Search for items

If you are searching in a document (Edit > Find/Change), FrameMaker begins searching at the insertion point and continues through the document. It searches only pages of the type the insertion point is on—for example, only body, master, or reference pages. When FrameMaker reaches the end of the document, it continues the search at the beginning. After searching the main text flow, it searches other text in the document. Because FrameMaker searches flow by flow rather than page by page, it sometimes appears to jump around within the document while searching.

If you are searching throughout a book, FrameMaker begins searching from the active document, or from the first document of the book if the book window is active, and continues searching until all documents in the book have been searched. If a document cannot be opened, the document is skipped and a message appears in the Book Error Log.

In addition to text, you can search for any of the following items in a selection, in a document, or throughout an entire book. You can also search in a map from the Resource Manager view.

Text formats and tags

Character format properties, or specific paragraph or character tags. In structured FrameMaker, Element appears right after text, so you can search for element tag, attribute name, attribute value, or simultaneously for all three.

Markers

Any markers, regardless of their marker types, markers of a specific type, or markers that contain specified text.

Cross-references

Any cross-references, regardless of their formats, cross-references that use a specific format, or unresolved cross-references—cross-references that FrameMaker is unable to update. When an unresolved cross-reference is found, the marker text of the cross-reference appears in the Find box.

Text insets

Any text imported by reference. You can also search for unresolved text insets—insets that cannot be updated from their sources. However, you can’t search for graphics subscribers or OLE linked objects. (To list OLE links, choose Edit > Links.)

Variables

Any variables, regardless of their variable names, or specific variables.

Rubi

Any rubi text, when Japanese fonts are installed on your system.

Anchored frames

Frame that contains graphics and helps you locate them. Graphics placed in non-anchored frames are not found.

Footnotes

Any text or table footnotes.

Tables

Any tables regardless of their table format tags, or tables with a specific tag.

Conditional text

Any conditional text, regardless of its condition tags, text with specific condition tags, or unconditional text. FrameMaker cannot find conditional table rows or hidden conditional text.

Automatic hyphen

Words that are hyphenated automatically.

Text and character format on the clipboard

Text that matches the clipboard text, capitalization, and character formatting.

You can enter any characters in the Find/Change box. However, the following characters require special treatment:

• For backslashes, specify two backslashes (\\) in the box. A single backslash usually indicates a special character.

• For wildcard characters used as ordinary characters, when the Use Wildcards option is selected, precede the wildcard character with a backslash in the box.

1. Copy the text with the character format you want to find. FrameMaker uses only the first 126 characters copied into the clipboard.

2. Select Edit > Find/Change. In the Find/Change dialog box, choose Text & Character Formats In Clipboard from the Find pop‑up menu. Don’t type the text you want to find in the Find box.

3. Click Find.

To prevent FrameMaker from applying a property to found text, set the property to As Is.

After making some changes in the Change To Character Format dialog box, you can reset the dialog box to match the format of the current text by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9.

You can search for any text, including single characters, phrases, and special characters that aren’t on your keyboard. You’ll need to type the backslash sequence.

For example, you could find empty paragraphs by searching for \P\p (beginning of paragraph followed by end of paragraph).

You can use most of these sequences for both searching and replacing—for example, replacing a forced return symbol with an end-of-paragraph symbol. However, you cannot replace with the end-of-flow, start-of-paragraph, start-of-word, or end-of-word sequence.

FrameMaker uses markers for cross-references, indexes, and other purposes. It can find any type of marker or just the marker type you specify. When text symbols are visible, a symbol indicates a marker.

FrameMaker can also find markers with specific marker text.

1. In the Find/Change dialog box, do one of the following:

   • To find any marker in the document, choose Any Marker from the Find pop-up menu, and leave the Find box blank.

   • To find a specific type of marker, choose Marker Of Type from the Find pop-up menu, and enter the marker type in the Find box.

   • To find a marker with specific text, choose Marker Text from the Find pop-up menu, and enter the marker text in the Find box.

2. Click Find. If the Marker dialog box is open (Special > Marker), the marker text for the found marker appears there.

You can search for visible text that has specific condition tags. When FrameMaker finds visible conditional text, it selects all adjacent text that uses these condition tags.

FrameMaker cannot find conditional table rows.

1. Make sure that the text with the condition tags you want to find is visible.

2. In the Find/Change dialog box, choose Conditional Text from the Find pop‑up menu.

3. Do the following:

   • To find text with a particular condition tag, move the condition tag to the In list.

   • To find text that doesn’t have a particular condition tag, move the tag to the Not In scroll list.

   • If you don’t care whether found text has a particular tag, move the tag to the As Is scroll list.

   • To find all conditional text, move all tags to the As Is scroll list.

   • To find unconditional text, select Unconditional.

   Note: To move a condition tag between scroll lists, select the tag and click an arrow, or double-click the tag. To move all tags from one scroll list to another, select a tag in the list and Shift-click an arrow.

4. Click Set, and then click Find.

If you don’t find the item even though you’re sure it is there, check the Find/Change dialog box for the following possible problems:

• Text spelling.

• Number and type of spaces.

• Search options.

• Hidden conditional text.

• Insertion point on master page when searching a master page.

• Selection of Book option when searching entire book.