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Phil 815
Phil 815
Inspiring
April 19, 2023
Answered

How to get coordinates of table column or cell

  • April 19, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 4665 views

Hi, I've been searching for a way to get the coordinates of a table column or cell. The reason I need this data is that I want to place another object inline with a specific column/cell. I've seen some forums discussing the idea of using createOutlines() to tempoarily create an outline that I can use for it's geometricBounds property, but that doesn't seem to work (The exception I get is "NoPathCreated"). Any idea on how I could get this data would be appreciated!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer m1b

    Hi @Phil 815, I've written a script that includes a function getCellBounds. See this thread for the script. To get the bounds of a column (assuming that bounds of a cell wouldn't be adequate), you could calculate it similarly to the way getTableBounds function works. Let me know how you go.

    - Mark

    4 replies

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 9, 2023

    @Marc Autret said: "[Of course there is no hope that Adobe cares about this bug and tries to fix it. They focus on serious things: renaming masterpage to parentpage, etc]"

     

    Hi Marc,

    just voted to fix the bug at InDesign UserVoice:

     

    Moving Anchoring Text to Anchored Object Crashes InDesign
    Marc Autret, June 08, 2023
    https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/913162-adobe-indesign-sdk-scripting-bugs-and-features/suggestions/46753123-moving-anchoring-text-to-anchored-object-crashes-i

     

    Posted code there:

     

    Code:
// Tested in ID CS6 and CC
// (see animation)
const BEG = LocationOptions.AT_BEGINNING;
var TFS = app.activeDocument.textFrames;

source = TFS.itemByName('source').texts[0]; // Text: contains the anchor

host = TFS.itemByName('host'); // TextFrame: 'host' frame
dest = host.textFrames.itemByName('dest'); // TextFrame: 'dest' frame

source.move(BEG,dest); // --> ID crash
//source.move(BEG,host); // WOULD BE OK
//source.duplicate(BEG,dest); // WOULD BE OK

     

     

    Thanks Marc for reporting the bug.

     

    PS: Attached the InDesign test document with the named text frames.

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender
    ( Adobe Community Expert )

      Robert at ID-Tasker
      Robert at ID-Tasker
      Legend
      April 20, 2023

      What exactly do you mean by "inline"?

       

      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 20, 2023

      Hi @Phil 815 ,

      also look into the TableCellBox.jsx script by Marc Autret:

      https://github.com/indiscripts/IdGoodies/blob/master/snip/TableCellBox.jsx

       

      The Magic Parent Bounding Box
      Marc Autret, August 04, 2022

      https://www.indiscripts.com/post/2022/08/magic-parent-bounding-box

       

      And a discussion in German that inspired Marc Autret at hilfdirselbst.ch:

      https://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/foren/Koordinaten_einer_Tabellenzelle_P583998.html

       

      Regards,
      Uwe Laubender
      ( Adobe Community Expert )

        m1b
        Community Expert
        m1bCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        April 23, 2023

        Thanks @Laubender, that script looks very sophisticated! 🙂

        m1b
        Community Expert
        m1bCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
        Community Expert
        April 20, 2023

        Hi @Phil 815, I've written a script that includes a function getCellBounds. See this thread for the script. To get the bounds of a column (assuming that bounds of a cell wouldn't be adequate), you could calculate it similarly to the way getTableBounds function works. Let me know how you go.

        - Mark

          Phil 815
          Phil 815Author
          Inspiring
          April 25, 2023

          These answers were extremely helpful and got me to a solution. Thank you!

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