InDesign Script Find Change From Spreadsheet

[@eyetojoy]

Thank you so much for the wonderful scripts. I was wondering if you can please add option to find-replace only for visible layers for the illustrator version. many thanks.

[@wc7]

That's a great suggestion I forgot to consider. I've updated the Illustrator script with the option "Ignore hidden layers." See the website to download version 1.1. Let me know how that works and I'll do the same to the InDesign version, along with the InDesign GREP Replace script. Thanks again for the feedback. Good stuff!

[@eyetojoy]

@@wc7 It's working in illustrator. Thank you so much for the excellent person you are.

[@wc7]

I've added the option to this script as well, as of version 4.4. Thanks again for the idea. A great addition to the script.

[@einavideo]

Nice and useful. Thanks! Any plans to add GREP search & replace? And styling attributes?

[@wc7]

Already have a script for that... kzbin.info/www/bejne/epCaan2rfsqob80 In future updates I do plan to add find/change style attributes as well, combined with values to find. Others have requested that so it's on my to-do list. Also future updates I plan to combine text and GREP in a single script, so that find/change data may contain both. I've already done this to the Illustrator version. Video for that is in production now, out in a few weeks. See the website for important details of how the script knows whether to find text or GREP.... www.marspremedia.com/software/illustrator/find-replace-from-csv

[@einavideo]

@@wc7 Thanks! I was indeed thinking about a combined text & GREP search and replace, so it's great to see you've already done it for Illustrator. Fingers crossed it's not too complicated to convert it to InDesign... I wonder why you use the forward slashes as a way to let the script know if it's GREP or not. Why not just add a third column for search type, that would contain either "text" or "GREP"? And yes, styling attributes are really important for such search. Looking forward to the new version!

[@wc7]

@@einavideo I use forward slashes because that's how it's done in code. For regular expressions in JavaScript, forward slashes at each end of a text string are like quotes, except it indicates the text between the slashes is a regular expression. Familiar to programmers, yes, but not obvious to others, so it's not set in stone that it will stay that way, or use the same method in InDesign. Like many features, I try something and see who complains or is confused, then adjust as needed. It seems okay so far, so we'll see. I have considered your suggestion, to have another column. That may turn out to be the clearer approach. Anyone else wants to chime in with their preference, this is the place to do it. All suggestions are welcome.

[@wc7]

The latest version adds GREP and find/change character and paragraph styles. www.marspremedia.com/software/indesign/find-change-from-spreadsheet

[@wc7]

Today a user found a bug. Script error if the data file has blank columns beyond the expected two columns. I've updated the script to ignore any excess columns. New version 2.5 is posted to my website.

[@vikasbhardwaj377]

Hi sir, I have used this script but not convert it successfully for example, I want find Anejo and replace it with Añejo, the output result sowing A¤ejo witch is not correct. Please help me.

[@wc7]

@@vikasbhardwaj377 Save the CSV file as "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)". The important part is "UTF-8". That preserves Unicode characters. Otherwise characters are converted to ASCII which doesn't have diacritics in the character set.

[@vikasbhardwaj377]

@@wc7 Thank You Sir, You are great.

[@marcosmelquiades8216]

Hello, William! Is it possible to include the option to apply changes to selection, a style or both? Apply changes to selection would be great for an acronym or abbreviation list at the beginning of a book, for example from uppercase to sentence case. Just an idea. Have a wonderful day!

[@wc7]

Affect only selected text I'll have to think about more. Find/change styles is coming soon. I've done it to my multi-doc version, but still need to port the new code over to a single doc version of the script. It's on the the to-do list.

[@wc7]

The latest version adds find/change character and paragraph styles. www.marspremedia.com/software/indesign/find-change-from-spreadsheet

[@marcosmelquiades8216]

@@wc7 That's awesome! I'll buy this new version as soon as possible. Thank you so much! ☺

[@okyoky405]

Hi, thanks for the script. but it's not working for me, when i input data file (csv), it says "data file missing columns". please help

[@wc7]

The problem is exactly what the script is telling you. The data file doesn't have the two required columns, "Find" and "Change" (or other similarly named header). Check your CSV file in a text editor. First it needs a header.... "Find","Change" on the first line (note comma between them; important!) then the first item to find and change.... "dog","cat" etc. If the comma is missing then it's not two columns. Or the CSV file is completely whacked. Did you save it as CSV from Excel? Or....? If it still doesn't work, contact me via my website and once I reply send your CSV file. I'll tell you exactly what is wrong with it. Without a doubt that's the source of your problem -- the CSV file is defective.

[@torborgg]

​ @wc7 For us that are in a region with comma as the decimal point, excel will make a csv file with semicolon, even if it says "comma delimited". With my semicolon delimited csv file I got the same error message as @okyoky405 . I had to open the file in notepad and change semicolon to comma. Then it worked perfect.

[@shivanidhyani590]

Thank you for this wonderful script Willams. Can you make this script to apply only in particular character style not all text in the document. I have a document where author has delete some references and inserted some new references, so I want to change all references set in new sequence. I have prepared old refrence number and new references number in Excel. I want to make these changes only in "citation" character style not in other text. Thanks

[@wc7]

It is possible. I am planning a better version of this script that can also find/change character and paragraph styles. But that work to do is waiting in a long line of other projects waiting to do. It may be a while yet before an upgraded script is available. Under heavy load at the moment. Another script for multiple documents has similar feature I believe can do what you describe: www.marspremedia.com/software/indesign/find-change-csv-multi-doc

[@wc7]

@shivanidhyani590 The latest version adds find/change character and paragraph styles. www.marspremedia.com/software/indesign/find-change-from-spreadsheet

[@msbmmc]

Hi Willam. I have question and hopefully the script already has the answer or you might know how to add this feature. We're looking to automate something and this script almost achieves it. I'll try to explain as best as possible. We have InDesign templates set up (we "save as" the file once we add something on the template) and on the master page there is just 1 textbox with a name, something like, "10_Dept_Display_5222_A." The "A" is a page number because later we add artwork to pages and each page would have a different number after the same name. So page 1 would be 10_Dept_Display_5222_1 and page 2 would be 10_Dept_Display_5222_2. Once the artwork is approved, we have to change the text on both pages to something like, "10_Dept_Display_5222890675," so page 1 would be, "10_Dept_Display_5222890675" and page 2 would be, "10_Dept_Display_5222890676." We get this information from a spreadsheet, but what happens when I try to use the find/change script is that the text on the pages ends up looking like this: Page 1: 10_Dept_Display_5222890675_1 Page 2: 10_Dept_Display_5222890675_2 It doesn't change that last number to be in order (most of the codes are) and it leaves the page number after the code. Is there a way to have InDesign choose the next code name in the table and get rid of the page number? Like ignore the master page set up when it makes the change without having to release the textboxes on the pages? Thank you kindly!

[@wc7]

That's a lot to wrap my head around. It sounds like part of what you're trying to replace is a parent page variable (current page number). That gets tricky. No "easy button" for this one. Seems an edge case that needs a custom script. Can do for a reasonable fee, but a lot on plate right now, so won't be able to look at a making a solution before late next week. You can get me on my website contact page, or channel page contact tab, to send a sample document, before and after, to show what needs to happen.

[@msbmmc]

@@wc7 Yes, it's quite complicated. This might be something we can look into having you make, however, that would be a decision for my manager, which this is low on our priority list, but if the time comes, I'll definitely reach out. Thanks for your response! I appreciate it.

[@wc7]

Version 5.5 July 2023 now combines Text and GREP, and adds find/change character and paragraph styles. www.marspremedia.com/software/indesign/find-change-from-spreadsheet