Script Implementation for Aligning Objects to Guides: Align to the Nearest Guide to the Left or Up.

Question

I’ve always wanted to implement quick alignment of objects to guides.
But since InDesign doesn’t allow selecting both an object and a guide at the same time, it seems impossible to achieve.

Today I just came up with a new approach: have the object align to the nearest guide.
There are too many possible alignment directions, so it’s unnecessary. We only need to align the selected object to the nearest guide to the left or right.

This requires two separate scripts: one for left alignment and one for top alignment.

Consider only the top and left margins.
Take top alignment as an example:
You can define what constitutes “nearest” by setting a value yourself. For example, the detection range could be set to ±8mm; objects beyond 8mm will not be affected. If necessary, manually drag them within 8mm.

(Including the guide lines on the Masterpage.)

You might be able to align it even in complex situations by pressing the button repeatedly.

Eugene Tyson · Accepted Answer

I’m just curious why you need so many scripts? Genuinely curious.

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Pretty sure you asked for something like this last year - to align to the bleeds?

Looks like there’s a UserVoice already

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/50073765-add-align-to-guides-option-in-align-panel

Can it be done - yes.

In testing I find it quite strange to have lots of guides drawn arbitrarily around the page - seems like a less efficient way to work.

Typically I’d align to Key Object. Then drag to the guide using smart guides, can be sped up with a few key commands.

And you can do the same to more objects by using the Object>Transform Again or Sequence Individually (i have the indvidual setup as a keyboard shortcut on my other computer - but basically move one or transform one object, then use sequence indvidually on multilpe objects to do the same transformation.

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Scripting I can’t find an align to guide

So I guess you have to read the guide position first

First I tried this and got the alert

#target "InDesign"

var guides = app.activeWindow.activePage.guides;
var msg = "";

for (var i = 0; i < guides.length; i++) {
    msg += "Guide " + i + "\n";
    msg += "Orientation: " + guides[i].orientation + "\n";
    msg += "Location: " + guides[i].location + "\n\n";
}

alert(msg || "No guides on active page.");

Then I tried collecting them with this part

function collectCandidateGuides(item, orientation) {
    var guides = [];
    var page = getParentPage(item);
    var spread = page ? page.parent : getActiveSpread();

    if (page) {
        addGuides(guides, page.guides, orientation);
    }

    if (spread) {
        addGuides(guides, spread.guides, orientation);
    }

    return guides;
}

addGuides() is the part that actually reads each guide’s position:

out.push(Number(guide.location));

So for a vertical guide, guide.location is its X position. For a horizontal guide, guide.location is its Y position.

Then findNearestGuide() compares the selected object edge to every guide position and picks the closest one:

distance = Math.abs(guides[i] - edge);

The object edge comes from visibleBounds:

bounds = item.visibleBounds; // [top, left, bottom, right]

So:

left edge = bounds[1] right edge = bounds[3] top edge = bounds[0] bottom edge = bounds[2]

Finally, alignItemToNearestGuide() calculates how far the object needs to move:

deltaX = guide - edge; // for left/right alignment deltaY = guide - edge; // for top/bottom alignment

And moves the object by that amount:

item.move(undefined, [deltaX, deltaY]);

So in plain English: it reads all matching guide positions, finds the guide closest to the chosen object edge, subtracts the current edge position from the guide position, then moves the object by exactly that difference.

Full test script with a rough UI

I suspect there’s more to your query - and this won’t do what you want out of the box - but it’s just a proof of concept.

#target "InDesign"

(function () {
    var SCRIPT_NAME = "Align Selected Objects to Nearest Guide";

    if (app.documents.length === 0) {
        alert("Open a document first.", SCRIPT_NAME);
        return;
    }

    if (app.selection.length === 0) {
        alert("Select one or more page items first.", SCRIPT_NAME);
        return;
    }

    var side = showDialog(SCRIPT_NAME);

    if (!side) {
        return;
    }

    app.doScript(
        function () {
            alignSelectionToNearestGuide(side);
        },
        ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT,
        undefined,
        UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT,
        SCRIPT_NAME
    );
}());

function showDialog(title) {
    var dlg = new Window("dialog", title);
    dlg.orientation = "column";
    dlg.alignChildren = "fill";

    var panel = dlg.add("panel", undefined, "Align selected object edge to nearest guide");
    panel.orientation = "column";
    panel.alignChildren = "left";
    panel.margins = 14;

    var left = panel.add("radiobutton", undefined, "Left edge to nearest vertical guide");
    var right = panel.add("radiobutton", undefined, "Right edge to nearest vertical guide");
    var top = panel.add("radiobutton", undefined, "Top edge to nearest horizontal guide");
    var bottom = panel.add("radiobutton", undefined, "Bottom edge to nearest horizontal guide");
    left.value = true;

    var buttons = dlg.add("group");
    buttons.alignment = "right";
    buttons.add("button", undefined, "Cancel", { name: "cancel" });
    buttons.add("button", undefined, "OK", { name: "ok" });

    if (dlg.show() !== 1) {
        return null;
    }

    if (right.value) {
        return "right";
    }

    if (top.value) {
        return "top";
    }

    if (bottom.value) {
        return "bottom";
    }

    return "left";
}

function alignSelectionToNearestGuide(side) {
    var selection = app.selection;
    var aligned = 0;
    var skipped = [];
    var i;

    for (i = 0; i < selection.length; i++) {
        if (!canAlign(selection[i])) {
            skipped.push(getItemName(selection[i]));
            continue;
        }

        if (alignItemToNearestGuide(selection[i], side)) {
            aligned++;
        } else {
            skipped.push(getItemName(selection[i]));
        }
    }

    if (aligned === 0) {
        alert("No selected page items could be aligned. Check that the relevant guides exist on the page or spread.", "Align Selected Objects to Nearest Guide");
    } else if (skipped.length > 0) {
        alert("Aligned " + aligned + " item(s).\n\nSkipped " + skipped.length + " item(s) with no matching guide or no movable bounds.", "Align Selected Objects to Nearest Guide");
    }
}

function canAlign(item) {
    try {
        item.visibleBounds;
        return item && item.isValid && typeof item.move === "function";
    } catch (e) {
        return false;
    }
}

function alignItemToNearestGuide(item, side) {
    var bounds;
    var edge;
    var orientation;
    var guide;
    var deltaX = 0;
    var deltaY = 0;

    try {
        bounds = item.visibleBounds; // [top, left, bottom, right]
    } catch (e) {
        return false;
    }

    if (side === "left") {
        edge = bounds[1];
        orientation = "vertical";
    } else if (side === "right") {
        edge = bounds[3];
        orientation = "vertical";
    } else if (side === "top") {
        edge = bounds[0];
        orientation = "horizontal";
    } else {
        edge = bounds[2];
        orientation = "horizontal";
    }

    guide = findNearestGuide(item, orientation, edge);

    if (guide === null) {
        return false;
    }

    if (orientation === "vertical") {
        deltaX = guide - edge;
    } else {
        deltaY = guide - edge;
    }

    try {
        item.move(undefined, [deltaX, deltaY]);
    } catch (e) {
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}

function findNearestGuide(item, orientation, edge) {
    var guides = collectCandidateGuides(item, orientation);
    var nearest = null;
    var nearestDistance = Number.MAX_VALUE;
    var i;
    var distance;

    for (i = 0; i < guides.length; i++) {
        distance = Math.abs(guides[i] - edge);

        if (distance < nearestDistance) {
            nearestDistance = distance;
            nearest = guides[i];
        }
    }

    return nearest;
}

function collectCandidateGuides(item, orientation) {
    var guides = [];
    var page = getParentPage(item);
    var spread = page ? page.parent : getActiveSpread();

    if (page) {
        addGuides(guides, page.guides, orientation);
    }

    if (spread) {
        addGuides(guides, spread.guides, orientation);
    }

    return guides;
}

function addGuides(out, guides, orientation) {
    var i;
    var guide;

    for (i = 0; i < guides.length; i++) {
        guide = guides[i];

        if (guideMatchesOrientation(guide, orientation)) {
            out.push(Number(guide.location));
        }
    }
}

function guideMatchesOrientation(guide, orientation) {
    var value;

    try {
        value = String(guide.orientation).toLowerCase();
    } catch (e) {
        return false;
    }

    if (orientation === "vertical") {
        return value.indexOf("vertical") !== -1;
    }

    return value.indexOf("horizontal") !== -1;
}

function getParentPage(item) {
    try {
        if (item.parentPage && item.parentPage.isValid) {
            return item.parentPage;
        }
    } catch (e) {}

    try {
        if (item.parent && item.parent.parentPage && item.parent.parentPage.isValid) {
            return item.parent.parentPage;
        }
    } catch (e2) {}

    return null;
}

function getActiveSpread() {
    try {
        if (app.activeWindow && app.activeWindow.activeSpread && app.activeWindow.activeSpread.isValid) {
            return app.activeWindow.activeSpread;
        }
    } catch (e) {}

    return null;
}

function getItemName(item) {
    try {
        if (item.name) {
            return item.name;
        }
    } catch (e) {}

    try {
        return item.constructor.name;
    } catch (e2) {
        return "Item";
    }
}

It’s probably far simpler than I’m making it out to be.

There’s already scripts to draw from in the ones supplied with InDesign

And more importantly this one

Nick Passmore · Answer

Eugene is quite correct of course, it is neccessary to include any guides that are inherited from a parent page. It’s worse that that in fact because you would also need to check for guides on a parent page inherited from another parent page and so on. (My script avoids that because it infers the horizontal grid from the spacing of the baseline grid.)

As for guides on parent spread but outside the page area —it seems they are not inherited and nor is anything else entirely outside the page area. Which I suppose makes sense.

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