FIND AND CHANGE OBJECTS

In our previous post, the discussion centered around using find/change for text. Here we will use scripts to find and change objects such as graphic lines, graphic frames, and text frames.

For example, a script can find all graphic lines that have a stroke weight of .5 and change the width of the stroke to 1 pt. Or perhaps you need to change all graphic lines colored registration to black or from black to registration. The script would be similar to what we did with text only here we will work with find object preferences and change object preferences:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
    --clear find and change preferences
    set find object preferences to nothing
    --establish properties for find objects 
    set stroke weight of find object preferences to 0.5
    --establish properties for change 
    set stroke weight of change object preferences to 1.0
    tell document 1
	set foundSet to find object
	if foundSet is not {} then
	    set userMsg to "There were " & length of foundSet & " instances found and changed"
	    change object
	else
	    set userMsg to "No objects found as defined for find object"
	end if
    end tell
    set find object preferences to nothing
    set change object preferences to nothing
end tell
activate
display alert userMsg

To change a property such as the stroke color, you need change only the stroke color property for find object preferences and the change object preferences in the script above:

    --establish properties for find object preferences
    set stroke color of find object preferences to "Black"
    --establish properties for change object preferences
    set stroke color of change object preferences to "Registration"

FIND CHANGE EFFECTS

All find/change processes are not as straight-forward as the examples above. For example, for effects such as drop shadow a script needs to work with a child object of either transparency settings, fill transparency settings, stroke transparency settings, or content transparency settings. To understand this concept, create a document with a page item (rectangle or text frame). Manually give the object a drop shadow (Object > Effects > Drop Shadow). With the object selected, run the following test script:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
    set selList to selection
    set selItem to item 1 of selList
    tell fill transparency settings of selItem
	set testIt to properties
    end tell
end tell
testIt

Among the properties record returned you will find a listing similar to:

drop shadow settings:drop shadow settings of fill transparency settings of rectangle id 245 of spread id 219 of document id 1 of application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"

Now change the test script above to read

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
    set selList to selection
    set selItem to item 1 of selList
    tell fill transparency settings of selItem
	tell drop shadow settings
	    set testIt to properties
	end tell
    end tell
end tell
testIt

With the same rectangle selected, run the script and view the result. You will see that a drop shadow has properties including size, noise, distance (in points) angle, spread, blend, opacity, honor other effects: x offset, y offset, mode, knocked out, use global light, and effect color.

As you can see this can get a little crazy when it comes to writing a script. And, be careful, if you don’t get the syntax correct you can cause InDesign to crash big time. Besides, now that object styles have evolved to their present stateof glory why not just use object styles and let InDesign do all of the work behind the scenes.

USING OBJECT STYLES

When you manually create an object on an InDesign page, it assigns the object style for the object to “[None]” (unless you have somehow set a default object style for your document). To change drop shadow settings for object styles is a piece of cake, so this is now the preferred way to go. Besides, if you are going to export your document to HTML, you will want your objects to have object styles assigned.

Of course, to change drop shadow properties using an object style you are going to need to have a style set up with the drop shadow properties assigned the way you want for the change properties.

CREATE CHANGE OBJECT STYLE

If you are a “hands-on” person, make sure you have no objects selected and select New Object Style from the panel’s context menu (fly-out). When the New Object Style dialog opens, make sure “[None]” is selected for Based On. Give your new style a name and set the properties for your drop shadow style.

For this, make sure that Object is selected in “Effects for” then check Drop Shadow. When you click on the words “Drop Shadow” the panel opens for setting Blending Mode, Opacity, Position, and so on. Note: to change color, you will most likely want to set Blending Mode to Normal then click on the color swatch indicator to the right of the Mode field. When complete click OK to return to your document.

Now, a find/change drop shadow script can make quick work of changing the drop shadow properties for your objects having a “[None]” object style. Just change the applied object style.

Find/Change Drop Shadow

(*Assumes objects to find have "[None]" as assigned style and style with new drop shadow settings is named "Drop Shadow"*)
(*optionSettings are for include footnotes, include hidden layers, include locked layers for find, include locked stories for find, include master pages*)
set optionSettings to {false, true, true, false, true}
tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
    set docRef to document 1
    set findStyle to object style "[None]" of docRef
    set changeStyle to object style "Drop Shadow" of docRef
    set find object preferences to nothing
    set change object preferences to nothing
    set applied object styles of find object preferences to findStyle
    set applied object styles of change object preferences to changeStyle
    my setObjectOptions(optionSettings)
    tell document 1
	set foundSet to find object
	if foundSet is not {} then
	    change object
	    set userMsg to " " & length of foundSet & " instances changed"
	else
	    set userMsg to "No instances found having applied object style " & objStyleName
	end if
    end tell
end tell
activate
display alert userMsg
(*Sets properties for find change object option	using list passed to handler**)
on setObjectOptions(optionSettings)
    tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
	tell find change object options
	    set include footnotes to item 1 of optionSettings
	    set include hidden layers to item 2 of optionSettings
	    set include locked layers for find to item 3 of optionSettings
	    set include locked stories for find to item 4 of optionSettings
	    set include master pages to item 5 of optionSettings
	end tell
    end tell
end setObjectOptions

Working with object styles is so much easier than trying to set the drop shadow settings for fill transparency settings. You be the judge.