Find/Replace text in document with automator: any suggestions?

It is scriptable, yes, but refactoring markup can be a bit of headache depending on the complexity of the code and what precisely you need done. There's no one size fits all approach. can you give more details?

Well, I don't know what indesign tags look like. Are they standard xml? Does each indesign tag have an equivallent html tag, or does something more complex need to happen?

Are you referring to the name (or extension) of the files, or are you actually referring to content within the files?

So I take it this is something you do regularly, not something that needs to get done once? if it were a oneshot operation it would be simpler to use TextWrangler.

For repeated use, the simplest approach is to run through the files and apply text item delimiters to each tag:

set indesignTags to {"idtag1", "idtag2", "idtag3"}

set htmlEquivs to {"htmltag1", "htmltag2", "htmltag3"}

set theFiles to choose filewith prompt "Choose indesign files" with multiple selections allowed

repeat with aFile in theFiles

-- get file text

set fileText to readaFile

-- swap tags

repeat with i from 1 to count of indesignTags

-- swap lead tags

set fileTextBits to tid({input:fileText, delim:"<" & itemi of indesignTags})

set fileText to tid({input:fileTextBits, delim:"<" & itemi of htmlEquivs})

-- swap trailing tags

set fileTextBits to tid({input:fileText, delim:"</" & itemi of indesignTags})

set fileText to tid({input:fileTextBits, delim:"</" & itemi of htmlEquivs})

end repeat

-- make new file path with html extension

set oldFilePath to POSIX path of aFile

set filePathBits to tid({input:oldFilePath, delim:"."})

set last item of fileNameBits to "html"

set newFilePath to tid({input:filePathBits, delim:"."})

-- save at new file path

set fp to open for accessnewFilePath with write permission

writefileTexttofp

close accessfp

end repeat

on tid({input:input, delim:delim})

-- handler for text items

set {oldTID, my text item delimiters} to {my text item delimiters, delim}

if class of input is list then

set output to input as text

else

set output to text items of input

end if

set my text item delimiters to oldTID

return output

end tid

This will work if the indesign tags are unique and there is no complex syntax. It might fail if tags have overlapping names (e.g. "<bl>" and "<blue>") or if there's any irregular notation. If you need more sophisticated handling you'll have to use regular expressions. In that case, download and install the Satimage osax from this page, and use the following (similar) code:

set indesignTags to {"idtag1", "idtag2", "idtag3"}

set htmlEquivs to {"htmltag1", "htmltag2", "htmltag3"}

-- set up regular expressions change lists

set findList to {}

set changeList to {}

repeat with i from 1 to count of indesignTags

set end of findList to "(</?)" & item i of indesignTags & "(?![[:alnum:]])"

set end of changeList to "\\1" & item i of htmlEquivs

end repeat

set theFiles to choose filewith prompt "Choose indesign files" with multiple selections allowed

repeat with aFile in theFiles

-- get file text

set fileText to readaFile

-- swap tags - needs Satimage osax

set fileText to changefindListintochangeListinfileText with regexp

-- make new file path with html extension - needs Satimage osax

set oldFilePath to POSIX path of aFile

set newFilePath to change "\\.[^.]+$" into ".html" in oldFilePath with regexp

-- save at new file path

set fp to open for accessnewFilePath with write permission

writefileTexttofp

close accessfp

end repeat

Message was edited by: twtwtw - I made an error in the second regular expression. should be "\\.[^.]+$", not "\\..*$". fixed in text.

Hah! why do you think I learned how to do it? lazy people rule. Or would, if it weren't such a bother.