Find/Change in Applescript

[Cooroo]

I've been doing this in Quark for years, but can't think myself into ID mode! Can anyone give me the basic code necessary to search ALL the text of a document and replace, say, "Britain" with "America"?

This doesn't work! but at least proves I'm trying...

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"

          tell document 1

          repeat with i from 1 to count of stories

                              tell story i

                                        set (every text where it is "Britain") to "America"

                              end tell

                    end repeat

end tell

end tell

Thanks for any help!

[-hans- · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I'm actually on PC but try sth. like this:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5.5"

set find text preferences to nothing

set change text preferences to nothing

set find what of find text preferences to "Dolores"

set change to of change text preferences to "Rihanna"

set theDoc to document 1

change text theDoc

set find text preferences to nothing

set change text preferences to nothing

end tell

[Cooroo]

Oh my! Didn't know 'change text' existed. That works perfectly. Now I need to narrow it down to text matching certain conditions, but that's obviously where 'find text preferences' and 'change text preferences' come into it.

I can play on my own now.

(You aren't Hans H who used to be so helpful on the Quark forum are you??!)

[-hans-]

Hi,

no. If you have RegEx SearchCriterias then have a look for the grepsearch.

some link: http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/indesign/pdfs/InDesignCS5_Scr...

Hans-Gerd Claßen

'Hans H.', guess I know whome you mean ... (Uhh, is this english? 😉 )

[Cooroo]

I will read it up. I thought I could use

          set left indent of find text preferences to 9.921

          set first line indent of find text preferences to -9.921

          set left indent of change text preferences to 0

          set first line indent of change text preferences to 0

(it doesn't help that the indent I need to remove is 3.5mm, which really upsets InDesign!)

Anyway, I'll try the grepsearch, which I have done before in a different context so should get back into it soon.

Thanks for your help! Many Hans make light work...

[Cooroo]

A life changing thread!

Funny how I just assumed that because in Quark I had to go round the houses to search and replace via Applescript, that it would be the same in ID. Just didn't look for the command because it never occurred to me that it would exist.

This has made the job in hand wonderfully quick to solve. One more nail in the coffin of formerly-much-beloved Quark.

[Muppet Mark]

You know you want to switch over? Just expect your dictionary to be a whole lot thicker…