Learn // Special characters

InDesign GREP special characters

Every token from InDesign's GREP special characters menus: what it finds or inserts, whether it works in Find what, Change to or both, and how InDesign shows the character when hidden characters are on. We check each one in InDesign; rows we have not checked yet are marked.

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Breaks and returns

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Tab	`\t`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
End of paragraph	`\r`	Find what, Change to		Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Forced line break	`\n`	Find what, Change to		Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Standard carriage return	`~b`	Find what, Change to		Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Column break	`~M`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Frame break	`~R`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Page break	`~P`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Odd page break	`~L`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Even page break	`~E`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Discretionary line break	`~k`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

White space

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Em space	`~m`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
En space	`~>`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Third space	`~3`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Quarter space	`~4`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Sixth space	`~%`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Thin space	`~<`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Hair space	`~\|`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Figure space	`~/`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Punctuation space	`~.`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Flush space	`~f`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Nonbreaking space	`~S`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Nonbreaking space (fixed width)	`~s`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Any white space	`\s`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Hyphens and dashes

Character	Token	Works in	Checked
Em dash	`~_`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
En dash	`~=`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Discretionary hyphen	`~-`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Nonbreaking hyphen	`~~`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Quotation marks

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Any double quotation mark	`"`	Find what	none	Not checked yet.
Any single quotation mark	`'`	Find what	none	Not checked yet.
Straight double quotation mark	`~"`	Find what, Change to		Not checked yet. InDesign froze in Change to: avoid.
Double left quotation mark	`~{`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Double right quotation mark	`~}`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Straight single quotation mark	`~'`	Find what, Change to		Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Single left quotation mark	`~[`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Single right quotation mark	`~]`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Symbols

Character	Token	Works in	Checked
Bullet	`~8`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Copyright symbol	`~2`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Ellipsis	`~e`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Paragraph symbol	`~7`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Registered trademark	`~r`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Section symbol	`~6`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Trademark symbol	`~d`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Backslash	`\\`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Caret	`\^`	Find what, Change to	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Markers and other

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Any page number	`~#`	Find what	none	Not checked yet.
Current page number	`~N`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Next page number	`~X`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Previous page number	`~V`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Section marker	`~x`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Anchored object marker	`~a`	Find what		Not checked yet.
Footnote reference marker	`~F`	Find what	none	Not checked yet.
Index marker	`~I`	Find what	none	Not checked yet.
Right indent tab	`~y`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Indent to here	`~i`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
End nested style here	`~h`	Find what, Change to	none	Change to checked. Find what not checked yet.
Non-joiner	`~j`	Find what, Change to		Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Wildcards

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Any digit	`\d`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Any letter	`[\l\u]`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Any character	`.`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Any lowercase letter	`\l`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Any uppercase letter	`\u`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Any word character	`\w`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Locations

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Beginning of word	`\<`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
End of word	`\>`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Word boundary	`\b`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Opposite of word boundary	`\B`	Find what	none	Find what checked. InDesign froze in Find what when used alone: avoid.
Beginning of paragraph	`^`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
End of paragraph (location)	`$`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Beginning of story	`\A`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
End of story	`\Z`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Repeat, match, modifiers (Find)

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Zero or one time	`?`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Zero or more times	`*`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
One or more times	`+`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Zero or more (shortest match)	`*?`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
One or more (shortest match)	`+?`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Marking subexpression	`()`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Non-marking subexpression	`(?:)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Character set	`[]`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Or	`\|`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Positive lookbehind	`(?<=)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Negative lookbehind	`(?<!)`	Find what	none	Not checked yet.
Positive lookahead	`(?=)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Negative lookahead	`(?!)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Case-insensitive on	`(?i)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Case-insensitive off	`(?-i)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Multiline on	`(?m)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).
Single-line on	`(?s)`	Find what	none	Checked in InDesign (2026-10-09).

Change to only

Character	Token	Works in	Shown as	Checked
Found text	`$0`	Change to	none	Not checked yet.
Found 1 … Found 9	`$1`	Change to	none	Not checked yet.