Scripting InDesign CS3/4 with JavaScript

Working with Text

With the relevant knowledge of InDesign’s object model, some idea about properties, and enough knowledge of JavaScript, we should now set about doing something useful with InDesign’s objects and their properties. We’ll begin with some aspects of text processing.

Trick: Running Scripts Really Quickly

Running a script with a single keystroke is convenient, and when you need a script really a lot, the best way is to assign a keystroke to the script in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts). But changing the keyboard shortcuts can be a bit of a hassle, and I use the following trick to assign a script to a shortcut. It’s like shortcutting a shortcut.

I have a script in my script folder called zzz.jsx. In the Keyboard Shortcut dialog I assigned the keystroke Alt+1 to this script (use Opt+1 on a Mac). Now, when I want to use a script a lot for a certain job, all I need to do is to load an existing script or write one, and save it as zzz.jsx. Ready for use! Each time I press Alt+1 the script executes. (Naturally, since you overwrite zzz.jsx, if its contents is useful, make sure to save it to a more permanent script as well.)

Adding, Replacing, and Removing Text

To add text to, let’s say, a paragraph, place the cursor anywhere in a paragraph in an InDesign document. Remember that each text object has insertion points. If you position the cursor at the very beginning of the paragraph, you in effect select the paragraph’s first insertion point, which in JavaScript ...