Affinity Publisher Find and Replace function

[hargraves]

Since installing the latest update, the find and replace function no longer works. Nothing comes up in the box.

[MikeTO]

Hi @hargraves and welcome to the forums.

Please click the gear icon beside the Find box to see if you have inadvertently set it match case or match whole word only.

Cheers

[hargraves]

3 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Hi @hargraves and welcome to the forums.

Please click the gear icon beside the Find box to see if you have inadvertently set it match case or match whole word only.

Cheers

The only thing that is ticked is 'normal'. 

[Hangman]

Hi @hargraves and another warm welcome to the forums,

Just a stab in the dark as it could simply be the difference between the Windows and Mac UI's but it 'looks' as though there 'maybe' two spaces before the word leadership in the Find text entry box. That's only comparing it to how it looks on Mac where the word leadership appears much closer to the magnifying glass icon.

If there were two spaces prior to the word then a search would result in nothing being found.

If that's not the case, are you able to upload your Publisher file so we can take a quick look at what might be going on?

 

[hargraves]

21 hours ago, Hangman said:

Hi @hargraves and another warm welcome to the forums,

Just a stab in the dark as it could simply be the difference between the Windows and Mac UI's but it 'looks' as though there 'maybe' two spaces before the word leadership in the Find text entry box. That's only comparing it to how it looks on Mac where the word leadership appears much closer to the magnifying glass icon.

If there were two spaces prior to the word then a search would result in nothing being found.

If that's not the case, are you able to upload your Publisher file so we can take a quick look at what might be going on?

 

Resolved. It wasn't the space. I tried copying and pasting and it worked. I've discovered I now have to hit enter after typing the find query. (Word doesn't require that and I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing that before the update, but may have just had a major brain fade.)

Thank you for your help!

[R C-R]

10 hours ago, hargraves said:

I've discovered I now have to hit enter after typing the find query.

Can't you just click on the "Find" button to do that?

[PaulEC]

10 hours ago, hargraves said:

I've discovered I now have to hit enter after typing the find query.

Both hitting Enter or the Find button work for me (on Windows). I'm not sure how it would work if you didn't have to do one or the other, there needs to be some indication that you have finished typing in the search box!

FWIW: If you highlight a word then hit Ctrl + F, (which opens the Find panel,) the word will automatically be inserted in the find field, no need to copy and paste.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, PaulEC said:

I'm not sure how it would work if you didn't have to do one or the other, there needs to be some indication that you have finished typing in the search box!

Indeed! Imagine a 100+ page document & beginning to type "th" in the Find field -- there could be hundreds or thousands of words with "th" in them so it could take several seconds just to list them all.

[KarinC]

I can't get the find text to work. I decided to replace some fonts with another one in a large document. I am trying to see if I left any behind. I don't want to replace the font I just want to find it. I add the font using format, click find, hit enter, there are no entries. I try to find the fonts that are there. I get no results for the fonts that are there. I try resetting. Doesn't work. This is publisher 2.1.1. What is the secret?

[MikeTO]

8 minutes ago, KarinC said:

I can't get the find text to work. I decided to replace some fonts with another one in a large document. I am trying to see if I left any behind. I don't want to replace the font I just want to find it. I add the font using format, click find, hit enter, there are no entries. I try to find the fonts that are there. I get no results for the fonts that are there. I try resetting. Doesn't work. This is publisher 2.1.1. What is the secret?

First, ensure you haven't accidentally chosen Match Case, Match Whole Word, or Regular Express in the Find menu. Those are things that trip people up regularly. Then choose Reset Format. Now you should have a clean Find menu.

Second, ensure there's no text in the Find text field.

Then choose the font again through Find > Format. You don't have to choose the weight or traits if you don't want to, just the font family.

Then click the Find button. It's not like some apps where choosing the format updates the search results, you have to click the button each time.

Good luck!

[KarinC]

I tried all that. Normal is the only thing checked and it will not uncheck. 

I've clicked the find button over and over. I hit the enter key. I've Reset Format. It simply will not find anything including fonts that are there.

I found one manually while trying to figure it out so I know more must exist. It sure would be nice if Find would work.

 This is the font that I used to replace Comic Sans. There are a couple of hundred words using Komika. None show up when I click find.

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, KarinC said:

I tried all that.

In your screenshots, you have "KomiKa Text" entered in the Find text field. Note what @MikeTO said about that:

39 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Second, ensure there's no text in the Find text field.

So either delete that text or use Reset Format to remove it & try again.

(IOW, because you have told F&R to look for the text "KomiKa Text" in the document it won't find it unless that text string actually appears somewhere in the document.)

[R C-R]

On 6/23/2023 at 10:50 AM, PaulEC said:

FWIW: If you highlight a word then hit Ctrl + F, (which opens the Find panel,) the word will automatically be inserted in the find field, no need to copy and paste.

Hmm. I just noticed that there is no shortcut for (among other things) the Window > Find & Replace panel in APub V2 for Mac, nor can one be added. In fact, there is no shortcut possible for any of the studio panels listed in the Windows menu, so no way to toggle on or off any of them via a keyboard shortcut. I don't know if this has been reported as a bug but regardless, highlighting a word in the document & opening the F&R panel on my Mac does not automatically insert it into the find field.

Bummer! times two! ☹️

[KarinC]

21 minutes ago, R C-R said:

In your screenshots, you have "KomiKa Text" entered in the Find text field. Note what @MikeTO said about that:

So either delete that text or use Reset Format to remove it & try again.

(IOW, because you have told F&R to look for the text "KomiKa Text" in the document it won't find it unless that text string actually appears somewhere in the document.)

'Komika Text' is the name of the font family. I used the drop down next to the font family and chose it. 

I also tried Arial. It won't find that either even though that is the main text used.

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Hmm. I just noticed that there is no shortcut for (among other things) the Window > Find & Replace panel in APub V2 for Mac, nor can one be added.

It is in the Text section, top of the list

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

In fact, there is no shortcut possible for any of the studio panels listed in the Windows menu, so no way to toggle on or off any of them via a keyboard shortcut.

It is in the Studio section.

[KarinC]

 Suddenly it found Arial.

Edit: And weirdly enough it also found Komik Text. I didn't do anything different except shut down Publisher then open it back up.

I have found that after about 3 hours of working in Publisher (and Designer) it starts to lag. Maybe it was too tired to find fonts. 

[Old Bruce]

@KarinC, you should have something look like these screenshots.

[KarinC]

I looked for Comic Sans and it found dozens of them. I do not understand why it did not work until I restarted Publisher. But, I am happy it did.

[R C-R]

45 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

It is in the Text section, top of the list

Thanks! It seems weird that it & the others are not listed in the Windows section since that is where they appear in the UI, or for that matter that there is a "Studio" subcategory since there is no corresponding menu item with that name, but thanks for showing me where to find it in shortcuts.

Also weird is that if I set a shortcut in Studio > Find & Replace to the same (default?) CMD+F one set for Find in the Text subcategory, it says it conflicts with the Find one, as if Find & Find & Replace are two different panels or something. But that can't be right because if I set it to something like CTRL+F it also toggles the F&R panel.

EDIT: OK, I just realized that the Studio > Find & Replace shortcut is for showing or hiding that studio in the UI, while the one in the Text subcategory is for focusing the UI on it. But even if it is hidden the shortcut for the Text menu unhides it if necessary. 

Edited September 7, 2023 by R C-R

[Oufti]

3 hours ago, KarinC said:

I do not understand why it did not work until I restarted Publisher.

Could be that you had something typed in the field "Find"… If you want to search for any text set in a format (as defined in the local F&R format menu and reminded under the Find field) this field has to remain empty. 

Check also the scope of search if you're using one of the latest betas as @Old Bruce, and finally don't forget to click on the Find button to refresh the list of results… 

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Oufti said:

Could be that you had something typed in the field "Find"…

Maybe even just a space?

[Oufti]

33 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Maybe even just a space?

Then it would find all spaces formatted in the font indicated, if there are any. 

[R C-R]

21 minutes ago, Oufti said:

Then it would find all spaces formatted in the font indicated, if there are any. 

But not until the Find button was clicked.

[KarinC]

12 hours ago, R C-R said:

But not until the Find button was clicked.

The find button was clicked dozens of times. Again, the only thing I did was close Publisher and go work in the garden for an hour. I noticed when I started it up again that I could not activate the Find tab next to the assets tab. I had to go back to the Text menu and activate it from the menu. It was almost like it was not completely loaded the first time I used it. 

[Hangman]

Hi @KarinC,

I think it would be extremely helpful if you could perhaps make a screen recording showing your full screen so we can see the steps you're taking... I think we may then be able to better spot if any of the steps you're taking are amiss...