Quark Forums

I've been using quark since it was distributed on floppy disks. So I'm embarrased to ask this...

I'm trying to make a simple macro to find and change a control/space to a regular spacespace, quote mark to a quote mark, and an apostrophe to an apostrphe. I have been doing each one of these find/changes individually to every quark doc I make for a magazine. 

Is an apple script the best way?

Is there a tutorial anywhere for doing this?

Hi,
thiscould be a good start point

Ciao

Thank you! I'll start digging.

That was a good start. I see clearly how to do a simple find/change and created a script to test. But I don't even know what to do with it. I found this link and will start reading: http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.22/22.10/2210AppleScript/index.html . I don't know why I haven't used this before...it looks powerful and useful.

Below is my base search and replace script. Works for basic text stuff, tabs and returns. But if you want to replace special spaces and so on, you need to export with XPress Tags, work on that text in a text editor and re-import it. All this can be done within Applescript. --Put what you want to search for inside the first quotes, --and what you want to replace it with inside the second. --2 examples are already completed --you can add as many of these as you like! SAndR(" ", "") SAndR("favor", "favour") SAndR("£", tab & "£") on SAndR(searchstring, replacestring) tell document 1 of application "QuarkXPress" -- the try...end try bit means it won't error if it doesn't find any instances of a given searchstring try set (every text of every story where it is searchstring) to replacestring end try end tell end SAndR

Thank you Emma. It works great for text strings. My first script worked! You have created a monster...I'm going to start taking advantage of scripts. I'm looking forward to learning how to automate things. But this one didn't. I get a syntax error. SAndR(""", """) SAndR("'", "'") on SAndR(searchstring, replacestring) tell document 1 of application "QuarkXPress" try set (every text of every story where it is searchstring) to replacestring end try end tell end SAndR I'm trying to replace quote marks with quote marks and apostophe with apostrophe. This is to "smarten" them, which doesn't always import or paste in that way. the other item I want to replace is strange spaces that print like en spaces. That I solved by find/change space for space.

Sorry to see that returns don't work in Chrome on this forum! Have been using Firefox for ages, which is fine, but migrated to Chrome and now my posts look daft again! Monsters - yes, that's what happens. You see the magic as your script works, and you want more... and more ... and more! I'm sure it's possible to put in 'literal' quotes and apostrophes, but for the life of me I can't recall how. You'd need to have your Quark Preferences set to typographers' quotes, or it wouldn't work anyway. Anyone??

Firefox it is. Chrome is nice but I'm ditching it for other reasons, like adyield manager. Another topic I guess. This is with firefox:

SAndR("'", "'")

on SAndR(searchstring, replacestring)
    tell document 1 of application "QuarkXPress"
        try
            set (every text of every story where it is searchstring) to replacestring
        end try
    end tell
end SAndR

This does not work :-(

 

Hi, hope I don't misunderstood, my english isn't so good :-)

You can give a try with

SAndR("'", ASCII character 213) -- convert single quote in typographic right single quote (I used ASCII numb, but  think it works fine also with the char)
SAndR(" " & (ASCII character 213), " " & (ASCII character 212)) -- now I fix the instances of left single quotes, with the previous passage I obtained (eg.) ’my quoted word’ (the first quote is wrong) and now I fix it
SAndR(" \"", " " & (ASCII character 210)) -- it's the turn of left double quote
SAndR("\" ", (ASCII character 211) & " ") -- and of right double quote

All the play is supposing that the spaces (blanks) are in their place...
For example the single and double LEFT quotes are recognized by the blank before them
and the right ones by the blank after.

Hope this help.

ciao!

One thing more...

 

Here below a little script to get the ASCII numbers of text selected in QXP:

 

tell application "QuarkXPress"
	activate
	try
		class of selection = text
		if contents of selection = "" then error
	on error
		display dialog "You don't have any text in selection!" & return & return & "You must select characters or words!" buttons "Stop" default button 1 with icon stop
		return
	end try
	
	set ascii_tags to {"(ASCII character ", ")"}
	
	set my_sel to contents of selection
	
	set default_answer to ""
	
	repeat with i from 1 to count of my_sel
		if i = (count of my_sel) then
			set ts to ""
		else
			set ts to return
		end if
		set default_answer to default_answer & (item 1 of ascii_tags) & (ASCII number (item i of my_sel)) & (item 2 of ascii_tags) & ts
	end repeat
	
	if (count of my_sel) > 1 then
		set chars_word to "characters"
		set pronome to "their"
		set pronome2 to "They"
		set numbers_word to "numbers"
	else
		set chars_word to "character"
		set pronome to "its"
		set pronome2 to "It"
		set numbers_word to "number"
	end if
	
	display dialog "Your selected " & (count of my_sel) & " " & chars_word & "." & return & return & "Here below " & pronome & " ASCII " & numbers_word & "." & return & return & pronome2 & "'ll be copied in the clipboard." default answer default_answer buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 1
	
	set the clipboard to default_answer
	
end tell

Ciao!

 

- - - - 

jo

Hi Emma,

do you know any way to do a search and replace with placeholders?

I would like to search for "/0XX" or "/9XX" and replace them with "/0yy" or "/9yy"

And would like to tell the script what to search for (XX) and what to replace with (yy), somehow like:

display dialog "what to search for" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2
set the search_string to the text returned of the result
if the search_string is not "" then exit repeat
end repeat
repeat
display dialog "what to replace with:" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2
set the replacement_string to the text returned of the result
if the search_string is not "" then exit repeat


I need that placeholder since XX also could be somewhere in the textarea i dont want to change, i only will change the last two digits of the numbers ending with /nnn

Any help appreciated.
Rene

You would want to use concatenation, like this: set Searchstring to "/0" & My_XX
-- where My_XX is a variable containing the text returned of your dialog: set My_XX to text returned of (display dialog "what to search for"…).

There is a part of a repeat loop in your code below (or above, depending) that doesn't seem to work as is. Are you aware of it? So the line: if the search_string is not "" then exit repeat would most probably need to be if search_string IS "" then return
Unless I'm missing sth?

Thank you ubba, I'll be giving that a try later today.

Thanks for the hint about the loop, so far it worked with /.is not "" then exit repeat./

Now with /.is "" then return/. it really is a loop, i cant get any further.

I dont know where to use concatenation. Can you give me an example for my script:
repeat
display dialog "what to search for" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2
set searchstring to the text returned of the result
if searchstring is not "" then exit repeat
end repeat
repeat
display dialog "what to replace with" default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2
set replacestring to the text returned of the result
if replacestring is not "" then exit repeat
end repeat

on SearchAndReplace1(searchstring, replacestring)
tell document 1 of application "QuarkXPress"
set (every text of every story where it is searchstring) to replacestring
end tell
end SearchAndReplace1

OK I see the repeat loop and understand the way you script it now. I've never used a DD in a repeat loop. So the exit repeat is fully understandable now. Leave it.
As for the concat I told you about, it's to be inserted after the repeat loops, in 2 lines: set searchstring to "/0" & searchstring | set replacestring to "/0" & replacestring | my SearchAndReplace1(searchstring, replacestring)

Is it OK? (Not tested.)