Add Content to a Text Frame

So far our javascript does two simple things, it adds a new Indesign file and it saves the file to disk.
#target indesign
app.documents.add();
app.documents[0].save()

To add content to a text frame, we firstly need to create the text frame. If we were doing it by hand, we would:

1. use the Type Tool to add a text frame
2. set the dimensions of the text frame by how big we drag the frame out
3. type something into the text frame

Add a text frame and set it's size

To add the text frame via scripting, we use the textFrames.add() method, and set its size with geometricBounds: [top, left, bottom, right], where top, left, bottom and right are the dimensions of the text frame.

app.documents[0].pages[0].textFrames.add({geometricBounds:[40,40,180,180]});

Add Content

To make our code easier to read, let's assign a variable name to the text frame we just created. Like this:

var myFrame = app.documents[0].pages[0].textFrames[0];

So to place content into myFrame, use

myFrame.contents = "Hello world";

Here is the complete script


Next up I'll show how to import a Word file.