Multi-line fields for Search and Replace strings? (original)

[bookishgirl]

From bondjimbond:

I attempted to use this module to correct a problem in about 1500 of our records, where a carriage return was mistakenly added in the field, resulting in poor display in search results.

MODS datastream example: (link)

Wanted to change:
The original print copy of this thesis

to:
The original print copy of this thesis

But in the single-line search string field, the carriage return was converted to a space, and the search returned no results. (I tried using different ways of representing the carriage return character, but nothing seems to work.)

Would turning these short text fields into long text fields resolve this problem?

For comments, see contentmath#2