Is There An Easy Way to Find/Replace Non-Printing Characters in InDesign and QuarkXPress?

Answered by Jay Nelson, Editor and Publisher, Design Tools Monthly

Question:
I sometimes need to find and replace the non-printing characters in InDesign and QuarkXPress -- for example, paragraph returns, tab characters, line breaks, etc. I don't have time to memorize the arcane keystrokes that invoke these invisible characters. Is there an easy way to put them into the Find/Change fields?

Answer:
One trick for finding and replacing invisible characters is to copy and paste them into the Find/Change fields. Of course, this requires having an invisible character you want to Find, but you wouldn't be doing this unless you had one, right? So here's what to do: first you need to tell the program to show its invisible characters (QuarkXPress: View> Invisibles; InDesign: Type> Show Hidden Characters). Then just copy the invisible character into the Find/Change dialog box. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

This question was answered by Jay Nelson, Publisher & Editor, Design Tools Monthly. We love DTM's tips and advice and think you will, too. For a free sample PRINTED issue, contact Design Tools Monthly at 303-543-8400, e-mail info@design-tools.com, or go to their website: www.design-tools.com.
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