Script to search all text that is not specific color

Hi Rob,

hiding a table is an issue in itself. Cannot be done with Conditional Text.

What can be done: Apply a condition to text inside a text cell and set the condition to hide the text.

Next step would be to set the height of a row to 0. And you cannot do this. Not in the UI, not by scripting.

Even if you set all cell insets to 0. That's simply impossible with InDesign versions higher than 7 or 7.5.

FWIW: Once it was possible with InDesign CS4 and CS5, I think; by scripting only.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Doesn’t look like conditional text works on tables, with or without a script.

OP said: "Greetings, GREP script is the best so far, but all scripts have same issue - paragraph marks get condition so after you hide condition some text gets merged together, while tables disapear:"

That's why I said:

"Be careful. Do all this on a duplicate of your document, because hide and later unhide a condition can cause issues to paragraph formatting if hidden and not hidden text is parted with an end-of-paragraph marker."

And that means: You cannot hide the paragraph markers.

Although this could lead to another issue: Empty paragraphs that are left overs.

I do not know a workaround for this.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

I looked more closely at the Grep approach and this seems to work—this is a scripted version of Uwe’s first post:

//the text fill color swatch to search for–change as needed:
var r = "Red"

var doc = app.documents.item(0);
applyFillCondition(doc.colors.itemByName(r), [makeCondition(doc, "RedText")]);
checkCondition([makeCondition(doc, "NotRedText")]);
var rc = doc.conditions.itemByName("RedText");
rc.remove();

/**
* Search for text with a specified fill color and apply a text condition 
* @9397041 the document to add the condition to 
* @9397041 condition name 
* @Return the new condition 
* 
*/
function applyFillCondition(fc, cc){
    app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.findGrepPreferences.fillColor = fc;
    app.changeGrepPreferences.appliedConditions = cc;
    app.activeDocument.changeGrep()
}

/**
* Finds text with no condition applied and adds a new condition to the found text
* @9397041 the condition to apply 
* @Return void 
* 
*/
function checkCondition(cc){
    app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.findGrepPreferences.appliedConditions = [];
    app.changeGrepPreferences.appliedConditions = cc;
    app.activeDocument.changeGrep()
}

/**
* Makes a new text condition 
* @9397041 the document to add the condition to 
* @9397041 condition name 
* @Return the new condition 
* 
*/
function makeCondition(d, n){
    var nc;
    try {
        d.conditions.add({name:n});
    }catch(e) {
        nc = d.conditions.itemByName(n);
    } 
    return d.conditions.itemByName(n);
}

Hi Rob,

it's totally unclear what color "red" actually means in this context.

Could be 100% of a swatch named "red", could be something else.

It depends on the version of InDesign how we could tackle this.

With InDesign 2021 it should be possible to find a specific color with the new feature in the Find/Change dialog.

I did not script that yet.

With older versions you could go through all stories and loop textStyleRanges and test for property fillColor with value color named "red" if there is a range of percentages of "red" that should be found. I cannot tell what our OP expects, because there are "texts in a lot of colors". It's too early, I think, to suggest some code. What we really need is a typical sample document…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

I couldn’t figure out how to script a grep to add a text condition to everything but red filled text—I’m guessing Uwe might know how.

You can loop through the document words, which is probably slower, but this seems to work:

var sn = "Red"
var doc = app.documents.item(0);
applyCondition(sn, [makeCondition(doc, "NotRedText")])


/**
* Apply a text condition to text 
* @9397041 fill color of text to skip 
* @9397041 the condition to apply 
* @Return void 
* 
*/
function applyCondition(sn, cn){
    for(var i=0; i < doc.stories.length; i++){  
        var s = doc.stories.item(i);  
        for(var j=0; j < s.words.length; j++){  
            var p=s.words.item(j);  
            if (p.fillColor != doc.colors.itemByName(sn)) {
                p.appliedConditions = cn
            } 
        }  
    }  
}




/**
* Makes a new text condition 
* @9397041 the document to add the condition to 
* @9397041 condition name 
* @Return the new condition 
* 
*/
function makeCondition(d, n){
    var nc;
    try {
        d.conditions.add({name:n});
    }catch(e) {
        nc = d.conditions.itemByName(n);
    } 
    return d.conditions.itemByName(n);
}

Hi miodragz46273948,

I do not think you need a script for this task.

Do it in two steps:
[1] Search text that is actually in that color.

Apply a condition to the found text.

[2] Search for text that has no condition.

Apply a different condition that you will hide later.

Be careful. Do all this on a duplicate of your document, because hide and later unhide a condition can cause issues to paragraph formatting if hidden and not hidden text is parted with an end-of-paragraph marker.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )