Select all object by object type?

[s***@adobeforums.com]

Hello folks,

due to some help from a forum member here, I've figured out a better way to structure my document. So, I'm hoping to figure out if there is a way to select all of a certain type of object in my document so I can make adjustments to all of them at once.

For instance, I'd like to select all text boxes in my document so I can move them to a layer for just text. I've just started using layers and they are making more and more sense to me now. I have them organized with Object styles so maybe I can "find" all objects with Object Style Basic Text Box applied to them?

any ideas about how to select things like that?

Thanks,
Spencer

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Are you looking for a user interface feature or a script? The kinds of thing you want to do can be scripted but in the UI, a selection of objects cannot extended beyond the active spread. A text selection can, but that's a different kettle of fish.

Dave

[s***@adobeforums.com]

I think I can handle a script if relatively simple. Basically, I'd want to move all objects of a certain style to a different layer without having to select them individually.

Thanks!

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Presumably all these items are freestanding in the document?

If so, you can use the appliedObjectStyle and itemLayer properties of the page items of the document, something like this:

aDoc = app.documents[0];
myPIs = aDoc.pageItems;
for (j = myPIs.length - 1; j >= 0; j--) {
if(myPIs[j].appliedObjectStyle.name == "OstyleName") {
myPIs[j].itemLayer = "MyLayer";
}
}

Sustitutue your names for the style and the layer and this should work.

Dave

[O***@adobeforums.com]

Hi Spencer,

You might want to take a look at the SelectObjects example script. It'll select objects based on their type--text frames, frames containing images, ellipses, rectangles, graphic lines, and so on. You can find it at:

<http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/xml_scripting.html>

...and then click the Scripting tab to go to the scripting page.

Thanks,

Ole

[s***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Dave and Ole.

I'm trying to implement Dave's suggestion but I get a "null is not an object" error # 21.

What am I doing wrong? I'm a beginner to scripting in ID but have some experience in other apps with VB and a little JS.

thanks again, everyone,

spencer

[D***@adobeforums.com]

That's a JavaScript I posted. The names have to be exactly right -- JavaScript hardly blinks an eye if you leave the semicolon off the end of a line, but it is utterly anal about capitalization of names.

For example, referring to a layer named "MyLayer" when it doesn't exist will create a null object.

Dave