JavaScripting InDesign

In a large number of places in the Scripting Reference, there are color based properties whose Type field reads:

  Swatch, String

with a description that reads: "The color of the <whatever>".

This is correct for setting these color properties (as long as you realize that the string in question should be the name of a swatch of the active document).

But, if you interrogate any of these properties:

  myColor = myWord.underlineGapColor;

you'll get a color object, and not a swatch. To detect whether or not the color object returned is represented in the UI by a swatch, check its name. If the name is "" then the color was explicitly applied to the object in question without using a swatch (I don't think that is possible for the particular example chosen above, but it is certainly possible for such properties as strokeColor and fillColor).