it leaves all the compositions open in the composition panel. I don’t think there is a command to close them (maybe @alonshemer knows a way), but either way it’s a pretty small drawback and not a deal breaker imo.

Almost forgot to attach the file :sweat_smile::
Convert All to Editable Text.json (13.7 KB)

Hope it works.

4

This is the solution I was looking for !! The third one! Ooooh my god, thank you.
This will save a lot of time for me!!
After a while I executed the third Automation, even computer was slowing down because of all the compositions that were open :sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

Thank you!! I can also see various ways I can use very soon! This is truly amazing!!

1 Like
5

Hey! Thanks a lot!! The way you said in the post is exactly what I needed!
I couldn’t Add your JSON file to my Automation because of the version differences,
But damnn thanks!

I did it with Alon’s Automation and like you said, a bunch of compositions were open!
Hundreds I presume because it took a whi~le! haha
But closing it after it was done was not difficult because we can just right click and close them all anyways haha.

Automation is amazing, I can’t wait to understand well of it to play with this.

Thank you so much again !

6

I’m glad that Alon’s automation worked for you!
I converted the automation that I sent to version 2.0.0 so it’ll work for you.
It won’t be useful because you already found a solution, but feel free to download if you want to examine it. It might help you understand how to use Automation Toolkit better.

Convert All to Editable Text.json (13.7 KB)