JavaScripting InDesign

This is a real-time blog. I don't know the answer as I start to write this. I have a paragraph reference and a number, n. I want to select n paragraphs starting with the referenced paragraph.

The first question anyone ever asks about a problem like this is: why are you selecting text in a script? You don't need to. All you need do is reference it.

Well, I'm selecting it because this is a feature in an interactive script. But of course, in order to select it, I need to create that reference. And once I have the reference, all will be well. Perhaps the quickest solution is to walk through the paragraphs, until I reach the last one and then grab a text reference from the first character of the first paragraph to the last of the last. So, how would that go:

function getTextRef(myPara, n) {
 var tf = myPara.parent.texts[0]; // text flow
 var s = myPara.index; // start
 var e = myPara.characters[-1].index; // end
 for (j = n-1; j > 0; j--) {
   myPara = myPara.insertionPoints[-1].paragraphs[0];
   e = myPara.characters[-1].index; // updated end
 }
 return tf.characters.itemByRange(s, e).texts[0];
}

And that just about does the trick. There is one possible fly-in-the-ointment I can think of: what if there isn't enough text to serve up the n paragraphs? A simple try/catch will handle that. Here's the final version of the function inside the text script I used to test it:

myPara = app.selection[0].paragraphs[0];
n = 2;
selectIt(getTextRef(myPara, n));

function getTextRef(myPara, n) {
 var tf = myPara.parent.texts[0]; // text flow
 var s = myPara.index; // start
 var e = myPara.characters[-1].index; // end
 for (j = n-1; j > 0; j--) {
   try {
     myPara = myPara.insertionPoints[-1].paragraphs[0];
   } catch (e) { break }
   e = myPara.characters[-1].index; // updated end
 }
 return tf.characters.itemByRange(s, e).texts[0];
}

function selectIt(theObj) {
 app.select(theObj,SelectionOptions.replaceWith);
 app.activeWindow.zoom(ZoomOptions.fitPage);
 app.activeWindow.zoomPercentage = 150
}

Well, that was easy. But I have to believe it would have taken longer if I hadn't chatted to myself here.