Highlight paragraphs with border(s)

[johseb]

I'm trying to write a simple macro that checks every paragraph of the open document and highlight it if the paragraph has one or more borders.

Here's my first attempt:

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$doc = Document.active
$paras = $doc.text.find('^.+\n','Ea')
$green = Color.green

forEach $para in $paras
	$attr = $para.text.displayAttributesAtIndex $para.location
	if ?????? how to check for borders ??????
		Push Target Selection $para
		Set Highlight Color $green
	End
End

I'm stuck when it comes to check the presence of the borders. I tried using paragraphLineAttributesForEdge to no avail.
Also the Push selection step could probably be avoided.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[phspaelti]

I tried using paragraphLineAttributesForEdge to no avail.

That's what it says in the macro language reference in two locations. I'm suspecting that there may be a typo somewhere (maybe even in the code ). I've tried a few variations, but they all come back with errors. So I can't seem to check paragraph borders either.

But assuming that would work your code should look something like this (your initial lines omitted):

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$solid = LineAttributes.newSolid

$highlightedParas = Array.new
foreach $para in $paras
    $attr = $para.text.displayAttributesAtIndex $para.location
    if $attr.paragraphLineAttributesForEdge('top') == $solid
        $highlightedParas.push $para
     end
end
$doc.setSelection $highlightedParas
Set Highlight Color $green

So yes, you should "push" the paras you find. Best to do the highlighting all at once. In the above code you might want to check after the loop whether anything was found at all before you select and highlight.

[johseb]

Hi philip, thanks for your constant support on the forum!
At this point only @martin can probably throw some light on the matter.

Building a macro is not an easy task. Once a year, maybe less, I put togheter a few pieces of code stolen here and there but I must admit that I never got to grasp the language.
For instance, this is what the macro language reference has to say about the property in object:

Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 00.18.33.png (49.56 KiB) Viewed 18200 times

so I naively tried

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$attr.paragraphLineAttributesForEdge "top"

while your code uses

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$attr.paragraphLineAttributesForEdge('top')

How can a user guess, reading the reference guide, the correct syntax for a specific command/property?

[phspaelti]

How can a user guess, reading the reference guide, the correct syntax for a specific command/property?

Both are equally valid.

I like to put parentheses when things get long. There are some circumstances when you are required to use parentheses, basically when you need to disambiguate something. You can always use parentheses. The "Nisus style" in the reference is to generally use without parentheses as much as possible it seems.

If in doubt you can avoid such issues by writing code more step by step, assigning intermediate values to named variables.

Similarly for the use of single vs. double quotes. Double quotes will interpolate, but since in this case the names are simple text strings there will be no difference. Again, I just have a personal preference for single quotes in such cases.

[johseb]

Thanks Philip, very instructive.

So, given that paragraphLineAttributesForEdge returns a LineAttributes object, I guess I can write something like:

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if $attr.paragraphLineAttributesForEdge('top').lineType == "Solid"

or even (to detect any type of border):

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if $attr.paragraphLineAttributesForEdge('top').lineType != "Invisible"

while the same approach will probably not work with the syntax with spaces:

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if $attr.paragraphLineAttributesForEdge 'top'.lineType == "Solid"

[phspaelti]

Exactly.

[phspaelti]

It occurs to me that there is a workaround to checking for paragraph borders. If you check the (display) attributes you can see that the paragraph borders are included, as expected. So if you cast the attributes object to a string you can search in the string representation for the presence of the relevant attribute. This works like this:

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$sel = TextSelection.active
$attr = $sel.text.attributesAtIndex $sel.location
$attrStr = Cast to String $attr
if $attrStr.find "paragraph.{,10}Edge=YES", 'E'
    prompt "Got borders"
else
    prompt "No borders"
end

In this version you don't even have to be specific about which type of edge you are looking for.

[johseb]

Philip, that is really ingenious!
Thanks again; the macro now works perfectly. Here it is in the final form if anyone else is interested:

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$doc = Document.active
$paras = $doc.text.find('^.+\n','Ea')
$green = Color.green
$highlightedParas = Array.new

foreach $para in $paras
    $attr = $para.text.displayAttributesAtIndex $para.location
    $attrStr = Cast to String $attr
    if $attrStr.find "paragraph.{,10}Edge=YES", 'E'
        $highlightedParas.push $para
    end
end

$doc.setSelection $highlightedParas
Set Highlight Color $green

[martin]

That's what it says in the macro language reference in two locations. I'm suspecting that there may be a typo somewhere

It looks like paragraphLineAttributesForEdge is completely non-functional and MIA, sorry about that! I'll get it scheduled to be fixed in the next software update. Thank you for pointing it out.