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.

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//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.

}