From: Brian Barker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 1:45 AM To: users@openoffice.org Subject: Re: [users] WRITER: Search for [...] Invisible Characters, ...
At 08:29 06/12/2008 -0800, Elchanan Noname wrote: >We are exploring the search (ctrl-f) function in Writer. We see how to >search for many things, but not yet for [...] invisible characters (end >of paragraph and the like), ... It's perhaps worth mentioning that there is no such character as end-of-paragraph, invisible or otherwise. Instead, one paragraph ends and another begins at the same place. The pilcrow you see when you select Nonprinting Characters is merely there as a visual indication of the paragraph break. (I suppose the way that you can insert or delete extra paragraph breaks makes it a character of sorts, though.) But the way you have to handle paragraph breaks in OpenOffice is not to search for the break itself but (using regular expressions) to anchor the material you are searching for to the start or end of a paragraph, using the ^ and $ symbols; \n is also useful. I trust this helps. Brian Barker --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, Brian, for you (as always) erudite explanation. I do comprehend it. I hope that some in developer land may someday comprehend that the solution you describe is not useful for most users. Other products provide searching for para ends and other "special characters". But I am realizing that Open Office is tied to MS Office to an extent that a great myopia exists, all the way down at the paradigm level. Just a portion of my present impression, nothing more. Best to all, Elchanan Best, Elchanan --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
