Hank, I don't have the remotest idea how you think it would add 1 to any of these numbers …

David is right, of course — GREP Is Not Magic. It cannot do calculations, nor can it search an item from a list[*] and replace it with an equivalent from another list. You cannot have a similar list in the replace field.

[*] Well, it can, using the OR | operator, but “Replace” doesn't know which item it found.

Also, you can enter a 'range' in the Find field in the form [a-z] — this will find anything from 'a' to 'z'. But GREP does not know maths — you cannot search for [69-82]. (Go ahead, try. You will see it treats this as '6', '9-8', and '2' — and its anybodies guess what it will do with the malformed range in the middle.)

A script to search and change the numbers in your range could be something like this (a rough attempt but it seems to work):

//DESCRIPTION: Change some numbers and leave some else. In a selection as well.

// A Jongware production. No guarantees.

var ranges = [

[54, 103, 1],

[104, 178, 2]

];

// step 0: verify selection

if (app.selection.length != 1)

{

alert (“Well, I warned you to select something!”);

exit();

}

// step 1: find ALL numbers

app.findChangeGrepOptions = null;

app.findGrepPreferences = null;

app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = “\d+”;

numberList = app.selection[0].findGrep(true);

// alert ('found '+numberList.length);

// step 2: change certain ranges

for (a=0; a<numberList.length; a++)

{

thisVal = Number(numberList[a].contents);

for (b=0; b<ranges.length; b++)

{

if (thisVal >= ranges[b][0] && thisVal <= ranges[b][1])

{

numberList[a].contents = String(thisVal+ranges[b][2]);

break;

}

}

}

// step 3: … erm. That's all!

Hank, I don't have the remotest idea how you think it would add 1 to any of these numbers …

David is right, of course — GREP Is Not Magic. It cannot do calculations, nor can it search an item from a list[*] and replace it with an equivalent from another list. You cannot have a similar list in the replace field.

[*] Well, it can, using the OR | operator, but “Replace” doesn't know which item it found.

Also, you can enter a 'range' in the Find field in the form [a-z] — this will find anything from 'a' to 'z'. But GREP does not know maths — you cannot search for [69-82]. (Go ahead, try. You will see it treats this as '6', '9-8', and '2' — and its anybodies guess what it will do with the malformed range in the middle.)

A script to search and change the numbers in your range could be something like this (a rough attempt but it seems to work):

//DESCRIPTION: Change some numbers and leave some else. In a selection as well.

// A Jongware production. No guarantees.

var ranges = [

[54, 103, 1],

[104, 178, 2]

];

// step 0: verify selection

if (app.selection.length != 1)

{

alert (“Well, I warned you to select something!”);

exit();

}

// step 1: find ALL numbers

app.findChangeGrepOptions = null;

app.findGrepPreferences = null;

app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = “bd+b”;

numberList = app.selection[0].findGrep(true);

// alert ('found '+numberList.length);

// step 2: change certain ranges

for (a=0; a<numberList.length; a++)

{

thisVal = Number(numberList[a].contents);

for (b=0; b<ranges.length; b++)

{

if (thisVal >= ranges[b][0] && thisVal <= ranges[b][1])

{

numberList[a].contents = String(thisVal+ranges[b][2]);

break;

}

}

}

// step 3: … erm. That's all!

You can make a list of the different spellings and put that into the standard FindChangeByList script — that'll take care of 'realise', 'colour', 'mailbox', and their 'ilk' ('like').

For the 'grammar', however, it's unlikely one will ever find a computerized solution. It would boil down to translating from one language to another. If you check Google Translate, you will see their only choice is plain 'English' — no dialects available.

Roland, this “script” (it's a single line!) will convert all tables to text, separating the columns by a comma, and the rows by a hard return. It's a javascript, so save it with a “.jsx” extension.

app.activeDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().convertToText (",", "r");

Roland, this “script” (it's a single line!) will convert all tables to text, separating the columns by a comma, and the rows by a hard return. It's a javascript, so save it with a “.jsx” extension.

app.activeDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().convertToText (",", "\r");

@Jesserenko Yes, GREP would certainly do what I want, especially if I can figure out how to keep double returns from being replaced so I won't lose the true paragraph return. 

Try this: (?<=[^\r]) *\r(?=[^\r]) — replace with a single space.

In its essence, it should search for at-left-not a return, any number of regular spaces (including none at all), a single return, at-right-not a return.

Since copy-and-paste often introduces some space before carriage returns, you need to allow for zero or more spaces before that return.

Freehand is an illustrator program, and it's quite unlikely you can 'convert' artwork to native InDesign stuff.

However, it should not be necessary. I don't think you can import (“Place”, in Indesign's parlance) native Freehand documents in InDesign (– have you tried?), but it should be possible to save the original files as something you can place in ID: Adobe Illustrator AI, PDF, or (when all else fails) EPS.

Adobe on Freehand: “No updates to FreeHand have been made for over four years, and Adobe has no plans to initiate development to add new features or to support Intel-based Macs and Windows Vista.”

If you want to be able to edit the files in a more modern package, try converting it to Illustrator instead. That should not be a problem at all, since Illustrator is an artwork design package as well. You can try opening the original file immediately, or use one of the other file types as above.

So what the problem with the math? If someone has problems getting the right answer, well, both Mac and Windows have a calculator

This one is “The sum of 3+3″ — perhaps you could make 'em a bit more difficult, these are no fun at all …

(Windows XP, SP3, IE 8 )

(It's not there when editing a post, I notice.)