Replace on part of a wildcards search

[Peter Gold]

FrameMaker has long a GREP-like search feature, in FM, and some
documentation for it. However, the replace wasn't GREP-like. But worse
yet, there doesn't seem to be a trace of the documentation for it in
FM9. I've forgotten how to use it, and without the doc, I'm not sure
that my couple of quick tests were failing because the feature's gone
from the product as well as the doc, or if I just didn't enter the
search string correctly.

I don't have an earlier FrameMaker installed, and don't have the
earlier docs handy. Perhaps someone on the list can respond.


HTH

Regards,

Peter
_______________________
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices



On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Les Smalley <l_c_smalley at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi Avi,
>
> The asterisk ( * ) wildcard matches any character EXCEPT
> spaces or punctuation; the wildcard character to use for those is the
> verticle bar ( | ) but also remember that the tab character is "\t" (no
> quotes) ...
>
> Regardless, unfortunately you can't do it with
> FrameMaker as you describe attempting.  The search tool removes
> everything matched by the search string and inserts the replace string
> in its place, so you will also lose the "Command" string.  It is a
> great disappointment that a real GREP search capability (or even more
> general awk text processing features) has never been implemented in FM.
>
> If
> you search for just "Unit32" and replace that with "SHORT_ID" you can
> do what you want by careful use of the 'Change & Find' or just
> 'Find' buttons (and I understand how tedious and error-prone this can
> be.)
>
> It may be posible to do this via scripting (e.g.
> FrameScript, etc.; I'm sure others more knowledgeable will chime in) or
> possibly by saving to MIF and using a text based editor on that, then
> reopening it in FM to verify the results.
>
> FWIW, grep and awk
> (and a number of other unix tools) are available as utilities for
> Windows and any search engine can point you to places to get them.
>
> – Les
>
> --- On Mon, 10/5/09, Avraham Makeler <amakeler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> How do you do a Replace on part of a wildcards search?
>
> E.,g., I am looking for a line with:
>
> Uint32 Command
>
> where there can be any type and amount of white space between "Uint32" and
> "Command".
>
> So I guess the wild card search format will be
>
> Uint32*Command
>
> No?
>
> But then if I want to replace just the "Uint32" part with "SHORT_ID". How
> would i do that?
>
> TIA
>
> - avi
> _______________________________________________
>