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Find/change items using queries



You can find and change text, objects, and glyphs by using or constructing a query. A query is a defined find-and-change operation. InDesign offers several preset queries for changing punctuation formats and other useful actions, such as changing telephone number formats. By saving a query you constructed, you can run it again and share it with others.

Search using queries

  1. Choose Edit > Find/Change.
  2. Choose a query from the Query list.

    The queries are grouped by type.

  3. Specify a range to search on the Search menu.

    The search range is not stored with the query.

  4. Click Find.
  5. To continue searching, click Find Next, Change (to change the most recently found text or punctuation mark), Change All (a message indicates the total number of changes), or Change/Find (to change text or punctuation marks and continue your search).

After you select a search query, you can adjust the settings to fine-tune your search.

Save queries

Save a query in the Find/Change dialog box if you want to run it again or share it with others. The names of queries you save appear in the Query list in the Find/Change dialog box.

  1. Choose Edit > Find/Change.
  2. Select Text, GREP, or a different tab to undertake the search you want.
  3. Below the Search menu, click icons to determine whether items such as locked layers, master pages, and footnotes are included in the search.

    These items are included in the saved query. However the range of the search isn’t saved with the query.

  4. Define the Find What and Change To fields. (See Metacharacters for searching and Search using GREP expressions.)
  5. Click the Save button in the Find/Change dialog box and enter a name for the query.

If you use the name of an existing query, you are asked to replace it. Click Yes if you want to update the existing query.

Delete queries

 Select it on the Query list and click the Delete Query button.

Load queries

Customized queries are stored as XML files. The names of customized queries appear in the Query list in the Find/Change dialog box.

 To load a query that was given to you so that it appears in the Query list, copy the query file to the appropriate location:
Mac OS
Users\[username]\Library\Preferences\Adobe InDesign\[Version]\[Language]\Find-Change Queries\[query type]

Windows XP
Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\[Version]\[Language]\Find-Change Queries\[query type]

Windows Vista
Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\[Version]\[Language]\Find-Change Queries\[query type]