Your Script Doctor

SCRIPT TO THE RESCUE

Recently I was given a project that involved creating a table–a big table that would involve many pages. The text for the table had been prepared, I was told, using tab/return delimited text.

Not everything that I do in InDesign requires using a script, and this project looked like a typical one-off. Without much afterthought, I created the document based on a template that includes a primary text frame.

With the cursor in the primary text frame, I imported the text for the table—manually. Then, selecting all, I used InDesign’s Convert Text to Table from the Table menu.

The result was anything like I anticipated. Instead of having a table with 2 columns, there were 11 columns. The first two had text and the rest were blank.

I was not about to go into this huge text file to see where the problem was. So, as in so many instances, I launched Script Editor and decided it was time to put some power behind fixing this table.

The first task was to get rid of all of those empty columns. I quickly created the following “fixit” script. It depends on the cursor being placed in one of the table cells.

Merge Cells

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
	set measurement unit of script preferences to points
--define insertion point selection
	set selList to selection
	set selItem to item 1 of selList
	if class of selItem is not insertion point then
		return
	end if
	set docRef to active document
--set table width to page width minus margins
	set pageWid to my getPageWidth(docRef)
	set wid to page width of document preferences of docRef
	set tableWid to (wid - 72)
--merge empty cells with column 2 cells
	set tableRef to parent of parent of selItem
	set width of tableRef to tableWid
	set numRows to count of rows of tableRef
	repeat with i from 3 to numRows
		tell row i of tableRef
			merge (cells 2 through 11)
		end tell
	end repeat
	set width of column 1 of tableRef to tableWid / 2
end tell

STYLING THE TABLE

The next step was to style the table. This, I had intended to do with a script that I often rely on. For me, styling a table takes a little more work than I want to do unnecessarily. Consequently, every time I style a table, I make sure to save the style in a styleSheet. Styles in a stylesheet are easily reused with the following script. The particular style sheet I chose has a wealth of table styles to choose from:

Style Table

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
    try
	set tableRef to my getTableFromSelection()
	set appPath to file path as string
	set styleFolder to appPath & "Presets:Styles"
	set styleList to list folder styleFolder without invisibles
	set userChoice to my getUserChoice(styleList, "select file for styles", false)
	set styleFile to (appPath & "Presets:Styles:" & userChoice) as alias
	tell document 1
	    import styles format table styles format from styleFile
	    set styleList to name of table styles
	    set tableStyle to my getUserChoice(styleList, "select table style to use", false)
	    set styleRef to table style tableStyle
	end tell
	set applied table style of tableRef to styleRef
    on error errStr
	activate
	display alert "Error: " & errStr
    end try
end tell
(*Returns user choice from choice list*)
on getUserChoice(choiceList, promptStr, allowMultiple)
    set userChoice to choose from list choiceList with prompt promptStr multiple selections allowed allowMultiple
    if userChoice is not false then
	if allowMultiple is false then
	    return item 1 of userChoice
	else
	    return userChoice
	end if
    else
	error "User Cancelled"
    end if
end getUserChoice
(*Returns reference to table if cursor is in cell of table*)
on getTableFromSelection()
    tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
	set selList to selection
	if class of item 1 of selList is not insertion point then
	    error "Requires insertion point inside of table cell"
	end if
	if class of parent of parent of item 1 of selList is not table then
	    error "Requires insertion point inside of table cell"
	end if
	set tableRef to parent of parent of item 1 of selList
    end tell
end getTableFromSelection

Even if your style sheet doesn’t have a style that exactly matches your present need, you might have one that is close enough to set up most of the needed style criteria. You may need to change font size or styling, but most of the work should be done for you.

SETTING UP A TABLE STYLE

For creating a table style I rely heavily on cell styles set up for table regions. Styling for the text in the cell styles relies on paragraph styles. And, if possible, I start with a style from a style sheet.

The following sample script allows choosing the style sheet and then opens the style sheet (assuming I will be saving the style I will be creating there). With this, the script lists the styles. When the stye I choose is selected, the script creates a table styled with the style that lists property names and values set for the style.

Table Style Properties

tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
    set measurement unit of script preferences to points
    set appPath to file path as string
    set stylePath to appPath & "Presets:Styles"
    set fileList to list folder stylePath without invisibles
    set fileChoice to my getUserChoice(fileList, "Choose file for table styles", false)
    set docRef to open file (stylePath & ":" & fileChoice)
    set docRef to active document
    set pageRef to active page of active window
    tell docRef
	set styleList to name of table styles
	set baseStyle to my getUserChoice(styleList, "choose style for base", false)
	set tRef to table style baseStyle
    end tell
    tell text frame 1 of pageRef
	set tableRef to make table with properties {applied table style:baseStyle, header row count:1, body row count:16, column count:2}
    end tell
    set textContent to {"Property Name", "Property Value", "Body region cell style ", name of body region cell style of tRef, "Header region cell style", name of header region cell style of tRef, "Footer region cell style", my getTextEq(footer region cell style of tRef), "Left column region cell style", my getTextEq(left column region cell style of tRef), "Right column region cell style", my getTextEq(right column region cell style of tRef), "top border stroke type ", (name of top border stroke type of tRef), "top border stroke weight ", my tableEq(top border stroke weight of tableRef), "left border stroke type", (name of left border stroke type of tRef), "left border stroke weight", my tableEq(left border stroke weight of tableRef), "bottom border stroke type ", (name of bottom border stroke type of tRef), "bottom border stroke weight ", my tableEq(bottom border stroke weight of tableRef), "right border stroke type ", (name of right border stroke type of tRef), "right border stroke weight ", my tableEq(right border stroke weight of tableRef), "Start row fill count", ("" & start row fill count of tRef), "Start Row Fill Color", name of start row fill color of tRef, "End Row Fill Color", name of end row fill color of tRef, "Skip first alternating fill rows", ("" & skip first alternating fill rows of tRef)}
    set contents of tableRef to textContent
    tell cells of tableRef to clear cell style overrides
end tell
(*Returns value of style property accessed from table itself *)
on tableEq(styleProp)
    if styleProp > 0 then
	return styleProp as string
    end if
end tableEq
(*Returns value of style property accessed from table style *)
on getTextEq(styleProp)
    tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2015"
	if styleProp is not nothing then
	    return name of styleProp
	else
	    return "not defined"
	end if
    end tell
end getTextEq

The script above is just a partial listing, but should give you an idea of how to create a script like this of your own.