Adobe InDesign CC 2015 - Manual (Page 236)

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Last updated 6/6/2015
Metacharacters for searching
Metacharacters represent a character or symbol in InDesign. Metacharacters in the Text section of the Find/Change
dialog box begin with a caret (^); metacharacters in the GREP section begin with a tilde (~) or backslash (\). You can
type metacharacters in the Text tab or GREP tab of the Find/Change dialog box.
Save time fixing punctuation errors by saving search strings as queries.
Multiline on
(?m)
(?m)^\w+
In this example, the expression
looks for one or more (+) word
characters (\w) at the beginning
of a line (^). The (?m) expression
allows all lines within the found
text to be treated as separate
lines.
(?m)^\w matches the beginning
of each paragraph. (?-m)^\w
matches only the beginning of
the story.
One Two Three Four Five Six
Seven Eight One Two ThreeFour Five
SixSeven Eight
Multiline off
(?-m)
(?-m)^\w+ One Two Three Four Five Six
Seven Eight One Two Three Four Five Six
Seven Eight
Single-line on
(?s)
(?s)c.a
The searches for any character ( . )
between the letters c and a. The
(?s) expression matches any
character, even if it falls on the
next line.
(.) matches anything other than a
paragraph return. (?s)(.) matches
anything, including paragraph
returns.
abc abc abc abc abc abcabc abc
Single-line off (?-s)c.a abc abc abc abc abc abc abc abc
Repeat number of times
{ }
b{3} matches exactly 3 times
b(3,} matches at least 3 times
b{3,}? matches at least 3 times
(shortest match)
b{2,3} matches at least 2 times
and not more than 3
b{2,3}? matches at least 2 times
and not more than 3 (shortest
match)
abbc abbbc abbbbc abbbbbc abbc abbbc abbbbc abbbbbc
abbc abbbc abbbbc abbbbbc
abbc abbbc abbbbc abbbbbc
abbc abbbc abbbbc abbbbbc
abbc abbbc abbbbc abbbbbc
Character: Text tab metacharacter: GREP tab metacharacter:
Tab Character ^t \t
End of Paragraph ^p \r
Forced Line Break ^n \n
Expression Search string Sample text Matches (in bold)