FrameMaker Tips | Search Tips, Part 1: Wildcards

Posted on: July 20, 2020 / FrameMaker Tips / admin

FrameMaker Tips

When you search for an item, you can customize the search by using wildcards.

When Use Wildcards is selected in the Find/Change dialog box, you can use the following wildcards to find character patterns.

To find	Use this	Example
Zero or more characters, excluding spaces and punctuation	Enter an asterisk (*).	f*t finds words such as fit and feet.
Any single character, excluding spaces and punctuation	Enter a question mark (?).	f??t finds four-letter words that begin with f and end with t—for example, foot and feet.
One or more spaces and punctuation characters	Enter a vertical bar (\|).	*any\| finds words such as any. and many?. If Whole Word is turned off, it also finds Tiffany, but not anything.
Any one of several characters	Type the characters within brackets ( [ and ] ).	[rml]ate finds rate, mate, and late. If Whole Word is turned off, it also finds berate, isolate, and material.
Any one character not in a specified group of characters	Precede the characters in brackets with a caret (^).	[^rml]ate finds fate, gate, and date, but not rate, mate, or late.
The beginning of a line	Enter a caret (^).	^f finds any word that starts with f at the beginning of a line. You cannot combine this wildcard with the Whole Word option.
The end of a line	Enter a dollar sign ($).	f$ finds any word that ends with f at the end of a line. You cannot combine this wildcard with the Whole Word option.

To find with Use Wildcards turned on…	Type any number of characters
Spaces or punctuation	\| (bar)
Any one character	?
The beginning of a line	^
The end of a line	$
Any one of the bracketed characters ab	[ab]
Any character except ab	[^ab]
Any character from a to f	[a-f]