GREP to replace long row of periods with tab
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A quick GREP primer: One-or-more is +. Any character is . so it's not a good idea to use this … Put a backslash before it to make it literal: . That makes the search expression
.+
and you should replace it with a simple tab:
t
Now hold on before you run off: that one-or-more means that a single period will also be replaced by a tab. I bet that's not what you had in mind, so let's make sure it only works with, say, 3 or more. This, instead, would work
…+
but you can go for a fancy notation as well:
.{3,}
No need for a plus! The {3,} part means: at least three times and an unlimited max (as there is no number given). (Some useful variants could be {3} to only find sets of 3 periods, or {3,5} to only find sets of 3, 4, and 5 periods.)
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I had managed to get most of the way myself, if turns out. But it wasn't working right. I thought it was the GREP I was creating, but it seems there must have been some other weird characters in there. I ended up replacing their mess by hand. it's fine. And (as usual) I learned a lot in the process. Always a good thing.
Thanks!
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