Script to add markers to text by paragraph format

[mrsjackharkness]

With previous versions of Framemaker, I had a FrameScript which would loop through my document and add a marker to text based on the paragraph format applied. The marker text would be the selected paragraph.

I am now trying to recreate this in Extendscript for use in Framemaker 10 and am completely stumped.

I have no doubt that my script (copied below) is completely off-track, but I wondered if anybody would be able to help point me in the direction of my many mistakes.

Basically, I want the script to find all paragraphs with the "*Part no." format applied, make that text the text range and then apply a marker to that range. A bit of research has shown that I probably need to create a list of paragraph formats, but I believe that I have far more problems than just that.

var pgfFmt1 = flow.GetNamedPgfFmt (*Part no.);

while (pgfFmt1.ObjectValid())  

{

    function createMarker (doc, pgf, offset, type, text)    {

        var tRange, marker;

        tRange = pgfFmt1.TextRange;

        marker = doc.NewAnchoredObject(Constants.FO_Marker, tRange);

        marker.MarkerType = type;

        marker.MarkerText = text;

        return 1;

        }

createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Index", 0);

Many thanks in advance to anyone who is able to offer me some pointers!

[Wiedenmaier]

If you have an working FrameScript you only have to bring that syntax to ExtendScript and particular a little bit more 😉

But there is your algorithm, to find paragraphs... and there are hints how to use the FrameMaker object model

Searching for paragraph in a document works like this pseudo code:

var pgf = app.ActiveDoc.FirstParagraphInDoc;

while (pgf.ObjectIsValid()

{

     if (pgf.Name != 'Partno')

     {

          pgf = pgf.NextParagraphInDoc;

          continue

     }

     //do code for setting markers

     pgf = pgf.NextParagraphInDoc;

}

[mrsjackharkness]

Hi! Thanks for your assistance, but I decided to bite the bullet and really delve into Javascript/Extendscript and did finally manage to come up with a working script.

Thanks again!

[mrsjackharkness]

Well, it seems that my script is only 95% there. While my script finds the target paragraphs and adds a marker, only the first word of each paragraph is selected as the marker text. I really need the script to select the whole paragraph as the marker text. I have tried many combinations, but cannot seem to get the right outcome. Could anybody please point me in the right direction? Script is copied below. Many thanks!

var doc = app.ActiveDoc;

var flow = doc.MainFlowInDoc;

var tframe = flow.FirstTextFrameInFlow;

var pgf = tframe.FirstPgf;

var target1 = doc.GetNamedObject(Constants.FO_PgfFmt, "*Part no.");

var target2 = doc.GetNamedObject(Constants.FO_PgfFmt, "*Parent Bold");

var target3 = doc.GetNamedObject(Constants.FO_PgfFmt, "*Child");

var target4 = doc.GetNamedObject(Constants.FO_PgfFmt, "*Child indent");

var target5 = doc.GetNamedObject(Constants.FO_PgfFmt, "*Child indent 2");

while (pgf.ObjectValid())   {

if (pgf.Name == target1.Name)   {

    createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Index", "");

}

else if (pgf.Name == target2.Name)  {

    createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Subject", "");

}

else if (pgf.Name == target3.Name)  {

    createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Subject", "");

}

else if (pgf.Name == target4.Name)  {

    createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Subject", "");

}

else if (pgf.Name == target5.Name)  {

    createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Subject", "");

}

pgf = pgf.NextPgfInDoc;

}

function createMarker(doc, pgf, offset, type, text) {

    var tLoc = new TextLoc(pgf, offset);

    var marker = doc.NewAnchoredObject(Constants.FO_Marker, tLoc);

    var markerType = doc.GetNamedObject(Constants.FO_MarkerType, type);

    marker.MarkerTypeId = markerType;

    marker.MarkerText = text;

    return 1;

    }

[frameexpert · Accepted solution]

You can use the following function to get the text from a FrameMaker paragraph.

function getText(textObj) {

  var objText = "";

  // Get a list of strings from the object.

  var textItems = textObj.GetText(Constants.FTI_String);

  // Concatenate the strings.

  for (var i = 0; i < textItems.len; i += 1) {

    objText += (textItems.sdata);

  }

  return objText;

}

Once you add it to your script, you can modify each call to createMarker to something like this:

createMarker (doc, pgf, 0, "Subject", getText(pgf));

--Rick Quatro

[mrsjackharkness]

Thanks very much! The script now does exactly what I need it to!