Dear All,How can user use (Find/Change) to find (brackets and Footnote Reference Marker) then change to the same (Footnote Reference Marker) only without brackets?I'll explain the question through this example with steps below:There is a Word file with a lot of footnotes with manual brackets before and after (Footnote Reference Marker).InDesign user wants to put automatically brackets before and after (Footnote Reference Marker). Therefore, user sets that through: Type --> Document Footnote Options.The user placed the Word file into InDesign document.The result is: every (Footnote Reference Marker) have two brackets before and after.Now, the user wants to remove the manual brackets.User can use (Find/Change) to find them by type (^F) in (Find what:) field.But, what user can type in (Change to:) to remove brackets while retaining the same Footnote Reference Marker?Best Regards.

Known Participant

Answered

Find/Change while retaining Footnote Reference Marker

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 4, 2018
6 replies
1737 views

Dear All,

How can user use (Find/Change) to find (brackets and Footnote Reference Marker) then change to the same (Footnote Reference Marker) only without brackets?

I'll explain the question through this example with steps below:

There is a Word file with a lot of footnotes with manual brackets before and after (Footnote Reference Marker).
InDesign user wants to put automatically brackets before and after (Footnote Reference Marker). Therefore, user sets that through: Type --> Document Footnote Options.
The user placed the Word file into InDesign document.
The result is: every (Footnote Reference Marker) have two brackets before and after.

Now, the user wants to remove the manual brackets.

User can use (Find/Change) to find them by type (^F) in (Find what:) field.

But, what user can type in (Change to:) to remove brackets while retaining the same Footnote Reference Marker?

Best Regards.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Peter Kahrel

You can't replace the footnote market with itself, so you need two steps (in the GREP tab of the Find/Change window):

Find: \((?=~F)

Replace with: leave this field blank.

This one paraphrases as 'find an opening parenthesis followed by a footnote market and replace it with nothing'.

Then:

Find: (?<=~F)\)

Replace with: leave this field blank.

Peter Kahrel

Community Expert

All those symbols are plain text. Simply type them. For example, no need to enter \( via the menu, you can enter the two characters as they are.

P.

Y

Yala K. Al-DouriAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks a lot Peter.

Y

Yala K. Al-DouriAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you Bevi and Peter for your nice clarifications about:

( ) Parenthesis.

{ } Braces.

[ ] Brackets.

Best Regards

Y

Yala K. Al-DouriAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you Eric, Bevi,

The first ( is typed manually, while the second ( is created automatically.

Therefore, the result of Find what: ((^F)) is: Cannot find match.

Best Regards

Peter Kahrel

Correct answer

Community Expert

You can't replace the footnote market with itself, so you need two steps (in the GREP tab of the Find/Change window):

Find: \((?=~F)

Replace with: leave this field blank.

This one paraphrases as 'find an opening parenthesis followed by a footnote market and replace it with nothing'.

Then:

Find: (?<=~F)\)

Replace with: leave this field blank.

Y

Yala K. Al-DouriAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you very much Peter for your excellent solution.

Please, explain how a user can get \((?=~F) and (?<=~F)\)

For example:

\( Special characters for search --> Symbols --> Open Parenthesis Character

But, what about the rest?

Understanding these symbols will solve several issues similar to this one.

Best Regards

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Based on what you have now in the document:

((Footnote Reference Marker))

You want to eliminate the double brackets (( and )) and not affect the marker in between them.

Find what: ((

Change to: ( (a single bracket)

Then,

Find what: ))

Change to: )

FYI, your example uses parentheses, not brackets ( and )

Brackets are [ and ] or { and }

Another option is clean up the Word file and eliminate them there. Then, import into InDesign and format the footnotes are you wish.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Eric Dumas

Community Expert

Hi,

Will this work when one of the bracket is created "automatically" and not typed?

Eric Dumas

Community Expert

Hi,

Can you confirm your version of InDesign and OS?

To clarify, you want to use Find/Change to replace ((1)) into (1) ?

I thought Find: ((^F)) to change to: (^F) would do the trick.

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