Hi @Dave Creamer of IDEAS - thanks for the shout out - prompts me to follow up
I made a few changes for my own needs - allow to set indents for the column to frame, as I often have specific layouts that text cannot pop out of the frame edge. So it insets the text frames
You can change the insets to suit your own needs. Think it also adds vertical justification.
You can get more alignment options here
https://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#VerticalAlignment.html
// Columns2Frames.jsx
/*
This InDesign script can be used for replacing textframe columns with individual text frames.
//Original author: Steve Wareham, www.stevewareham.com
Updated for CS5 by Olav Martin Kvern
Select a textframe first, then run the script.
*/
main();
function main(){
if ((app.selection.length != 1 )||(app.selection[0].constructor.name != "TextFrame")) {
alert("Please select a text frame and try again.");
}
else{
// Get properties of textframe
var myDocument = app.documents.item(0);
var myTextFrame = app.selection[0];
var myTextFramePrev = myTextFrame.previousTextFrame;
var myTextFrameNext = myTextFrame.nextTextFrame;
var myColAmount = myTextFrame.textFramePreferences.textColumnCount;
var myMultipleCols = myColAmount - 1; // The cols. after the first one
var myTextFrameBounds = myTextFrame.geometricBounds;
var myGutterWidth = myTextFrame.textFramePreferences.textColumnGutter;
var myColWidth = ( (myTextFrameBounds[3] - myTextFrameBounds[1]) - (myGutterWidth * myMultipleCols) ) / myColAmount;
var myGutterAmount = myTextFrame.textFramePreferences.textColumnCount;
var myVerticalJustification = myTextFrame.textFramePreferences.verticalJustification;
var myInsets = [0.5, 0.3, 1, 0.3]; // [top, left, bottom, right] in mm
// Convert insets to points (1 mm = 2.83465 points)
for (var j = 0; j < myInsets.length; j++) {
myInsets[j] = myInsets[j] * 1;
}
// Find the first textFrame in the thread that myTextFrame is in, get its contents
var myFirstTextFrame = myTextFrame;
while (myFirstTextFrame.previousTextFrame instanceof TextFrame){
myFirstTextFrame = myFirstTextFrame.previousTextFrame;
}
var myContents = myFirstTextFrame.contents;
// Find the page to work on
var myPage = findPage(myTextFrame);
if (myPage == null)
{
alert("The text frame needs to be on a page for this script to run.");
myColAmount = 0; // Set myColAmount to 0 so the script doesn't run
}
// Create individual text frames if the original has more than one column
if (myColAmount > 1){
myTextFrame.name = "marked"; // Mark original textframe for removal
var myNewFrames = new Array();
// Create text frame for col. 1
myNewFrames[0] = myPage.textFrames.add();
myBounds = new Array();
myBounds[0] = myTextFrameBounds[0];
myBounds[1] = myTextFrameBounds[1];
myBounds[2] = myTextFrameBounds[2];
myBounds[3] = (myTextFrameBounds[1] + myColWidth);
myNewFrames[0].geometricBounds = myBounds;
myNewFrames[0].label = "0";
myNewFrames[0].textFramePreferences.properties = {
textColumnCount: 1,
insetSpacing: myInsets,
verticalJustification: myVerticalJustification
};
// Create text frames for col. 2 -> end
for (i = 1; i <= myMultipleCols; i ++){
myNewFrames[i] = myPage.textFrames.add();
myBounds[1] = myBounds[3] + myGutterWidth;
myBounds[3] = (myBounds[1] + myColWidth);
myNewFrames[i].geometricBounds = myBounds;
myNewFrames[i].label = (i + "") ;
myNewFrames[i].textFramePreferences.properties = {
textColumnCount: 1,
insetSpacing: myInsets,
verticalJustification: myVerticalJustification
};
}
// Link the new frames.
for (i = myMultipleCols; i > 0; i --){
j = i - 1;
myNewFrames[i].previousTextFrame = myNewFrames[j];
}
// If the text frame was part of a thread, relink the new frame to the thread
if (myTextFramePrev != null){ // If there was a frame before
myNewFrames[0].previousTextFrame = myTextFramePrev;
}
// If there was no frame before, but a frame after
if((myTextFrameNext != null)&&(myTextFramePrev == null)){
myNewFrames[myMultipleCols].nextTextFrame = myTextFrameNext;
}
// If there are no frames before or after
if((myTextFramePrev == null)&&(myTextFrameNext == null)){
myDocument.textFrames.itemByName("marked").nextTextFrame = myNewFrames[0];
}
// Remove original textFrame
myDocument.textFrames.itemByName("marked").remove();
}
}
}
// Use the findPage function to get the page the textframe is on
function findPage(theObj){
var thePage = theObj.parentPage;
return thePage;
}
11
Replies
First, Get your Selection/Arrow tool. Select your three-column block of text. Go to the Control Panel at the top of the document window and change the number of columns from three to one, as shown at right.
Second, select the Layout>Margin and Columns menu command to open the dialog box. Move down to the Columns: edit box and change it to 3, then click the OK button. This will make it easier for you to line up the columns and size the width equally.
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