Looking for a way to rename Indesign Layers in bulk.

Hi @Little_Matty, I have written a script that gives a great ability for renaming things, especially if you have a good text editor. I'm not sure if this is exactly what you want, but I couldn't resist sharing it here because I use this A LOT and find it very useful.

1. Run script (see below). You will see a large edit window with each item on a line of text.

2. Make changes to the text, any way you like, but keep the same number of lines (the line order is consequential). 

Personally, I copy/paste into the free VSCode because it has *excellent* text editing features including multi-line editing and regular expression find/change. When you're finished editing, copy/paste the text back into the script window.

3. Press Apply button.

So, if you want to name Page Items, here is the script:

/**
 * Edit Page Item Names As Text.js
 * Can easily be re-purposed to change other properties as text.
 * Change `settings.description`, `settings.things` and `settings.prop`.
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2024-01-14
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/looking-for-a-way-to-rename-indesign-layers-in-bulk/m-p/14353655
 */
(function () {

    var settings = {
        description: 'Rename Page Items',
        things: app.activeDocument.pageItems,
        prop: 'name',
        before: [],
        after: [],
    };

    app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, settings.description);


    /**
     * Sets properties according to `settings` global object.
     * @author m1b
     * @version 2024-01-14
     */
    function main() {

        if (!settings.things)
            return alert('Sorry there are no things for "' + settings.description + '".');

        if ('function' === typeof settings.things.everyItem)
            settings.before = settings.things.everyItem()[settings.prop];

        if ('Array' === settings.things.constructor.name)
            for (var i = 0; i < settings.things.length; i++)
                settings.before[i] = settings.things[i][settings.prop];

        // show UI
        while (settings.before.length !== settings.after.length)
            if (ui(settings) == 2)
                return;

        // set the properties
        for (var i = settings.before.length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
            if (settings.things[i][settings.prop] != settings.after[i])
                settings.things[i][settings.prop] = settings.areNumbers
                    ? Number(settings.after[i])
                    : settings.after[i];

    };

})();


/**
 * UI with large text edit field.
 * Will update `settings.after` with
 * final edited text, which must
 * contain the same number of lines
 * as `settings.before`.
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2024-01-14
 * @param {Object} settings
 * @param {Array<String>} settings.before - the before array of strings.
 * @param {Array<String>} [settings.description] - a short description of what's going to happen (default: none).
 * @returns {Number} - ScriptUI result code (1 = good, 2 = user cancelled).
 */
function ui(settings) {

    var count = settings.before.length,
        text = settings.before.join('\n');

    var w = new Window("dialog", 'Editor by m1b'),
        title = undefined == settings.description ? '' : settings.description + ' - ',
        intro = w.add('statictext', undefined, title + 'Important: must have ' + count + ' lines.', { alignment: 'left' }),
        textArea = w.add('edittext', undefined, text, { multiline: true, scrolling: true }),
        row = w.add("Group {orientation:'row', alignment:['right','top'] }"),
        cancelButton = row.add('button', undefined, 'Cancel', { name: 'cancel' }),
        okButton = row.add('button', undefined, 'Apply', { name: 'ok' });

    textArea.preferredSize.height = w.maximumSize.height - 400;
    textArea.preferredSize.width = 600;
    textArea.minimumSize.height = 250;
    textArea.minimumSize.width = 200;

    okButton.onClick = function () {

        settings.after = textArea.text.split('\n');

        if (count !== settings.after.length)
            return alert('There must be '
                + count + ' lines of text, but there are '
                + settings.after.length + ' lines. Please fix and try again.');

        w.close(1);

    };

    w.center();
    return w.show();

};

 Important note: many page items won't have a name to start with, so they will appear on a blank line and you must keep the same number of lines when Applying.

This is a very flexible script, so if you actually do want to rename Layers, just make settings look like this:

var settings = {
    description: 'Rename Layers',
    things: app.activeDocument.layers,
    prop: 'name',
    before: [],
    after: [],
};

If you want to rename, say, Paragraph Styles, make settings look like this:

var settings = {
    description: 'Rename Paragraph Styles',
    things: app.activeDocument.allParagraphStyles,
    prop: 'name',
    before: [],
    after: [],
};

Just for crazy demo, select a small amount of text or text frame and try this:

var settings = {
    description: 'Set Character Sizes',
    things: app.activeDocument.selection
        && app.activeDocument.selection[0]
        && app.activeDocument.selection[0].characters,       
    prop: 'pointSize',
    areNumbers: true,
    before: [],
    after: [],
};

Anyway, if you find this script useful, please let me know. It's pretty bare bones, so feel free to elaborate on it, too.

- Mark