Source Text handling problems

Technical Support
1

Wanna have a script that lists content of all source text from all comps and precomps of an entirely project. So I can pick the exact text and have it as a search variable for text changes.

Can send source text from aktive comp to Listbox - but if source text is keyframed only last keyed text ist listed. How to handle?

If “all precomps” is checked only text from last inspected precomp - most submost one - is sent to listbox. Previous inspected Comps are skipped. How to have input from different comps in one Listbox?

Changing Source Text will work on “all precomps” - but only as long as source text is not keyed for text changes. How to handle?

1 Like
2

Hi @Charly, Welcome to the forum!
if I understand right you want to make a list of the source texts of all the text layers in all the compositions of project (if keyframed list all the keyframes ? or only the last one?).

So I can pick the exact text and have it as a search variable for text changes

I’m not sure what you mean here

creating this automation can be quite simple using the right tools,
using the “sum to list” and and the “all precomps” options can be handy in some cases but on this one they will not solve the problem.

sum to list -
this option will force a message to save every message in a loop cycle into a big message containing all the messages (later the listbox will show this list of messages).

this is a shortcut for creating lists of data in a fast and easy way,
the downside - it resets when the same loop starts again so when using in combination with “all precomps” on every Precomp the loop restart with a different composition so the message content erases.

all precomps -
this option works well but if you need to loop over all comps of an entirely project there is a much better way, the combination of 2 loops “items in the project” and “layers in other comp”.

Solutions -

Can send source text from aktive comp to Listbox - but if source text is keyframed only last keyed text ist listed. How to handle?

I’m not sure what you mean here

If “all precomps” is checked only text from last inspected precomp - most submost one - is sent to listbox. Previous inspected Comps are skipped. How to have input from different comps in one Listbox?

you can create a list that won’t reset using a text variable, each time set the variable to itself+new line+a new value (as shown in the example).

Changing Source Text will work on “all precomps” - but only as long as source text is not keyed for text changes. How to handle?

you will need to loop over the keyframes of the source text and change each one of them (as shown in the example).

Example-
I created an automation that creates a list of all the texts in the project, if the text is keyframes it will show all the keyframes text with separator"(-)" between them.
List all the texts.json (29.0 KB)

you asked many questions in one topic so my answer came out general so please let me know if you need more explanation.

Thanks,
Alon

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i changed the example to show more information about the comp and the layer index.
List all the texts 2.json (38.9 KB)

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Hi, thanks for your answers. I´ll check the json an will be back.

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Yeah - that works great!
Learned how to adress all comps in a project!
Will add Comp name to any output, so it would be easier to navigate to the right position to fix errors in the project an unwanted precomps.

Thank´s a lot.

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@Charly Glad you made it!
you are a fast learner, my answer was very messy :sweat_smile: