Can't Find Typed Word, But Finds Pasted Word

enuddleyarbl · 05-22-2026, 02:57 PM

All of a sudden, I'm having trouble searching for words in the editor in one particular book. If I type in a word to search for (any word), it won't find it. If I copy a word and paste it in the search bar, it finds it. I keep staring at the screen trying to see what I'm doing wrong (including spelling), but don't see anything.

Here's a screenshot of my latest attempt (the cursor is one line above that word I'm searching for). It finds nothing. Here's the error message:

Code:

calibre, version 9.8.0
ERROR: Not found: <p>No matches were found for <pre style="font-style:italic">im*por*tant</pre>

Those asterisks and the pre-style stuff don't show up in the actual error message. I assume they're just for display purposed in the Editor. Maybe the asterisks are soft-hyphens for some reason?

EDIT: I've gone so far as to reboot the computer and try again. Still doesn't work. I can search fine in other books.

EDIT2: This is even weirder than I thought. I proceeded to search for other things, and the searches worked. I tried the search I showed here ("important") and it didn't find any instances of that word. Copy/Pasting it again lets it find all instances. If I search for other words in that sentence, it finds some, but not others. For instance (going down the sentence) "Shut up", "he", "told", "them" all work. But, the next word in the sentence ("quietly") does not.

Doitsu · 05-22-2026, 03:21 PM

Might be a soft-hyphen or another invisible Unicode character.
Search for \u00AD in regex mode.

enuddleyarbl · 05-22-2026, 03:28 PM

Looks like you're right. There are soft-hyphens in the text. But, I removed all soft-hyphens when I imported long ago. I'll take a look at methods of soft-hyphen removal.

theducks · 05-22-2026, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Looks like you're right. There are soft-hyphens in the text. But, I removed all soft-hyphens when I imported long ago. I'll take a look at methods of soft-hyphen removal.

POLISH (the hand broom icon)

Karellen · 05-22-2026, 03:32 PM

Step the cursor through each letter of the word, including the spaces before and after, and check if there are any hidden characters...

Attachment 203085

enuddleyarbl · 05-22-2026, 03:32 PM

Yep. Ran it through Polish again and that got rid of it. I thought I'd turned that option on before, but it was off. Turned it on and all's well with the world. Thanks.

EDIT: Since this is a "newer" book in my library, I'll bet I never bothered with a Conversion (since I no longer buy Amazon books, I just edited the source EPUB). So, no stripping of soft-hyphens. Then, with however I managed to turn the option off in Polish, that would do it.

Searching for \u00AD in the Quality Check plugin shows I have two other books with soft-hyphens. I'll be stripping them out next.

JSWolf · 05-22-2026, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Looks like you're right. There are soft-hyphens in the text. But, I removed all soft-hyphens when I imported long ago. I'll take a look at methods of soft-hyphen removal.

The Hyphenate This! plugin will easily remove soft hyphens. And it won't change any of the code.

05-22-2026, 02:57 PM	#1
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 831 Karma: 2111023 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Sage	Can't Find Typed Word, But Finds Pasted Word All of a sudden, I'm having trouble searching for words in the editor in one particular book. If I type in a word to search for (any word), it won't find it. If I copy a word and paste it in the search bar, it finds it. I keep staring at the screen trying to see what I'm doing wrong (including spelling), but don't see anything. Here's a screenshot of my latest attempt (the cursor is one line above that word I'm searching for). It finds nothing. Here's the error message: Code: calibre, version 9.8.0 ERROR: Not found: <p>No matches were found for <pre style="font-style:italic">important</pre> Those asterisks and the pre-style stuff don't show up in the actual error message. I assume they're just for display purposed in the Editor. Maybe the asterisks are soft-hyphens for some reason? EDIT: I've gone so far as to reboot the computer and try again. Still doesn't work. I can search fine in other books. EDIT2: This is even weirder than I thought. I proceeded to search for other things, and the searches worked. I tried the search I showed here ("important") and it didn't find any instances of that word. Copy/Pasting it again lets it find all instances. If I search for other words in that sentence, it finds some, but not others. For instance (going down the sentence) "Shut up", "he", "told", "them" all work. But, the next word in the sentence ("quietly") does not. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by enuddleyarbl; 05-22-2026 at 03:26 PM.

05-22-2026, 03:32 PM	#6
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 831 Karma: 2111023 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Sage	Yep. Ran it through Polish again and that got rid of it. I thought I'd turned that option on before, but it was off. Turned it on and all's well with the world. Thanks. EDIT: Since this is a "newer" book in my library, I'll bet I never bothered with a Conversion (since I no longer buy Amazon books, I just edited the source EPUB). So, no stripping of soft-hyphens. Then, with however I managed to turn the option off in Polish, that would do it. Searching for \u00AD in the Quality Check plugin shows I have two other books with soft-hyphens. I'll be stripping them out next. Last edited by enuddleyarbl; 05-22-2026 at 03:39 PM.

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05-22-2026, 03:21 PM	#2
Doitsu Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,821 Karma: 24222221 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Kindle PW2	Might be a soft-hyphen or another invisible Unicode character. Search for \u00AD in regex mode.

05-22-2026, 03:28 PM	#3
enuddleyarbl Guru Posts: 831 Karma: 2111023 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Sage	Looks like you're right. There are soft-hyphens in the text. But, I removed all soft-hyphens when I imported long ago. I'll take a look at methods of soft-hyphen removal.

05-22-2026, 03:32 PM	#5
Karellen Wizard Posts: 1,826 Karma: 9501034 Join Date: Sep 2021 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2	Step the cursor through each letter of the word, including the spaces before and after, and check if there are any hidden characters... Attachment 203085

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