I got it to find the exact text string formatted in the exact style sheet and change the text to a character style, per our in-house style rules. Huge time and headache saver.

One caveat though, Java script does not support some GREP functions at all. I was trying to find specifically styled paragraphs with no period at the end and place a period there — Find/Change worked (and I saved it!) but FindChangeByList.jsx didn’t.

OK. I figured it out. I tried adding the ‘all’ and ‘once’ option like Cari said and I got error messages saying the option was incomplete. I figured since her article was Nov. 05 and I was on CS4 that things had changed quite a bit in my version. So I looked at the sample txt file and just added the {wholeWord:false} option at the end before the comment and that did the trick (what ever ‘wholeWord:false’ means). This is maybe something that could use more of a current write-up. I understand Olav wrote this and his input would help and I’d be willing to to do the drudge work.

This is my biggest pet peeve with programmers, they must figure everyone else thinks like they do. It reminds me of a utility someone wrote to import EPS files into PowerAnimator years ago. The programmer never wrote a manual or guide to the features and short-cut keys so when the company lost contact with him and the staff who knew this program left, they couldn’t figure out how to get EPS art into their projects. Maybe they upgraded to Maya ($50,000 a seat back then) to solve it.

We’ll check to see if we can fix this. Thanks for your patience.

Thank you for your help. Coding is the bane of my graphic design existence, since the Math school was no where near the Art school at college and we had no computers then. It is not that I can’t do it once I get the straight info on how (learned HTML in a weekend). It is just so nit picky frustrating sometimes and I have no one to go to but here.

I used Notepad to make the file, so it really is straight quotes, it is this blog editor that won’t let me place straight quotes.
I still get ‘Java Script Error! Error Number: 25., etc.’ I looked for any special characters that might have crept in. I’m using ID CS4 on WinXP. I’d try it on my Mac at home but I don’t have CS4, only CS.

It’s not clear where those smart double-quotes came from, but if they’re in your original, that’s the cause of the problem.

Dave

Would it make you feel better or worse to know that your expression works for me in FindChangeByList?

The only difference I can see is that I’m using AppleScript and you’re in Javascript. I don’t know what the Javascript rules are for escaping characters, maybe that’s it.

In general, I also had all kinds of problems with FindChangeByList until I started using BBEdit to work with the txt file, and I could see my invisibles. Are you sure there’s not a return after “product”? Good luck.

My adventures in GREPland may need a little hand holding. I need to find specific text and apply a character style. Not rocket science and it works in Find/Change GREP tab very well. I can’t get FindChangeByList to find multiple product names (single and multiple word) which I am led to believe it was meant to do. The documentation for FindChangeByList is sparse, to put it mildly. Cari Jansen’s article is no help. All I get for my effort is an error message “Java Script Error! Error Number: 25., etc.” I’ve looked over the code until I’m blind. So please check this out an let me know if I’m nuts or not.

//FindChangeList_test.txt
//
grep {findWhat:”adobe creative suite[']s|adobe creative suite”}
{appliedCharacterStyle:”Product Name Italic”} Find all adobe creative suite product
names and make Italic.

I’ve tabbed between like I’m suppose to. No joy.