[AS] Fractions script

Question

A very long time ago I adapted a "Make Fractions" written by Sal Sogohian for Quark.
There are a variety of things that can be improved upon. But as it is it works
-peter
*** User modifiable variables
useFractionGlyphs has two possible values:
none:      *fractions are created by modifying the attributes of the actual text
normal:      *fractions that have glyphs in normal fonts are replaced with those glyphs
          *other fractions are created by modifying the attributes of the actual text
property useFractionGlyphs : "normal" -- one of these values:"none","normal"
-- *** End user modifiable variables
-- When replacing a fraction that contains mulitple characters with one glyph,
-- then the offsets we calculate when we start become incorrect. This
-- propery keeps track of the difference in offset.
property extraOffset : 0
-- This maps the fractions found in all fonts and their unicode value
property fractionGlyphMap : {¬
     {"1/4", "00BC"}, ¬
     {"1/2", "00BD"}, ¬
     {"3/4", "00BE"} ¬
tell application "InDesign 2.0.1"
     set extraOffset to 0
     -- Make sure a text box is selected
     set theSelection to selection
     if (count of theSelection) is 0 or class of item 1 of theSelection is not text frame then
          beep
          tell me to display dialog "Please select a text box." buttons {"OK"} default button 1
          return
     end if
     set theFrame to item 1 of selection
     tell theFrame --only work on the selected frame
          -- get the indicess of all the slash characters
          set slashCharacterList to (index of (every character whose contents is "/")) as list
          if slashCharacterList is {} then
               tell me to display dialog "No fractions in this text flow to format."
               return
          end if
          set theCounter to 0 -- keep track of how many factions we process
          repeat with i from 1 to the number of items in slashCharacterList
               set slashCharIndex to (item i of slashCharacterList) as number
               set wordBefore to object reference of word 1 of character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset - 1) of theFrame
               set wordAfter to object reference of word 1 of character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset + 1) of theFrame
               tell me to set IsFraction to VerifyIsFraction(wordBefore, wordAfter)
               tell me to set replacedWithGlyphs to HandleUseFractionGlyphs(wordBefore, wordAfter)
               if IsFraction is true then
                    -- if we already replaced it with a built-in fraction, just increment the counter
                    if replacedWithGlyphs is true then
                         set theCounter to theCounter + 1
                    else -- If this is a fraction, and we haven't already replaced with a built in fraction
                         -- Handle the slash
                         tell character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset)
                              set contents to ASCII character 218 --virgule
                              set kerning value to -15
                         end tell
                         -- Handle the first character before the slash
                         tell character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset - 1)
                              set leadingSize to leading
                              if leadingSize = "auto" then
                                   set mySize to point size
                                   set myAutoPct to auto leading
                                   set leadingSize to mySize * (myAutoPct * 0.01)
                              end if
                              set fontSize to point size * 0.5
                              set point size to fontSize
                              set baseShift to leadingSize * 0.3
                              set baseline shift to baseShift
                              if contents is in {"3", "1", "5"} then
                                   set kerning value to -30
                              else
                                   set kerning value to -15
                              end if
                         end tell
                         -- Handle the first character after the slash
                         tell character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset + 1)
                              set point size to fontSize
                              if contents is in {"1"} then
                                   set kerning value to -10
                              end if
                         end tell
                         -- Handle the second character before the slash
                         tell character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset - 2)
                              set point size to fontSize
                              set baseline shift to baseShift
                              set kerning value to -5
                         end tell
                         -- Handle the second character after the slash
                         tell character (slashCharIndex - extraOffset + 2)
                              set point size to fontSize
                         end tell
                         --beep
                         set theCounter to theCounter + 1
                    end if
               end if
          end repeat
          beep 2
          tell me to display dialog "Scan complete." & return & theCounter & ¬
               " fractions formatted." buttons {"OK"} default button 1
     end tell
end tell
VerifyIsFraction takes the characters before and after a slash and
determines whether this meets the criteria for a fraction
on VerifyIsFraction(wordBefore, wordAfter)
     tell application "InDesign 2.0.1"
          -- we only support fractions with up to 2 digits for the numerator/demoninator
          if (count of characters of wordBefore) > 2 or (count of characters of wordAfter) > 2 then return false
          -- To qualify as a fraction, all the charactere of the numerator/demoninator must be numbers
          set characterList to every character of wordBefore & every character of wordAfter
          repeat with oneCharacter in characterList
               if oneCharacter is not in {"1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "0"} then return false
          end repeat
          -- if we got this far, then it all checks out
          return true
     end tell
end VerifyIsFraction
HandleUseFractionGlyphs takes the characters before and after a slash and
if they match 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4, then they are replaced by the unicode value
for the appropriate glyph
on HandleUseFractionGlyphs(wordBefore, wordAfter)
     tell application "InDesign 2.0.1"
          if useFractionGlyphs is "normal" then
               repeat with oneFractionMap in fractionGlyphMap
                    if contents of wordBefore is item 1 of item 1 of oneFractionMap and contents of wordAfter is item -1 of item 1 of oneFractionMap then
                         tell me to HandleOneGlyph(wordBefore, wordAfter, "<" & item 2 of oneFractionMap & ">")
                         return true
                    end if
               end repeat
          end if
          return false
     end tell
end HandleUseFractionGlyphs
HandleOneGlyph is called from HandleUseFractionGlyphs. It takes the
characters before and after a slash and
a unicode value for the replacement glyph.
It replaces thefraction with the unicode value
and updates the extraOffset property
on HandleOneGlyph(wordBefore, wordAfter, unicodeChar)
     tell application "InDesign 2.0.1"
          set shouldReplace to true
          set theParent to parent of wordBefore
          set wordBeforeIndex to index of wordBefore
          set wordAfterIndex to index of wordAfter
          set contents of text from character wordBeforeIndex to character wordAfterIndex of theParent to unicodeChar
          set extraOffset to extraOffset + 2
     end tell
end HandleOneGlyph

Answer 1

I edited the topic to eliminate the bug discussed here:
Dave Saunders ""Make fraction" script" 5/11/03 4:32am
I've also elevated the status of this topic so that it won't be discarded and it will sort to the top (or near the top) of the archive.
Dave