Can I sort objects in a group without ungrouping them?

Question

For example, I’ve selected a combination of an image and a text box.
I want to move the text box to the end of the selection without ungrouping the objects.

Below is the code that works when objects are not grouped.
Is there a way to perform operations on objects within a group?

// Sort the text box   Move the text box to the end
sel.sort(function (a, b) {
    var a;
    var b;
    if (“TextFrame” == a.constructor.name) {
        return 1;
    } else if (“TextFrame” == b.constructor.name) {
        return -1;
    }
});

rob day · Accepted Answer

Get the group’s page items as an array via allPageItems (not pageItems)

var s = app.activeDocument.selection;

//if s is a group get its page items
if (s.length == 1 && s[0].constructor.name == "Group") {
    s = s[0].allPageItems
    s[1].bringForward()
} 
//if the first item is not a text frame reverse the array
if (s.length == 2 && s[0].constructor.name == "TextFrame"){
    s[0].bringForward()
}

Before and after

rob day · Answer

Hi ​@dublove, If the selection is only 2 items I don’t think you need the sort function—there is the array reverse() method. Maybe this?var s = app.activeDocument.selection;//if s is a group get its page itemsif (s.length == 1 && s[0].constructor.name == "Group") {    s = s[0].allPageItems} //if the first item is not a text frame reverse the arrayif (s.length == 2 && s[0].constructor.name != "TextFrame"){    s.reverse()}alert(s[0].constructor.name)

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded