FrameMaker 10 - Is there a way to search for missing parentheses, either opening or closing?

Question

Is there a way in FrameMaker 10 to search for a missing opening or closing parenthesis?

Must I do a search for each opening parenthesis and see if it has a closing parenthesis?

Then repeat the search for a closing parenthesis to see if it has an opening parenthesis?

Is this the only way?

Bob_Niland · Accepted Answer

Hack using spell checker's smart quote feature:

If the document doesn't use double quotes...
Edit > Find/Change:
Change all ( to "
Change all ) to "

Those are straight quotes.
Edit > Spell Check:
On all instances with "string", click [Correct]
On all instances with "string, type in (string) and click [Correct].
Edit > Find/Change:
Change all \` to (
Change all \' to )

Those are left and right double curly quotes.

Yes, you have to hit each instance, but it will be click-to-continue except on mismatch.

Arnis Gubins · Answer

What criteria do you have to determine if something is closed, i.e. is it on the same line, in the same paragraph, etc.? FM's wildcards only grab a specified string or whitespace, not a complete grouping of strings and whitespace, so I don't think it's feasible to do this with FM's wildcard search. In FM12, you could use regular expression searching to find these more easily.

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