Find/Replace « GREP help

[Chillidrop.]

Hello !

I'm a total newbie at using GREP and I tweaked the FindChangeByList script to find and replace a bunch of little things like double spaces, thin spaces before some punctuations mark, etc.

Everything works like a charm EXCEPT for the the double quotes « and ».

Here is one of the scripts that I use and that works perfectly well :

grep {find what:" [?]"} {change to:"~<[?]"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false} Find all space-question mark and replace with a thin space-question mark.

text {find what:"[?]"} {change to:"?"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden

layers:true, whole word:false} Find all brackets-question marks-brackets and replace with a question mark.

(I needed to put the question mark between brackets because it didn't work without. No clue why as I don't know the first thing about GREP).

I used the exact same lines and replaced [?] by [«] to apply it to «, but it doesn't work. I've roamed the internet for an answer, and none of what I tried worked.

Does anyone out here have a clue why and might be able to help ?

Thanks : )

[Manan Joshi]

In place of [?] use \? you need to escape characters that have special meaning in GREP and ? is one such character so that needs escaping, the escaping is not needed inside a character class that is why enclosing it seems to work for you. For the other replacement just use the character it is not a special character so it would need any escaping nor does it need to be inside a character class

In your first example you are replacing "all space-question mark with a thin space bracket open question mark backet close". Due to this reason you need the second text replace. Instead you could use just a single ind/replace like the following

grep {find what:" \?"} {change to:"~<?"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false}

-Manan

[jmlevy]

What dou you want to finally get? A thin space after the opening quote («) and before the closing one (») ?

This works fine, using the FindChangeByList script

text {findWhat:"« "} {changeTo:"«^<"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:false, wholeWord:false} Remplace guillemet-ouvrant-espace par guillemet-ouvrant-espace-fine.
text {findWhat:" »"} {changeTo:"^<»"} {includeFootnotes:true, includeMasterPages:true, includeHiddenLayers:false, wholeWord:false} Remplace espace guillemet-fermant par espace-fine-guillemet-fermant.

Note that this text file comes from JRBoulay web site, who adapted the original one to match the French typographic rules

[Chillidrop.]

Hey @Manan Joshi and @jmlevy  ! Thank you both for you replies.

So I tried both, but I get errors… 

@jmlevy yes, I absolutely want a thin space after the («) and before the (»). I have no clue why it works fine with the rest of my script, but not the quote. 

I attached the full script. Maybe there's something somewhere that I'm not seeing !

Thanks for your help : )

[Chillidrop.]

Just noticed there was an error in the script syntax, which I corrected to : 

text {find what:"« "} {change to:"«~<"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false} Remplace guillemet-ouvrant-espace par guillemet-ouvrant-espace-fine.

Now I don't get an error,  but it STILL doesn't work 😰

[jmlevy · Accepted solution]

Just noticed there was an error in the script syntax, which I corrected to : 

text {find what:"« "} {change to:"«~<"} {include footnotes:true, include master pages:true, include hidden layers:true, whole word:false} Remplace guillemet-ouvrant-espace par guillemet-ouvrant-espace-fine.

I am not a scripter at all, but a long time user of this script and I have adapted many times the FindChange text which is associated to this script. So, no, it is not an error: you use the ~ metacharacter when the string is a grep one, but as you have seen in my answer, it is a text string and the metacharacter you need to use is ^, not ~.

I can guarantee you that the FindChange text file I use (and the 2 lines I gave you are extracted of this text file) works perfectly.

May I ask if you are a French speaking person and if you want to use French typographic rules? If this is the case, I invite you to download this version of the script here:

https://www.abracadabrapdf.net/utilitaires/utilitaires-indesign/indesign-jsfindchangelist-en-version...

I have modified many times this file to match with different needs and it has always worked perfectly, so maybe your error comes from the javascript itself, but unfortunately I cannot help you on this matter.

[Chillidrop.]

Thanks @jmlevy I'll try that file. Hopefully I don't get an error !

[jmlevy]

There is definitively something wrong in your FindChangeList file but I am unable to understand where the error(s) is (are). If you follow my advice, it should work.

[Manan Joshi]

Hi @Chillidrop.

The attached file works for me, try it. If it still does not work then share a sample InDesign file that we can test with.

-Manan

[Chillidrop.]

Hey @Manan Joshi I just tried it and still nothing : (

I created a blank document to try it in, and nothing happened. When I used my old file, the ? worked.

I attached it if you want to try.

I'm so confused haha.

[Manan Joshi]

Works just fine for me, I used the indd you sent and the txt file that I sent before. See the screengrab at the following link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yn2iabukuq5fb88/Screen%20Recording%202021-10-29%20at%206.53.44%20PM.mov?dl...

-Manan

[Chillidrop.]

Hey @Manan Joshi and @jmlevy 

So I finally figured out what was wrong! I was using the applescript file and not the javascript ! 

@jmlevy I used the file you suggested in javascript and it works like a charm !

Thank you both for you precious advice and time : )