In Indesign, is there a way to delete all frames with a specific Object Style applied?

Question

I need a plugin, or script that deletes frames with a specific applied style. Or if there is already a tool exists in Indesign please guide me there.

Answer 1

If you need a more fine grained search engine you could also use the FindChange capabilities built into InDesign (you still need a little bit of code to delete all the objects though).

You can set the object style to search for or just specific properties in the FC panel and get all the found elements with this little script snippet.

 app.doScript(function() {
var objectsList = app.findObject();
for (var i = objectsList.length -1; i >=0 ; i --){
        objectsList[i].remove()
    }
  }, ScriptLanguage.javascript, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Object removal via script');

Update 2018-01-15: Make it a one step undo mode

Answer 2

This little script should do the job.

The main functionality of the script (the first part) is commented and quite simple (if you know javascript). I have added a small input dialog to make the script easy to use, but I haven't commented that part of the code.

Copy the code below to a text editor and save it as a .jsx file (for example RemoveAllObjectsWithACertainObjectStyle.jsx) in the folder for user scripts.

In InDesign, run the script and a dialog box will appear. Choose which Object Style to remove and press "OK".

Does this work for you?

---

// REMOVE ALL OBJECTS WITH A CERTAIN OBJECT STYLE
// Copyright (c) 2018 Mads Wolff
// This script is distributed under the MIT License.


// MAIN FUNCTIONALITY

// Make a reference to the Object Styles of the active document.
var objectStyles = app.activeDocument.objectStyles;

// Make a reference to the Page Items of the active document.
var pageItems = app.activeDocument.allPageItems;

// Removes all Objects with a certain Object Style.
// Takes 2 arguments:
//   objectStyleName  the name of the Object Style
//   removeFrom          the kind of Spreads to apply to (0: all, 1: only normal Spreads, 2: only Master Spreads)
function removeAllObjectsWithACertainObjectStyle(objectStyleName, removeFrom) {

  // Iterate through the Page Items.
  // (Since we are going to delete some of the items while iterating, we need to "loop backwards".)
  for (i = pageItems.length- 1; i >= 0; i--) {

    // Make a reference to the Page Item.
    var pageItem = pageItems[i];

    // Make a reference to the Page Item's Spread type
    var spreadType = pageItem.parentPage.parent.constructor.name;

    // Check if the Page Item has the right Object Style and Spread type.
    if (
      pageItem.appliedObjectStyle.name === objectStyleName &&
      (removeFrom === 0 || (removeFrom === 1 && spreadType === "Spread") || (removeFrom === 2 && spreadType === "MasterSpread"))
    ) {

      // Remove the Page Item.
      pageItem.remove();

    }

  }

}


// DIALOG

// Stores all the names of the document's Object Styles in an array.
function getObjectStylesNames() {
  var objectStyleNames = new Array;
  for (i = 0; i < objectStyles.length; i++){
    objectStyleNames.push(objectStyles.item(i).name);
  }
  return objectStyleNames;
}

// Displays the input dialog.
function displayDialog(){
  var dialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Remove all Objects with a certain Object Style"});
  var objectStyleNames = getObjectStylesNames();
  with (dialog) {
    with (dialogColumns.add()) {
      with (borderPanels.add()) {
        with (dialogColumns.add()) {
          staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Object Style:"});
          staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Remove from:"});
        }
        with (dialogColumns.add()) {
          var objectStyleNameDropdown = dropdowns.add({stringList: objectStyleNames, selectedIndex: 0, minWidth: 200});
          var radiobuttonGroup = radiobuttonGroups.add();
          with (radiobuttonGroup) {
            radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel: "All Spreads", checkedState: true})
            radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel: "Normal Spreads only"})
            radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel: "Masters Spreads only"})
          }
        }
      }
      with (borderPanels.add()) {
      }
    }
  }
  var dialogReturn = dialog.show();
  if (dialogReturn == true) {
    var objectStyleName = objectStyleNames[objectStyleNameDropdown.selectedIndex];
    var removeFrom = radiobuttonGroup.selectedButton;
    dialog.destroy();
    removeAllObjectsWithACertainObjectStyle(objectStyleName, removeFrom);
  } else {
    dialog.destroy();
  }
}

displayDialog();

---

Update 14/1 2018

The script now works with anchored objects and makes the user choose whether to remove objects from normal Spreads, Master Spreads or both.

Answer 3

Thank you so much for the amazing script. If I have not defined an object style, the script does not work for me claiming that: "null is not an object". What needs to be changed so that it deletes all the boxes in the document?