Shuffle Words

[spacefilling]

Hi, I need to shuffle words in paragraphs. I found the script below but it shuffles paragraphs themselves, I'm not quite savvy enough to modify it myself just yet. Any pointers?

I use InDesign to efficiently plan social media posts for many accounts and repeating hashtags can get you shadowbanned. I have a list of 100~ relevant tags I'd like to randomize and copy/paste selections from.

var mRAND = Math.random,  
    LOCS = [LocationOptions.AFTER, LocationOptions.BEFORE];  
function shuffleSelectedParagraphs()  
{  
    var s = app.selection && app.selection[0],  
        ps = s && s.hasOwnProperty('paragraphs') && s.paragraphs,  
        n = ps && ps.length,  
        i = n, j, k, d;  
    if( n < 2 ) throw Error("Please select at least two paragraphs.");  
    var sto = ps[0].parentStory,  
        ip0 = ps[0].insertionPoints.firstItem().index,  
        ip1 = ps[n-1].insertionPoints.lastItem().index,  
        EOF = ps[n-1].characters.lastItem().contents != '\r';  
    if( s = s.hasOwnProperty('appliedFont') ) app.selection = [];  
    if( EOF ) ps[n-1].insertionPoints.lastItem().contents = '\r';  
    while( i-- )  
        {  
        do{ j = ~~(n*mRAND()) }while( i==j )  
        k = ~~(2*mRAND());  
        if( 2*k-1 != j-i ) ps.move(LOCS,ps);  
        }  
    if( EOF ) sto.characters.lastItem().contents = '';  
    if( !s ) return;  
    sto.insertionPoints[ip0].select();  
    sto.insertionPoints[ip1].select(SelectionOptions.ADD_TO);  
}  
try{ shuffleSelectedParagraphs() }catch(_){alert(_.message);}  

[Jongware]

Not a solution but a reasonable workaround for the current script: put each word in a separate paragraph by changing all spaces to a return. Run the script. Change returns back to spaces.

[Trevor:]

A somewhat sloppy implementation.

function shufflePargraphWords(paragraph) {
    paragraph = app.selection[0];
    if (!paragraph || !paragraph.hasOwnProperty('paragraphs')) {
        return 'no selection';
    }
    paragraph = paragraph.paragraphs[0];
    var a, temp, n, words, firstWord, x, level;
    paragraph.insertionPoints[-1].contents = ' ';
    app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = '\\S+\\s*';
    words = paragraph.findGrep().slice();
    len = words.length;
    while (len) {
        x = (Math.random() * len--) | 0;
        temp = words[len];
        words[len] = words;
        words = temp;
    }
    len = words.length;
    n = len - 1;
    level = $.level;
    $.level = 0;
    while (len--) {
        try {
            words[len].move(LocationOptions.AT_END, paragraph);
        } catch (e) {}
    }
    $.level = level;
    if (paragraph.characters[-1].contents === ' ') {
        paragraph.characters[-1].remove();
    }
    return 'Shuffled';
}
app.doScript(shufflePargraphWords, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Shuffled Words');

HTH

Trevor

[Marc Autret · Accepted solution]

Hi wespor,

To keep more consistent with the original shuffle-paragraph routine—http://forums.adobe.com/message/3834317#3834317—you may also try this:

function shuffleSelectedWords()
{    
    const mRAND = Math.random;
    var s = app.properties.selection && app.selection[0],
        ws = s && s.hasOwnProperty('words') && s.words,
        n = ws && ws.length;
    if( n < 2 ) throw Error("Please select at least two words.");
    var sto = ws[0].parentStory,
        ip0 = ws[0].insertionPoints.firstItem().index,
        ip1 = ws[n-1].insertionPoints.lastItem().index;
    if( s=s.hasOwnProperty('appliedFont') ) app.selection = [];
    ws = ws.everyItem().contents;
    for( var t ; n ; (t=ws.splice(~~(n--*mRAND()),1)[0]), ws.push(t) );
    ws = ws.join(' ');
    sto.insertionPoints.itemByRange(ip0,ip1).contents = ws;
    if( !s ) return;
    sto.insertionPoints[ip0].select();    
    sto.insertionPoints[ip0+ws.length].select(SelectionOptions.ADD_TO);    
}
try{ shuffleSelectedWords() }catch(_){ alert(_.message) }

Note. — This code should be a bit faster since it doesn't hit the DOM during the shuffling stage (to the price of losing character style ranges.)

@+

Marc

[spacefilling]

Thank you, that is awesome! Trying to figure out how to reverse engineer that and sort by Alphabetical order next. I need to shuffle between the two.