ID CS3-5 grep notes in script fails, but in UI ok

[henkend28012856]

Working with InDesign CS3-5 on MAC (no, not the newest system...)

Hello to You,

for months now I try to change Text with >changeGrep< in a text file that contains notes. (You can find those notes with >findText< "FEFF" or see/edit their content in the >text mode<.)

My data is:

<note1>X_S01002:M03<note2>Y_P00012 <+further data in line>

<note1>X_S03302:M03<note2>Y_P00312 <+further data in line>

My grep in UserInterface (cmd f) in InDesign is:

Search for: (X_S[0-9]{5,}):([A-Z0-9]{3,})(Y_P[0-9]{5,})

(it is set by the script below)

The items in (see brackets) are $1 $2 $3 and they shall be in order $1 $3 $2:

Change to: $1:$3-$2

(so $3 has to "jump" over <note2> to the left - or better: <note2> itself jumps in front of $1)

and the correct result is 2:

<note1><note2>X_S01002:Y_P00012-M03 <+further data in line>

<note1><note2>X_S03302:Y_P00312-M03 <+further data in line>

To do this in Javascript is

myMainDoc = app.documents.itemByName(app.activeDocument.name);

app.findGrepPreferences

= NothingEnum.nothing;

app.changeGrepPreferences  = NothingEnum.nothing;

app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = '(X_S[0-9]{5,}):'  //$1

                                                        + '([A-Z0-9]{3,})'    //$2

                                                        + '(Y_P[0-9]{5,})'    //$3

app.changeGrepPreferences.changeTo = '$1:$3-$2';

var myResults = myMainDoc.changeGrep();

The results = 0

That is: with this grep defined in script (and results =0) I change to InDesign and see the grep-definition in the UI, start it and get the results = 2 ! (see above)

I read about the notes being managed by the program itself. But why does it not work in the script? (It does not matter what the notes' content is.)

I allready changed my data to fixed length, but this did not make things better.

Thank You for help in advance or be welcome to the funeral of this concept

Dietmar

[Pickory]

Hello,

If you want to manipulate the notes, not sure if you can do that with find grep. I suspect you have to access the notes directly, some thing like this.

notes = app.activeDocument.stories.everyItem().notes.everyItem().getElements();

You will also need to look at notes in tables.

P.

[Laubender]

And not to forget: Notes in footnotes 🙂

Best,
Uwe