Adobe 65010248 Scripting Guide - Page 22

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model Text objects 22 To create a specific kind of text frame, use the kind property of the text frames object in AppleScript. The JavaScript and VBScript text frames objects contain specific methods for creating area text frames and path text frames. As in the Illustrator application, you can thread area or path text frames. To thread existing text frames, use the next frame or previous frame property of the text frame object. Threaded frames make a single story object. For information on creating or threading text frames, see the chapter in this manual for your scripting language. Text geometry While the three kinds of text frames have common characteristics, like orientation, each has type-specific qualities, as reflected in the text frame object's properties. For example: ➤ An area text frame can have rows and columns, which you access through the row count and column count properties. ➤ Path text has start T value and end T value properties that indicate where on the path the text begins and ends. ➤ Area and path text frames are associated with a text path object, which is specified using the text frame object's text path property. The text path defines the text frame's position and orientation (horizontal or vertical) on the artboard (while the text frame object's orientation property defines the orientation of text within the text frame). The text path property is not valid for point text, because point-text position and orientation are defined completely by the properties of the text frame itself. NOTE: A text path is not the same as a path art item. Text paths are associated with path art items that can be accessed and manipulated to modify the appearance of the associated text frame. Objects that represent text content Within a text frame or story, the actual text content can be accessed as any of the following objects: ➤ characters ➤ words ➤ paragraphs ➤ lines A line object is all the characters that fit on one line in a text frame or story object. All text-art items have at least one line of text, defined as a line object. Text art can have multiple text lines, if the text contains hard line breaks or its characters flow to a new line because they do not fit in the width of the text art. Text objects are accessed and identified by collections within the text frame and story objects; for example, textFrame("My Text Frame").paragraphs or story("My Story").paragraphs.