DW CS5 - Find/Replace using RegEx

Hello, everyone.
I am working on some inherited code, and the previous people used some named anchors; some are properly closed, most are not. There are over 100 of them that I don't want to correct manually.
Examples:
<a name="this">
<a name="that"></a>
<a name="other">
<a name="org"> </a> <-- notice the space between
I am trying to use RegEx in the Find and Replace so I can correct these to all being closed. Here is the string I'm looking for:
<a name="([^"]*)["]>[^\w{1,}<\/a>]
But this is not finding any of the named anchors. I did have the same thing, minus the [^\w{1,}<\/a> part, but it found ALL the named anchors, closed and not-closed.
Also, I have (for replacement) <a name="$1"/>, but am not sure if this will properly replace. Suggestions?
^_^

Anyone?

Similar Messages

Find/Replace Using Regular Expressions

Can someone help me with this...I am using Regular expressions to
FIND:
http.*lid=([^&"]*)[^"]*
REPLACE:
$set(\1,ID_id,code)$
So that in the following it will change this:
a href="http://www.test.com/shc/s/home_10153_12605?lid=Search" rilt="Search"
To this:
a href="$set(Search,ID_id,code)$" rilt="Search
Those expressions work in Notepad++ but when i use dreamweaver it just replaces the http... with "$set(\1,ID_id,code)$" and doesnt reference the "search"
Any help?
Thanks

Let me begin by saying I'm a complete idiot with DW's Reg Ex. I use Search Specific Tag whenever possible. See screenshot below.
Try this on your Current Document to see if it works. Then make a back-up copy of site before attempting it on Entire Local Site as you cannot "Undo" this process.
Good luck,
Nancy O.

Find Replace from Textfile with regex

Hello.
I'm wondering if anyone knows about an existing script that does a find/replace by list like the script "FindChangeByList.jsx" that comes with every InDesign installation.
This consists of tow parts, the script itself with the functionality and a simple textfile where you have simple one-liners capable of find/replace with regex.
the Textfile:
//FindChangeList.txt
//A support file for the InDesign CS4 JavaScript FindChangeByList.jsx
//This data file is tab-delimited, with carriage returns separating records.
//The format of each record in the file is:
//findType<tab>findProperties<tab>changeProperties<tab>findChangeOptions<tab>description
//Where:
//<tab> is a tab character
//findType is "text", "grep", or "glyph" (this sets the type of find/change operation to use).
//findProperties is a properties record (as text) of the find preferences.
//changeProperties is a properties record (as text) of the change preferences.
//findChangeOptions is a properties record (as text) of the find/change options.
//description is a description of the find/change operation
//Very simple example:
//text {findWhat:"--"} {changeTo:"^_"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double dashes and replace with an em dash.
//More complex example:
//text {findWhat:"^9^9.^9^9"} {appliedCharacterStyle:"price"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false} Find $10.00 to $99.99 and apply the character style "price".
//All InDesign search metacharacters are allowed in the "findWhat" and "changeTo" properties for findTextPreferences and changeTextPreferences.
//If you enter backslashes in the findWhat property of the findGrepPreferences object, they must be "escaped"
//as shown in the example below:
//{findWhat:"\\s+"}
grep {findWhat:" +"} {changeTo:" "} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double spaces and replace with single spaces.
grep {findWhat:"\r "} {changeTo:"\r"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all returns followed by a space And replace with single returns.
grep {findWhat:" \r"} {changeTo:"\r"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all returns followed by a space and replace with single returns.
grep {findWhat:"\t\t+"} {changeTo:"\t"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double tab characters and replace with single tab characters.
grep {findWhat:"\r\t"} {changeTo:"\r"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all returns followed by a tab character and replace with single returns.
grep {findWhat:"\t\r"} {changeTo:"\r"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all returns followed by a tab character and replace with single returns.
grep {findWhat:"\r\r+"} {changeTo:"\r"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double returns and replace with single returns.
text {findWhat:" - "} {changeTo:"^="} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all space-dash-space and replace with an en dash.
text {findWhat:"--"} {changeTo:"^_"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all dash-dash and replace with an em dash.
The script:
//FindChangeByList.jsx
//An InDesign CS5.5 JavaScript
@@@BUILDINFO@@@ "FindChangeByList.jsx" 3.0.0 15 December 2009
//Loads a series of tab-delimited strings from a text file, then performs a series
//of find/change operations based on the strings read from the file.
//The data file is tab-delimited, with carriage returns separating records.
//The format of each record in the file is:
//findType<tab>findProperties<tab>changeProperties<tab>findChangeOptions<tab>description
//Where:
//<tab> is a tab character
//findType is "text", "grep", or "glyph" (this sets the type of find/change operation to use).
//findProperties is a properties record (as text) of the find preferences.
//changeProperties is a properties record (as text) of the change preferences.
//findChangeOptions is a properties record (as text) of the find/change options.
//description is a description of the find/change operation
//Very simple example:
//text {findWhat:"--"} {changeTo:"^_"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:true, wholeWord:false} Find all double dashes and replace with an em dash.
//More complex example:
//text {findWhat:"^9^9.^9^9"} {appliedCharacterStyle:"price"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false} Find $10.00 to $99.99 and apply the character style "price".
//All InDesign search metacharacters are allowed in the "findWhat" and "changeTo" properties for findTextPreferences and changeTextPreferences.
//If you enter backslashes in the findWhat property of the findGrepPreferences object, they must be "escaped"
//as shown in the example below:
//{findWhat:"\\s+"}
//For more on InDesign scripting, go to http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting/index.html
//or visit the InDesign Scripting User to User forum at http://www.adobeforums.com
main();
function main(){
 var myObject;
 //Make certain that user interaction (display of dialogs, etc.) is turned on.
 app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevels.interactWithAll;
 if(app.documents.length > 0){
 if(app.selection.length > 0){
 switch(app.selection[0].constructor.name){
 case "InsertionPoint":
 case "Character":
 case "Word":
 case "TextStyleRange":
 case "Line":
 case "Paragraph":
 case "TextColumn":
 case "Text":
 case "Cell":
 case "Column":
 case "Row":
 case "Table":
 myDisplayDialog();
 break;
 default:
 //Something was selected, but it wasn't a text object, so search the document.
 myFindChangeByList(app.documents.item(0));
 else{
 //Nothing was selected, so simply search the document.
 myFindChangeByList(app.documents.item(0));
 else{
 alert("No documents are open. Please open a document and try again.");
function myDisplayDialog(){
 var myObject;
 var myDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"FindChangeByList"});
 with(myDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
 with(dialogRows.add()){
 with(dialogColumns.add()){
 staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Search Range:"});
 var myRangeButtons = radiobuttonGroups.add();
 with(myRangeButtons){
 radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:"Document", checkedState:true});
 radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:"Selected Story"});
 if(app.selection[0].contents != ""){
 radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:"Selection", checkedState:true});
 var myResult = myDialog.show();
 if(myResult == true){
 switch(myRangeButtons.selectedButton){
 case 0:
 myObject = app.documents.item(0);
 break;
 case 1:
 myObject = app.selection[0].parentStory;
 break;
 case 2:
 myObject = app.selection[0];
 break;
 myDialog.destroy();
 myFindChangeByList(myObject);
 else{
 myDialog.destroy();
function myFindChangeByList(myObject){
 var myScriptFileName, myFindChangeFile, myFindChangeFileName, myScriptFile, myResult;
 var myFindChangeArray, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindLimit, myStory;
 var myStartCharacter, myEndCharacter;
 var myFindChangeFile = myFindFile("/FindChangeSupport/FindChangeList.txt")
 if(myFindChangeFile != null){
 myFindChangeFile = File(myFindChangeFile);
 var myResult = myFindChangeFile.open("r", undefined, undefined);
 if(myResult == true){
 //Loop through the find/change operations.
 do{
 myLine = myFindChangeFile.readln();
 //Ignore comment lines and blank lines.
 if((myLine.substring(0,4)=="text")||(myLine.substring(0,4)=="grep")|| (myLine.substring(0,5)=="glyph")){
 myFindChangeArray = myLine.split("\t");
 //The first field in the line is the findType string.
 myFindType = myFindChangeArray[0];
 //The second field in the line is the FindPreferences string.
 myFindPreferences = myFindChangeArray[1];
 //The second field in the line is the ChangePreferences string.
 myChangePreferences = myFindChangeArray[2];
 //The fourth field is the range--used only by text find/change.
 myFindChangeOptions = myFindChangeArray[3];
 switch(myFindType){
 case "text":
 myFindText(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions);
 break;
 case "grep":
 myFindGrep(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions);
 break;
 case "glyph":
 myFindGlyph(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions);
 break;
 } while(myFindChangeFile.eof == false);
 myFindChangeFile.close();
function myFindText(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions){
 //Reset the find/change preferences before each search.
 app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 var myString = "app.findTextPreferences.properties = "+ myFindPreferences + ";";
 myString += "app.changeTextPreferences.properties = " + myChangePreferences + ";";
 myString += "app.findChangeTextOptions.properties = " + myFindChangeOptions + ";";
 app.doScript(myString, ScriptLanguage.javascript);
 myFoundItems = myObject.changeText();
 //Reset the find/change preferences after each search.
 app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
function myFindGrep(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions){
 //Reset the find/change grep preferences before each search.
 app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 var myString = "app.findGrepPreferences.properties = "+ myFindPreferences + ";";
 myString += "app.changeGrepPreferences.properties = " + myChangePreferences + ";";
 myString += "app.findChangeGrepOptions.properties = " + myFindChangeOptions + ";";
 app.doScript(myString, ScriptLanguage.javascript);
 var myFoundItems = myObject.changeGrep();
 //Reset the find/change grep preferences after each search.
 app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
function myFindGlyph(myObject, myFindPreferences, myChangePreferences, myFindChangeOptions){
 //Reset the find/change glyph preferences before each search.
 app.changeGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 app.findGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 var myString = "app.findGlyphPreferences.properties = "+ myFindPreferences + ";";
 myString += "app.changeGlyphPreferences.properties = " + myChangePreferences + ";";
 myString += "app.findChangeGlyphOptions.properties = " + myFindChangeOptions + ";";
 app.doScript(myString, ScriptLanguage.javascript);
 var myFoundItems = myObject.changeGlyph();
 //Reset the find/change glyph preferences after each search.
 app.changeGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
 app.findGlyphPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
function myFindFile(myFilePath){
 var myScriptFile = myGetScriptPath();
 var myScriptFile = File(myScriptFile);
 var myScriptFolder = myScriptFile.path;
 myFilePath = myScriptFolder + myFilePath;
 if(File(myFilePath).exists == false){
 //Display a dialog.
 myFilePath = File.openDialog("Choose the file containing your find/change list");
 return myFilePath;
function myGetScriptPath(){
 try{
 myFile = app.activeScript;
 catch(myError){
 myFile = myError.fileName;
 return myFile;
This is a very useful and easy to maintain script which even people who cant write scripts (but know how to use regex) can do complex search replace mass replacements.
Would love to find something like this for FrameMaker 12 (as i can't write scripts myself).
regards
daniel

I have visited that site. The first item in the external link says: "You can also configure Firefox to automatically search for text when you type any characters outside of a text field. When typing in a text field these characters should show up in the text field and not trigger the Quick Find bar. "
What I am looking for is the exact opposite. Once my first search is entered in the text box, and the info comes back, I want to start typing the next symbol, and have it automatically show up in the text box, not the Quick Find box. That is how it was working up until a couple of months ago.

Find & Replace window missing in Toolkit CS5

Hello--
I just started using Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CS5 after installing Photoshop CS5, and ran into a strange problem: the Find & Replace menu option and key command do not function correctly, in that I cannot access Find at all. The Find / Find Results window does not appear, and I cannot get the window to appear by selecting the option in the Windows tool menu either. This works just fine in Toolkit CS4, and is very frustrating to deal with as I am trying to update my scripts to CS5, but have to do so in the CS4 Toolkit because I can't use the Find functionality.
I've already searched the forums and google high and low for this problem, but no else seems to have posted about it. I've already tried restarting and uninstalling / installing CS5 and all related tools. Can anyone help?
Thanks!

Thanks! Looking in the preferences led me to the answer to the problem: I opened up the XML file and found that findAndReplace was put in an odd TabPane for some reason:
 <TabGroup5>
 <activeChild>findAndReplace</activeChild>
 <parentName>Tabpane13</parentName>
 <visible>false</visible>
 </TabGroup5>
I changed the parentName to Tabpane0 and the window appears now. Much obliged!

Using Regex to find a string

Is it viable to use regular expressions with Search "Specific Tag" (i.e.script) "With Attribute" (i.e. src) and "=" a regex string rather than an exact search term? The Find / Replace tool seems to prevent a simple wildcard find (i.e. "searchter* for searchterm) Any insight would be appreciated.

uneAaron wrote:
I'm trying to replace a script source value for all instances where the value contains the string "/bbcswebdav/xid-144702_1", where the string "xid-" is followed by a different numerical value in each instance.
The regex for finding that string is:
\/bbcswebdav\/xid\-[\d_]+
The numerical value contains an underscore, so the final section ( [\d_]+ ) uses a range that selects one or more numbers and/or underscores.
Perhaps as important as identifying what you want to find is specifying how you want to replace it. Regexes can have capturing groups that can be used in the Replace field to simplify matters.

Search given string array and replace with another string array using Regex

Hi All,
I want to search the given string array and replace with another string array using regex in java
for example,
String news = "If you wish to search for any of these characters, they must be preceded by the character to be interpreted"
String fromValue[] = {"you", "search", "for", "any"}
String toValue[] = {"me", "dont search", "never", "trip"}
so the string "you" needs to be converted to "me" i.e you --> me. Similarly
you --> me
search --> don't search
for --> never
any --> trip
I want a SINGLE Regular Expression with search and replaces and returns a SINGLE String after replacing all.
I don't like to iterate one by one and applying regex for each from and to value. Instead i want to iterate the array and form a SINGLE Regulare expression and use to replace the contents of the Entire String.
One Single regular expression which matches the pattern and solve the issue.
the output should be as:
If me wish to don't search never trip etc...,
Please help me to resolve this.
Thanks In Advance,
Kathir

As stated, no, it can't be done. But that doesn't mean you have to make a separate pass over the input for each word you want to replace. You can employ a regex that matches any word, then use the lower-level Matcher methods to replace the word or not depending on what was matched. Here's an example: import java.util.*;
import java.util.regex.*;
public class Test
static final List<String> oldWords =
 Arrays.asList("you", "search", "for", "any");
static final List<String> newWords =
 Arrays.asList("me", "dont search", "never", "trip");
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
 String str = "If you wish to search for any of these characters, "
 + "they must be preceded by the character to be interpreted";
 System.out.println(doReplace(str));
public static String doReplace(String str)
 Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\b\\w+\\b");
 Matcher m = p.matcher(str);
 StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
 while (m.find())
 int pos = oldWords.indexOf(m.group());
 if (pos > -1)
 m.appendReplacement(sb, "");
 sb.append(newWords.get(pos));
 m.appendTail(sb);
 return sb.toString();
} This is just a demonstration of the technique; a real-world solution would require a more complicated regex, and I would probably use a Map instead of the two Lists (or arrays).

Find & replace part of a string in Numbers using do shell script in AppleScript

Hello,
I would like to set a search-pattern with a wildcard in Applescript to find - for example - the pattern 'Table 1::$*$4' for use in a 'Search & Replace script'
The dollar signs '$' seem to be a bit of problem (refers to fixed values in Numbers & to variables in Shell ...)
Could anyone hand me a solution to this problem?
The end-goal - for now - would be to change the reference to a row-number in a lot of cells (number '4' in the pattern above should finally be replaced by 5, 6, 7, ...)
Thx.

Hi,
Here's how to do that:
try
 tell application "Numbers" to tell front document to tell active sheet
 tell (first table whose selection range's class is range)
 set sr to selection range
 set f to text returned of (display dialog "Find this in selected cells in Numbers " default answer "" with title "Find-Replace Step 1" buttons {"Cancel", "Next"})
 if f = "" then return
 set r to text returned of (display dialog "Replace '" & f & "' with " default answer f with title "Find-Replace Step 2")
 set {f, r} to my escapeForSED(f, r) -- escape some chars, create back reference for sed
 set tc to count cells of sr
 tell sr to repeat with i from 1 to tc
 tell (cell i) to try
 set oVal to formula
 if oVal is not missing value then set value to (my find_replace(oVal, f, r))
 end try
 end repeat
 end tell
 end tell
on error number n
 if n = -128 then return
 display dialog "Did you select cells?" buttons {"cancel"} with title "Oops!"
end try
on find_replace(t, f, r)
 do shell script "/usr/bin/sed 's~" & f & "~" & r & "~g' <<< " & (quoted form of t)
end find_replace
on escapeForSED(f, r)
 set tid to text item delimiters
 set text item delimiters to "*" -- the wildcard
 set tc1 to count (text items of f)
 set tc2 to count (text items of r)
 set text item delimiters to tid
 if (tc1 - tc2) < 0 then
 display alert "The number of wildcard in the replacement string must be equal or less than the number of wildcard in the search string."
 error -128
 end if
 -- escape search string, and create back reference for each wildcard (the wildcard is a dot in sed) --> \$.\$
 set f to do shell script "/usr/bin/sed -e 's/[]~$.^|[]/\\\\&/g;s/\\*/\\\$.\\\$/g' <<<" & quoted form of f
 -- escape the replacement string, Perl replace wildcard by two backslash and an incremented integer, to get the back reference --> \\1 \\2
 return {f, (do shell script "/usr/bin/sed -e 's/[]~$.^|[]/\\\\&/g' | /usr/bin/perl -pe '$n=1;s/\\*/\"\\\\\" . $n++/ge'<<<" & (quoted form of r))}
end escapeForSED
For what you want to do, you must have the wildcard in the same position in both string. --> find "Table 1::$*$3", replace "Table 1::$*$4"
Important, you can use no wildcard in both (the search string and the replacement string) or you can use any wildcard in the search string with no wildcard in the replacement string).
But, the number of wildcard in the replacement string must be equal or less than the number of wildcard in the search string.

Find/Replace - multiple replace ... maybe with regex

Hello Dreamweaver community ... I'm relatively new to using Dreamweaver as an editor and I'm working on a large migration project that I'm trying to make easier. Basically, I'm converting an entire site from English to Spanish ... almost literally tag by tag
Something that would make my job a lot easier is if ... every time I open a new Spanish language content file I could ...
replace ALL Spanish language grammar symbols, accents, tildes etc ... with their HTML equivalents ... for example ...
á = á
é = é
í = í
And so on ... there's about 10-12 major changes ...
What I need to figure out is how to save a find/replace query in Dreamweaver .dwr format that replaces all symbols at once instead of needing to do them one at a time ...
Seems like this shoudl be possible but I haven't figured out the right syntax ... I used the (.+) and $1 but it only worked conditionally - in the order the replacements were written. I need it to find ALL instances of a spanish symbol and replace it with its corresponding html ...
Can anyone help me with this ...?
Thank you in advance ...

This is in fact the only solution I found to this problem.
Creating an extension is not that difficult once you have the right
reference material.
Have a look at:
DW API function to find and replace
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Dreamweaver/9.0_API/dwr_code_cd_013.html
Sample extension file on your machine after installing DW
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Extension
Manager\Samples\Dreamweaver\
Full specifications of the MXI (extension file) format
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/exchange/mxi_file_format.pdf
quote:
Originally posted by:
Newsgroup User
> So, is it indeed possible to run more than one
find/replace query at a
> time?
As far as i know, no it's not possible.
There has been mentions in the past to this question that a
series of
find/replace queries could be built as a dw extension instead
of a saved
search query.
Alan
Adobe Community Expert, dreamweaver

Is there a way to use the find/replace tool to select the actual step in the TestStand sequence instead of just listing matching values in the find window?

The purpose of this is to be able to select many steps that are scattered throughout a sequence so I can change the step type one time. I could do this now, but it would take me 30 minutes to click through the sequence and select all of the steps before I'd even change the step type because there are different steps inbetween the ones I want to select. I wouldn't be able to just use the shift key to select multiple steps because of that. I have about 500 steps I need to select, so it would be worth it to find an automated way to do that.
Unless there's a way to change a step type from a numericlimittest to an action step type from the find/replace window???

I ended up using ActiveX calls in TestStand to find the steps I wanted and change the step type to Action. See attached example sequence.
Attachments:
Convert NumericLimitTest to Action step type example.seq ‏9 KB

Using Grep to find/replace

I'm trying to find out how to use GREP in find/replace to chage the formatting of some text that comes in from a spreadsheet.
I worked out the GREP query "~b(\d\d)~b", which finds a paragraph return, followed by two digits, followed by another paragraph return
and then it is replaced by "\t $1~b", which is a tab, the two found digits and a para return.
What i need to do is to amend the query to find ANY number of digits, (which may be comma delimited: eg 23, 36, 48 ,50), and then replace with a tab + found text.
I suppose what I'm looking for is a way for the query to find "any text between two paragraph returns, no matter what tthe length", but I don't know how to do this.All the Wildcard options seem to find just one exampler (one digit, one character etc)

And you came so far
The operators for repeat are ? (zero or once), * (zero or more) and + (once or more). You can also specify exact numbers: {at least,up to}.
All of these operators are "greedy" by default -- they will match as much as possible. To match as least as possible (which I'm sure you'll come up against, sooner or later), add another ? after the repeat expression.
So this will find one digit, then optionally another (which will always be included):
\d\d?
and this one digit, then zero or as much as ten million million zillion:
\d\d*
which is functionally the same as
\d+
And this will find between 3 and 8 digits but will forced to use the shortest possible match:
\d{3,8}?
That said: A quick & dirty solution for your actual problem is to find any amount of digits, spaces, and comma's:
~b[\d, ]+~b
(we need the plus here because otherwise it would also match an empty line). The [..] brackets an Inclusive list --- it will match any of the single codes inside.
A more complicated but 'neater' way is to search very specifically only for number, comma, space, number sequences -- it's neater because that way malformed lines (comma without a space) will be skipped!
(It also introduces another code -- the parentheses operators. Look them up in a good GREP reference --lost of people are enthousiastic about Peter Kahrel's O'Reilly title, because it's about using GREP in InDesign.)
~b\d+(, \d+)*~b

How can I remove all content between two tags using Find/Replace regular expressions?

This one is driving me bonkers... I'm relatively new to regular expressions, but I'm trying to get Dreamweaver to remove all content between two tags in an XML document. For example, let's say I have the following XML:
<custom>
<![CDATA[Some text
Some more text]]>
</custom>
I'd like to do a Find/Replace that produces:
<custom>
</custom>
In essence, I'd like to strip all of the content between two tags. Ideally, I'd like to know how to strip the CDATA content as well, to return the following:
<custom>
<![CDATA[]]>
</custom>
I'd much appreciate any suggestions on accomplishing this.
Many thanks!

Thanks much for your response. I found David's article to be a little thin with respect to examples using quantifiers in coordination with the wildcard metacharacters; however, I was able to cobble together a working expression through trial and error using the information he presented. For posterity, here’s the solution:
Find:
<custom>[\d\D]*?</custom>
Replace:
<custom>
<![CDATA[]]>
</custom>
I believe this literally translates to:
[] = find anything in this range/character class
\d = find any digit character (i.e. any number)
\D = find any non-digit character (i.e. anything except numbers)
*? = match zero or more times, but as few times as possible (i.e. match multiple characters per instance, but only match one instance at a time, or none at all)
I’m still not sure how to effectively utilize the . wildcard. For example, the following expression will not find content that ends with a number:
<custom>.*?[\D]*?</ custom >
I'm presuming this is because numbers aren't included in the \D metacharacter; however, shouldn't numbers be picked up by the .*? expression?

Find and replace using wildcard

I've inserted table content using Insert/Table Objects/Insert Tabular Data in DWCS3 and want to remove unwanted code from the table insert.
Example:
<td width=156 valign=top style='width:117.0pt;border-top:none;border-left:
none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;border-right:solid windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;
mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;background:#FF8A50;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt'>
The text between "width" and "Arial'" varies but these two start and end words are the same in each instance to be replaced - how can I find and replace using a regular expression wildcard? Have researched on web but not come across answer yet. I thought it might be simple and hopefully it is and I'm just having a shocker. Is it something like Find: "<td [^"]*> and Replace with: "<td>"? Am I close?
I'd appreciate anyone's help and thankyou in advance for your time.

You might be able to sort this out with Commands > Clean Up Word HTML.
However, the following regular expression should also do what you're looking for (make a backup first). Put this in the Find field:
(<td)[\w\W]+?Arial\'(>)
Put this in the Replace field:
$1$2
Select "Use regular expression".

Use Find-Replace to paste/wrap Element name?

Hi:
For FrameMaker 7.2, structured.
I'm a longtime *unstructured* FrameMaker who is performing cleanup on some structured FrameMaker documents created by my customer.
One of my tasks is to find all Index markers and applying the IndexMarker element (square-cornered) tag to the markers.
I'm currently using the tedious and slow technique of using Find to locate and select the Index tag, then in the Element catalog clicking "IndexMarker" followed by "Wrap".
I've poked around hoping I could find Copy Special / Paste Special choices that would speed this mousing-intensive chore up, but haven't found any such choices that work.
So -- is there some "intelligent" way to Find / Replace my way through this problem? Even if I manually have to click Replace at every instance, it's faster than what I'm doing...
Cheers & thanks,
Riley

Riley,
As much as I appreciate the unsolicited endorsements, I have to clarify that FrameSLT cannot help you with this task. It can do lots of things associated with structural management, but all of its current capabilities are dependent upon existing structure. More specifically, it requires existing structure to find the items for which it intends to manage, which your current markers do not have. So, while it can do things like element wrapping, it wouldn't be able to find the unstructured markers in order to wrap them.
This would be a reasonably simple task for a custom API client or FrameScript script. If you have zillions of these to do, it might be worth your while to explore that option. If not, Gary's suggestion might be your best bet.
Russ
(Owner, West Street Consulting)

Using AppleScript with saved Find/Replace Queries

Hello all,
I have been trying to create a script with AppleScript to apply a sequence of pre-saved queries created in the find/replace dialog in InDesign CS5 to all open documents.
I am fairly new to AppleScript and I'm still learning, but this seems like a task it should be able to do? The queries are named 01, 02, 03 etc and I'd like to apply them in order to adjust the text formatting in all open documents.
Is this the best way to approach the problem or do I need to reproduce the queries within the script?
Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Is this the best way to approach the problem or do I need to reproduce the queries within the script?
Putting them in the script is much more robust. Have you looked at the sample script FindChangebyList?

Can I use Find & Replace to change the fills and strokes of tables?

I'm working on a catalog that has a fair amount of tables, that all have the same color scheme. I need to change all of these tables to a new color scheme, and I'd much rather find a way to do it with one shot. The tables do not have styles applied to them, so it's not a matter of adjusting the style definitions.
I know you can do a Find & Replace for text or objects in a specific color. Is there a way to do the same for table cells? I've tried but haven't had luck getting it to work.
Thanks!
-Sean

Congratulations are in place -- changing parameter names in the right places is one thing, finding out what parts safely can be copied is step 2 in my book "how to become a successful scripter in 10 easy steps"
You cannot select more than one table in Table mode, but what you can do is select them together with its surrounding text -- just keep on dragging that mouse until you've covered them all. The InDesign Selection is a multi-purpose object (see the way the script has to find out "what is selected"), and one of the things it keeps track of is how many and which tables are "inside" the selection. Then run this slightly amended script:
a = app.selection[0];if (a.tables.length == 0)
alert ("You must be kidding; not a single table inside your selection!");
exit(0);
for (b=0; b<app.selection[0].tables.length; b++)
d = app.selection[0].tables[b]; // shortcut
for (c=0; c<d.cells.length; c++)
if (d.cells[c].fillColor == app.activeDocument.swatches.item("Bloo"))
d.cells[c].fillColor = app.activeDocument.swatches.item("Redd");
// .. Insert more colors here ..
Now the script doesn't have to check anymore in which part of the table you clicked; it only has to iterate over the ones in your selection, and those are "immediately" accessible through the indexes (the square bracketed variables). And the "shortcut" is so I don't have to type "app.selection[0].tables[b].cells[c].fillColor" every time. (And the script runs marginally faster as well, although it's probably still almost immediate.)

DW CS5 - Find/Replace using RegEx

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for