InDesign Javascript convert text to table

[geirb9262873]

Hello,

I have a document where I have blocks of text that are supposed to become tables.

I have tabs (\t) to separate between colums and newline (\r) to separate between rows.

For the moment, I to to go through the document manually, select the text blocks and convert them to tables. 

All the lines of text that are supposed to become tables have the paragraph tag "Body-for-Table".

In between there are other parts of text, such as headings, sub-headnings and so on.

The number of lines in each block of "Body-for-Table" can vary from one to 20 or so.

Is it possible to make a javascript that goes through the document and converts each text block "Body-for-Table" to a table? My Table Style is called "Table-pratiqué-etc".

Best regards from

Geir

[Eugene Tyson]

Can you drop an idml sample document of what you need. I could try for you but would like to see what you're working with.

[Dirk Becker]

@Eugene Tyson The convertToTable action also has a matching method in the Text types.

Happy programming …

[geirb9262873]

Hi Eugene. Thank you for a very quick reply. I'll send you that as soon as I am back home by the computer. 
Cheers,

Geir

[rob day]

Hi @geirb9262873 , Maybe something like this:

//an array of texts with "Body-for-Table" para style
var ra = getTextStyleSearch("Body-for-Table");

var t;
for (var i = 0; i < ra.length; i++){
    t = ra[i].convertToTable("\t","\r");
    
    //assign a table style here?

    //remove empty row at end?
    t.rows.lastItem().remove();
};   

/**
* Search for a paragraph styles 
* @ param fp the name of a paragrah style to search for String
* @ return result array
*/
function getTextStyleSearch(fp){
    app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = app.findChangeTextOptions = null;
    app.findTextPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = fp;
    return app.activeDocument.findText()
}

[geirb9262873]

Hi Rob,

That was magic. It works! 

I managed to change the table style of all the tables by adding to a another script that swaps the columns.

Thank you very much!

Cheers,

Geir

[geirb9262873]

Hi again Rob,

I found out that if I put in a newline after each of the text blocks with para-tag "Body-for-Table" and give this new line another para-tag, such as "Body", for example, then the result comes out nicely.  Then, the various headings and sub-headings between the tables remain intact. If you can find a way around this, it would be marvellous.

Cheers,

Geir 

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Got the sample from @Eugene Tyson —does this work?:

//an array of texts with "Body-for-Table" para style
var ra = getTextStyleSearch("Body-for-Table");

var t, ln;
//reverse loop
for (var i = ra.length-1; i > -1; i--){
    try {
        //get the characters without the last return
        ln = ra[i].characters.itemByRange(0,ra[i].characters.length-2);
        ln.convertToTable();
    }catch(e) {}  
    
}; 


/**
* Search for a paragraph styles 
* @ param fp the name of a paragrah style to search for String
* @ return result array
*/
function getTextStyleSearch(fp){
    app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = app.findChangeTextOptions = null;
    app.findTextPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = fp;
    return app.activeDocument.findText()
}

[geirb9262873]

Hi Rob,

I just tried it and it works!

Thank you so much. Smart trick with the reverse loop.

This save me a lot of work.

Each documents is 15-20 pages full of tables and I have tens of documents.

With kind regards,

Geir

[geirb9262873]

Hello again,

Actually, it turns out that the script affects the para-styles of the various headings above the tables, so that gives me a job to change all the headings back to the original para-tag.

Cheers,

Geir

[rob day]

Can you share a sample doc?

[Eugene Tyson]

Sample was shared with me @geirb9262873 let me know if ok to send on

[geirb9262873]

Hi Eugene,

Yes, you can send on the document I shared with you.

Cheers,

Geir

[geirb9262873]

Here is the WeTransfer link to the IDML file. I included the InDesign file, as well.

https://we.tl/t-C3jB189C67

Cheers,

Geir