is it possible to turn off start section on only selected pages using a script?

[davidn5918184]

I have a bunch of pages that are individually tagged as start section pages. I want to turn off the pages that are in a sequence. For example if I had pages 9-12,15,25,40-50, I would want to turn off start section for pages 10-12, and 41-50. That way those sections would still start at pg 9 and 40 but the rest would be automatic page numbering. The individual pages would remain untouched. I wondering the best way to do this.

1. Select the pages I want to turn off the start page option, and then run a script but I'm not sure if I can use selected pages as a input.

2. Use a script to detect sequential pages and process those. 

Any ideas on how to go about this?

[rob day]

You can add new sections like this:

var doc = app.documents.item(0);

//which document page to start the section 
var ps = doc.pages[6];
//the section prefix
var pre = "Hello"
//add a new section
doc.sections.add({continueNumbering:false, pageStart:ps, pageNumberStart:1, sectionPrefix:pre, includeSectionPrefix:true})

Other section properties:

https://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#Section.html#d1e265407

[Laubender]

Hi David,

unfortunately there still is no DOM command in scripting to detect pages that are selected in the Pages Panel.

But I solved this problem three years ago:

active page vs selected page
Correct answer by Laubender, Jan 15, 2017
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/active-page-vs-selected-page/m-p/8776565#M35095

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

An alternate approach to find all pages selected in the Pages Panel would be:

[1] Switch to the Page Tool

[2] Select all pages where you want to remove sections in the Pages Panel

Now you can work with app.selection and iterate through the selected items; all selected items are actually pages.

That would you allow to remove the section entry:

var selectedPages = app.selection;

for( var n=0; n<selectedPages.length; n++ )
{
	var section = selectedPages[n].appliedSection;
	section.remove();
};

Warning: Make sure that you do not select the first page of your document in step 2.

The section there is the default one and cannot be removed.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[davidn5918184]

would it be possible to do this with a an arry instead of a selection, something like this but not this because it doesn't work?

var selectedPages = [10,11,12,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50];

for( var n=0; n<selectedPages.length; n++ )
{
	var section = selectedPages[n].appliedSection;
	section.remove();
};

a 

[rob day]

You should be able to add a line t Uwe’s script to invoke the Page Tool: 

app.menuActions.itemByName("Page Tool")

[Laubender]

Hi Rob,

no need for a menu action:

app.toolBoxTools.currentTool = UITools.PAGE_TOOL;

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender]

In principle, as an idea, your code will work.

You only have to access real pages in the active document.

And that can be done with the documentOffset value of a given page, an integer number where counting starts with the number 0 for the first page in the document, number 1 for the second page and so on.

See DOM documentation for this:

http://jongware.mit.edu/idcs6js/pc_Page.html#documentOffset

/*
	NOTE:
	doc.pages[ 10 ]
	is the eleventh page in your document!
	Regardless of its name.
*/
var documentOffsetNumbersArray = [10,11,12,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50];
var doc = app.documents[0];

for( var n=0; n<documentOffsetNumbersArray.length; n++ )
{
	var currentDocOffsetNumber = documentOffsetNumbersArray[n] ;
	doc.pages[ currentDocOffsetNumber ].appliedSection.remove();
};

Alternatively, if you want to work with page names, using string values, that can be done as well.

But a page name could be "001" or "1" or "A" or "a" or "I" or any other string that is allowed for naming a page.

So if you have page names in your array instead of numbers it could work like that:

/*
	NOTE:
	doc.pages.itemByName("10")
	is the page in your document that has the name "10".
	It's NOT necessarily the tenth page in your document!
*/
var pageNamesArray = ["10","11","12","41","42","43","44","45","46","47","48","49","50"];
var doc = app.documents[0];

for( var n=0; n<pageNamesArray.length; n++ )
{
	var currentPageName = pageNamesArray[n] ;
	doc.pages.itemByName( currentPageName ).appliedSection.remove();
};

WARNING: Be aware that two different pages in the same document could share the same name!

So better work with documentOffset values.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[davidn5918184]

When I try to run this code I get the error message: Exception has occured. Error Code# 45: Object is invalid at the line below, do you know what might cause this?

doc.pages[ currentDocOffsetNumber ].appliedSection.remove();

Using this code from above.

var documentOffsetNumbersArray = [10,11,12,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50];
var doc = app.documents[0];

for( var n=0; n<documentOffsetNumbersArray.length; n++ )
{
	var currentDocOffsetNumber = documentOffsetNumbersArray[n] ;
	doc.pages[ currentDocOffsetNumber ].appliedSection.remove();
};

[Laubender]

Hi David,

could be that the page you'd like to address has no section entry.

The script does not test this. Remember that every number in your array reflect a position of a page in your document. And the numbering starts with 0 and not with 1. So the first entry in your array means the 11th page in the document and not a page named "10" or the 10th page in your document.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[davidn5918184]

Thank you for your time Uwe,

This is definitely whats happening but I'm not sure how to get change it.

For example: if I set up the for loop and console log the results I get correct numbers but when it runs in practice it removes the sections from pages 3 and 4 then adds a page which is page 5 and removes that section(or doesn't have a section like you mentioned) and thats where is errors out.

   If I change it to n+1 or n-1 it doesn't work either. Where am I missunderstanding this?

//Page setup I start with is 1,2,3,4,13,27,30,31,32,33,34

var endPages = [2,3,4,31,32,33,34];//Pages I want to remove

for( var n=0; n < endPages.length; n++ )
{
    console.log(n);//result:0,1,2,3,4,5,6
	var currentDocOffsetNumber = endPages[n];
	doc.pages[ currentDocOffsetNumber ].appliedSection.remove();
    console.log(endPages[n]);//result:2,3,4,31,32,33,34
};

[Laubender]

Pages you want to remove?
That's a totally different thing to do.

Removing a section in my current code will remove the section entry only.

It will not remove pages.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[davidn5918184]

Sorry I incorrectly noted that. It should be "Pages I want to remove the section on".

[Laubender]

Please share the InDesign document on Dropbox or a similar service and the index numbers of the pages ( the values in your array ) where you like to remove the section entry.

You could remove any contents in the document with:

app.documents[0].pageItems.everyItem().remove();

For testing something I only need the document with all its pages and the sections that are applied.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[davidn5918184]

I would like to remove the sections from these pages:

[2,3,4,31,32,33,34]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zaubsfsfwjgc920/sections.indd?dl=0

[Laubender]

Looked into your document.

Your index numbers in the array are the wrong ones.

I guess you want to address the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth page etc.pp. in your document.

This would be:

[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )