How to Use Wildcards to Search for Certain Characters in Writer 2013

The Search and Replace feature built into Kingsoft Writer includes two different search methods.

Method 1 You can search for simple items such as text or special characters using the Find feature.
Method 2 You can search for text using wildcards for pattern matching and therefore is more powerful than the first one.

By using the second method you can search for very complex character sequences in your document. The following table will introduce the wildcards and their corresponding meanings.

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Use Go To feature
Find and replace text and objects

Wildcards List

Find What	Wildcards	Example	Finding Result
Any single character	?	t?p to search for the letters t and p separated by one character.	tip, type, etc.
Characters of any length	*	c*n to search for the letters c and n separated by characters of any length.	can, command, etc.
The beginning of a word	<	<(com) to search for words that begin with com.	come, command, etc.
The ending of a word	>	>(er) to search for words that ends with er.	water, writer, etc.
One specified character	[ ]	co[mn]e to search for words with a letter (either mor n) between o and e.	come, cone, comet, etc.
Any single character within a specified range	[-]	[r-t]ight to search for words that begin with eitherr, s or t. Note that the range must be sorted ascending.	right, sight, tight
Any single character outside a specified range	[!x-z]	t[!a-m]ck to search for words with the letter between t and c not from a to m.	tock, tuck
Any number of the previous character	{n}	fe{2}d to search for words feed but not fed.	feed
At least the specified number of the previous character	{n,}	fe{1,}d to search for words with at least one ebetween f and d.	fed, feed
A specified quantity range of the previous item	{n, m}	10{1,3} to search for number with one, two or three 0.	10, 100, 1000
At lease one of the previous character	@	lo@t to search for words with at least one obetween l and t	lot, loot

Use wildcards to find and replace text

Step 1 Press Ctrl + F to bring up the Find and Replace dialog box.

Step 2 If you cannot see the Use wildcards check box in the popup Find and Replace dialog box, click theMore button and then tick the Use wildcards check box.

Figure 1 Search and replace text with wildcards

Step 3 Enter one wildcard in the Find what box. For example, if you want to find "tip", "step", and "type" or similar words, you can type t?p in the Find what box.

• 1. If you want to replace what you have entered in the Find what box, click the Replace tab and then enter the text you want to use as a replacement in the Replace with box.
• 2. If you want to highlight the results, tick the checkbox before Higlight all items found in, and click Find Allbutton. You can apply font style or font color to the highlighted items.

Tips: You can group the above wildcards to search for text or special characters as you need. For instance, enter the wildcards <(pre)*(ed)> in the Find what box to search for presorted, prevented, etc.

Step 4 Press ESC to cancel the current search.