I need a script similar to "Find Change From Spreadsheet" but for GREPs.

[AK09M]

Hi

I have a problem with a GREP: when I do it one by one it works perfectly, but when I use Change all command it doesn't work, so I need a script to do the find and change one by one to the whole file, so it's something similar to Find Change From Spreadsheetbut with GREP instead of text.

[Willi Adelberger]

When it does not work, it is not find & replace.

Describe what you are missing.

[AK09M]

I have a space before and after every footnote number in the text and I want to remove them, I used

Find: (~F) 

Change to: $1

When I do it one by one it works perfectly, but when I use change all it doesn't work it turns them into squares.
see the link below for a sample of the file.

[m1b]

Hi @AK09M, can you give an example of your GREP that works for one change but not for change all? I've never come across that before and I'd like to understand what happens. 
- Mark

[AK09M]

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/how-to-replace-all-using-grep/m-p/12966969#M4786...

[m1b · Accepted solution]

Hi @AK09M, try this:

((?<=~F) | (?=~F))

This searches for a space with a footnote number before it OR a space with a footnote number after it.

- Mark

[AK09M]

Thanks, that worked perfectly with my document.

[m1b]

I tested your grep and had similar results to you. Thank you—that's an interesting edge case.

My guess is that because the footnote numbers are special objects, of which only a part is the text representation in the story, that when the grep engine picks one up and puts it back down as $1 it is messed up. My approach is to only focus on the spaces, not the footnote number.

- Mark