Can Find & Replace insert characters at paragraph beginn

[Alan]

I want to insert characters at the very beginning of a specific paragraph style. I see how I can select the paragraph style by checking the Format box. If I then use the paragraph end mark (^p) and any printing character ([!^w]) to have a way to insert at the beginning (\1Beginning\2) it will miss any of the specific paragraph style that are not preceded by that same style. I have not been able to think of a way to to this without using the paragraph end mark from the preceding paragraph. Is there a way to do this?

[Robert]

You could try the following Search/Replace:

Find What: empty box + target style format
Replace With: beginning^&

[admin]

You can use the following regular expression in the "Find what" box:

(<<[!^p]{0,}^p)

Then select the required paragraph format.

Then use the following "Replace with" pattern:

XXXXX\1

XXXXX should be replaced with the characters that you want to insert.

The "Use wildcards" option should be checked.

[Alan]

Thank you Robert, that trick with the empty box worked perfectly. I will have to remember that for future use.
Thanks admin for that Find string.
I ended up with Find (<<[!^w}]) as all the paragraphs start with a printing character that I want to change, and Replace of xy\1 in a different paragraph style. This gets all and only those paragraphs I want to change and they end up in the properly formatted paragraph, fully automatic (no manual intervention like I was doing).