Char style to first word of paragraph

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 30, 2025
3 replies
1510 views

Hi, Dear Friends!

I think this question has been addressed before, but I don't recall the final verdict.

Is there a way to have a certain PAR style cause the first word of that paragraph to have a certain character style? Or as a workaround to cause ID to format the first word of all, or some, paragraphs with a certain character style.

Thank you, and have a good day!
Susan Flamingo

JR Boulay

Community Expert

You're quibbling, whatever the implementation method, it's always regular expressions under the hood.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Interesting take on it - can you share where you found this information?

I am pretty sure that it's not using the same engine as GREP - but would love to know more about it and if you have any information or resources to share it'd be great to read up on.

I thought I explained it wasn't quite well, but you have piqued my interest to learn more.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Please, be lenient since English is not my native language.

I didn't mean to imply that they were the same engine, I just meant that no matter how you implement them, it's always regular expressions that are under the hood.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

JR Boulay

Community Expert

I've got a question for those who believe that nested styles do better and perform better than GREP styles:

what engine do you think is under the hood of nested styles?

GREP or magic?

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@JR Boulay

😄 Nested are much simpler in implementation and were first - so most likely two different "technologies".

You don't have dynamic comparison - just character/glyph or word.

SuzzyFlamingoAuthor

Inspiring

I needed this really fast for a job toady, so I "cheated" and asked ChatGPT and here is the answer it gave:

To use a grep style within the paragraph style and use the syntax: ^\w+ and apply the character style.

Actually worked.

I wonder if this community will someday be connected to an AI LLM system for instant answers to posted questions. It could be done in a day of programming, I think. But thanks to all anyway!

Thank you, and have a good day!
Susan Flamingo