Publisher Find / Replace Glyph

[thomaso]

25 minutes ago, R C-R said:

43 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

So to say, either the doc text layer or one of the text fields is in edit mode (has the input cursor), they can't be together.

I am not suggesting that both can have the focus (the the input cursor) at the same time, just that if the user clicks into the F&R panel on either of its fields, it gets the focus instead of the document text

In fact, in F&R the app behaves like having its focus in two places synchronously: with the blinking text cursor in one of the two F&R fields the command Undo does not affect the currently focussed field but undoes any most recent action from the History panel.

Also unusual: If text is selected in a F&R field and text in the clipboard then paste replaces the text only once and keeps the selection – different to the behaviour in a text frame, where paste does paste and move the text cursor to the end, unselecting the text this way. This latter behavior allows to paste some text from the clipboard multiple times while in F&R a multiple paste action just pastes 1 instance.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, v_kyr said:

That wasn't what I wrote, I said it has to toggle/go through 4 states, doc text insert mode, or find text insert mode, or replace text insert modus, or nothing is in insert mode at all!

I guess we are not connecting on this. I am asking if a 'last selected' rule would work, not anything specific about what you wrote.

[v_kyr]

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am asking if a 'last selected' rule would work, not anything specific about what you wrote.

If 'last selected' would cover those possible states (including nothing is yet selected/active) then yes.

[v_kyr]

34 minutes ago, thomaso said:

with the blinking text cursor in one of the two F&R fields the command Undo does not affect the currently focussed field but undoes any most recent action from the History panel.

You mean undoing the last performed task of a find/replace operation. Yes it undoes doc text selections, replacements etc. step for step. - Though that might make more sense here, since it records/keeps a list of typed in chars/strings (last recent find/replaces), which you can show up and clear on demand (Clear recent find/replaces).

34 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Also unusual: If text is selected in a F&R field and text in the clipboard then paste replaces the text only once and keeps the selection – different to the behaviour in a text frame, where paste does paste and move the text cursor to the end, unselecting the text this way. This latter behavior allows to paste some text from the clipboard multiple times while in F&R a multiple paste action just pastes 1 instance.

Probably due to the fact, that it gets the length of pasted in text and then also tries to interpret/match-parse the text pasted in. Like for escape characters, possible reg expression parts etc.

[walt.farrell]

17 hours ago, thomaso said:

Or if I type – with no object selected – a font name in the Character field, it creates an entry in the History panel ("Font: <my typed name>"), then Undo goes 1 step back in the History panel – but without resetting my recently typed font name in the field (as I would expect).

I see the same behavior. A History entry is created, but no current object is affected, though the change will affect the next text object you create. And undo will back up over that History entry, as expected, but the font name does not revert to the previous font name. This feels like a bug to me. The font name should revert upon doing the Undo action.

18 hours ago, thomaso said:

Or – without an object selected – pressing a number key creates an entry "Set global opacity", apparently with no result, while this no-result can get undone via Undo.

That one gets a bit trickier, as it depends on which Tool you have selected. If you have the Paint Brush Tool selected, for example, then pressing the number key sets the brush opacity, and does not generate a history entry. But yes, if you do not have the Paint Brush Tool selected (or some other tool that supports the number shortcuts), and do not have an object selected, then I get the behavior you describe. This, too, feels like a bug. It would be better to not create the History entry given that no object (current or future) was affected.

[R C-R]

16 hours ago, v_kyr said:

If 'last selected' would cover those possible states (including nothing is yet selected/active) then yes.

I am not sure what you mean about including nothing selected, but the way I would like to see it work is if nothing is currently selected, nothing happens (no change of focus or whatever). So for example, if I click into either F&R field, & then immediately double-click on a glyph in the Glyph browser, that glyph is inserted into the F&R field at the insertion point. If instead, the last thing I did was not to click into the F&R field, & I have the insertion point in a document text field, then (as now) the double-click inserts the glyph at the insertion point.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

though the change will affect the next text object you create.

Not necessarily: Although I may set the font family or size when the Move Tool is selected then a new Text Frame does not get this font and size but for instance the Defaults Arial 12 pt. Which makes fun of my previous setting. This means to me the app should either respect my font decision for any/every further tool … or should not enable me to make a setting without a selected text object … or should not enable me to set it with a different than a text tool. In the current way it appears to be kidding.

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

It would be better to not create the History entry given that no object (current or future) was affected.

I wonder what definition of "global opacity" is stored in the app at all, respectively I can't imagine what it would be, though "global" sounds like "everything". But – aside the developer's decision to create a history entry – the text indicates it was done not only on purpose but obviously "by design", too. A nice situation to illustrate the difference between "on purpose" (~ by concept) versus "by design" (~ by visual layout and/or function code). 😉

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what you mean about including nothing selected, but the way I would like to see it work is if nothing is currently selected, nothing happens (no change of focus or whatever). ...

Yes, that was meant!

[Engineering_text]

For Windows 10, the best answer above for me was "Or instead place it's Glyph into the frametext and copy/paste it then over from there into the find/replace fields." 

1. I could not copy and paste from the glyph table to the find and replace field. (First thing I tried.)

2. Attempts to enter the unicode of glyph code info from the glyph table resulted in only the code showing up in my text -not the glyph. Copied syntax shown in the above posts in my case \u00b7 for "middle dot". I even tried cut and paste from a response here where the unicode worked for the -still just got the unicode.

3. I successfully inserted the glyph into my text frame by double-clicking on the glyph chart, and then copy and paste from text frame into the find and replace field. Big smile. Now I can use find and replace to convert throughout the document.

Thanks everyone who contributed. 

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, Engineering_text said:

Attempts to enter the unicode of glyph code info from the glyph table resulted in only the code showing up in my text -not the glyph. Copied syntax shown in the above posts in my case \u00b7 for "middle dot".

Try U+00b7 followed by Alt+U (Windows) or Opt+U (Mac).

[Engineering_text]

No luck, but we both know the exact manner in which this is entered matters. I may just be doing it wrong. Review: I was trying to enter the "middle dot" into the "replace with" field in the search and replace feature. I learned from another post I can double click on the middle dot in the glyph chart to inert it into the text frame. From the text frame I can copy and paste it into the "replace with" field and I'm good to go to use find and replace throughout my chapter.

Trying what you suggest I tried a few variations:

1. Typing u00b7 and then key stroking the alt (held down) and with alt held down poke the u key. 

2. Typing \u00b7 and then key stroking the alt (held down) and with alt held down poke the u key.

In both cases it replaced the target text in the frame text with the characters \u00b7 

In the past I've used ascii a lot in other Windows programs. One example, I've keyed alt+0178 to get an exponent of 2. With num lock on, hold down alt key while typing in the numerals. 

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, Engineering_text said:

No luck, but we both know the exact manner in which this is entered matters.

Sorry; I misunderstood/misread where you were entering it. 

No, my approach won't work in the Find and Replace panel, either. For that, with Regular Expressions enabled in the Find options, try \xb7 in the Replace field. Works on iPad, and should work in the desktop versions, too.

 

[Engineering_text]

That worked! Threw me off that I could select regular expressions in the find but not in the replace field -since the \xb7 went in the replace field. Now I know two ways to work the find and replace -but keeping a personal reference for the glyphs I want to use will make this very handy for all the Greek letters.

[Engineering_text]

"with Regular Expressions enabled in the Find options, try \xb7 in the Replace field. Works on iPad, and should work in the desktop versions, too."

I did online search trying to find regular expressions for unicode characters. For example, trying to do U+03c1 small greek letter rho. With regular expression enabled, I tried \xc1, \x3c1, and \x03c1, but clearly not a simple pattern to get from unicode to regular expression.

Can you provide a link for crossing between unicode and regular expressions?

thanks

[walt.farrell]

On 7/13/2023 at 11:07 AM, Engineering_text said:

For example, trying to do U+03c1 small greek letter rho. With regular expression enabled, I tried \xc1, \x3c1, and \x03c1, but clearly not a simple pattern to get from unicode to regular expression.

Can you provide a link for crossing between unicode and regular expressions?

With the Boost Reg Ex engine (which Publisher uses) the syntax for a unicode character is \x{nnnn}, so in the Find or Replace string you could use \x{03c1}, e.g.,

Before:

After:

 

An excellent online reference: https://www.regular-expressions.info/