Swatch to Layer InDCS2...

Question

Hi everyone,<br /><br />We have more than hundreds of InDesign documents. What we have to do is, turned off this "IE-Black" spot color swatch applied paragraphs in the document. So i am finding "IE-Black" spot color applied paragraphs in the documents then apply "ANNO" named layer to the corresponding paragraphs text frames. And finally hiding them all. If i have tested this script in the new document its working fine. But not working in our exiting documents. It showing error like, <br /><br />------<br />Error Number:45<br />Error string:Object is invalid<br />Line:12<br />------<br /><br />Please find my script below;<br /><br />----<br />var myDoc = app.activeDocument;<br />with (myDoc){<br />     myNewLayer = layers.add();<br />     with (myNewLayer) {<br />     name = "ANNO"<br />     }<br />}<br />var mySwatch = myDoc.swatches.item("IE-Black");<br />for (i=0; i<myDoc.textFrames.length; i++){<br />       if (myDoc.textFrames[i].paragraphs[0].fillColor == mySwatch )<br />               {<br />              myDoc.textFrames[i].itemLayer=myNewLayer;<br />               }<br />}<br />myNewLayer.visible=false;<br /><br />alert ("DONE...")<br />----<br /><br />Thanks in advance<br />Thiyagu

Answer 1

Thiyagu,
The error message ("Object is invalid") points to a text frame -- probably the first paragraph in that text frame. You must try and anticipate as many errors as possible in a script. In your script, possible errors are a layer and a swatch that may not be present, or a problem with some text frame that you try to do something with (maybe it's empty, or locked, or anything else that prevents it from being processed).
Below is a version of your script that tries to get around errors: if a layer doesn't exist, it is created, same for the swatch. The script also creates a layer to which obstinate text frames are moved. When the script finishes it alerts you if it encountered any problems.
Peter
#target indesign;
var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
if (myDoc.layers.item ('ANNO') == null)
   myDoc.layers.add ({name: 'ANNO'});
var myNewLayer = myDoc.layers.item ('ANNO');
if (myDoc.layers.item ('errors') == null)
   myDoc.layers.add ({name: 'errors'});
var errorLayer = myDoc.layers.item ('errors');
if (myDoc.swatches.item ("IE-Black") == null)
   myDoc.colors.add ({name: "IE-Black", /*more features*/});
var mySwatch = myDoc.swatches.item ("IE-Black");
for (i=0; i<myDoc.textFrames.length; i++)
   try
      if (myDoc.textFrames[i].paragraphs[0].fillColor == mySwatch)
         myDoc.textFrames[i].itemLayer=myNewLayer
   catch(_)
      myDoc.textFrames[i].itemLayer = errorLayer
//myNewLayer.visible=false;
if (errorLayer.textFrames.length > 0)
   alert ('Some text frame(s) could not be processed.\r(See error layer.)');
else
   errorLayer.remove();