Wildcard Characters: action line

 

The following wildcard characters can be combined with the search commands as part of a search string entered on the action line. For example, to find every instance of the word "paragraph" that is followed by a space and then any single digit number (e.g., paragraph 1, paragraph 2, paragraph 3, etc.), you would use ^N as a wildcard character representing any number. The full search command would be:

 

se \paragraph ^N\

Note that the character ^ is not an abbreviation for the Control button. It is typed by pressing Shift and the 6 key at the top of your keyboard.  

 

The wildcard characters are:

 

Any single letter (A-Z): ^L
Any single number (0-9): ^N
Any single number or letter: ^A
Any single character: ^X
Any single separator: ^S  
Any single sentence separator: ^E or ^+.
Any string of characters up to 80 characters in length: ^W (This must be used with one other character.)
Any but next Single character: ^B or ^-.  This wildcard represents NOT so that the character that follows will not be included in your search.
More than one string: ^O (using the letter O, not zero). This represents OR allowing the search of more than one string at a time.
Repeat next character: ^0 through 9. This defines the maximum number of times the character can appear in the string.
Line Feed Character: ^F
Carriage return character: ^C
Regular paragraph return: ^R
Regular or Alternate paragraph return: ^P
Tabs: ^T

 

 

See also:

Search and Replace: SE command