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Inspiring
August 17, 2023
Answered

Is there an up-to-date guide to Hidden Characters?

  • August 17, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 5850 views

Looking for a guide to all Hidden Characters.

Help from within InDesign does not give any results, and I haven't found much else.

thanks!

 

 

 

Correct answer Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

The only place to look for would be the SDK... and one of the .h files.

 

 

Marc Autret is the owner of IndiScripts.com. At some point I downloaded a newer version of the chart shown above, released in 2011 and titled "InDesign CS4/CS5" rather than just "CS4." It contains a few more characters and some corrections, AFAK.

 

 

Mike Witherell of JetSet Communications publishes InDesign character charts. His is more up to date than IndiScripts' above and includes many of the traditional metacharacters left out of IndiScripts (like ^p or end of paragraph used in InDesign's find/change): Adobe InDesign 2025 learning aids and helps and cheatsheets

 

I use both: with both of them, I can usually find what I need for all kinds of programming and automation with InDesign ... GREP, traditional Find/Change, automated publishing, HTML.

 

3 replies

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 17, 2023

My listing (updated in 2026) also includes icons you will see in InCopy. I recently added an extra page of written term definitions. Let me know if anything is missing!

https://trainingonsite.com/useful-resources/adobe-indesign/indesign-2026-resources.html

The above is for all the resources. The below link is a direct link to the hidden characters and other onscreen symbols:

https://trainingonsite.com/images/downloads/InDesign-2026-Onscreen-Symbols-2026-04-01.pdf

Mike Witherell
rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 17, 2023

There’s also this from InDesign Secrets:

 

https://creativepro.com/downloads/guide_specialchars-2012.pdf

 

Community Expert
August 17, 2023
turner111Author
Inspiring
August 17, 2023

Thank you!

I guess they haven't changed in a long time?

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
August 17, 2023

The only place to look for would be the SDK... and one of the .h files.

 

 

Marc Autret is the owner of IndiScripts.com. At some point I downloaded a newer version of the chart shown above, released in 2011 and titled "InDesign CS4/CS5" rather than just "CS4." It contains a few more characters and some corrections, AFAK.

 

 

Mike Witherell of JetSet Communications publishes InDesign character charts. His is more up to date than IndiScripts' above and includes many of the traditional metacharacters left out of IndiScripts (like ^p or end of paragraph used in InDesign's find/change): Adobe InDesign 2025 learning aids and helps and cheatsheets

 

I use both: with both of them, I can usually find what I need for all kinds of programming and automation with InDesign ... GREP, traditional Find/Change, automated publishing, HTML.

 

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