/*This is just a question not a solution to the problem as far as i know*/
Kai, for the multiple pages could you call a separate function within the for loop eg.

for var i = 0; i < allDocs.length; exportPages i++)
function exoprtPages(){
for (var n = 0; n < app.document.pages.length; n++){
}}

Then use the same export method for each page within a document before moving to the next document?

Here is the script. I had some difficulty with the pathfinder so I enlisted the help of Ari who created a script to do this. Here is Ari’s script:

app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, "Subtract Paths");
function main() {
    try{
        var mySelection = app.selection;
        var myPicture = mySelection[0];
        var myPath = mySelection[1];
        var topPicture = myPicture.duplicate();
        var half1 = myPath.subtractPath(myPicture);
        var newPath = half1.duplicate();
        var half2 = newPath.subtractPath(topPicture);
        var myGroup = half1.parent.groups.add ([half1, half2]);
        app.select(myGroup);
        } catch(myError) {
            alert("Make sure you selected 2 path items")
            }
        }

Here is my script with Ari’s assistance in the pathfinder portion and the thought of adding undo:

//Scripted by Skemicle
//with assistance from Ari S
if (parseFloat(app.version) < 6)
main();
else
app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, "Splice Image Along Path");
function main() {
	if(app.selection.length == 2){
		var sel = app.selection;
		var orig = sel[0];
		var path = sel[1];
		var top = sel[0].duplicate();
		path.subtractPath(top);
		var half1 = top.duplicate();
		top.subtractPath(orig);
		app.selection = null;
	}
	else{
		alert("Please, make sure you have selected an image and an overlapping path.");
	}
}

Both scripts do basically the same thing. the main difference is that Ari’s script groups the two halves of the image and leaves the group selected while my script leaves the two halves ungrouped and nothing selected.

This doesn’t work for any number that goes past the thousands place followed by the end of a story

There you go, coming in and improving upon my ideas again Ari. (I’m glad you do, i get to learn more and become a better InDesigner.) Thanks; that works a lot better than my solution. The text in this case also remains editable so no need for redoing the whole thing if you want to change fonts or anything.

does anyone have a solution to this? I am working on writing my first script and would like to add pathfinder to it.

I was thinking “Set the blending mode to multiply and the text to white.” but that let darker colors of the underlying image show through the solid color. If you don’t have dark colors in the background image this may work for you. What i would suggest would be to cut the text out of the colored rectangle. This will make the text a bit harder to edit but would give you the result you’re looking for.

1. Create a colored rectangle. (not a text box.)
2. Create a text box with the text styled and positioned as you want it to be over the colored rectangle. (You can change the color of the text to help position the text if you need to.)
3. With the text selected click Type>>Create Outlines
• For whatever reason I have found that if you do this with multi-line text then creating outlines will group each line together, Thus making the final step not work properly. If you have multiple lines of text to be cut, after you create the outlines, you will want to switch to the direct selection tool and then back to the regular selection tool. (I’m not sure why this happens but it does.) Though if you only have a single line of text you can skip this tool switch.
4. with the outlines still selected Shift+click the colored rectangle to select both objects.
5. Use the pathfinders option “Subtract”

After following these steps you will have your colored rectanlge with the text cut out and you can then set the opacity of the box to let as much of the background image through as you want.

I hope this helped without causing too much confusion for you.

Using the cross reference tool. The text will not automatically update in the second table; though you can click on the “update cross references” button in the cross reference panel and that should update the text for you.