Find & Replace Text - Styling Problem (CS5 Mac)

Hi everyone,
Is there a way when finding and replacing a text string to style the block of copy. My problem is that I have some color codes given by the customer that now need to be converted to our internal color matches on our production drawings.
The original string of text looks like this:
Holder: P1 (Metallic Silver)
What I’m getting when I go to replace this string is:
Holder: Natural Satin
What I want is:
Holder: Natural Satin
I do not want the replaced text to be italicized. I'm thinking since the original string ends with an italic style that the replacement string is also italicized. There are about 50 pages of drawings with about 10 colors on the job and some pages have them entered in more than one place. So that's a minimum of 500 entries and defititely more considereing the multiple places these are called out. I'd really rather not have to copy and paste all of these by hand. I'm use to FreeHand, which would respect the font styling of pasted text in the find and replace diaglog.
Any help would greatly be appreciated. Work around if it cant be done natively?
Thanks

Thanks Monika,
I downloaded that earlier today and yes realized that the beta is over after installing it. I joined the mailing list for updates, but it looks like the script hasn't been updated in nearly 3 years. I'm not sure if something in one of the newer versions of Illustrator broke the script and the script writer decided not to update it anymore? I guess I could email them, but seems weird that if there were an updated version that it would be posted on the site also. I'd hate to pester the author. Seems like an extremely useful tool if it would do what I need. I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask anyway. I don't mind supporting developers too by paying for the script. This is something that I use all the time. I've spent about an hour and a half copying and pasting these text blocks for something that truly take about 2 minutes to do with a proper find and replace.
I do appreciate your input though, it's greatly appreciated.

Similar Messages

Find & Replace text in html files

This is my first real attempt at using Automator, and it has become increasingly frustrating for me. I love the idea of Automator, nice interface, and it appears to be so easy to use. But, I can't get it to actually DO anything and I don't understand why.
Here is my goal:
to batch process multiple html files to remove certain characters and words (or replace them with empty space).
I currently open these files in Pages and do 6 separate Find & Replace commands for each file before I continue with my other processing tasks. This is very tedious and I believe the computer should be able to find & replace multiple items at one time. (I have used other utilities to do batch renaming and trimming file names before.)
All I want to do is select a group of files (usually 25 at a time) and have Automator get rid of all the unwanted words and characters before I open each file for final processing in Pages. I found a set of Automator actions for TextEdit which includes a Find & Replace action, but I've wasted over an hour so far trying to get it to work.
When I run the workflow, it acts like it's doing something, but the files remain unchanged. I have tried using actions such as Read Text File, Get Contents of TextEdit Document, Set Contents of TextEdit Document, along with 6 instances of Find & Replace, but I cannot get it to work.
I'm at a point today where I cannot afford to mess around with this anymore. I have to do it the long way in Pages or else I'll never get it done, but I want to get these Automator workflows to work before I have to repeat this task. (I do this at least once a week right now.)
Any ideas or suggestions? I've tried reading in the help menus and support pages, but perhaps I'm just not understanding something here.

Any ideas or suggestions?
You might be interested in using TextWrangler. It can perform batch find-and-replace changes across multiple selected files.
Good luck!
Andrew99

Find/Replace text in one Doc based on List from another Doc

I'm not sure Automator can do this so I thought I would ask before spending too much time on it. I have searched the forums and several of the Automator tutorial websites.
What I want to do is take one text file (or it could be an Excel file, I don't care) with a list of words to Find in a folder full of files.
For example I have this list in a txt file:
Big Dog
Furry Cat
Bird
Fox
I would want the action to search every document for every occurrence of 'Big Dog', then search for every occurrence of 'Furry Cat', etc. I would also want to replace each instance with something else, say a formatted html link.
Is something like that even possible with Automator? I am on Snow Leopard but I didn't see a forum for Automator on SL. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Asked and responded here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8367522
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 14 novembre 2008 14:22:47)

HT2488 Find/Replace text in document with automator: any suggestions?

I'm looking to replace a number of unique html tags for a number of documents: is there any way to do this without going through the documents one-by-one, tag-by-tag? I would imagine I might be able to do something with automator, but I'm open to any other suggestions. I have some knowledge of html, but that's about it.

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 file with prompt "Choose indesign files" with multiple selections allowed
repeat with aFile in theFiles
-- get file text
          set fileText to read aFile
-- swap tags
          repeat with i from 1 to count of indesignTags
-- swap lead tags
                    set fileTextBits to tid({input:fileText, delim:"<" & item i of indesignTags})
                    set fileText to tid({input:fileTextBits, delim:"<" & item i of htmlEquivs})
-- swap trailing tags
                    set fileTextBits to tid({input:fileText, delim:"</" & item i of indesignTags})
                    set fileText to tid({input:fileTextBits, delim:"</" & item i 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 access newFilePath with write permission
write fileText to fp
close access fp
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 file with prompt "Choose indesign files" with multiple selections allowed
repeat with aFile in theFiles
-- get file text
          set fileText to read aFile
-- swap tags - needs Satimage osax
          set fileText to change findList into changeList in fileText with regexp
-- make new file path with html extension - needs Satimage osax
          set oldFilePath to POSIX path of aFile
          set newFilePath to change "\\.[^.]+$" into ".html" in oldFilePath with regexp
-- save at new file path
          set fp to open for access newFilePath with write permission
write fileText to fp
close access fp
end repeat
Message was edited by: twtwtw - I made an error in the second regular expression. should be "\\.[^.]+$", not "\\..*$". fixed in text.

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?

How can I find a text box with a specific word in it ?

Hi,
I have hundreds of settlement names on a map created with the text tool. How can I search on the name of one of them and find it on my map ?
I am with FH9 but the method would no doubt be backwards compatible from MX. If it isnt I would launch MX just for this exercise.
Would this also work if the word was part of a text box text ?
I have the luxury of it being the entire text box !
Cheers
Envirographics

If you have one large text box to search for the word, select it, then go to EDIT>FIND & REPLACE>TEXT...
Type in your word and click FIND NEXT button. If you have multiple occurances of the name, keep clicking the FIND NEXT button until the word hilites.
If you have scattered text boxes on your map, don't select any of them but still go through the EDIT>FIND & REPLACE>TEXT... routine I mentioned. FreeHand will look through all text boxes to find your word.
Oh yeah, this works the same in FreeHand 8 thru FHMX.

Use VBA and Excel to open Dreamweaver HTML (CS5), find and replace text, save and close

I wish to use VBA and Excel to programmatically open numbered Dreamweaver HTML (CS5) and find and replace text in the code view of these files, save and close them.
I have 5000 associations between Find: x0001 and Replace: y0001 in an Excel sheet.
I have the VBA written but do not know how to open, close and save the code view of the ####.html files. Please ... and thank you...
[email protected]

This is actually the code view of file ####.html that I wish to find and replace programmatically where #### is a four digit number cataloguing each painting.... In 1995 I thought this was clever... maybe not so clever now :>)) Thank you for whatever you can do Rob!
!####.jpg!
h2. "Name####"
Oils on acrylic foundation commercial canvas - . xx X xx (inches) Started
Back of the Painting In Progress </p> </body> </html>
Warmest regards,
Phil the Forecaster, http://philtheforecaster.blogspot.ca/ and http://phils-market.blogspot.ca/

Folder action to find and replace text and change line feeds

I want to use a folder action to find and replace text and change Mac carriage returns to DOS line feeds inside text files.
The text to be replaced is: "/Users/wim/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music" (without the quotes)
This text has to be removed (i.e. replaced by an empty string)
The text occurs many times within each file.
The files are playlists exported from iTunes in the M3U format (which are text files). They contain Mac carriage returns. These need to be changed to DOS line feeds.
I have found the following two perl commands to achieve this:
To find and replace text: perl -pi -w -e 's/THIS/THAT/g;' *.txt
To change carriage returns to line feeds: perl -i -pe 's/\015/\015\012/g' mac-file
I know that it's possible to make a folder action with Automator that executes a shell script.
What I want to do is drop the exported playlists in M3U format in a folder so that the folder action will remove the right text and change the carriage returns.
My questions are:
Is it possible to make a folder action that executes command line commands instead of shell scripts?
What is the correct syntax for the two commands when used in a folder action shell script? Especially, how do I escape the slashes (/) in the string to be removed?
Thanks for your help

Ok, I've include an applescript to run a shell command. The applesript command quoted form makes a string that will end up as a single string on the bash command line. Depending on what you want to do, you may need multiple string on the bash command lines. I've included some information on folder actions.
It is easier to diagnose problems with debug information. I suggest adding log statements to your script to see what is going on. Here is an example.
    Author: rccharles
    For testing, run in the Script Editor.
      1) Click on the Event Log tab to see the output from the log statement
      2) Click on Run
    For running shell commands see:
    http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html
on run
    -- Write a message into the event log.
    log " --- Starting on " & ((current date) as string) & " --- "
    -- debug lines
    set desktopPath to (path to desktop) as string
    log "desktopPath = " & desktopPath
    set unixDesktopPath to POSIX path of desktopPath
    log "unixDesktopPath = " & unixDesktopPath
    set quotedUnixDesktopPath to quoted form of unixDesktopPath
    log "quoted form is " & quotedUnixDesktopPath
    try
        set fromUnix to do shell script "ls -l " & quotedUnixDesktopPath
        display dialog "ls -l of " & quotedUnixDesktopPath & return & fromUnix
    on error errMsg
        log "ls -l error..." & errMsg
    end try
end run
How to set up a folder action.
1) right click on folder. click on Enable folder actions
2) Place script in
/Library/Scripts/Folder Actions Scripts
3) right click on folder. click on attach folder action
pick your script.
Create a new folder on the desktop & try.
You can put multiple folder actions on a folder. There are other ways of doing this.
Here is my test script:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving dropped_items
    repeat with dropped_item_ref in dropped_items
       display dialog "dropped files is " & dropped_item_ref & " on folder " & this_folder
    end repeat
end adding folder items to
How to make the text into an AppleScript program.
Start the AppleScript Editor
/Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app
In Snow Leopard it's at: /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor
Copy the script text to the Applescript editor.
Note: The ¬ is typed as option+return. ption+return is the Applescript line continuation characters.
You may need to retype these characters.
Save the text to a file as an script and do not check any of the boxes below.

Microsoft Word API for Mac OS: Troubleshooting the Find/Replace function

In my previous topic at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2623068&tstart=0
we found out the way to connect to the Ms-Word from Objective-C through ScriptingBridge.
The connection works and the given text can be found and replaced using the method executeFindFindText: Although it generates exception and I am forced to put it in @try block and then continue with everything else in @catch.
There is another, more important problem: the WordFind class does not seem to "give feedback" i.e. I could not find the way to programatically find out whether my find/replace was successfull, nor could I set WordFind object properties prior to running.
The Class WordFind has many properties e.g.
@property (copy) NSString *content; // Returns or sets the text in the find object.
@property (readonly) BOOL found; // True if the search produces a match.
@property BOOL matchWholeWord; // Returns or sets if the find operation locates only entire words and not text that's part of a larger word.
I tried to set the property "matchWholeWord" or read the properties "found" and "content" but in vain.
As I understand, the property "found" should be the key component in my process because it should
return the BOOL value I need.
What am I doing incorrectly? Any suggestions?
Here is the final code:
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
#import "Word.h"
int main(int argc, char * argv[])
if(NSApplicationLoad())
NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
wordApp=[SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.microsoft.Word"];
if([wordApp isRunning])
WordDocument *activeWordDoc=[wordApp activeDocument];
WordTextRange *allTextRange=[activeWordDoc textObject];
WordFind *findObj=[allTextRange findObject];
NSString findText=@"FirstText";
NSString *replaceText=@"SecondText";
[findObj setMatchWholeWord:YES];
NSLog(@"WholeWord: %i", [findObj matchWholeWord]);
@try
[findObj executeFindFindText:findText
matchCase:NO
matchWholeWord:NO
matchWildcards:YES
matchSoundsLike:NO
matchAllWordForms:NO
matchForward:YES
wrapFind:WordE265FindContinue
findFormat:NO
replaceWith:replaceText
replace:WordE273ReplaceAll];
@catch(NSException * e){
NSLog(@"Search Found:%i",[findObj found]);
NSLog(@"Search Content:%@",[findObj content]);
[pool drain];
return 0;

DavidMan wrote:
So, what is your suggestion?
Do it in pure AppleScript.
Whom to complain? Microsoft or Apple?
I'm not sure. All this stuff was new with Office 2008. It might work better with Office 2011. I would definitely ask on the Mac Office forum to see if anyone there knows any more: http://www.officeformac.com/productforums/

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!

Find/replace window in Mac OS - how to attach to main document window?

At work I use Windows and the find/replace window is part of the main document window. At home, I use Mac OS and the find/replace window is a separate floating window which is annoying because it means I'm constantly dragging it out of my way...is there a way to attach it to the the main document window on Mac ?

It works! Thank you. The strange thing is, I already had a check mark on it, but I unchecked it and then rechecked it and it worked.
BTW, I've not visited this forum for quite a while. It was difficult to find my way to the InDesign Discussions. There's so much stuff in between logging on to Adobe Forums and getting to this location. I consider the changes a huge step backward. I realize that you're probably not involved in it, but I hope someone who is sees this feedback about the forum layout. Fortunately, it's only a one-time problem. I've made a new bookmark for this forum.

Find & Replace the text and apply paragraph style in indesign CS2.

Hai below script are working in cs4 - cs5.5. i need to run the script in indesign cs2.
can you please help.
Main();
function Main() {
    var foundItem;
    var doc = app.activeDocument;
    //app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "^p";
       //app.findTextPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = "head";
    var foundItems = doc.findText();
    for (var i = 0; i < foundItems.length; i++) {
        foundItem = foundItems[i];
        foundItem.applyParagraphStyle(doc.paragraphStyles.item("content body indent"), false);
     app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
     var myDocument = app.activeDocument;
//Clear the find/change text preferences.
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
//Set the find options.
app.findChangeTextOptions.caseSensitive = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeFootnotes = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeHiddenLayers = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeMasterPages = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.wholeWord = false;
//Search the document for the string "copy" and change it to "text".
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "^p";
app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = "^p";
myDocument.changeText();
//Clear the find/change text preferences after the search.
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
abc();
function abc() {
    var foundItem;
    var doc = app.activeDocument;
    //app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "*";
       //app.findTextPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = "head";
    var foundItems = doc.findText();
    for (var i = 0; i < foundItems.length; i++) {
        foundItem = foundItems[i];
        foundItem.applyParagraphStyle(doc.paragraphStyles.item("RealEstate"), false);
     app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
     var myDocument = app.activeDocument;
//Clear the find/change text preferences.
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
//Set the find options.
app.findChangeTextOptions.caseSensitive = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeFootnotes = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeHiddenLayers = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeMasterPages = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.wholeWord = false;
//Search the document for the string "copy" and change it to "text".
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "*";
app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = "";
myDocument.changeText();
//Clear the find/change text preferences after the search.
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
ab();
function ab () {
    var foundItem;
    var doc = app.activeDocument;
    app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = " ^ ";
app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = " ";
    //app.findTextPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = "head";
    var foundItems = doc.findText();
    for (var i = 0; i < foundItems.length; i++) {
        foundItem = foundItems[i];
        foundItem.applyParagraphStyle(doc.paragraphStyles.item("day"), false);
    app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
     var myDocument = app.activeDocument;
//Clear the find/change text preferences.
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
//Set the find options.
app.findChangeTextOptions.caseSensitive = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeFootnotes = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeHiddenLayers = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeMasterPages = false;
app.findChangeTextOptions.wholeWord = false;
//Search the document for the string "copy" and change it to "text".
app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = "^";
app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo = "";
myDocument.changeText();
//Clear the find/change text preferences after the search.
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;

@s_ashok – you'll find the right methods and properties in the CHM file for InDesign CS2 at:
http://www.jongware.com/idjshelp.html
Just a few hints:
InDesign CS2 does not support GREP search/replace, so every line in your code that points to GREP does not work.
Further: "app.findTextPreferences" and "app.changeTextPreferences" were "app.findPreferences" and "app.changePreferences" in InDesign CS2. And then there were no "findChangeTextOptions" or any counterpart for that in CS2…
That should get you running…
I have no InDesign CS2 installed to debug, so this is all I can say…
Uwe

Text tool broken Fireworks CS5 Mac NL

The text tool on my fresh installed Fireworks CS5 Mac (dutch language interface) is not working at all...
When i select the text tool and draw a square were i want to have the text, typing on the keyboard activates all kinds of tools in the toolbox (probably the keyboard-shortkey-letter for that tool), in stead of producing text in that square!!
What am i doing wrong? It seems to be an error in the software, but the update-mechanism says there no updates available. Thanks in advance!

That's not a known problem, and I cannot reproduce it on my Mac. You might want to call Adobe technical support.

Cannot find text in Flash CS5

I can't search for text in Flash CS5.
I've created a new project, added some actionscript in the first frame ("stop();")
When trying to search for this string (CTRL-F > Find and Replace) I get no results.
Search in: Current Document
For: Text
Text: stop
Replace with (blank)
Checked items:
Text fields contents
Frames/Layers/Parameterss
Strings in ActionScript
ActionSript
Nothing (ever) shows up in the results. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

3 years later... I'm having the same luck with the "Find and Replace" tool.
The only way I had any success using this tool was to drag all the MCs from the library to the stage before using "Find and Replace".
I could not figure out how to find and replace text within a mc that was in the library only and not on the stage.
Note: I also had to specify to search in "Current Document" as it would not work in the "Current Scene".

Grep find/replace to clean-up texts

Hi,
I want to use The ID GREP find/replace to clean-up a imported text with at every line a carriage/return (CR).
(space)CR -> (space)
a_wordCR -> aword(space)
CRCR -> CR
How can I perform this with Grep expressions ?
Thanks

In the first and 3rd replaces, you want a CR replaced with nothing; in the 2nd one, with a space. So it's not possbile to do this with one single "magic" search and replace -- Grep is not magic
This query will take care of the returns:
(?<=[\r ])\r
(replace with nothing). It finds returns with at their left either a return or a single space.
This one
(?<=\w)\r
(replace with space) will change a return after a word character to a space. "Word character" is a bit undefined -- it appears to be at least A-Z (including accented characters), 0-9, and Greek/Cyrillic characters. In case of a problem, you could try
(?<=[[:alpha:]])\r
instead -- forcing 'alphabetic' characters only.

Find & Replace Text - Styling Problem (CS5 Mac)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for