How to make my script ignore pages 1 and 2?

Question

Hi all. I'm a complete beginnger at all of this so thank you in advance for all you're help, I really appreciated it.
I have a JavaScript that I've been working on, and with help from people on here it's working really well. I uses a combination of GREP expressions and checks the entire document and then applies pre-made Character Style that have been set up in the InDesign Templates. (By the way I'm using CS6).
My latest problem is that I don't want this to affect page 1 or 2 as the templates are layed out in spreads so these are the front and back cover.
Is there a way I can get the script to ignore page 1 and 2?
If not, I thought another way round would be to only have the script run on highlighted text, but I'd prefere to just ignore pages 1 and 2.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
Scorpio

Answer 1

Hi Scorpio17523 and Kai,
> As far as I know, it is not possible to search for specific pages?
My guess is that you can, in fact, use Pages.itemByRange(2,-1)... in order to reach a valid plural specifier that holds a findGrep (or changeGrep) method—like TextFrame or Paragraph. This is a powerful way to run a GREP query in a single command.
Say you want to apply some character style (MyCharStyle) to every word that begin with a 'A' or 'a', considering all textframes except those of page 1 and 2 (i.e. index 0 and 1). This can be done in a single pass without any loop, as shown below:
// Your settings
var GREP_PATTERN = '\\<[aA][\\l\\u]+';
var CHAR_STYLE_NAME = 'MyCharStyle';
// Variables
var doc = app.activeDocument,
    cStyle = doc.characterStyles.itemByName(CHAR_STYLE_NAME),
    target = doc.pages.itemByRange(2,-1).textFrames.everyItem().paragraphs.everyItem(),
    nr;
// Set GREP, and run!
app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = GREP_PATTERN;
app.changeGrepPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = cStyle;
nr = target.changeGrep().length;
alert( nr + " expressions have been changed." );
The important part is:
target = doc.pages.itemByRange(2,-1).textFrames.everyItem().paragraphs.everyItem()
This allows to filter page indices 0 and 1 inside the specifier. As a result, target is a 'plural' Paragraph object which represents every desired text and can then invoke its changeGrep() method.
Note that we could as well invoke changeGrep() from a plural TextFrame—i.e.: ...textFrames.everyItem()—but the GREP command will lead to a runtime error if some textframe of the collection is empty. That issue does not occur if one extends the specifier to ...paragraphs.everyItem()—unless all the frames are empty!
Hope that helps.
@+
Marc