Changing Italic (Ctrl-I) italics to Emphasis character style thoughout document

[martinu]

I have document where I’ve applied an Italic (Ctrl-I) direct format to selected words to emphasise them. This has the disadvantage that if I clear direct formatting it is lost.

I can highlight a word/phrase and apply the Emphasis style to it, and that is not lost if I clear direct formatting.

But how to I do that repetitively for all instance of italic in the document? I can easy search for italic in the Find field of Crtl-H (find and replace) but I can’t see a way of specifying Emphasis as the attribute in the Replace field, even after ticking Including Styles on the Ctrl-H dialogue. (I’m leaving the actual Find and Replace text fields blank so it searches for any text with the attribute and replaces it with the new attribute)

[JohnSUN]

Yes, the beginning is correct - use Ctrl+H to find italics. Now click Find All instead of Find Next. All italic fragments in the text will be highlighted. Close the Find&Replace window, double-click on the Emphasis style to assign it to all selected sections of text.

[ajlittoz]

Edit>Find & Replace can’t “replace” with a character style. However, there is a workaround.

1. press Find All to highlight all occurrences of Italic
2. double-click on Emphasis character style name in the side style pane (character style list)

You can now close the dialog and clear direct formatting. The look of your document should not change.

I want also to point out that all usages of italic do not necessarily mean Emphasis. For example, traditional rules require that foreign words be shown italic. This is different meaning than emphasis. Consequently, these usages should receive a different character style, even if the visual effect is the same. Another example is the first mention of a term where it is defined. Here, a character style like Definition seems to be adequate.

Why would you apply different styles which end up visually the same? Because this allows you to control independently Emphasis, foreign, Definition … Suppose now your definitions should be shown Roman underlined. You just change Definition to remove italic and add underline. You’re done, no need to check occurrences.

[martinu]

Easy when you know how! I never thought of Find All and then selecting an attribute once Find All has highlighted all of the occurences.

Thank you!