Illustrator Find And Replace

[Guest]

Hi there,

Can anybody tell me if it's possible to JavaScript Illustrators Find And Replace text function?

I know it's possible in InDesign but I can't find anything for Illustrator.

Many Thanks,

Nik

[gk319]

Hi Carlos! I'm trying to use your code with a folder full of documents, but Illustrator keeps crashing on me. Can you please help?

// Illustrator Find And Replace
// Original code from:    https://forums.adobe.com/thread/858021


var search_string = /blah/gi; // g for global search, remove i to make a case sensitive search  
var replace_string = "lalala";  




var sourceFolder, files, fileType, sourceDoc;

// Select the source folder.
sourceFolder = Folder.selectDialog( 'Select folder with Illustrator files', '~' );

// If a valid folder is selected
if ( sourceFolder != null )
{
    files = new Array();
    fileType = '*.ai';

    // Get all files matching the pattern
    files = sourceFolder.getFiles( fileType );

    if ( files.length > 0 )
    {      
        for ( i = 0; i < files.length; i++ )
        {
            sourceDoc = app.open(files); // returns the document object


            //REPLACE CODE BEGIN           
            var text_frames = sourceDoc.textFrames;  

            if (text_frames.length > 0)  
            {  
                for (var i = 0 ; i < text_frames.length; i++)  
                {  
                    var this_text_frame = text_frames;  
                    var new_string = this_text_frame.contents.replace(search_string, replace_string);  

                    if (new_string != this_text_frame.contents)  
                    {  
                        this_text_frame.contents = new_string;  
                    }  
                }  
            }                                     
            //REPALCE CODE END




            sourceDoc.save();
            // Close current without saving
            sourceDoc.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);          


         }
     }
    else
    {
        alert( 'No matching files found' );
    }
}

[born2wrestle]

Hi Carlos,

Is it possible to have a similar script that would find numeric values in a text frame?  Example "Smith12" to find and select only "12".  I don't want to replace it with anything just a selection of the number.  Any help would be great. Thank you

[CarlosCanto]

Hi born2wrestle, here you go

select one or more text frames to process selection, or don't select anything to process all frames in the active document

// script.name = highlight_numbers,jsx
// script.description = highlights all numbers in either the selected frames or the whole doucument if nothing is selected.
// script.requirement = Illustrator must be open before running the script
// script.parent = CarlosCanto // 11/23/19
// script.support = canto29 at gmail d0t c0m;

function main () {
    var idoc = app.activeDocument;
    
    if (idoc.selection.length == 0) {
        var tframes = idoc.textFrames;
    }
    else {
        var tframes = [];
        var tframe;
        
        for (var a=0; a<idoc.selection.length; a++) {
            tframe = idoc.selection[0];
            if (tframe.typename == 'TextFrame') {
                tframes.push(tframe);
            }
        }
    }

    var range, framecontent;
    
    var reg = /\d+/g;  
 
    var rangesToSelect = [];
    
    for (var b=0; b<tframes.length; b++) {
        tframe = tframes[b];

        framecontent = tframe.contents; 
        
        var result;
        while (result = reg.exec(framecontent)) {  // this always returns 1 element
            //$.writeln(result[0] + " | " + result.index);  
            //$.writeln(result[0].length);
            
            range = tframe.characters[result.index];
            range.length = result[0].length;
            rangesToSelect.push(range);
        } 
    }
    idoc.selection = null;
    idoc.selection = rangesToSelect;
}

main();

[christopher5E7B]

I'm new to scripting and I can't get the simplest possible code to work.  I found this thread and I copied one lines, which was "var docRef = app.activeDocument;  ".  It won't compile in the mac script editor.  See this screenshot:

I just can't write the simplest possible code.  Please help. 

[femkeblanco]

Save the file as a .jsx file.  Then, while your document is open in Illustrator, go to File > Scripts > Other Script.  Find your script and open it.  This will run the script. 

Note that var docRef = app.activeDocument is just a reference to the document, so running a script with just this line won't do anything.