How to find some characters with grep and then apply object style to that textbox?

[dublove]

Hello, everyone.

For example, some specific textboxes have characters like "001-002@" "001-003@" or something like that.
I want to use Grep to find them and then apply object styles to the textboxes they are in.

Thank you very much.

[Anantha Prabu G · Accepted solution]

Hi @dublove 

Use this:

// Define the pattern
var pattern = /\d{3}-\d{3}@/;

// Define the object style name
var objStyleName = "AB";

// Get the active document
var doc = app.activeDocument;

// Loop through all text frames
for (var i = 0; i < doc.textFrames.length; i++) {
    var textFrame = doc.textFrames[i];
    var text = textFrame.contents;

    // Search for the pattern
    if (pattern.test(text)) {
        // Apply the object style to the text frame
        textFrame.appliedObjectStyle = doc.objectStyles.item(objStyleName);
    }
}

[dublove]

Thank you very much, I have used it.
Efficiency has multiplied.
It's unbeatable.

[m1b · Accepted solution]

Hi @dublove, you already have a good answer from Anantha, but here is an extra way to do it, using Indesigns findGrep. I have made an array of "queries" so you can specify the object styles to apply to different find strings.

- Mark

/**
 * Find Grep And Apply Object Style.js
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2025-01-08
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/how-to-find-some-characters-with-grep-and-then-apply-object-style-to-that-textbox/m-p/15076832
 */
function main() {

    var queries = [
        { findWhat: '\\d{3}-001@', objectStyleName: 'My Style 1' },
        { findWhat: '\\d{3}-002@', objectStyleName: 'My Style 2' },
    ];

    var doc = app.activeDocument;

    for (var q = 0; q < queries.length; q++) {

        app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
        app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = queries[q].findWhat;

        // find the dayNumbers
        var found = doc.findGrep(),
            style = doc.objectStyles.itemByName(queries[q].objectStyleName);

        if (!style.isValid) {
            alert('Bad object style: "' + queries[q].objectStyleName + '"');
            continue;
        }

        for (var i = 0; i < found.length; i++) {
            if (undefined != found[i].parentTextFrames[0])
                // apply object style
                found[i].parentTextFrames[0].appliedObjectStyle = doc.objectStyles.itemByName(queries[q].objectStyleName);
        }

    }

}
app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Set Object Styles');

[dublove]

Hi m1b

This script is not running.

Is there something wrong with your "findWhat"?

If there were panels where you could type Grep.
If there were drop-down lists to select object styles
That would be great.

[m1b]

Hi @dublove, of course you have to set the "findWhat" greps and objectStyleNames. Just for example, to match Ananda's script, set to this:

var queries = [
    { findWhat: '\\d{3}-\\d{3}@', objectStyleName: 'AB' },
];

Adding a UI would be cool. I might do that when I have time.

- Mark