InDesign Script to Auto Apply certain CharStyle when Punctuation is used with specific Font

[Kallista262462118vle]

I'm using a custom font for my headers in InDesign called Xillian Family, which doesn't have any punctuation marks. If I need to use punctuation within a header, I apply a font called Yeseva One. I'm trying to automate this process by writing an indesign script that will automatically apply a Yeseva One character style to any punctuation within a text range or text frame that uses Xillian Family. I tried using the script below, but it's not working.

// Define the font name and the character style name
var fontName = "Xillian Family";
var cStyleName = "Yeseva One";

// Get a reference to the font and the character style, and create the character style if it doesn't exist
var font = app.fonts.itemByName(fontName);
var cStyle;
if (app.activeDocument.characterStyles.itemByName(cStyleName) == null) {
  cStyle = app.activeDocument.characterStyles.add({name: cStyleName, appliedFont: "Yeseva One"});
} else {
  cStyle = app.activeDocument.characterStyles.itemByName(cStyleName);
}

// Define a function to apply the character style to punctuation marks in a text range
function applyCharacterStyleToPunctuation(textRange) {
  for (var j = 0; j < textRange.characters.length; j++) {
    var character = textRange.characters[j];

    // Check if the character is a punctuation mark
    if (/[\u0021-\u002F\u003A-\u0040\u005B-\u0060\u007B-\u007E]/.test(character.contents)) {

      // Check if the text range still exists
      if (textRange.isValid) {
        // Apply the character style to the punctuation mark
        character.appliedCharacterStyle = cStyle;
      }
    }
  }
}

// Define a function to handle the "afterSelectionChanged" event
function onSelectionChanged(event) {
  var selection = app.selection[0];

  // Check if the selection is a text frame or text range
  if (selection instanceof TextFrame || selection instanceof InsertionPoint || selection instanceof Character) {

    // Loop through all the text ranges in the selection
    for (var i = 0; i < selection.textStyleRanges.length; i++) {
      var textRange = selection.textStyleRanges[i];

      // Check if the text range uses the Xillian Family font
      if (textRange.appliedFont == font) {

        // Apply the character style to punctuation marks in the text range
        applyCharacterStyleToPunctuation(textRange);
      }
    }
  }
}

// Add an event listener for the "afterSelectionChanged" event
app.eventListeners.add("afterSelectionChanged", onSelectionChanged);

[Eugene Tyson]

You can do this with GREP or Nested styles in paragraph styles.

Similar to the instructions here

https://creativepro.com/5-cool-things-you-can-do-with-grep-styles/

[rob day]

Hi @Kallista262462118vle , In your case the GREP Style code Eugene is suggesting would probably be [[:punc:]]. Here the Paragraph Style named Xillian Style would apply the Character Style named Yeseva One to all the paragraph’s puncuation

[Eugene Tyson]

yes - that's good for most punctuation - but I do notice it doesn't find a minus sign and a few other out there characters that are punctuation. I'm not sure why.

So if there are any further characters you need you can include them with the same steps - new style and include extra punctuation this way

You can insert or remove any of the punctuation required. 

Where the grep for punct as pointed out is good - I found it doesn't always catch all.

The below is just an example of how to insert various combinations of different punctuation that may be missed for some reason.

[\,\.\?\!;\:\'\"\(\)\[\]\{\}\-\—\–\/\\]

This character class includes:

Comma: ,
Period: .
Question mark: ?
Exclamation point: !
Semicolon: ;
Colon: :
Apostrophe: '
Quotation marks: "
Parentheses: ()
Brackets: []
Curly braces: {}
Hyphens: -, —, and –
Slashes: / and \