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• • November 20, 2020 at 4:28 am #14332687
    Rory Tyson

    Member

    I only have a basic understanding of Javascript and I am trying to make a script to apply a hyperlink but I haven’t been able to find much information that explains what I need to do in order to get the scripting of hyperlinks to work.

    What I have is a hyperlink text destination (called “Destination 1″) and I want to be able to highlight some body copy in Indesign and run a script that will then take the highlighted text and apply a hyperlink to it, linking to the already created destination.

    Below is a copy of the script I have made so far and I was hoping someone might be able to A) give me some guidance on how to make the script work and B) I would really like to learn more of the theory behind how hyperlinks work in Indesign scripting.

    Main();
    // If you want the script to be un-doable, comment out the line above, and remove the comment from the line below
    // app.doScript(Main, undefined, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT,”Run Script”);

    function Main() {
    //This takes the text that you have highlighted on the page
    var myHighlightedText = app.selection[0].contents;

    //This selects the text frame which the highlighted text is within
    var myTextFrame = app.selection[0].parentTextFrames[0];

    //The highlighted text in Indesign is just a plain string – which is not an object in InDesign and therefore cannot be formatted via InDesign styles.
    //This gets the index number from the start of the selected text
    var styleStartIndex = app.selection[0].index;
    //This gets the index number from the end of the highlighted text
    var styleEndIndex = styleStartIndex + myHighlightedText.length – 1;

    //select the text by their index numbers previously defined.
    var mySelection = myTextFrame.characters.itemByRange(styleStartIndex, styleEndIndex);
    //apply the character style to it.
    mySelection.appliedCharacterStyle = “Inserted Text”;

    var source = app.documents[0].hyperlinkPageItemSources.add(mySelection);
    var dest = app.documents[0].hyperlinkTextDestinations.name(“Destination 1”);
    myHyperlink = doc.hyperlinks.add(source,dest);

    }

    Thanks

  • November 20, 2020 at 4:27 pm #14332760
    Rory Tyson

    Member

    After some playing around I have made it do what I want after replacing the Hyperlink section with the below.
    I still don’t really understand the {name:app.selection[0].contents} section at the end so if someone is able to point me in the direction or explain a bit more of the theory about how to script hyperlinks it would be greatly appreciated.

    var source = app.documents[0].hyperlinkTextSources.add(app.selection[0]);
    var dest = app.documents[0].hyperlinkTextDestinations.itemByName(“Destination 3”);
    app.documents[0].hyperlinks.add(source,dest, {name:app.selection[0].contents})

  • November 20, 2020 at 8:32 pm #14332761
    Rory Tyson

    Member

    Well, I think I have figured it out now the “{name:app.selection[0].contents}” part is simply applying the name property to the new hyperlink and giving it a name that is the same as the highlighted text.

    I will put in the finished script is below as a reference if anyone finds it useful because I couldn’t find much information online about how to deal with hyperlinks in Indesign that was referencing a text anchor and not a URL.

    If anyone has suggestions on improvements I would love to hear them.

    *********************************************************************

    //this script assumes the following
    //1. you have a character style called “Inserted text”
    //2. You have a hyperlink destination already created called “Destination 2″

    Main();
    // If you want the script to be un-doable, comment out the line above, and remove the comment from the line below
    // app.doScript(Main, undefined, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT,”Run Script”);

    function Main() {
    //This takes the text that you have highlighted on the page
    var myHighlightedText = app.selection[0].contents;

    //this checks that you have selected some text (with a length greater than 1). If not it will tell you to select some text.
    if(myHighlightedText.length < 1){
    alert(“No text has been selected”);
    }

    //This targets the text frame which the highlighted text is within
    var myTextFrame = app.selection[0].parentTextFrames[0];

    //The highlighted text in Indesign is just a plain string – which is not an object in InDesign and therefore cannot be formatted via InDesign styles.
    //This gets the index number from the start of the selected text
    var styleStartIndex = app.selection[0].index;
    //This gets the index number from the end of the highlighted text
    var styleEndIndex = styleStartIndex + myHighlightedText.length – 1;

    //select the text by their index numbers previously defined.
    var mySelection = myTextFrame.characters.itemByRange(styleStartIndex, styleEndIndex);
    //apply the character style to it.
    mySelection.appliedCharacterStyle = “Inserted Text”;

    // To take the selected text and add a hyperlink to it, first define both the destination and the source.

    //The below defines the source of the hyperlink to be the highlighted text “mySelection”
    var source = app.documents[0].hyperlinkTextSources.add(mySelection);
    //Destination”s” plural is used because we are selecting (via its name) a single hyperlink destination from the ARRAY of possible destinations.
    var dest = app.documents[0].hyperlinkTextDestinations.itemByName(“Destination 3”);

    //this applies the hyperlink referencing the source and the destination
    app.documents[0].hyperlinks.add(source,dest, {name:myHighlightedText});

    //the {name:myHighlightedText} section is naming the new hyperlink with the text that has been selected.

    }

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