As LibreOffice increasingly is for the general public, this will make it easier to understand. "Regular expressions" is meaningless to nongeeks. Please rephrase to "Regular expressions (for complex cases)". A list of regular expressions is available but only by clicking Help, selecting the Index tab, and typing "regu". For nongeeks, please add a button or link next to the "Regular expressions" option that would directly open the regex list without needing more clicks. The button or link could be just a question mark in a circle. If a newer version of Writer has fixed this, that's good enough. The version I'm reporting on has still been getting updated even after reputedly being at EOL. I guessed my hardware.
Clicking the Help button in the find & replace dialog takes me to the correct help page, which includes the list of regexes. Help says "Allows you to use wildcards in your search." Setting to WFM, I hope it's ok. Ubuntu 15.04 64-bit Version: 4.4.2.2 Build ID: 40m0(Build:2) Locale: en_US
Half agree. I missed that link, so you're right on that, and that's my fault. Two clicks (the Help button and the link) get the user to the list. But many nongeeks resist going to Help, so maybe a one-click link (like "list") so the option reads "Regular expressions (list)" would be friendlier to nongeeks. And what do you think of the phrasing of "Regular expressions" for the general public? Is it just me that thinks that that phrasing is too opaque and seems to have a meaning opposite of what common users would expect? The result I now propose would be "Regular expressions (for complex cases) (list)".
I would agree maybe it is possible to add someting like the proposed "(list)", because only "Regular expression" is not very intuitive for a non-experienced user, who do not know what "regular expression" means. Maybe we can also add an extended tooltip (when doing a mouse over) like "A regular expression is a sequence of characters, where certain characters can have a special function (e.g. wildcards) to define a search pattern." And maybe the LO help can also be extended a little bit to understand easier what a regular expression is.