I did a Project Replace and wanted italics in the text which replaced the old. As far as I understand it is not possible to format the replacing text, at least not in that dialogue box. In a long document this is not ideal.
I keep plagueing you even on Valentine’s Day 
The replaced text will use the same formatting as the original text - exactly as every other Find and Replace panel works in other apps.
All the best,
Keith
I suppose that the question andegerd was raising was whether it is possible to add formatting in the find and replace operation, as in (most) word processors: e.g. to convert all instances of ‘biased’ to ‘parti pris’ in italics. As far as I know, it’s not possible (not in Project Replace, nor in the document Find dialogue), nor is it possible to do the converse, that is to filter the search based on formatting: e.g. to find only those instances of a word that are already in italics.
Yes, I understood the question and I think my answer made it clear that it’s not possible. 
There are currently no plans for anything like that, sorry. But it’s easy enough to do the traditional way - just do a project search for the term, then go through each document using cmd-F, cmd-G and cmd-I to find each term and italicise it. (It’s not desirable to try to provide an automated solution for every conceivable task a user might want to perform.)
OK. Sorry if my reply was redundant. I found the original exchange a bit confusing, hence the attempted clarification – for the OP and any other readers of the thread.
It’s a Monday morning - I can do nothing but confusing (and confused, befuddled, discombobulated…) on a Monday morning.
This one is possible–used Edit>Find>Find by Formatting… and set it to find by Character Format and then italics. You can search for just anything in italics or for a specific word, etc.
That’s great: very useful. Thanks for letting me know. Strange that I never noticed – although I think I know why: it’s because I’m not used to this being in a separate dialogue from ordinary find and replace.
Oh, and Keith: me too. Me very much too.