Scripting importing text files into Quark with formatting

[pcLoadLetter]

I’m trying to make our print production manager’s life easier. I’m working on a script that pulls product info for each product from an Excel file and pastes that info into Microsoft Word. I then started experimenting with applying Word Styles in Word and saved files as .rtf files. (Each product would have it’s own text file). I attempted to import the rtf files into Quark, hoping that it would import with the Word Styles intact. If I set a style in Word named “Headline” with 7 pt. XB Futura ExtraBold text, it will import into Quark with 7 pt. XB Futura ExtraBold text, but it will not apply the corresponding Quark style named “Headline” to the text.

I found an article that suggested using @tags within plain text files at http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=657109. Unfortunately, when I tried that, it simply imported the words “@Headline:” instead of applying the headline style in Quark. I’m not sure if anyone still uses Quark. If you have any advice on how to get text files to import into Quark with the relevant quark styles intact, I would appreciate it. (Don’t say switch to InDesign, I tried to sell that and not everyone is as enthusiastic about the idea as I am, lol)

The rest of the script works, I’m just trying to figure out the formatting part. (Running Quark 9.5 and Microsoft Office 2011)

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–PROMPTING THE USER TO SELECT THE FOLDER WITH THE EXCEL FILES

with timeout of 900 seconds

--Displaying a prompt asking the user to select the excel file with the information
set excel_folder to choose folder with prompt "Select the folder with the excel files"

tell application "Finder" to set excel_file_list to (every file of folder excel_folder whose name extension contains "xls") as alias list

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--OPENING THE WORKBOOK IN EXCEL
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--Opening each Excel file
repeat with my_file in excel_file_list
	
	set product_info to POSIX path of my_file
	do shell script "open -a /Applications/Microsoft\\ Office\\ 2011/Microsoft\\ Excel.app " & quoted form of product_info
	delay 10
	
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	--GETTING INFO FROM EACH EXCEL ROW TO PASTE INTO WORD
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	--Repeating with every used row
	set the_start_row to 2
	tell application "Microsoft Excel"
		tell active sheet
			repeat with i from 1 to count of rows of used range
				set current_row to i
				
				
				--Setting the cell address for each info field
				set sku_number_cell to "E" & current_row as string
				set mfg_number_cell to "F" & current_row as string
				set vendor_cell to "G" & current_row as string
				set description_cell to "H" & current_row as string
				set long_description_cell to "W" & current_row as string
				set the_specs_cell to "X" & current_row as string
				set the_url_cell to "Y" & current_row as string
				
				
				--Getting the values from every cell address
				if current_row is greater than or equal to the_start_row then
					set sku_number to value of cell sku_number_cell as string
					set mfg_number to value of cell mfg_number_cell as string
					set the_vendor to value of cell vendor_cell as string
					set the_description to value of cell description_cell as string
					set long_description to value of cell long_description_cell
					set the_specs to value of cell the_specs_cell
					set the_url to value of cell the_url_cell
					
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					--PASTING THE INFO INTO A MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT & APPLYING STYLES
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					--Doctoring the vendor name if it contains "/"
					if the_vendor contains "/" then
						set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
						set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
						set text_items to text items of the_vendor
						set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_"
						set the_vendor to text_items as Unicode text
						set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid
					end if
					
					--Setting the path in which to save the word document
					set desktop_folder to path to desktop as string
					set the output_path to desktop_folder & sku_number & "_" & the_vendor & ".rtf"
					
					
					--Opening Microsoft Word
					tell application "Microsoft Word"
						activate
						
						
						--Creating a new Word document
						make new document
						
						
						--Choosing which info to paste into word
						set sale_price to "0099 SALE" & return
						set description_heading to the_vendor & " " & the_description & return
						set the_sku_number to sku_number & return
						set regular_price to "Reg. 00.99"
						set product_text to sale_price & description_heading & the_sku_number & regular_price
						
						
						--Inserting/pasting that info into Word
						insert text product_text at beginning of text object of active document
						
						
						--Creating the basic paragraph style
						set paragraph_style to make new Word style at active document with properties ¬
							{name local:"A Basic Price", style type:style type paragraph}
						set line spacing of paragraph format of paragraph_style to "20"
						set alignment of paragraph format of paragraph_style to align paragraph center
						set space after of paragraph format of paragraph_style to "0.035"
						set hyphenation to false
						
						
						--Creating the Headline Character Style
						set headling_style to make new Word style at active document with properties ¬
							{name local:"Headline", style type:style type character}
						set name of font object of headling_style to "XB Futura ExtraBold"
						set font size of font object of headling_style to "7"
						
						--Applying Paragaph Style
						set style of text object of paragraph 1 of selection to paragraph_style
						
						--Finding Headline
						set findRange to find object of selection
						tell findRange
							set description_part to execute find find text description_heading
							log description_part
						end tell
						
						
						--Applying Headline Character Style
						set style of text object of selection to "Headline"
						
						--Saving and closing the document
						try
							save as active document file name output_path file format format rtf
							
							--Overwriting file if it already exists
						on error
							try
								set output_file to output_path as alias
								tell application "Finder"
									if exists output_file then
										delete file output_file
										tell application "Microsoft Word" to save as active document file name output_path file format format rtf
									end if
								end tell
							end try
						end try
						
						tell active document to close saving no
						
					end tell
					
					log output_path
					
				end if
			end repeat
		end tell
	end tell
end repeat

end timeout

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