Placeholders been accessible in Pages via AppleScript

Question

we would like to prepare template files for our users where certain information is filled by data solutions. For the moment we think about to use AppleScript to fill in Pages templates. The Data will be hold in a database solution.
The problem I currently have is how to define placeholders in a pages dokument that could be addressed by an external AppleScript. The only solution I found are textboxes that could be addressed by their indexes. So I am looking for something like variables (AdressLine1, ZIP, City, Total, etc.) that might be adressed by "variable names" ...
regards
Carsten

Answer 1

Create your text boxes with this kind of script.
set les_noms to {"AdressLine1", "ZIP", "City", "Total", "etc."}
tell application "Pages" to tell document 1
repeat with i from 1 to count of les_noms
set un_nom to item i of les_noms
make new text box with properties {name:un_nom, placement:fixed, horizontal position:i * 5, vertical position:i * 5}
I define the object text in an other instruction to show how you will be able to fill the already named boxes
set object text of text box un_nom to un_nom
end repeat
end tell
You will be able to move them exactly where you want in the template.
Then, your script will just have to set the object text of every boxes as I do in the script.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 22 mars 2011 18:59:26