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InDesign Scripting

caseyctg

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Search for string in paragraph and apply a new character style?

Jul 27, 2012 3:37 PM

Tags: #and #text #of #style #find_string #change_its_character

I'm searching for a way to find a specific string in a specific text frame and make it bold. so my thought was to search and then apply a character style from my template doc. I thought this would work, but I went wrong somewhere.

newDoc is my document.

//something like

var Bios = "Representative Biography:\r want to leave this text normal.";

var myTextFrameBios = newDoc.pages.item(i).textFrames.add({geometricBounds:[4.5277, 2.36, 8.625, 5.375], contents:Bios});

var myTextObjectBios = myTextFrameBios.parentStory.texts.item(0);

// IS THIS CONFLICTING with my change below? Can I apply a character style within a par styled frame?

myTextObjectBios.appliedParagraphStyle = newDoc.paragraphStyles.item("CompanyProfile");

//Clear the find/change preferences.

app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "Representative Biography:";

app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = "Representative Biography:";

app.findGrepPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = newDoc.characterStyles.item("BoldBioHead");

// Perform the operation

app.documents.item(0).changeGrep();

app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

606 Views 4 Replies Latest reply: caseyctg, Jul 31, 2012 6:54 AM

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1. caseyctg,

Jul 27, 2012 3:39 PM in reply to caseyctg

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also tried this with no luck

app.findGrepPreferences = null;
app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
                                                app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "Representative Biography:";
                                                //app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = "Representative Biography:";
                                                app.findGrepPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = app.activeDocument.characterStyles.item("BoldBioHead");
app.activeDocument.changeGrep();

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2. caseyctg,

Jul 27, 2012 4:05 PM in reply to caseyctg

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this worked!
app.findGrepPreferences = null;
app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "Representative Biography:";
app.changeTextPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = app.activeDocument.characterStyles.item("BoldBioHead");
newDoc.changeText();
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

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3. Laubender,

Jul 28, 2012 11:35 AM in reply to caseyctg

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@caseyctg – If you want to apply a character style to a text object in a specific text frame, you could restrict the scope of your script to that specific text frame:

Example with the variable "myTextFrame" you have to define before:

myTextFrame.changeText();

Btw.: you are doing a text search and clearing your GREP find/change preferences at the start of the snippet? Why is that?

You could do a:

app.changeTextPreferences = app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

or:

app.changeTextPreferences = app.findTextPreferences = null;

set before the search and after the change, if you want to be on the safe side…

Uwe

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4. caseyctg,

Jul 31, 2012 6:54 AM in reply to Laubender

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Thanks laubender. You were correct, I did need to update the GrepPreferences lines. Your suggestions worked great. Thanks.

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