Creating a TextLine with character format

[K.Daube]

Well friends, the story about TextLine needs a new chapter:

Things go really strange with this short script:

// Clone a selected TextLine to check the function
#target framemaker
main ();
function main () {
  var j, oDoc = app.ActiveDoc, oFrame, oSelected, oTextLine, sText, oTextLoc, oTR, CM = 1857713, DEGREE = 65536;
  oSelected = oDoc.FirstSelectedGraphicInDoc;
  oFrame = oSelected.FrameParent;
  oTextLine = oDoc.NewTextLine(oFrame);
  oTextLoc = new TextLoc (oTextLine, 0);
  oDoc.AddText (oTextLoc, "New text");
  oTextLine.BasePointX = oSelected.BasePointX;    // not changed
  oTextLine.BasePointY = oSelected.BasePointY + 1*CM;
  oTextLine.StyleTag = "fh2-fig-heading2";
  oTextLine.Angle = 5 * DEGREE;
  oTextLine.Fill = 0;   // not used !
  oTextLine.Color = oDoc.GetNamedColor("Magenta"); // does not work
} //--- end main

1. Source TextLine selected, then script applied:
   Resultant 'clone' is an object TextLine, indicated in the status line as  O: fh2-fig-heading2*
   but using colour ddd-3 (used in table heading cells etc.)
   Selected as text it has no style, but size is 128 pt (as used by a specific ¶ format) and font family which can be from fh2-fig-heading2 but also from the specific ¶ format
   
2. Now I select the cloned text (the green one) as text and apply the character format fh2-fig-heading2.
   
3. Now i delete the clone TextLIne (the red one), select the source TextLine again and run the script:
   Resultant 'clone' text is an object TextLine as before indicated in status line and text has character format (obviously from the manual action before deletion).
   

My questions are:

• Wherefrom gets the first created clone TextLine its strange properties?
• How to correctly apply a character format to this type of thingy?

You may say that the cloned object did not get the properties from the source object (the one I select before invoking the script), but trying to replace lines 10 -18 by

oTextLine = CloneTextLine (oDoc, oFrame, oSelected);
oTextLine.BasePointY = oSelected.BasePointY + 1*CM;

and defining the required function as

function CloneTextLine (oDoc, oFrame, oSource) { // --- Clone TextLine object ----------
var oClone, attr
  oClone = oDoc.NewTextLine(oFrame);
  for (attr in oSource) {                         // attr = BasePointX, ...
    if (oSource.hasOwnProperty(attr)) {
      oClone[attr] = oSource[attr];
    }
  }
  return oClone;
} //--- end CloneObject

creates an empty TextLine with Witdh 0 and Height 128pt ...  and some additional TextLInes, which remain invisble when selected and centered to have them in the middle of the Anchored Frame - but they can be deleted...

[frameexpert · Accepted solution]

Remember that Doc objects have their own text properties. Try this code, then create a new text line and see what it looks like:

#target framemaker
var doc = app.ActiveDoc;
doc.FontSize = 65536 * 18; // 18 points
doc.Color = doc.GetNamedColor ("Red");

This may solve the mystery for you. -Rick

[K.Daube]

Thanks Rick for this hot tip!

During shaving this morning it came to my mind that a TextLine is a double faced object: part of its properties are that of the TextLine object, part are that of the 'mother'-object document (the text itself).

oTextLine.StyleTag is not a character format, but a style defined with the Object Designer. And this sort of style can only contain Alignment (AsIs, Left, Right, Center) and Direction (AsIs, Inherit, LTR, RTL).

Since eventually I want to create textlines using various character formats (e.g. 17.5×10^-3) - bold for the full text, superscript for part of it - that obviously must be done with text ranges.

[K.Daube]

Eventually I made it:

// Create a TextLine with overall and local character format
#target framemaker
main ();
function main () {
  var j, oDoc = app.ActiveDoc,
      oCharFmt, oCharProps, oHilight, oHiProps, oTRall, oTRhi,
      oFrame, oSelected, oTextLine, sText, oTextLoc, oTR,
      CM = 1857713, DEGREE = 65536;
  oFrame = oDoc.FirstSelectedGraphicInDoc;
  if (!oFrame.ObjectValid()) {
    alert ("An anchored frame must be selected.");
    return;
  }
//oTextLine = oDoc.NewGraphicObject(Constants.FO_TextLine, oFrame); // alternative
  oTextLine = oDoc.NewTextLine(oFrame);
// ---------------------------------------------- Properties of the TextLine object
  oTextLine.BasePointX = 0.5 * CM;
  oTextLine.BasePointY =  1  * CM;
//oTextLine.Width = oSelected.Width;              // set by text contents !
//oTextLine.Height= oSelected.Height
  oTextLine.Angle = 5 * DEGREE;
// ---------------------------------------------- Default text format in document - just in case
  oDoc.FontSize = 65536 * 18; // 18 points
  oDoc.Color = oDoc.GetNamedColor ("Mauve"); 
// ---------------------------------------------- Define and format the text
  oTextLoc = new TextLoc (oTextLine, 0);
  oDoc.AddText (oTextLoc, "New text with highlight"); // highlicht starts at offset 14
  oCharFmt = oDoc.GetNamedCharFmt("FT-fig-textline"); // general character format
  oCharProps = oCharFmt.GetProps();
  oTRall    = new TextRange();
  oTRall.end.obj = oTRall.beg.obj = oTextLine;
  oTRall.beg.offset = 0;
  oTRall.end.offset = Constants.FV_OBJ_END_OFFSET;
  oDoc.SetTextProps (oTRall, oCharProps);        // apply the general char format
  oHilight = oDoc.GetNamedCharFmt("super");      // local highlight
  oHiProps = oHilight.GetProps();
  oTRhi    = new TextRange();
  oTRhi.end.obj = oTRhi.beg.obj = oTextLine;
  oTRhi.beg.offset = 14;
  oTRhi.end.offset = Constants.FV_OBJ_END_OFFSET;
  oDoc.SetTextProps (oTRhi, oHiProps);            // apply the local char format
} //--- end main

[frameexpert]

Good job Klaus. That is a nice piece of code.