Replace not Format!

InDesign
1

I have a script that process all text in my Indesign file, however the formatting gets messed up. Here is basically how I am doing it :point_down:

const documentTextframes = app.activeDocument.allPageItems.filter(item => item.constructorName === "TextFrame")

let count = 0
const intervalID = setInterval(async () => {

  if (count === documentTextframes.length) clearInterval(intervalID);
  var data = { "text": [`${documentTextframes[count].contents}`], "target_language": "spanish" };

    const response = await fetch(url, {
      method: "POST",
      body: JSON.stringify(data),
      headers
    })
    if (response.ok) {
      const translatedText = await response.json();
      documentTextframes[count].contents = translatedText 
    }

}, 2000)

I target and replace the Indesign text using :point_down:

documentTextframes.[count]conents.

When I view documentTextframes.[count]conents in UDT console, the text inside doesn’t carry any formatting syntax, just plain text. So I was thinking that when I replace it the formating would remain intact, but it’s not the case.

2

Nope, it won’t work that way.
The Text object in InDesign DOM holds the styling information and the text contents.
https://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#Text.html
And it kind of makes sense, when you think about it:
“This text has BOLD applied.”
“Ce texte a du GRAS appliqué.”
How would you define the bold part in the translation?

Ideally, the response from the server should also contain the styling information.
You could use textFrame.textStyleRanges to get a list of all the ranges of text that have the same formatting, then try to match them up with your response, but I don’t see how.

1 Like
3

Got it, okay thanks for the clarification