How to I refer to the outermost text Frame?

Forum|Forum|7 days ago
March 29, 2026
3 replies
42 views

It didn't turn over again.

I have a text box A that contains another text box B. I have currently selected B, meaning that the current item is B. How do I refer to A?

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var item = doc.selection[0]; // Current selected item
var items = doc.selection; // All currently selected items

var B = item;
var A = item.parent.parent;
var A2=item.parent.parentTextFrames;
alert(A);

The result is [object Story]
How do I convert this to a text frame?

Is this it? item.parent.parentTextFrames;
But it seems like my function isn't responding.

Thank you.

To textFrame.indd

Correct answer dublove

Thank you.
I figured it out—it turns out to be this:

item.parent.parentTextFrames[0];

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

app.selection[0].parent.parentTextFrames[0] should give you frame A

So, if app.selection is a frame that is anchored in another textframe , its parent is a character.and character has parentTextFrames property

-Manan

dubloveAuthorCorrect answer

Legend

Thank you.
I figured it out—it turns out to be this:

item.parent.parentTextFrames[0];

dubloveAuthor

Legend

@m1b

I just realized:
It looks like I'm stuck again with the issue of not being able to retrieve the outermost text frame:
var textFrame = getTextFrames(items)[0];

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @dublove , I would use a while statement for something like this because the selected text frame could be nested any number of levels deep (see attached):

//a selected anchored text frame
var s = app.activeDocument.selection[0];
//an anchored text frame’s parent is a character
var p = s.parent;
//the outside text frame to get
var otf;
if (p.constructor.name == "Character") {
	while (p.constructor.name == "Character") {
        //the character’s first parentTextFrame
        otf = p.parent.texts[0].parentTextFrames[0]
        //p returns as a character until the outer text frame
        p = p.parentTextFrames[0].parent
    }
} 
//move the text frame
otf.move([0,0])
alert("First Word: " + otf.words[0].contents)

To textFrame 2.indd

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