A way to automate text marked by hashes into heading text?

[Natalie270847501kpk]

Hi I'm new to InDesign but would like to automatically format text marked by hash symbols (markdown)
is this possible? - I have character style set up but don't know how to apply it automatically to process headings of paragraphs

Thanks

## Some heading text here

Some paprgraph text et ut a velibus doluptati conessi molore none consedis nit hillibus ditaturia verro incto mi, sim ex ero minus nonsed quid quam in everspienit aut etum quodigent fugia comnis nus aturem am qui omnimusam dissinusciat ellitionsed etur rererovid erestis di consequi odiorep eliquia sequi adis modisquassum et, que lia quam et re, ut quibusci incti del Ut am, ea eaquasi

## OtherThing

More praragrph text et ut a velibus doluptati conessi molore none consedis nit hillibus ditaturia verro incto mi, sim ex ero minus nonsed quid quam in everspienit aut etum quodigent fugia comnis nus aturem am qui omnimusam dissinusciat ellitionsed etur rererovid erestis di consequi odiorep eliquia sequi adis modisquassum et, que lia quam et re, ut quibusci incti del Ut am, ea eaquasi

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

First, you don't apply character styles to headings or other paragraphs. You apply Paragraph Styles to format all aspects of each paragraph, whether it's a heading, body para, bullet entry, or whatever.

It's possible to use Find/Replace to search for markup and apply styles, yes. The most streamlined way to do this is to use wildcards and GREP searches; you may have to apply the style in one pass and then do a quick find/delete to remove the associated hash marks.

If this is something like a Word document you are importing, it's often MUCH easier to do all cleanup, formatting, style application etc. in Word and then do a managed import to InDesign.

If that's not a clear answer, give some more details about the project and how it's set up and what result you want from it, and we can give more focused help.

[Robert @ ID-Tasker]

If those hashes are unique and only used for marking paragraphs - you can use simple Find&Change - search for "##", change to "" (nothing / empty string) + desired ParaStyle.

[pixxxelschubser · Accepted solution]

Robert @ ID-Tasker 

not bad - but:

To be on the safe side, I would resort to Grep and not just do a simple text search. Because with that you can narrow down the positions much better and spaces.

Find&Change GREP

search for:

^##\W*(.)

change to:

$1

replace style:

[your desired paragraph style]

[Robert @ ID-Tasker]

Yes, but if someone isn't familiar with GREP and case is so simple - regular Find&Change will be good enough.