I cannot get ~F or ~U to work in GREP styles at all, unless they are the only term in the GREP expression field. They do not work in e.g. "lookaheads," nor in character classes or as alternatives. They also seem not to work when both ~F and ~U are part of the same expression. These two GREP terms are very buggy. This is a critical issue for me.

Looks like this is still open, so hoping my case sheds some light. When I run a GREP search for any character between two tags, text between the tags that includes a footnote reference is missed by the find. I've attached a PDF showing what I mean and an InDesign file that you can test.

I have tried adding ~F to the GREP find (i.e., "[.~F]+"), but that seems to corrupt the find entirely. Just searching for "<u>[.+]</u>" finds the string as long as it doesn't include a footnote reference. If I add ~F ("<u>[.~F]+</u>"), the find fails to locate any occurrences, even those without footnote references. If I then delete the ~F, the resulting find—which matches the original—continues to fail to find any occurrences. Retyping the original find (rather than just deleting ~F) allows the find to work again.

I'm working on a Mac, OS 12.6.3, InDesign version 18.1 (reported as up to date in CC on 2/13/2023).

The inclusion of ~F in a character class invalidates grep expressions in endnotes.

InDesign version: 14.0.2.324 (with the GREP fix installed)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a document, add some text and add a an endnote.
2. Make sure to add a digit followed by any characters and a dot or comma in both the text and the endnote. (I would post a file if this forum accepted them, but it doesn't.)
3. In the GREP tab of the Find/What window, enter the following GREP expression:

\d[^.,;~F]+

And target the document. The expression matches from a digit up to the next period, comma, semicolon, or footnote marker.

Expected result: The expression should match some text in the main text and in the endnote.
Actual Result: The expression does not match anything in the endnote.

To show that it's ~F that's the problem, use this expression:

\d[^.,;]+

It matches in the main text and in the footnote, as expected.

\d[^.,;~F]+

And target the document. The expression matches from a digit up to the next period, comma, semicolon, or footnote marker.

Expected result: The expression should match some text in the main text and in the endnote.
Actual Result: The expression does not match anything in the endnote.

To show that it's ~F that's the problem, use this expression:

\d[^.,;]+

It matches in the main text and in the footnote, as expected.

The inclusion of ~F in a character class invalidates grep expressions in endnotes.

InDesign version: 14.0.2.324 (with the GREP fix installed)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open the attached document (named .jpg because this forum doesn't accept indd files). It contains a single page with text and an endnote.
2. In the GREP tab of the Find/What window, enter the following GREP expression:

\d[^.,;~F]+

And target the document. The expression matches from a digit up to the next period, comma, semicolon, or footnote marker.

Expected result: The expression should match some text in the main text and in the endnote.
Actual Result: The expression does not match anything in the endnote.

To show that it's ~F that's the problem, use this expression:

\d[^.,;]+

It matches in the main text and in the footnote, as expected.

The inclusion of ~F in a character class invalidates grep expressions in endnotes.

InDesign version: 14.0.2.324 (with the GREP fix installed)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open the attached document (named .jpg because this forum doesn't accept indd files). It contains a single page with text and an endnote.
2. In the GREP tab of the Find/What window, enter the following GREP expression:

\d[^.,;~F]+

And target the document. The expression matches from a digit up to the next period, comma, semicolon, or footnote marker.

Expected result: The expression should match some text in the main text and in the endnote.
Actual Result: The expression does not match anything in the endnote.

To show that it's ~F that's the problem, use this expression:

\d[^.,;]+

It matches in the main text and in the footnote, as expected.

The inclusion of ~F in a character class invalidates grep expressions in endnotes.

InDesign version: 14.0.2.324 (with the GREP fix installed)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open the attached document (named .ixx because this forum doesn't accept indd files). It contains a single page with text and an endnote.
2. In the GREP tab of the Find/What window, enter the following GREP expression:

\d[^.,;~F]+

And target the document. The expression matches from a digit up to the next period, comma, semicolon, or footnote marker.

Expected result: The expression should match some text in the main text and in the endnote.
Actual Result: The expression does not match anything in the endnote.

To show that it's ~F that's the problem, use this expression:

\d[^.,;]+

It matches in the main text and in the footnote, as expected.