title: Use regex to find text NOT between two characters
body: <p>I have a single string of words, in which each word is separated by a newline character. I've used RegEx replacements to insert '<strong>{</strong>' and '<strong>}</strong>' characters around common prefixes and suffixes. The result looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{con}descens{ion}
  lumberjack
  tim{ing}
  {tox}{icity}
  fish
  {dis}pel
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What I'm trying to figure out is how I can perform a RegEx replace on this string that will only match text <strong><em>not</em></strong> between the '<strong>{</strong>' and '<strong>}</strong>' characters. I have further replacements to make, and each time I do, I'll be placing the '<strong>{</strong>' and '<strong>}</strong>' characters around the matches; I just don't wan't previous replacements (or pieces thereof) to be matched when performing new replacements. I know how to match "<em>not '{'</em>", for example, but I don't know how to match "<em>not between '{' and '}'</em>"</p>
  
  <p>To put it into perspective, an example next replacement operation here would be to to replace all '<strong>n</strong>' characters with '<strong>7</strong>' characters. In this case, the first line of the string, "{con}descens{ion}", should become "{con}desce{7}s{ion}" and not "{co{7}}desce{7}s{io{7}}"; the other words would remain the same based on these criteria.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?</p>