Publisher 1.8 (Windows) -- find and delete text

[MikeA]

There's a thread here about searching and replacing text that includes the following suggestion:

To find and delete text, select "regular expression"
In the text within the Find field, don't use parens.
Use "\1" alone in the Replace field.

This does work. For example I had ;h2\s+ for the "find" expression and "\1" alone for the replacement. All occurrences of ";h2" followed by 1+ space(s) were deleted. Yes, it works, but it seems like a bit of a hack. So...

•  Is there another approach to execute a global find-and-delete operation throughout a long collection of text in linked text frames? In nearly all of the word processors and text editors I've used, an empty replacement field means: "delete." Is there some reason it shouldn't also mean "delete" in Publisher? (Not meant as a rhetorical question.)

•  I found that with the cursor at the start of the text, sometimes pressing the Find button caused the cursor to advance to the first "found location," and sometimes the cursor remained at the start of the text. This appears intermittent and I can't predict when it will happen. I'm assuming it is a bug. If it isn't a bug, what would the reason be for the "variable" behavior?

 

[walt.farrell]

An empty Replace field works just fine for me to delete text, Mike. There's no need to use an uncaptured \1 to do the deletion.

[MikeA]

@walt.farrell Alas, the empty replace field isn't working for me. When a 'find' occurs, the replacement field is empty, and I click 'Replace,' the program ignores what's just been found and moves on to the next 'find'.

[MikeA]

More playing-around with it . . .

An example of when it didn't work:

I typed ;h2 (followed by a space) at the start of certain text I'd planned to make into subheadings. Then:

Find: ";h2" (followed by a space) (this is a normal search, not a regex search)
Replace: (nothing at all) — and format as Heading 2
Click: Replace All

Result: the paragraphs in question are styled Heading 2 as expected. The string ";h2" is not deleted.
Same result if Regular Expression is set and the find and replacement strings are the same as above.

When it did work:

Find: ";h2" (plus one space) (regex not set)
Replace: (nothing at all) — and no change to text formatting.

It also worked in this case:

Find: ";h2" (then 1 space) — set "Regular Expression"
Replace: "\1" — and format as Heading 2
Click: Replace All

Result: the string ";h2" followed by a space was removed AND the paragraphs in question were formatted as Heading 2.

 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks, I vaguely remember that. If you're setting formatting you do need a replace string. 

 

[MikeA]

57 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks, I vaguely remember that. If you're setting formatting you do need a replace string. 

What I observed might be intentional. When you're specifying a formatting change, the program can't know if you want it only to format the "found" text and move on to the next occurrence, or if you want to format it and delete the "found" string. So — safer to leave it alone. I'm glad the \1 workaround exists when Regular Expression is selected.