🚀 go-pugleaf

Here's another option. It uses a "whose" clause -- which, IIRC, Dave dislikes [grin]:



tell application "InDesign 2.0.2" 
	if (count documents) > 0 then

		set myDocument to active document 
		set myCharStyle to character style "Bold" of myDocument 
		set myHyphen to "-"

		tell myDocument 
			try 
				set myPink to swatch "C=0 M=100 Y=0 K=0" 
			on error 
				set myPink to make color with properties {color model:process, color space:cmyk, color value:{0, 100, 0, 0}, name:"C=0 M=100 Y=0 K=0"} 
			end try

			try 
				set myStory to object reference of parent story of selection 
			on error 
				activate 
				display dialog "Please select some text in the story you want to process." 
			end try

			tell myStory 
				repeat with myCounter from 1 to (count paragraphs) 
					try 
						set myBoldThis to object reference of text from character 1 to (character 1 whose contents = myHyphen) of paragraph myCounter 
						set applied character style of myBoldThis to myCharStyle 
					on error 
						set fill color of text of paragraph myCounter to myPink 
					end try 
				end repeat 
			end tell 
		end tell

	else 
		activate 
		display dialog "Please open a document and try again." 
	end if 
end tell



This script assumes:

1) you have some text selected in the story you want to convert;
2) you have a character style named "Bold" (basically your regular style w/ bold applied, this is much slicker than simply applying bold.)
3) your hyphen is a regular hyphen. If you want to change that, change the character between the quotes in the 4th line to an en-dash or whatever. (in fact, you can even change it to a character like "c" & get some really cool effects. [grin] )

If the script has a problem with a paragraph, (for instance, if it can't find a hyphen) it changes the color of the text to magenta, then moves on. If this bugs you I can tell you how to disable it, but I find it helps with proofing.

HTH.