Edit > Find/Change // Not working as I'd expect

[The Mosho]

Hello there, I am trying to change [Black] in my document to a new swatch I created and normally, I'd go to Edit > Find/Change and do my thing. But this time, when I am searching for [Black] in my document, so I can change it, the dialogue box is finding pretty much every colour BUT the black in my document. 

Using the screen shot, you can see that what it found isn't [Black] but a completly different swatch in the document. 

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks! 

[Peter Spier]

I'm thinking this has to do with where it says Used In Paragraph Border: Stroke but I don't see anything like that coming up on my system.

What version of InDesign and OS are you using?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Many things get odd when you try to work with the various [default] styles and settings. I suspect this is a case where for whatever mysterious reasons, ID isn't seeing [Black] as, well, black.

I do note that your search seems to be for a color named Black (no brackets); in a quick test, searching for default [Black] is a different selection.

ETA: either my eyes or the screen shot changed - never mind on that last.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@The Mosho

Stroke might be 0pt thick - but 99% is [Black] by default 😉 

[tonks_the_auror]

I don't think I understand the problem.

In your screenshot, I see "Find Color" = [Black] and "Change Color" = Document Black.

So you are searching for [Black] and changing it to Document Black in text frames in your document. 

My test: (MacBook Pro, OS 13.7.4 Ventura, InDesign 20.1)

Find Color = [Black], Change Color = Red

All of the text in my document was changed to Red

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@tonks_the_auror

You've missed "stroke". 

[tonks_the_auror]

I used "change all" so it changed everything all at once. If I use "find next" it finds each element with [black] applied, one at a time, including "Used in Paragraph Border: Stroke"

[Peter Spier]

Ah, I see what's happening. I've never used Find/Change for colors --always done color changes through styles or the ink manager or replace swatch. Find/Change is stepping through every case where the color is specified, even things like strokes that are 0-width for an object property that exists, but is not "used" so we think it's finding something incorrectly. So @Robert at ID-Tasker is correct that it's finding all those places where an oject definition has a default for [Black] for any property.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@tonks_the_auror

Yeah, but OP wants to find only when applied to stroke:  

Sorry, my mistake. 

[Peter Spier]

@Robert at ID-Tasker Turns out that "used in" info is generated by InDesign itself as it steps through the document, it's not something that the user is controlling, and it changes every time you choose find next.

I did a test run on a sample file with a single filled text frame and an additional empty text frame and after selecting Change All InDesign reported 5 changes even though the only "visible" differncr was the ne color on the text. All the others were those default [Black] strokes that were not used.

This probably wouldn't show up for any other color choice since [Black] is normally left as the default color for all those "extra" things.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Right 😞 "used in" message, not as a "filter", missed that part, sorry 😞 

Same kind of a message when searching in the Text/GREP  part. 

[Abhishek Rao]

Hello @The Mosho, 

I hope the suggestions from the experts have helped you get to the bottom of this. If not, could you share the sample file (a packaged version) with us so that we can perform this test ourselves? If it is confidential, then you can share it via DM on the community. 

Looking forward to your update. 

^

Abhishek

[The Mosho · Accepted solution]

First of all, thanks everyone who took the time to chime in. I really appriciate it. The problem for me came down to user error and preconceived expectations in how I should be searching for certain colours. 

Like what some of you have mentioned, it was the "used in" that was causing the confusion for me. I was looking for 100% [Black] and when I kept clicking Find Next, it was finding things like, "Paragraph Border: Stroke" which isn't actually orange - which is what I thought. 

In the end, I clicked "change all" and it did what I wanted and needed. 

Thanks again. This is outside how I normally use Id. 

Best, 

-G 

[Peter Spier]

Well I think a few of us actually learned something new from this, so thanks for posting.