How to apply a paragraph style to a selected paragraph

[Jörg Schmalenberger]

Hi,

I just can't figure out how to apply an existing paragraph style named "Teaser" to a selectet paragraph

var myStory = app.selection[0].parentStory;

myStory.applyParagraphStyle("Teaser ",true);

Won't work. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Harbs.]

var myStyle = myDocument.paragraphStyles.item("Teaser");

myStory.applyParagraphStyle(myStyle",true);

Harbs

[Laubender]

Hello, Jörg!

First of all your script indicates that you are not working with a selection that is part of one paragraph, but with the whole story of your selection ("Textabschnitt" in german) which can consists of a multitude of paragraphs!

To apply a paragraph style to your selection only try the following:

//if selection is part of exactly ONE paragraph:
if(app.selection[0].paragraphs.length === 1){
    app.selection[0].appliedParagraphStyle = "Teaser";
    };
//if selection is part of MORE than one paragraph:
if(app.selection[0].paragraphs.length > 1){
    for(var n=0;n<app.selection[0].paragraphs.length-1;n++){
        app.selection[0].appliedParagraphStyle = "Teaser";       
        };
    };

Uwe

[Harbs.]

Laubender,

That's not right. You can apply a style to more than one paragraph at once.

Also, your loop is doing the exact same action over and over...

[Laubender]

Harbs,

thank you for your comment. So it's sufficent to use:

app.selection[0].appliedParagraphStyle = "Teaser";

for formatting the whole selection, be it a single insertion point, a line of text, one or a bunch of paragraphs, even the whole story.
No loop required.

In the case that the user wants to format a single paragraph and we cannot be sure that he selects only one, only then we need an if-statement and deal with the situation in a different way.

Uwe

[Harbs.]

"Teaser" will not work. You need a ParagraphStyle reference, not a string...

Harbs

[Laubender]

Harbs,

hm, just tested and it does work…

(InDesign CS5.5 7.5.1)

All the same with:

app.selection[0].appliedParagraphStyle = app.documents[0].paragraphStyles.itemByName("Teaser");

Uwe

[Harbs.]

You are right. It does seem to work. I'm not sure why I thought it doesn't.

It does not work for styles in style groups, but then again, neither will the simplistic approach I used...

Harbs

[Jörg Schmalenberger]

Hi Harbs, hi Laubender

thank you so much for you answers.

Now I see what my problem is: all my paragraph styles are grouped.

app.selection[0].appliedParagraphStyle = "Teaser";

works only, if the style is not grouped.

Now I just need help in how to set the style within a group, let's say the group is named "headers"

Jörg

[Harbs.]

var myStyle = getParStyle(myDocument,"Teaser");
function getParStyle(doc,name){
  var styles = doc.allParagraphStyles;
  for(var i=0;i<styles.length;i++){
    if(styles.name == name){
      return styles;
    }
  }
  return null;
}

[Harbs.]

Of course, my example will only work if all style names are unique. If not, you'll have to check the style.parent...

Harbs

[Laubender]

Harbs,

the documentation of the object model shows that:

appliedParagraphStyle

The paragraph style applied to the text. Can also accept: String.

For styles in groups I think we have to loop through allParagraphStyles and check for the name property:

//The first 2 we need not to loop:
for (var n=2;n<app.documents[0].allParagraphStyles.length;n++){

    if(app.documents[0].allParagraphStyles.name == "Teaser"){

        app.selection[0].appliedParagraphStyle = 
app.documents[0].paragraphStyles.itemByID(app.documents[0].allParagraphStyles.id);

        };

    };

Of course we also have to check if there is more than one paragraph style named "Teaser" and let the user decide which one to apply.

Uwe

Edit: your function is more elegant…

Message was edited by: Laubender