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Nick37129562ryen
Known Participant
March 13, 2025
Answered

Number of character styles applied to a word - help required please

  • March 13, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 1355 views

Hi eveyone,

Using the code below I can see the name of the character style is applied to a word.

var mySelection = app.selection[0];
alert(mySelection.words[6].appliedCharacterStyle.name)

The code above seems to pick up the character style applied to the first part of it.

 

What I'm trying to do is check if there is more that 1 character style applied to a single word but, as yet I've not managed.

For example, 'posted', has 2 character styles applied - plain and bold. I'm trying to get that count in InDesign via a script.

Is it possible?

Thanks in advance.

 

Correct answer m1b

Hi @Nick37129562ryen, the object you are looking for is TextStyleRange. You can use it in your example like this:

var mySelection = app.selection[0];
var myWord = mySelection.words[6];
var textStyleRanges = myWord.textStyleRanges;

for (var i = 0; i < textStyleRanges.length; i++) {
    var tsr = textStyleRanges[i];
    alert(tsr.appliedCharacterStyle.name);
}

Does that make sense? TextStyleRanges are ranges of text that have exactly the same character attributes and styles applied.

- Mark

1 reply

m1b
Community Expert
m1bCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 13, 2025

Hi @Nick37129562ryen, the object you are looking for is TextStyleRange. You can use it in your example like this:

var mySelection = app.selection[0];
var myWord = mySelection.words[6];
var textStyleRanges = myWord.textStyleRanges;

for (var i = 0; i < textStyleRanges.length; i++) {
    var tsr = textStyleRanges[i];
    alert(tsr.appliedCharacterStyle.name);
}

Does that make sense? TextStyleRanges are ranges of text that have exactly the same character attributes and styles applied.

- Mark

    N
    Nick37129562ryenAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 13, 2025

    Hi Mark,

    Just another quick question, please.

    Is it possible to get the page position coordinates of a word, that may have more than one style applied to it, from my initial selection?

    Thanks.

    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Legend
    March 14, 2025

    Hi Mark,

     

    Brilliant!!! 🙂

    Thanks for your help and showing me a different way to approach it.

    Your solution works great and does what I was trying to do 🙂

     

    I'm going to try and take it one step further and draw a triangle just off the page to indicate found instances but,

    what you've done will already be a big help!

     

    Yes, I'm familiar with Grep thanks. I use it every week in some of my find/replace presets but previously, BBEdit!

     

    Thanks again for all your help.

     

    Cheers Mark 🙂

     

     

    P.S. Just curious, would my approach of checking the textStyleRange contents have worked or could you forsee issues?


    quote

    I'm going to try and take it one step further and draw a triangle just off the page to indicate found instances 

     

    By @Nick37129562ryen

     

    In that case - there is an easier solution - Anchor an object just before your word - or after - with applied ObjectStyle, so you can easily reposition / format all those "highlighters".

     

    Another bonus - they'll flow with the text. 

     

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