How to determine the size of selected text

Question

Hi
I'd like to draw a box around some selected text (a textRange), however I can't figure out how to detemine the size or position of the text.  The overall size of a textFrame is possible to find (not sure about position), but when you've got just a few characters selected I don't see any way to get the size or position.  Any ideas?

Answer 1

You may have to do some testing of your own with this… I tested here and 'think' its OK but could have overlooked something… For me the best way to get this data is to outline the type store the info in a variable then undo the outlining process… You can then continue your script with info in hand… An example that draws a box over each selected character… I cheated with only the one text frame but you can resolve that? You could easy use math.min & math.max to draw around an array of bounds… I didn't bother with a load of tests it expects selected text range as is… have fun…
#target Illustrator
textBoxer();
function textBoxer() {
          var i, doc, sel, start, end, spaceB4, spaceInc, mat, grp, count, boxes;
          doc = app.activeDocument;
          sel = doc.selection;
          start = sel.characterOffset-1; // Not zero based…
          end = start + sel.length;
          doc.selection = null;
          spaceB4 = doc.textFrames[0].contents.substr( 0, start );  // Cheated here you will need to find parent frame…
          mat = spaceB4.match( /\s/g ); // Resolve the lost of white space characters before selection
          mat != null ? spaceB4 = mat.length : spaceB4 = 0;
          spaceInc = doc.textFrames[0].contents.substr( 0, end );  // Here too…
          mat = spaceInc.match( /\s/g ); // Resolve the lost of white space characters in selection
          mat != null ? spaceInc = mat.length : spaceInc = 0;
          grp = doc.textFrames[0].createOutline(); // Items in new group are last to first order
          app.redraw();
          count = grp.compoundPathItems.length;
          boxes = Array();
          for ( i = 0; i < count; i++ ) {
                    boxes.push( grp.compoundPathItems[i].visibleBounds );
          boxes.reverse(); // Fix the order
          app.undo(); // Bounce back…
          app.redraw();
          start = start - spaceB4;
          end = end - spaceInc;
          for ( i = start; i < end; i++ ) {
                              doc.pathItems.rectangle( boxes[i][1], boxes[i][0], boxes[i][2]-boxes[i][0], -boxes[i][3]- -boxes[i][1], false );
          app.redraw();