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cbminfo
Participant
September 13, 2009
Question

Find ALL CAPS, convert to lower case

  • September 13, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 48316 views

I'm trying to use the find replace option to find words, not I or I'm, but whole words that I've capitalized, and want to make them lower case.

I've tried building a format with ALL CAPS, and the closest thing I can find for the replace option is normal.

But when I do this, I get the blue info icon at the top of the search form that says form already exists. This says to me it's such a common request that they have something already designed to search for ALL cap words, and convert to lower case.

Digging thru the predefined searches, I can't find anything that even sounds like what I want to do.

I've searched thru grep and text.

Any clues on how to do this and not screw up the 'I'm, I've' words where the 1st character is capitalized and the rest aren't.

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    1 reply

    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 13, 2009

    My instinct is this needs to be scripted. It's easy enough to use GREP to find these words, but changing the case to "normal" has no effect, as far as I can tell. You need to change to Sentence Case, and that isn't an option in Find/Change. You also run some risk of changing things you don't want changed, like state abbreviations and other acronyms.

    In fact, Harbs has already written a short script that does this. You'll find it in the comments on theis page: http://indesignsecrets.com/using-grep-to-make-a-character-lowercase.php

    You'll also find some more discussion at http://forums.adobe.com/thread/329167

      C
      cbminfoAuthor
      Participant
      September 13, 2009

      Well, it would seem there is a definite need for some sort of extended 'search for uppercase convert to lowercase' and most likely vice versa lower to upper. But the examples were pretty much specific vs global as I wan't/need.

      And you're right changing states and acronyms.

      What's needed is a script builder like is built in to Photoshop.

      The Upper to Lowercase command already exists on the type menu. The need is to import that command into a script to execute 1 by 1 as the need arises.

      Which brings me back to the blue info button that appears when I create the grep command. It says 'search format exists'. And what does that mean ?

      Harbs.
      Harbs.
      Legend
      September 13, 2009

      Did you read the link Peter provided?

      The script I wrote there should do what you want.

      If you want a GREP which will not get states for sure, you can use

      \u{3,}

      But of course it will miss ANY two letter all-cap word...

      Harbs

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