See also the last part of this post which exposed a simple solution when you just want to insert a multi-lines text, even in multiple locations, of the curent file, only :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/98543

Best Regards

guy038

for multiple lines to be added, we have to put Line1\r\nLine2\r\nLine3\r\nLine4

OK, so now any possible benefit of the original technique is probably lost to future readers. :-(

Perhaps equally important for possible future readers of this topic is showing a technique to get multiline text into the Replace with box! :-)

Yes, for multiple lines to be added, we have to put Line1\r\nLine2\r\nLine3\r\nLine4 in the Replace in files field to get one line below the other.

The gist of the matter is that parentheses…

Perhaps equally important for possible future readers of this topic is showing a technique to get multiline text into the Replace with box! :-)

No doubt that using my method will be safer !!

Understood.
I was just trying to help OP by sticking with his exact problem.
It’s fine to present more complicated situations in follow-on discussions, as you did.

Alan, I grant you : your idea is more direct and simpler than mine ;-))

However, let’s suppose that an OP is working on a Lisp program and that he wants to insert this Lisp module which converts any roman number into its decimal equivalent number

For instance, in Lisp, with the program below and the question (trad 'MCMXCV), it would return 1995 ( I do not know this language and I just suppose that it’s true ! )

(de trad (Z) (cond  ;                \* ROMAN number -> DECIMAL number *\
					(( eq Z 'I) 1)
					(( eq Z 'V) 5)
					(( eq Z 'X) 10)
					(( eq Z 'L) 50)
					(( eq Z 'C) 100)
					(( eq Z 'D) 500)
					(( eq Z 'M) 1000)
					((atom Z) (trad (explodech Z)))
					((null (cdr Z)) (trad (car Z)))
					((< (trad (car Z)) (trad (cadr Z)))
					(- (trad (cdr Z)) (trad (car Z))))
					(t (+ (trad (car Z)) (trad (cdr Z)) )) ))

No doubt that using my mehtod will be safer !!

Note that I included a LISP comment, which begins with a semi-colon, adding a comment with a C-like syntax in order to place anti-slashes in my example !

After aplying the regex S/R :

• SEARCH ([()\\])|\R

• REPLACE ?1\\\1:\\r\\n

against this List module, you would get the text below, which could be correctly inserted, as it, in a larger Lisp program !

\(de trad \(Z\) \(cond  ;                \\* ROMAN number -> DECIMAL number *\\\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'I\) 1\)\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'V\) 5\)\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'X\) 10\)\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'L\) 50\)\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'C\) 100\)\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'D\) 500\)\r\n					\(\( eq Z 'M\) 1000\)\r\n					\(\(atom Z\) \(trad \(explodech Z\)\)\)\r\n					\(\(null \(cdr Z\)\) \(trad \(car Z\)\)\)\r\n					\(\(< \(trad \(car Z\)\) \(trad \(cadr Z\)\)\)\r\n					\(- \(trad \(cdr Z\)\) \(trad \(car Z\)\)\)\)\r\n					\(t \(+ \(trad \(car Z\)\) \(trad \(cdr Z\)\) \)\) \)\)\r\n

Best Regards,

guy038

Well, this example is a bit “far-fetched”, but, as I knew that the Lisp language abuses parentheses, I couldn’t resist ! LOL

It seems like your solution is a long route when the OP was looking for a short route.

Much shorter is what I guessed at and seemingly what the OP was already doing:

• select the replacement text in the editor
• press Ctrl+f
• swap Find what and Replace with (using the button)
• overwrite Find what
• “escape” any ( or ) characters in Replace with
• execute Replace in Files

Yes, @dr-ramaanand, you’re right : we have to escape the parentheses, but also to escape the escape character, too, if it occurs as a literal !!

Thus, this is an UPDATED version of my previous post !

Ah…, of course, you cannot do it that way because when you try to insert a multi-line text into the Replace zone of the Replace, Find in Files or Find in Projects tab, you just get the very first line of your text

First, I verified, from this link https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_css.asp, that the internal multi-lines CSS section ( <style>...........</style> ) is generally located, right before the HTML </head> tag

So, I supposed that you want to insert the CSS part, below :

<style>
.container {
    display: flex;
}
.container > div {}
}
@media (max-width: 480px) {
.left {
  width: 150px;
  border-width:1px;
  border-style:solid;
  border-color:lightblue;
  padding-top:10px;
}
.right {
  width: 140px;
  border-top:1px solid lightblue;
}
}
</style>

Right before the </head> tag of some of your HTML files, don’t you ?

If so, here is the correct way to insert a multi-lines text !

• Copy all your CSS section in a new tab

• Verify that the last line </style> is followed with a line-break

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • Uncheck all box options

  • SEARCH ([()\\])|\R

  • REPLACE ?1\\\1:\\r\\n

  • Check the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

You should get this text :

<style>\r\n.container {\r\n    display: flex;\r\n}\r\n.container > div {}\r\n}\r\n@media \(max-width: 480px\) {\r\n.left {\r\n  width: 150px;\r\n  border-width:1px;\r\n  border-style:solid;\r\n  border-color:lightblue;\r\n  padding-top:10px;\r\n}\r\n.right {\r\n  width: 140px;\r\n  border-top:1px solid lightblue;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n</style>\r\n

Now, in order to test my method :

• Copy this tiny HTML text, below, in an other new tab

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

• Re-open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • Uncheck all box options

  • SEARCH (?-i)(?=</head>)

  • REPLACE <style>\r\n.container {\r\n display: flex;\r\n}\r\n.container > div {}\r\n}\r\n@media \(max-width: 480px\) {\r\n.left {\r\n width: 150px;\r\n border-width:1px;\r\n border-style:solid;\r\n border-color:lightblue;\r\n padding-top:10px;\r\n}\r\n.right {\r\n width: 140px;\r\n border-top:1px solid lightblue;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n</style>\r\n

  • Check the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

You should be left with your expected OUTPUT text :

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.container {
    display: flex;
}
.container > div {}
}
@media (max-width: 480px) {
.left {
  width: 150px;
  border-width:1px;
  border-style:solid;
  border-color:lightblue;
  padding-top:10px;
}
.right {
  width: 140px;
  border-top:1px solid lightblue;
}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

Voila ;-))

IMPORTANT : Note that the method to change any multi-lines text ( with search = ([()\\])|\R and replacement = ?1\\\1:\\r\\n ) is not specific to your HTML case.

It will, indeed, allow you to fill in the resulting multi-lines text into the Replace with : zone, which will be inserted, identically, at the exact location defined in the Find what : zone !!

Best Regards,

guy038

I’ve just seen that I did a mistake regarding the syntax of the parentheses in the Replacement zone. Give me some minutes and I’ll post the correct solution !

BR

guy038

PLEASE, just skip this post, which is erroneous, and see my next one, below !

Ah…, of course, you cannot do it that way because when you try to insert a multi-line text into the Replace zone of the Replace, Find in Files or Find in Projects tab, you just get the very first line of your text

First, I verified, from this link https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_css.asp, that the internal multi-lines CSS section ( <style>...........</style> ) is generally located, right before the HTML </head> tag

So, I supposed that you want to insert the CSS part, below :

<style>
.container {
    display: flex;
}
.container > div {}
}
@media (max-width: 480px) {
.left {
  width: 150px;
  border-width:1px;
  border-style:solid;
  border-color:lightblue;
  padding-top:10px;
}
.right {
  width: 140px;
  border-top:1px solid lightblue;
}
}
</style>

Right before the </head> tag of some of your HTML files, don’t you ?

If so, here is the correct way to insert this multi-lines text !

• Copy all your CSS section in a new tab

• Verify that the last line </style> is followed with a line-break

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • Uncheck all box options

  • SEARCH \R

  • REPLACE \\r\\n

  • Check the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

You should get this text :

<style>\r\n.container {\r\n    display: flex;\r\n}\r\n.container > div {}\r\n}\r\n@media (max-width: 480px) {\r\n.left {\r\n  width: 150px;\r\n  border-width:1px;\r\n  border-style:solid;\r\n  border-color:lightblue;\r\n  padding-top:10px;\r\n}\r\n.right {\r\n  width: 140px;\r\n  border-top:1px solid lightblue;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n</style>\r\n

Now, in order to test my method :

• Copy this tiny HTML text, below, in an other new tab

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

• Re-open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • Uncheck all box options

  • SEARCH (?=</head>)

  • REPLACE <style>\r\n.container {\r\n display: flex;\r\n}\r\n.container > div {}\r\n}\r\n@media (max-width: 480px) {\r\n.left {\r\n width: 150px;\r\n border-width:1px;\r\n border-style:solid;\r\n border-color:lightblue;\r\n padding-top:10px;\r\n}\r\n.right {\r\n width: 140px;\r\n border-top:1px solid lightblue;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n</style>\r\n

  • Check the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

You should be left with your expected OUTPUT text :

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.container {
    display: flex;
}
.container > div {}
}
@media max-width: 480px {
.left {
  width: 150px;
  border-width:1px;
  border-style:solid;
  border-color:lightblue;
  padding-top:10px;
}
.right {
  width: 140px;
  border-top:1px solid lightblue;
}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

Voila ;-))

IMPORTANT : Note that the method to change any multi-lines text ( with search = \R and replacement = \\r\\n ) is not specific to your HTML case.

It will, indeed, allow you to fill in the resulting multi-lines text into the Replace with : zone, which will be inserted at the exact location defined in the Find what : zone !!

Best Regards,

guy038

the brackets were missing

Probably if you had called them by their correct name – parentheses – I wouldn’t have been so unsure of your problem statement.

But really, providing more info up front would have been a good idea. I had to do a lot of supposition to provide my first answer – at least it was good supposition. :-)

if I add it to multiple files using the Regular expression mode

What does that mean?

If you are getting the multiline text you show into the Replace with box (presumably by selecting the text, pressing Ctrl+h, then using the “swap” button to copy from find to replace), then changing to Find in Files and adjusting Find what to be what you need, then your problem is that the replacement is dropping the ( and ) characters and you need to manually change them to be “escaped”: \( and \).

But you’ve given us little information besides “CSS not working…it doesn’t work”, so really at this point your problem could be many things.