Delete all text associated with a certain Paragraph Style

[dpajewski]

Hi, I've searched and came up with nothing. I have a large document for an instructor and want to make a copy for the participant without a lot of the text.

Is there a way to search for a paragraph style and remove all of the text associated with it? I did a find/change as suggested, by putting just the paragraph style in the find and nothing else, but that did not work.

I'm trying to save time from going through all 80 pages and removing certain paragraphs. Using conditional text would have been helpful in this situation but since it's already complete, I can't use it.

Thank you!

[John Mensinger]

I don't know how it might affect your desired text flow, but what if all the instructor-only text wasn't actually deleted, but just became invisible? Rather than Find/Change, you could just edit the Paragraph Style and make the Character Color "Paper".

Note that if it will be deployed as PDF or other live-text format, the paper-color text will still be searchable. My suggestion might only make the instructor-only content securely hidden in a printed hard-copy scenario.

Or, if you really must have deletions, you could repeat that same Find/Change, but instead of trying to Change All, spend the time to step through and Find-Next/Delete, Find-Next/Delete, one instance at a time. Would be pretty quick with keyboard-only commands.

[Gusgsm]

"Note that if it will be deployed as PDF or other live-text format, the paper-color text will still be searchable. My suggestion might only make the instructor-only content securely hidden in a printed hard-copy scenario."

You could replace the color of the text associated with that style, as you suggest, AND replace each character (GREP search and replace) with an asterisk.

Then the text would not show, the blokes would not move and there would not be anything searchable.

[Michael Bullo · Accepted solution]

I can confirm at my end that Find/Change can be used to search for a specific paragraph style and delete all of it's contents. I did this by selecting the paragraph style from the "Find Format" section and changing nothing else. Perhaps you could post a screen shot of your Find/Change dialog box

[dpajewski]

Thanks Michael. After reading your reply, I tried it again. For some reason, the very first instance it did not work. It was only removing a letter at a time, but after that, it removed everything and it worked great. Not sure why but thanks again!

[Michael Bullo]

Great to hear. Cheers.

[nigelfrench]

I would suggest using conditional text…

1. On the Conditional Text panel create a new condition, call it Invisible

2. Using Find/Change search for your paragraph style. In the Change Format field, select the Invisible condition, then Change All.

3. On the Conditional Text panel, turn off the visibility of the Invisible condition.

[dpajewski]

Thanks for the suggestion, it ended up working using Find/Replace but I will keep this in mind!