How to detect a polygon text area

[Guest]

In my script I am looking at each textFrame to determine its alignment and orientation. No problem here. But, I also need to determine if the artist has specified a polygon rather than the standard rectangle for the text area. Is there a way to do this in the script?

Thanks in advance - Steve

[Larry G. Schneider]

Have you tried looking at the path item/entire path properties of the text frame. Seems like more than 4 would indicate a polygon (except for 8 which could be a rounded rectangle).

[Guest]

Larry - thanks for the suggestion but I wasn't able to get the following to work:

confirm(sourceDoc.textFrames.pathItem.entirePath)

or

confirm (sourceDoc.textFrames.pathItem.pathPoints)

I receive the "undefined is not an object" error message.

It is probably of note that I am only looking at textFrames that meet the following criteria:

kind == 'TextType.AREATEXT'

Also - I am scripting for CS3 not CS4 should this be a new property.

Am I doing something wrong? Or do I need to upgrade to CS4?

Steve

[CarlosCanto]

Hi Steve, you can accomplish that by comparing the area property of the TextPath against your own square calculated area (width * height), if they are different then it is a polygon.

' // code

    A = YourTextFrame.TextPath.Area

    W = YourTextFrame.TextPath.Width

    H = YourTextFrame.TextPath.Height

     if A = W*H then

          msgbox "it is a square"

     else

          msgbox "it is a polygon"

     end if

' // end code

sorry, I only do VB, but you get the idea to turn it into JS or AS

CarlosCanto

[Guest]

Carlos - I'm not able to get this to work because when I try to look at textFrame.textPath.Area I get the error message "The requested property is not available for this type of text frame.

I don't think textPath is valid for text frames that are of type AREATEXT as these text frames are.

Does that seem right or am I doing something incorrectly?

Steve

[Larry G. Schneider]

Area is not a property of a textFrame. Geometric bounds and height and width are.

[CarlosCanto]

Hi Larry, Area is not a property of a textFrame. Area, as well as width and height are properties of textPath, which in turn is a property of textFrame.

CarlosCanto

[CarlosCanto]

Hi Steve, you're getting that error message when trying to run the script on a pointText type of frame, I just made a test and it works fine with TextFrames of kind AreaText, it even works on PathText TextFrames. Create a document with only one AreaText TextFrames and run the script to make sure it works.

let me know how it goes

CarlosCanto