[VB/C#] Setting text as content without losing format information

[HansSH04]

Hello everyone!

I would like to set the Contents field of an InsertionPoint (or other object) from a database in a way that allows me to pass format information.

Sample text: "This is a text"

This is what I currently can do:

InsertionPoint ip;

ip.Contents = "This is a text";

Of course this means that I will lose all format information, so I have some pretty complicated code that splits the text in several sub-groups ("This", " is a " and "text") and sets the contents and styles for those. If at all possible, I would like to simplify this.

So, as mentioned in the first sentence, my question is: Is there any way to set the Contents field with format information?

I currently use Visual C# 2017 and InDesign CS6. An upgrade to CC is already scheduled. InDesign is accessed via Interop.InDesign.

Any help is highly appreciated!

Best regards,

Hans

[Laubender]

Hi Hhans,

Other than applying a GREP style or a nested style through a paragraph style I see no way of doing this.

Both include rules or patterns how is what formatted using character styles.

Regards,
Uwe

[HansSH04]

Hi Uwe,

thanks a lot. I will look into both options. May be I can use one of them.

Best Regards,

Hans

[Laubender]

Hi Hans,

hm… You said that InDesign CC is on its way to your machine 🙂

This means a huge gap in functionality between CS6 and CC 2018.

Unfortunately in regards of assigning contents nothing has changed in the DOM.

But:
The title of this thread says [VB/C#]. Check, if there are any problems with e.g. VB Script (if this relevant to you) and InDesign CC 2018. I think, I saw some reports on this here in the scripting forum. Could be wrong. Basically I'm on Mac OSX…

Regards,
Uwe

[HansSH04]

Hi Uwe,

Oh, I started developing my program back in the days of InDesign 2. And with every new version that my customer bought, I had to adapt quite a few things. I fully expect having to do the same with CC 2018. It's already on my PC btw., just not on the customer's yet.

Best Regards,

Hans

[Kasyan Servetsky]

My couple of cents:

Check out xTags.

If your date base software is capable of generating the output using the xTags language, you'll be able to easily apply any formatting (e.g. bold, italic, super/subscript, par/char styles, etc.) to the text by script. Also, you'll be able to replace 'image' tags with images applying all the necessary formatting (e.g. width, height, scaling, skew, border, etc.).

— Kas

[HansSH04]

Hi Kas,

xTags might be a solution for my problem. I will look into it. Thanks for the heads up 🙂

Best Regards,

Hans