Soldier Ant 

A long while back, I started noodling around with Applescript and Adobe Illustrator. At that time, I promised to share any progress I'd made, and make some scripts available once I had something worth sharing. Well, it's been a slow year...

But the long dry spell is over. If you make frequent use of Illustrator's File > Place... command, then you're probably aware of one of its biggest limitations: it will only place one external image file at a time.

At work, I use this command all the time, to place tens and dozens of screen-captures or Photoshop mockups into detailed user-flow diagrams that we produce for the products we build. Placing these images, one-by-one, is a miserable time-sink. Hence, my desire to have something like Multi-Placer.

Multi-Placer, v.0.5 Multi-Placer enhances Adobe Illustrator's 'Place' command. It allows you to select an entire directory full of external images. MP will then create a new blank document in Illustrator and import all the images. Finally, on a new layer, the script draws a 1-pixel wide black stroke around each embedded image. Download Multi-Placer v0.5 Now Multi-Placer is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

This bears investigation. Hot Door makes plugins and symbols for Adobe Illustrator.

Here are some free icons. I've probably re-created several dozen generic 'user' and 'user group' icons for various maps, screens, etc. over the years. I thought I'd store a reference one on Soldier Ant, and there's no reason the Web shouldn't benefit...

Download Illustrator format
Download PDF

(And if you don't like the hokey jelley effect, then just blow away all the opacity masks and use the general shapes.)