Sort by Name via script

[edsonfurman]

Hi everybody,

I would appreciate if someone could give some clue to sort by name the

Paragraph Styles, Character Styles, Object Styles and Swatches panels

via script.

Thank you all in advance.

Edson Furman

edsonfurman@terra.com.br

[Peter Kahrel · Accepted solution]

For sorting styles I have used the script listed below -- works in CS3 and CS4 though it's been a while since I last tried. It could be coded more elegantly but it always worked fine as it is. It doesn't take into account any style groups -- I don't know what happens if your documents contain any so you'd better not try.

As to swatches, these are not so easy to sort. There was some discussion about this at either of these sites:

http://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/gforum/gforum.cgi?jump=forum%3D4

http://indesign-faq.de/

Peter

#target indesign

sort_par_styles (app.documents[0]);
sort_char_styles (app.documents[0]);
sort_obj_styles (app.documents[0]);

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

function sort_par_styles (doc)
    {
    var string_array = sort_par_names (doc);
    for (var i = 0; i < string_array.length; i++)
        doc.paragraphStyles.item (string_array).move (
            LocationOptions.after, doc.paragraphStyles[i+2])
    }

function sort_par_names (doc)
  {
  var array = doc.paragraphStyles.everyItem().name;
  array.shift (); array.shift ();  // exclude [No p.] and [Basic p/]
  return array.sort (case_insensitive);
  }

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

function sort_char_styles (doc)
    {
    var string_array = sort_char_names (doc);
    for (var i = 0; i < string_array.length; i++)
        doc.characterStyles.item (string_array).move (
            LocationOptions.after, doc.characterStyles[i+1])
    }

function sort_char_names (doc)
  {
  var array = doc.characterStyles.everyItem().name;
  array.shift ();  // exclude [None]
  return array.sort (case_insensitive);
  }

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

function sort_obj_styles (doc)
    {
    var string_array = sort_obj_names (doc);
    for (var i = 0; i < string_array.length; i++)
        doc.objectStyles.item (string_array).move (
            LocationOptions.after, doc.objectStyles[i+4])
    }

function sort_obj_names (doc)
  {
  var array = doc.objectStyles.everyItem().name;
  array.shift (); array.shift (); array.shift ();  array.shift (); // exclude  [None], [Basic Graphics Frame], [Basic Text Frame], [Basic Grid]
  return array.sort (case_insensitive);
  }

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

function case_insensitive (a, b)
  {
  return a.toLowerCase() > b.toLowerCase()
  }

[edsonfurman]

Great, Peter! Very thank you!

Edson

[lfcorullon]

An easiest way to do that...

app.menuActions.itemByID(8505).invoke();
app.menuActions.itemByID(8511).invoke();
app.menuActions.itemByID(113168).invoke();
app.menuActions.itemByID(132113).invoke();
app.menuActions.itemByID(132133).invoke();

It will sort styles (character, paragraph, object, cell and table) by name.

[MadMac55]

@lfcorullon 

Are there itemByID(**numbers here**) for Swatches too ??

[lfcorullon]

No. To sort swatches, scripting is much more complex.

Thanks for Justin, from Ajar Productions, we have a free script for this.

https://ajarproductions.com/blog/2013/12/13/sort-swatches-in-adobe-indesign/

[MadMac55]

Thanks a ton!  🙂

[MadMac55]

It turns out this was too long ago to be compatible.  I tried to just open the installers and see the script code to be able to make it a jsx but no such luck.  

[lfcorullon]

It is still compatible.

It is a jsx file.

When you download the zip, try to rename the zxp file extension to zip and then open it. The jsx file is there.

[MadMac55]

Worked nicely.  Thank you for that tip.