🚀 go-pugleaf

hi

you need to iterate from backward

robin

-- 
www.adobescripts.com

Ola,

Robin is right: because you delete text frames as you go along, you mess up the collection of text frames. So you would have to start at the end of the document, working your way to the front.

But there are two more problems with your script: app.paste() doesn't take any arguments, so to feed it some coordinates is useless. What you need instead is app.pasteInPlace(). But that pastes frames on the first page of your document, which is no good. Finally, if you don't have to use copy/paste, don't: it often makes a pig of your document.

So a better approach is to work page by page, rather than story by story, so that you can duplicate frames easily on the correct page. But the duplicate method, when used on embedded frames, doesn't place them correctly, so it's easier to use this method: 

      myPage.textFrames.add (myFrame.properties);




which amounts to saying "on myPage, create a new text frame with the same properties as myFrame". These "same properties" include contents, size, position -- everything. An example to get you going is this (probably needs fine-tuning to your situation):

#target indesign

myPages = app.activeDocument.pages; 
for (i = 0; i < myPages.length; i++) 
   { 
   myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems; 
   for (j = myFrames.length-1; j > -1; j--) 
      { 
      myPages[i].textFrames.add (myFrames[j].properties); 
      myFrames[j].remove(); 
      } 
   }



(This works in CS3/4, should also work in CS2.)

Peter

Thanks a lot for the coprehensive reply!

The only problem that remains is that
"myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems;"
will probabely include only the independent text frame, and not the nested text frames.

I need some way to get to all of the nested stuff. And for some reason a line such as:
"myFrames.textFrames"
fails to work in some cases...

Please advice.

Thank You,
Ola

      myFrames = myPages[i].textFrames




and 

      myFrames = myPages[i].textFrames.everyItem()




gives you only the "independent" text frames. But 

      myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems;




gives you all page items, including the embedded ones. I realise now that that also includes rectangles and every other page item, so maybe before duplicating it you want to check whether the page item is a text frame.

Peter

well, I checked it, and you are definitely right!

Now, this script works very nicely on some frames, but on some it gives me the error "unable to set bounding box".

How can I fix this?

Thanks,
Ola

Don't know what goes wrong. Try this one -- it does only frames that are embedded and doesn't stop on errors:



myPages = app.activeDocument.pages; 
for (i = 0; i < myPages.length; i++) 
  { 
  myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems; 
  for (j = myFrames.length-1; j > -1; j--) 
    { 
    if (myFrames[j].parent.constructor.name = 'Character') 
      { 
      try 
        { 
        myPages[i].textFrames.add (myFrames[j].properties); 
        myFrames[j].remove(); 
        } 
      catch(_){} 
      } 
    } 
  }



Peter

this doesn't catch my frames. I guess it is because they are inside the other frame (like pasted into) but their "parent" is not a character.

What other "parent" could it be?

Thanks,
Ola

well, in the end I used this script (it's the one you wrote at first, with the "try-catch" added to it.

myPages = app.activeDocument.pages;
for (i = 0; i < myPages.length; i++) { myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems; for (j = myFrames.length-1; j > -1; j--)
      {
       try
        {
        myPages[i].textFrames.add (myFrames[j].properties);
        myFrames[j].remove();
        }
		catch(_){}
      }
   }

It seemed to work very nicely, only the text lost all of its styling.

Any idea how to solve that?

Groan. This line: 

      myFrames[j].parent.constructor.name = 'Character'




should be 

      myFrames[j].parent.constructor.name == 'Character'




That's what you get when you add lines at the last moment and don't try it. I added that line because when a frame is already "independen", its parent is a page, whereas an embedded frame's parent is a character.

That all styling is lost surprises me, but that is indeed the case. That calls for a different approach:

#target indesign;

myPages = app.activeDocument.pages; 
for (i = 0; i < myPages.length; i++) 
  { 
  myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems; 
  for (j = myFrames.length-1; j > -1; j--) 
    { 
    if (myFrames[j].parent.constructor.name == 'Character') 
      { 
      try 
        { 
        gb = myFrames[j].geometricBounds; 
        myFrames[j].duplicate ([gb[1],gb[0]]); 
        myFrames[j].remove(); 
        } 
      catch(_){} 
      } 
    } 
  } 


This leaves all formatting intact. The script should really also check if myFrames[n] is a text frame.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for the reply.

I actually noticed the problem with "=" and changed it into "==", so this wasn't the only issue. The script missed my frames.

I think the problem is that there is probably a difference between when you anchor a frame to text (then its parent would be "Character"), and when you "paste into" that frame into another frame. I tried changing the parent into "Text Frame" but it didn't change much.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ola

      I think the problem is that there is probably a difference between when
      you anchor a frame to text




No, that's not the case. But you could take out the "if (myFrames..." line and see what happens:

#target indesign;

myPages = app.activeDocument.pages; 
for (i = 0; i < myPages.length; i++) 
  { 
  myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems; 
  for (j = myFrames.length-1; j > -1; j--) 
    { 
    try 
      { 
      gb = myFrames[j].geometricBounds; 
      myFrames[j].duplicate ([gb[1],gb[0]]); 
      myFrames[j].remove(); 
      } 
    catch(_){} 
    } 
  } 




Peter

PS: Which InDesign version do you use?

Peter,

I am using InDesign CS3.

I tried this one - it didn't have an affect on the frames.

I eventually used a mix-up between 2 versions you posted (as I mentioned above) and it worked beautifully, except for the styles. But that's much better than what I had before...

Ola

Turns out that CS4's duplicate() method is a bit different -- rather, it looks as if it has been fixed because in CS3 it seems to have issue. In CS3 you need this:

#target indesign;

app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.rulerOrigin = RulerOrigin.spreadOrigin; 
myPages = app.activeDocument.pages; 
for (i = 0; i < myPages.length; i++) 
  { 
  myFrames = myPages[i].allPageItems; 
  for (j = myFrames.length-1; j > -1; j--) 
    { 
    try 
      { 
      gb = myFrames[j].geometricBounds; 
      dupl = myFrames[j].duplicate (); 
      dupl.move ([gb[1],gb[0]]); 
      myFrames[j].remove(); 
      } 
    catch(_){} 
    } 
  }



Ah -- versions...

Peter

Amazing! Thanks a lot.

Now it works :)