How to find and change text and text properties

Interleaf quicksilver Frequently asked questions

How to find and change text and text properties?

To find and change text and text properties, you first open the Find and Change dialog box. Then, you do the following:

  • specify the text you want to find, and the text you want to replace it with
  • specify the text properties you want to find, and the text properties you want to replace them with
  • find and change the text and/or text properties


The Find and Change Dialog Box
You can use the Find and Change dialog box to locate specific text or text properties in a document, and to modify single, selected, or all occurrences of the specified text or properties. You can also use the dialog box to specify search criteria such as the direction of the search, whether the search is case sensitive, and whether the search criteria includes wildcards.
You can open the Find and Change dialog box by choosing a command from the document menu bar, the tool bar, or by using a keyboard shortcut. You can also open the dialog box with or without text selected.

To open the Find and Change dialog box:

  • With or without text selected, choose Find/Change from the document Edit menu.
  • With or without text selected, click the Find/Change tool on the Text tool bar.
  • With no text selected, enter a keyboard shortcut.

If you have text selected when you open the Find and Change dialog box, that text is automatically inserted in the Find box.

Specifying Text to Find and Change
When you specify the text that you want to find and change, you can include special characters and wildcards.

To specify the text to find and change:

  • Open the Find and Change dialog box.
  • In the Find box, type the text you want to find.
    You can include special characters in the search by selecting from the Special Characters list box. You can also include wildcards by selecting the Wildcard Search check box and then selecting from the Wildcard
    Characters list box.
  • For a forward search, use the check boxes to select any of the following search options: Match Case, Whole Word, or Count Words.
    If the Find Backwards check box is selected, only Match Case in the above options is available.
  • In the Change To box, type the text you want to replace the original text with. This text can also include special characters.
  • If either Text Props button in the upper right corner of the dialog box says TEXT PROPS, click one of the buttons, and use the Reset button in the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box to reset any text properties that you specified.
    This ensures that the search does not affect text properties.


Specifying Text Properties to Find and Change
To specify text properties you want to find and/or change, you use the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box, which you open from the Find and Change dialog box. You can specify particular text with the text properties, or any text with the text properties.

To specify text properties you want to find:

  • Open the Find and Change dialog box.
  • To find particular text with the properties you want to find, type the text in the Find box.
    To find any text with the properties you want to find, leave the Find box empty.
  • Click the Text Props button next to the Find box to open the Find Properties sheet of the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box.
    If you have the Change Properties sheet of the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box open, select the Find radio button on the sheet.
  • In the Find Properties sheet, use the controls to specify the text properties that you want to find.
    In the Find and Change dialog box, the button next to the Find box changes from Text Props to TEXT PROPS, which means that you have specified text properties that you want to find in the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box.


To specify replacement text properties:

  • In the Find and Change dialog box, click the Text Props button next to the Change To box to open the Change Properties sheet of the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box.
  • In the Change Properties sheet, use the controls to specify the text property changes you want to make.
    In the Find and Change dialog box, the button next to the Change To box changes from Text Props to TEXT PROPS, which means that you have specified replacement text properties in the Find and Change Text Properties dialog box.
  • To change specific text with the text properties you have specified, type the text in the Change To box of the Find and Change dialog box.
    To change text properties regardless of the text, select the Change Text Properties Only check box.
    The Change To box becomes inactive and displays the text Same As Find. This ensures that no text will change, even if text properties are replaced.


NOTE: To change just the text properties of specified text and/or text properties, remember to select the Change Text Properties Only check box in the Find and Change dialog box. Otherwise, if the Change To box is empty but active, a change operation will replace occurrences of the specified text with nothing.

Finding and Changing Text and Text Properties
Once you specify the text and/or text properties that you want to find and change, you can choose commands to begin the search and replace the text or text properties.

To find and change text and text properties:

  • Follow the procedures for specifying the text and/or text properties that you want to find and change.
  • To find and select the next occurrence of the text and/or text properties, click the Find button in the Find and Change dialog box.
    If you want to change multiple occurrences of the text or text properties without first locating an occurrence, you can skip the step of clicking Find.
  • Set the Change option menu to one of the following:
    • Then Find - to change the selected occurrence and continue the search. This option is only available after you click Find.
    • Single - to change the selected occurrence and end the search. This option is only available after you click Find.
    • To End - to replace all occurrences from the current location (the text insertion point) to the end of the document, regardless of the direction of the search. This option is available before you click Find.
    • All - to replace all occurrences in the document. This option is available before you click Find.
  • Click Change.


To Find and Change Special Characters
To find and change special characters in a document, you use special key sequences to enter the characters in the Find and Change dialog box. These key sequences are different from the ones you use to insert the same characters in a document.
For example, to search for a tab character, you type the characters backslash and t ( \t) in the Find text box, rather than pressing the TAB key.
For convenience, you can choose this and other special character sequences from the Special Characters list box in the Find and Change dialog box. You can also type the sequences by using the following list.
The following lists the key sequences for the special characters you can enter in the Find and Change dialog box.

  • Tab- \ t
  • Hard Return- \ r
  • Hyphen (-)- \ -
  • En dash (-)- \ _
  • Em dash (-)- \=
  • Hard space- \ S
  • Hairline space- \ H
  • Thin space- \T
  • Figure space- \ F
  • En space- \ N
  • Em space- \ M
  • Open double-quote ( " )- \"
  • Backslash ( \)- \ \
  • he character with a hex code of {hex code}. For example, \ x3f \ would find a question mark (?).- \ x {hex code}\


To find or change a special character:

  • In the Find and Change dialog box, choose whether you want to work in the Find box or the Change To box.
  • Select a character from the Special Characters list box.
    Type the appropriate key sequence listed in the table.
    The sequence for the character appears in either the Find box or the Change To box, depending on whether your are finding or changing the character.


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