Creating hyperlinks from structured strings

Hi EmondMontgomery,

I don't understand why Web links in Word would not import into InDesign. They typically do. In any case this might work:

//Assuming: Read the {link}{link-text}interview{/link-text}{link-url}http://www.someurl.com/{/link-url}{/link} to learn more.
if( !(app.selection[0] instanceof InsertionPoint) ) {alert("First, target a story by inserting a blinking cursor."); exit(); }
var found = [], item, sourceRslts = [], urlRslts = [], i, src, dest, d = app.documents[0], stry = app.selection[0].parentStory;
clearFCPs();
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\\{link\\}\\{link\\-text\\}(.+?)\\{\\/link\\-url\\}\\{\\/link\\}";
found = stry.findGrep(true);
clearFCPs();
for ( i = 0; i < found.length; i++ ) {
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "(?<=\\{link\\-text\\})(.+?)(?=\\{\\/link\\-text\\})";
    sourceRslts = found.findGrep();
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "(?<=\\{link\\-url\\})(.+?)(?=\\{\\/link\\-url\\})";
    urlRslts = found.findGrep();
    try{
        src = d.hyperlinkTextSources.add( sourceRslts[0] );
        dest = d.hyperlinkURLDestinations.add( urlRslts[0].contents.toString(), {hidden:true} ); 
        d.hyperlinks.add( src, dest );
    } catch (e) {}
}
clearFCPs();
app.changeGrepPreferences.changeTo = "";
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\\{link\\}\\{link\\-text\\}";
stry.changeGrep();
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\\{\\/link\\}";
stry.changeGrep();
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\\{\\/link\\-text\\}";
stry.changeGrep();
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\\{link\\-url\\}(.+?)\\{\\/link\\-url\\}";
stry.changeGrep();
clearFCPs();
function clearFCPs() {
          app.findChangeTextOptions = app.findChangeGrepOptions = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
          app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
          app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
}

Hi Emond,

You should be able to use a find/change to remove the text around the URL and then use the "Convert URLs to Hyperlinks" function from the Hyperlinks panel to create actual links from the text URLs.

-Luis