Crazy bug with index entry

[Roland Dreger]

Hi,

can anyone confirm that? If you select the word »sit« (attached document) and create an index entry using script, the page reference will be created after the word.

var _doc = app.activeDocument;
var _docIndex;
if(_doc.indexes.length === 0) {
    _docIndex = _doc.indexes.add();
} else {
    _docIndex = _doc.indexes.firstItem();
} 
var _textObj = app.selection[0];
var _parentTopic = _docIndex.topics.add("Topicname");
var _pageRef = _parentTopic.pageReferences.add(_textObj);

• word before that, everything's correct

• tables with 3 or more rows
• the more table rows the more offset

MacOS and InDesign CC2019 14.0.1

Roland

[Jongware · Accepted solution]

Yes, that is a bug. Report ASAP at Adobe InDesign: SDK/Scripting Bugs and Features: Top (27 ideas) – Adobe InDesign Feedback as it seems only related to scripts (using the same selection and the Index panel works as expected).

I find inconsistent results (offsets of one or two characters after the selected word) when the table above is 3 or more rows – but there is more to this, because the problem seems to shift or disappear when the word is more than 4 characters!

Tested in CS4, so it seems a long-running bug.

[Roland Dreger]

Thanks Jongware! Reported.

[Laubender]

Hi Roland,

I can confirm the bug.

Thanks for reporting this.

Hm. Just trying to make out the "rules" of this misbehavior.

The scope of the bug seems to be the story.

Numbers of table rows before the text selection and numbers of characters selected are a factor.

Regards,
Uwe

[Laubender]

If there is only one table before the text selection in the same story one could see what words are affected.

With a table of one row: No bug.

A table of two rows affects words with one character.

A table of three rows affectes words with one or two characters.

Four text frames, four stories, four tables with different row lengt:

I selected every single word and ran the script for doing an index topic.

The issue gets more complicated if several tables are positioned in the story before the selected text.

Regards,
Uwe

[Roland Dreger]

Hi Uwe!

This topic has already been mentioned here in 2010, I found out in the meantime (by a hint on Twitter): https://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/foren/Skript_zum_Index_generieren_P430412.html

Another weird example: many table rows and not enough insertion points after the selection in the story.

Roland

[Laubender]

Tested also this case and can confirm that the index marker is created in a text cell.

Text selected is the "A" that comes after the table in the same story:

Regards,
Uwe

[petervogkhaire]

I am keen to point out that this problem is not restricted to tables! It affects text in ordinary paragraphs as well. The first few occurrences are fine, but if the word is used very often in a long document, the index marker gets placed further and further from the word, even ending up in the paragraph after it.
This is clearly a programming error for which Adobe is responsible, yet they have done nothing to fix it in the decade or so since I began having to create indexes on a regular basis. It makes me very angry that they nevertheless deduct money from my account every month supposedly to finance development and bug-fixing.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

It works fine in the UI - but ONLY if one item is added at a time - if a word / phrase is selected and ADD ALL is clicked in the dialog - it will produce the same error as if each found result is added through scripting.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

But there is a workaround:

(order of the Tasks is wrong - 2nd should be executed first, then 1st in BatchMode, on all checkboxed results on the list)

You have to use INVOKE:

Name	Title	Area	ID
Add new index entry	Add new index entry	Panel Menus:Index	78098