Select all text boxes in InDesign?

[Laney]

Is there a way anyone knows of (or would it be feasible to write something) to select all text boxes in a document in InDesign? I’ve done some research and apparently there’s a script to select everything on one page but wondering if there’s a way to select everything on all pages?

The key here is that if I need to move my boxes around after doing a data merge with 100+ pages (I make wedding invitations so the envelope addressing I usually do with a data Merge). Sometimes after I do all the editing I notice the boxes need to be moved a little. Ideally I could select all and move them. But maybe there’s a way to set it to move all the text boxes up .25” or something instead of just selecting them all?

[~~Ariel~~Participant]

Hi Laney,
There’s no way of selecting all text frames in ID, and even with scripting it’s not possible.
Of course, with scripting you can easily create a collection of text frames and do things to that collection.
However, if all you’re needing is to move all text frames in a document the same distance up or down, left or right, you’ve got at least 2 options:
(1) Before doing the datamerge, make sure that you’ve applied an object style to the placeholders. The same object style to all placeholders. Now do the datamerge.
At this point (presuming you’re using a newish version of InDesign), you can actually adjust the position of all objects that have that style applied in the entire document by modifying the object style “size and position” properties. Just edit the object style and they’re there, 4th or 5th from the top.
(2) InDesign comes with a script called “Adjust Page Items” (it’s in the Javascript > Samples folder in the Script Panel). This is even easier than the first option, and also allows you to specify a relative adjustment of each object (2mm right) rather than an absolute position. Just run the script, type in by how much and in what direction you want to move the object and click OK.

Does that help?

[Author]

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