Use Grep Styles to add multiplication symbol.

Hey Everyone,
Has anyone used grep styles to change 5x6 to 5×6? I tried to do it, but the dialog box to create a grep style is the character style dialog box. But, I am unable to enter a glyph. Now, I can use the find and search for \d+x\d+, but it will find 5x6 and change it all to × instead of changing the "x" only. I would hate to have to search for "x" in a document. Just trying to find a way to change "number 'x' number" to "number '×' number."
Thanks,

Or you can use (?<=\d)x(?=\d) [that's a look-behind/lookahead withthe x in the middle] and apply a character style to scale and shift the x. GREP styles cannot change the glyph used, only the formatting.

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Using GREP styles for changing characters and colors

Hello everybody,
I have a question regarding GREP styles. I wish to change each letter of an alphabet in text to a square in a different color. For example: every 'a' in the text change to a yellow ■. I thought GREP styles would be perfect for it so I went to find/change, typed in my requests and InDesign told me it has found no 'a' in my text, which isn't possible. How do I fix it? And the other thing- is it possible to change the color of ■ ? Because i couldn't find the option.
Please excuse me my incompetence, I am a new user of InDesign.
Thanks in advance for your help! : )

First off, it sounds like you want to use find/change with GREP, which is fine, rather than a GREP style, which is part of a paragraph style definition and cannot change the text in any way other than apply a character style to the found string, so would not help here.
The not finding the text makes me think you've limited the search parameters in some way, either by limiting the scope to a selection, or by including a style or format requirement in the find options, perhaps.
In order to do this, I think you are going to need to make use of the "other" category in the change dropdown and select Formatted Contents of Clipboard (which should clue you in that you need to make one of your colored squares and copy it to the clipboard before you run Find/Change). You can do this with either a plain text query or a GREP query, and there is no advantage to GREP in this case unless you want to match several different things and apply the same clipboard content to any of them.
You'll need to run a separate find/change for each colored square. It might be possible to script a chain so it runs in a single operation, but that would also require swapping the colored sqaures on the clipboard which complicates things in this case. You might want to ask over in scripting: InDesign Scripting

GREP styles help needed!

I want to make an email address italic in a paragraph using grep styles.
Each email is different, so i want want to identify each email by the @ sign. How do I make the whole email address change to the required style when each one has a different name?
Any help appreciated.

The basics are pretty easy to grasp:
\<\w[-\w_\.]+\w@\w[-_\w\.]+\w\>
will mark all 'word characters' (a-z, digits), at-sign, word characters again. Some email addresses may contain "weird" (not really standard) characters -- just add these inbetween the square brackets. I added the hyphen and the underscore as examples. (Additionally, the hyphen is "special" inside square brackets, meant for a range, as in "a-z". Always insert it first to remove this magical property!)
Notice the word delimiters \< and \> left and right, forcing all to be one single entry; if you see an entire email address that does not appear marked, it must contain some 'invalid' character.

Do I need to use GREP for this?

I have set up my TOC for my book just fine. In my Contents, the headings from each chapter are pulled in and used as the entries for the TOC, then followed by its page number.
I would like to add a word (the word "Chapter") before each numbered contents entry. Would I use GREP styles for this?
I'm using CS5.
Thank you!

You can create an autonumbered list format that includes text like "Chapter " along with numbers, for the TOC paragraph style, so no scripting needed. Search Google for terms like "InDesign numbered list format text," without quotes for details.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
cc2545 wrote:
I have set up my TOC for my book just fine. In my Contents, the headings from each chapter are pulled in and used as the entries for the TOC, then followed by its page number.
I would like to add a word (the word "Chapter") before each numbered contents entry. Would I use GREP styles for this?
I'm using CS5.
Thank you!

GREP styles vs style sheets

I've got a lull at work and decided to work on my list and start to learn GREP so that I can use GREP styles.
The first one is a simple one: [[A-Z][A-Z]\S+?] This finds anything inside the brackets that starts with two capital letters. I know it works because I can find "[MT2]" in Find/Change.
OK, so I try it in some ID cs5 text with my first GREP style. It's failing the vast majority of the time. So I try lots of different things to see if I can find a pattern of what works and what doesn't. I've tried just the local formatting of a lone 'graf. I've tried making character and 'graf style sheets that incorporate a GREP style with the new character style, say "change type color to green".
I've looked through the forums and don't see others with my problem so it must be something about me or my document. I've used other documents to eliminate that variable. I've gone through the tutorials and David Blatner's stuff and don't see anything I'm doing differently.
When I format some text with a character and 'graf style sheet, it fails. BUT when I change the character style sheet of the source text to "[None]" it works. I've tried starting with text that is '[None]' and a 'graf style sheet of Normal, it works.
But starting with text styled with '[None]' character and a formal 'graf style sheet with a GREP Style, it fails. But when I change the 'graf style sheet to ]'Basic Paragraph]' it works.
I'm trying to find a pattern here, so to speak, and the only thing that has a chance to succeed is setting the character style sheet to 'None.' I just don't see than anyone who uses GREP styles has any problems like I do.
What do you reckon I'm overlooking? I've spent today trying to find what works and doesn't. As it is, I can't recommend this to my co-workers.

Rule of thumb for applying styles is basic formats for the entire paragraph should be defined in the paragraph style. If some selected bit of text needs to be formatted differnently, then you apply a character style (or, if you must, a local formatting override). With Nested Styles and GREP styles, ID has very powerful tools for applying character styles to selected text WITHIN the confines of the paragraph style definition. Most programs don't have that capability.
Should you apply the character syle as a nested or GREP style, or perhaps through Find/Change, or just by manually selecting text and applying the style? The answer to that will depend on a few variables. Should the particular string ALWAYS have a particular set of attributes, no matter what? Find/Change or local selection is the way to go. Character styles applied that way will survive even if the underlying paragraph style is changed to match the character style, then changed again. If the style should be applied to a string in a particular position in a paragraph, even if that position might move around a bit, a nested style is probably the way to go. If you want to make changes to text that matches a particular pattern, wherever it falls, when the surrounding text is a particular style, a GREP style is the answer.
GREP styles are very powerful, but they also use far more in terms of resources than applying a character style using other methods. I've seen reoprts of ID getting bogged down by too many GREP styles.

Apply grep style only once

I can't get my brain around what is probably a very simple problem: I want a paragraph style that applies boldfacing to any character up to an including the first colon in a paragraph. If I used a nested style "through 1 :" the whole graf is bold if there is no colon. So that's out.
A grep style ".+: " seems to work in most cases, but if there's a second colon, the boldfacing is extended to that point. What I think I want is a grep style that works "zero or 1 times" but I cannot figure out how to use the ? to make that happen.

@Jongware – I think Robert wants to limit the GREP style to the first line of a paragraph.
But unfortunately GREP in InDesign does not know about line endings.
In scripting we could do something like what he wants, but comes with some obstacles, because the GREP will apply a character style, that will probably change the line ending. A very dynamic situation…
Example 1
Basic situation:
This is my text here comes the colon: and
here another one: that Robert don't like
to take into account using the GREP style.
Formatted after the GREP style is applied:
This is my text here comes the colon: and
here another one: that Robert don't like
to take into account using the GREP style.
As I understand it, in case that the first colon will leave line one, only the first line should be formatted like this:
(Case 1)
This is my text here comes the first
colon: and here another one: that
Robert don't like to take into account
using the GREP style.
Or should it be, that the style should only be applied, if it's in the first line?
(Case 2):
This is my text here comes the first
colon: and here another one: that
Robert don't like to take into account
using the GREP style.
But what, if the colon in the basic case is at the end of line 1 and will be shifted to line 2 after formatting?
What should happen then?
That is simply not possible to format automatically (dynamically) using GREP styles in InDesign.
Uwe

Grep styles and bullet points

Is there a way of using GREP styles to insert bullet points on text after a specific heading has been detected?
I am working on a brochure where many of the pages will have a features section, so am reluctant to manually overide paragraph styles. The "FEATURES:" heading will always stay the same, the text within the bullet points will change.
At the moment I have the following layout...
FEATURES:
test1
test2
test3
test4
What I am hoping to achieve is this...
FEATURES:
test1
test2
test3
test4
I haven't used GREP styles before but from looking round it seems the most obvious feature to use, so if anyone has an alternate solution that'd be great.

Header should be a paragraph style on it's own.
Use a hard return not a soft return for a new paragraph http://indesignsecrets.com/dos-and-donts-of-text-in-indesign.php
Bullet should be a separate paragraph style.
Apply that style to only bullets
Set a Character Style for your Bullets, which can be applied through the Bullet paragraph style.

Indesign crashes when editing GREP styles

I'm using Indesign CS6 on a mac. I have GREP styles applied to a certain paragraph style, and every time I go in to try and edit the GREP styles, ID crashes. I have another, completely separate file, which also uses GREP styles, but so far hasn't had a problem with me editing them. I tried the suggested solution of exporting to .idml and recreating the file, but when I try to open the idml file, ID crashes again. Is my best option to clear my preferences? Is there anything else I can try?

It's when I try to edit any of the four GREP styles I have applied to that paragraph style. If I try to edit GREP styles for any of my other paragraph styles, ID handles it fine. I made a new paragraph style that was identical to the troublesome one (just by applying the same styles, not by duplicating it), and without any GREP styles. When I went to delete the old one and replace it with the new one, ID crashed again. So it sounds as though this paragraph style is what is causing the problem, but I can't seem to get rid of it.

ID CC 2014 grep styles problem

Have you noticed that the new ID CC 2014 version does not use grep-styles correctly? I have a quite complicated grep-styles system I have to use with my client. But now this new ID does not understand it at all. I have 5 greps and this poor new id understands only 3 first on stack, if even those. Old cc and CS6 did all of them correctly. It seems that quality of Adobe has been going down even more... This is not the only problem with these new rented products from Adobe nowadays. They are not even robust anymore.
Example:
Orginal data:
to look like this:
by using grep-styles like this:
This used to work like a charm, but not anymore.

It depends by order but for instance like this:

Add style to next paragraph (by using GREP?)

Can someone help? I have a problem - long (300+ pages) text with questions and answers. Questions are using paragraph style "x" and answers are using paragraph style "y". There are usually 3-6 paragraphs of text in every answer. I need to change only the first paragraph's style after the question paragraph to style "z", so that the structure of styles would look like x-z-y-y-y-y-x-z-y-y... (now it looks x-y-y-y-y-y-x-y-y-y...). Can it be done using GREP somehow?
Claudius

I sell a script on my website for this sort of thing:
www.freelancebookdesign.com
Under the "Scripting" tab, check out a script called "Change Consecutive
Paragraphs".
Ariel

How can I add a button to add multiple image in PDF from using adobe acrobat pro?

I have to create a pdf form using Adobe Acrobat Pro X.
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Is there any way to solve this issue? I would like to have a form where I can add a lot of images in it. It is possible in word, but we really have to use adobe.
Thanks

Hi thanks for your answer.
I can add multiple button, but if there are 10 images that I wan to add, then I have to create 10 buttons.
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Add Multiple Detail Items Using the Same Query String Parameter

I am using InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint 2010.
I have 2 forms libraries - Expense and Expense Details.
The 2 libraries are linked via a custom site column Expense ID.
The Expense form contains the main header type info you would typically find on an expense report; e.g., name, purpose, department, etc.
The Expense Details form contains multiple detail expenses related to the main expense report such as airfare, rental car, etc.
I have created a page that displays an expense report with all of the related expense detail items.
The page contains a link to add a new expense detail and passes the Expense ID of the Expense form to the Expense Detail form.
This all works fine. The problem comes in after the first expense detail form is submitted.
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pam

Laura Rogers Blog
In case anyone stumbles upon this looking for an answer. Laura Rogers has the answer found in the comments section of her blog above. It’s not the best but it
does work. You have to add an extra Info Path Web Form for it to work. I know, you can roll your eyes.<o:p></o:p>
Steps.<o:p></o:p>
1. Add Query String<o:p></o:p>
2. Add the extra Info Path form to the page. This form will be a hidden on the page and will receive the value from the query string.<o:p></o:p>
3. Add your original Info Path form and have it receive a parameter from the hidden Info Path form.<o:p></o:p>
Now, when you hit save and it opens a new form the 3 Info Path form will function properly. <o:p></o:p>

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I am trying to add multiple people to a SP column of type Person/Group i.e. people picker. I am able
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There is a thread on this one but that's from .net COM which could accessed here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/5183e87c-ee1d-4594-9492-0dfdf6616cce
7929

Hi ,
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Hi all,
Plz help me
How to add multiple table when creating add on using b1de.
Thanks

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Regards,
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Change paragraph style of empty row using GREP

Hello again ... another GREP query if anyone can assist!
How can I change a completely empty paragraph line (like those found between verses in a poem, for example) to a different paragraph style so I can control the space better using GREP?

Fair point ... but if I demonstrate:
Text line here
Text line here
Text line here
Text line here
Text line here
Text line here
The empty row (4) between the two blocks is in the same paragraph style as the rest of the text. Indeed if lines 3 or 5 were in different styles I could remove the empty row and create a space using before/after spacing. But it is all in the same style. I was wondering if there was a way using GREP to change the para style of an empty row ie 4.

Use Grep Styles to add multiplication symbol.

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