Control where findGrep and changeGrep is performed (ex. a specific textframe)

Indesign cs5.5 ... MacOSX ... Javascript

I'm getting very VERY close to figuring this blasted project out .. so any help on this issue would be most appreciated. (and to all who have already helped me get this far, thanks to you as well)

Basically what I'm trying to do is pickup page numbers from a generated list (from an Indesign-made TOC), and insert those numbers as appropriate on page 2 of my document.

I'm calling the generated table of contents "tocGen" ... and the supplied list "page2TOC"

One by one, I need to pickup the town name and page number in tocGen, and replace those values with their matches in page2TOC. I'm trying to accomplish this with a series of findGrep() and changeGrep() methods.

The first time through, it works great. It picks up "5\tBethel" from the tocGen, and puts it in place of "XX\tBethel" in the page2TOC.

The second time I run the script, it ends up picking up the first line of the page2TOC ... instead of in tocGen, where it had during the first run. Makes sense, since that line is now the same format as the list in tocGen.

So it would seem that if I could control where the first findGrep is directed, the script should move onto the next town each time I run it, without issue.

So that's my question ... how do I point to a particular textFrame on a particular page for a findGrep and/or changeGrep?

Kind of what would happen if I selected " Search: Story" on a normal find/change in Indesign:

Thanks to any and all.

Cheers,

~Nate

Supplied list (on page 2)

Fairfield County

XX    Bethel (B)    01/27/2012

XX    Bridgeport (W)    01/19/2012

XX    Brookfield (W)    01/17/2012

XX    Danbury (W)    01/26/2012

XX    Darien (W)    01/17/2012

XX    Easton (B)    01/13/2012

XX    Fairfield (W)    01/12/2012

XX    Greenwich (W)    01/26/2012

XX    Monroe (W)    01/17/2012

XX    New Canaan (W)    01/17/2012

XX    New Fairfield (B)    01/13/2012

XX    Newtown (W)    01/24/2012

XX    Norwalk (W)    01/26/2012

XX    Redding (B)    01/25/2012

XX    Ridgefield (W)    01/09/2012

XX    Shelton (W)    01/12/2012

XX    Sherman (M)    12/30/2011

XX    Stamford (W)    01/19/2012

XX    Stratford (W)    01/20/2012

XX    Trumbull (W)    01/19/2012

XX    Weston (B)    12/28/2011

XX    Westport (W)    01/13/2012

XX    Wilton (W)    01/03/2012

Generated list (on a master page):

tocGen

5    Bethel

5    Bridgeport

6    Brookfield

7    Danbury

7    Darien

8    Fairfield

8    Greenwich

10    Monroe

10    New Canaan

11    Newtown

11    Norwalk

13    Redding

13    Ridgefield

13    Shelton

14    Stamford

17    Stratford

18    Trumbull

19    Westport

My code thus far:

// reference to tocGen text frame, an indesign generated table of contents

  var tocGenFrame  = document.masterSpreads.item("T-tocGen").pages.item(0).textFrames.item(0);

// reference to page2TOC ... the supplied toc with the xx's

  var page2TOC  = document.masterSpreads.item("T-tocGen").pages.item(0).textFrames.item(0);

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeHiddenLayers = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeMasterPages = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeFootnotes = true;

//select generate TOC

tocGenFrame.select();

//grab current town and whole line (has page number and town)

       app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;

       app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "^\\d+\\t(.*)$";

currentGen = app.activeDocument.findGrep();  

currentLine = currentGen[0].contents;

currentMatch = currentGen[0].contents.match("^\\d+\\t(.*)$");

currentTown = currentMatch[1];

       app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "^\\d+\\t"+currentTown+"$";

              app.changeGrepPreferences.changeTo = "---";

            app.activeDocument.changeGrep(); 

// function that replaces "XX\tTown" with currentLine from above

replaceTown();

function replaceTown()

{

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeHiddenLayers = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeMasterPages = true;

app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeFootnotes = true;

      app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;

       app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "^XX\\t"+currentTown+" \\(";

       app.changeGrepPreferences.changeTo = currentLine+" \(";

app.activeDocument.changeGrep();   

   // $.writeln(currentXX);

}