InDesign JS grepFind whole word preference query...

[deckarduk]

Hi there,

Please can someone help.

Is there a way to limit findGrep to finding whole words?

For example, if I'm searching for employee the word employees wouldn't be a match because of the 's'.

Thanks in advance.

[rob day]

Hi @deckarduk , I think you would have to do a find text to get at the whole word option. See the FindChangeTextOption.

https://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#FindChangeTextOption.html

[deckarduk]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the help. 

I've had a look at the link, the whileWord attribute looks like what I need.

I'm presuming with the FindChange option I'd have to find the word and then change it?

[m1b · Accepted solution]

Another way, depending on your situation, is to include word boundary symbols \b in your grep. So

\bant\b

will find the word "ant", and won't find the "ant" in "rant" or "anthropic".

- Mark

[deckarduk]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the help and grep snippet. It worked a treat!

In my code I had to add escape characters to the \b so ended up with \\bemployee\\b, which worked.

Thanks again 🙂