AI for InDesign that works inside your document.
Sekondo connects Claude or ChatGPT to InDesign. You tell it what you need and your assistant works on your document, with your styles and your layout. Everything stays editable.
What Sekondo does in InDesign.
It learns from you, and this is just a sample. If InDesign can do it, Sekondo does it.
- Builds frames with flexible layout, which place themselves in a row or a column with the spacing you tell it.
- Repairs inherited documents: recovers broken links, merges duplicate swatches and sorts objects into layers.
- Rebuilds the styles of a document that arrived without them: creates the paragraph and character styles, groups them with clear names and applies them without moving anything out of place.
- Creates and organises the document’s colour swatches.
- Translates the whole document frame by frame - master pages, headlines, body and captions - and the tables cell by cell, each text keeping its style.
- Where the text grows, it reflows the column, and if something overflows, it fixes it.
- Changes a piece of text across the whole document without losing the formatting, even in paragraphs that mix bold and light.
- Rebuilds price tables from a spreadsheet, with the new rows.
- Normalises tables pasted from Excel.
- Replaces the logo throughout the publication - master pages, back cover and every slot, scaled without distortion and in the colour each background calls for.
- Lightens heavy documents by turning the most complex vector illustrations into images, each in its place, with its crop and its layer.
- Refits the document to another format.
- Builds custom layouts: text frames, image frames, threaded stories, baseline grid and master pages.
- Checks the typography: optical margins, rivers, widows and orphans, and hyphens that stack up at the ends of lines.
- Measures with each font’s real metrics, so spacing and type sizes add up.
- Prepares templates with placeholders and generates pages from data.
- Creates and applies table and cell styles.
- Writes and applies GREP searches, from the simplest to the most complicated.
- Corrects the spelling and grammar of a text.
- Reviews the alt text of every image in the document.
- Checks on the page that nothing collides: captions, images and margins.
- Renames the linked files on your disk and updates the document’s links, if you ask it to.
- Saves a command that works so you can repeat it whenever you like.
- Converts a PDF into an editable InDesign document.
- Exports to PDF, JPEG, PNG or IDML.
How to brief it.
Like someone who just walked into the studio: it knows InDesign and knows nothing about your client. You tell it which document, what you want and the judgement to apply. Before touching anything it reads the whole thing, and when it is done it tells you what has changed. Each command is a single step in the history: if you do not like it, Cmd+Z and it is back as it was.
It works on your computer, with your Claude or your ChatGPT. The file never leaves your machine.
InDesign tasks Sekondo solves, step by step.
How do I translate an InDesign brochure without breaking the layout?
With Sekondo it is done frame by frame, without leaving InDesign: it translates the whole document (parent pages, headlines, body text and captions) and the tables cell by cell, each text with its style. Where the text grows, it reflows the column, and if something overflows, it fixes it. The language changes; the layout, the styles and the colors don’t.
How to ask: “In Brochure.indd, translate everything into English keeping the styles. When a text doesn’t fit, adjust the column and tell me which frames you touched.”
By hand, so you know what to expect: translated text usually leaves some overset frames; check them with InDesign’s Preflight before delivering.
How do I fix an InDesign document that arrives with broken links and no styles?
Sekondo repairs inherited documents: it relinks broken links, merges duplicated swatches and sorts objects into layers. If the document arrived without styles, it creates the paragraph and character styles, groups them with clear names and applies them without moving anything.
How to ask: “In Catalogue.indd, relink the broken links, merge the duplicated swatches and create the paragraph and character styles. Don’t move anything.”
By hand: the Links panel to relink them one by one; Paragraph Styles to create and assign them. That is what Sekondo does in one go when there are many.
How do I change a piece of text across the whole document without losing the formatting?
Sekondo changes a piece of text across the whole document without losing the formatting, including paragraphs that mix bold and light. If needed, it replaces the logo throughout the publication (parent pages, back cover and every slot), scaled without distortion and in the color each background calls for.
How to ask: “In Manual.indd, change ‘Version 2’ to ‘Version 3’ throughout the document and keep the formatting of each run.”
How do I clean up an InDesign table pasted from Excel?
Sekondo normalizes tables pasted from Excel and rebuilds price tables from a spreadsheet, with the new rows. It also creates and applies table and cell styles.
How to ask: “In Prices.indd, normalize the tables pasted from Excel and apply table and cell styles to them.”
Each order is a single step in the history: if you don’t like it, Cmd+Z and it’s back as it was. Works on your computer, with your Claude or your ChatGPT. The file never leaves your machine.
Frequently asked questions about Sekondo in InDesign.
Can the AI translate an InDesign document for me?
Yes. Your assistant, connected to InDesign with Sekondo, translates the whole document frame by frame, with the master pages, headlines, captions and tables. The layout, styles and colours stay as they are, and where the text grows the column is reflowed.
How to ask: “Translate Catalogue.indd into English without touching the layout.”
Can it fix a document with broken links?
Yes. It repairs inherited documents: it recovers broken links, merges duplicate master pages and sorts the objects into layers.
How to ask: “Fix the broken links in Magazine.indd and tell me which ones it could not find.”
Can it rebuild the styles of a file that arrives without them?
Yes. It rebuilds the paragraph and character styles from how the text is set, groups them with clear names and applies them.
How to ask: “Create the paragraph styles for this document and apply them.”
Can it change a text on every page without losing the formatting?
Yes. It replaces the text throughout the document and leaves the typeface, size and colour of every word untouched.
How to ask: “Change ‘Spring 2026’ to ‘Autumn 2026’ throughout the document.”
Can it fix a table pasted from Excel?
Yes. It normalizes it with table and cell styles, so they all end up the same.
How to ask: “Give all the tables in the document the same style as the first one.”
Can it turn a brochure into another format?
Yes. It refits it to another page size, repositioning the frames, texts and images.
How to ask: “Turn this brochure from A4 into a square format.”
Can it lay out with flexible layout?
Yes. It builds frames with flexible layout, which place themselves in a row or a column with the spacing you tell it.
How to ask: “Place these four photos in a row with 5 mm between them.”
Can it go over the typography before printing?
Yes. It checks margins, rivers, widows and orphans and the word breaks that pile up at the ends of lines, and corrects the spelling.
How to ask: “Go over the catalogue’s typography before sending it to the printer.”
Does it work with Claude and with ChatGPT?
With Claude and with ChatGPT, always in the desktop app. It is explained in the Docs.
Does my file get uploaded anywhere?
No. Sekondo does not store anything on any server: the bridge runs on your computer. What your assistant needs to read, such as text, measurements or a screenshot, goes only to it. Never the file.
You create.
Sekondo does the rest.
