I have a long document and I need to remove some text frames that appear on every page. Those frames share the same y coordinate and some others that share the same x coordinate. Is there a script that can locate those text frames and delete them throughout the document?
I'm on Windows so no applescript 
1 Correct answer
Now to the second part:
If you have your current text frame, you can read the geometric Bounds. Since you want to find only frames with specific x or y coordinates, you need only y1 and x1. And since the values could have a lot of decimals, it is a good idea to round the values, as Peter mentioned.
...var curDoc = app.activeDocument;
var allTextFrames = curDoc.textFrames;
var yValue = 11.5;
var xValue = 20;
var nTextFrames = allTextFrames.length-1;
for (var i = nTextFrames; i >= 0; i--) {
var curTextFram
20
Replies
Yeah you did it ! Now we can start really helping you 
app.activeDocument.textFrames; is a reference that you will recall later so you may want to store into a variable:
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var myTextFrames = doc.textFrames;
When you do loop, it's always a good habit not to check the "array" length every round. So you may want to store it inside another variable:
var n = myTextFrames.length - 1 ; //-1 if decremental loop
When you build a loop, the direction (incrementtal or decremental impact how you build the loop.
In your case you try to loop backward but the exit condition states that the loop as to go through as long as the length is lesser than 0 which is not from the beginning. So your loop never runs actually.
When you go backwards, your exit condition is that your index is greater or equals 0;
for ( i = n; i>=0 ; i-- ) {
myTextFrames //reference to the text frame of rank i
}
Now geometricBounds is an array of four reals as you saw. If you are expecting a very same position, you could store the array and compare to the geometric bounds of the object:
for ( i = n; i>=0 ; i-- ) {
if ( myTextFrames.geometricBounds == [0,0,10, 100] ) myTextFrames.remove();
}
but chances are high that an user might have moved things a little so the comparison might not work. So and that will be your very last step, it's generally better to define a virtual surrounding box (i.e. an array of 4 reals) that is bigger than teh box dimension. Then you can check if the geometricbounds stand inside that virtual box giving you a bit of margin. Then you can safely remove the object.
Keep up the good work. You have done the toughest part…start coding
Loic
Hi @Marc,
Oh ok, I guess I never got into that pitfall because I never had to do such comparisons but it's interesting to know 
Plus, your code will be a perfect snippet to put aside for further use.
Given the lack of experienceof our friend, let's offer her another form of comparison
var a = [1,2,3,4];
var b = [1,2,3,4];
if ( a[0]==b[0]
&& a[1]==b[1]
&& a[2]==b[2]
&& a[3]==b[3] ) { alert("a & b equal); }
Loic
app.activeDocument.textFrames;
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var myTextFrames = doc.textFrames;
var n = myTextFrames.length - 1 ; //-1 if decremental loop
for ( i = n; i>=0 ; i-- ) {
myTextFrames
}
for ( i = n; i>=0 ; i-- ) {
if ( myTextFrames.geometricBounds == [170,-11.5,117,4.1] ) myTextFrames.remove();
}
Still doesn't work .
O.k., so let’s go one step backwards!
The goal is to find textframes on a specific x or y position. So you need first: all text frames in your document. Since you cannot simply call textframes, you must call the containers as well. Als Loic said, it is always a good idea to store such things in a variable.
var curDoc = app.activeDocument;
var allTextFrames = curDoc.textFrames;
While you can count your textframes, you can loop through every individual textframe with it’s index. And because you want to delete frames, it may a good idea to loop from the end. Since this so called index starts with '0' instead of '1', we need one loop less than the length of your textframes.
var nTextFrames = allTextFrames.length-1;
for (var i = nTextFrames; i >= 0; i--) {
var curTextFrame = allTextFrames;
// do something
}
Now to the second part:
If you have your current text frame, you can read the geometric Bounds. Since you want to find only frames with specific x or y coordinates, you need only y1 and x1. And since the values could have a lot of decimals, it is a good idea to round the values, as Peter mentioned.
var curDoc = app.activeDocument;
var allTextFrames = curDoc.textFrames;
var yValue = 11.5;
var xValue = 20;
var nTextFrames = allTextFrames.length-1;
for (var i = nTextFrames; i >= 0; i--) {
var curTextFrame = allTextFrames;
var gB = curTextFrame.geometricBounds;
var y1 = gB[0].toFixed(2);
var x1 = gB[1].toFixed(2);
if (y1 == yValue) {
curTextFrame.remove();
}
if (x1 == xValue) {
curTextFrame.remove();
}
}
!!! It finally works!!! I won't have to delete 1,4000 text frames by hand!!
I only managed to get it to work when I only use the x or only the y coordinate otherwise it removes all text boxes on the same y and all on the same x without them sharing both x&y but still, this works just fine.
var curDoc = app.activeDocument;
var allTextFrames = curDoc.textFrames;
var yValue = -11.5;
// var xValue = 170;
var nTextFrames = allTextFrames.length-1;
for (var i = nTextFrames; i >= 0; i--) {
var curTextFrame = allTextFrames;
var gB = curTextFrame.geometricBounds;
var y1 = gB[0].toFixed(2);
// var x1 = gB[1].toFixed(2);
if (y1 == yValue) {
curTextFrame.remove();
}
// if (x1 == xValue) {
// curTextFrame.remove();
// }
}
Thank you all!
Hopefully you understand, that a lot of people try to give you an entry to scripting .
I would assume, that this version, works with both cases?
var curDoc = app.activeDocument;
var allTextFrames = curDoc.textFrames;
var yValue = 11.5;
var xValue = 20;
var nTextFrames = allTextFrames.length-1;
var i, curTextFrame, gB, y1, x1;
for (i = nTextFrames; i >= 0; i--) {
curTextFrame = allTextFrames;
gB = curTextFrame.geometricBounds;
y1 = gB[0].toFixed(2);
x1 = gB[1].toFixed(2);
if (y1 == yValue && x1 != xValue) {
curTextFrame.remove();
}
else if (x1 == xValue && y1 != yValue) {
curTextFrame.remove();
}
}
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