How to simulate Return and Escape for global command without using Control-V?

Question

I've the following sample content which I want to edit:

<table>
<tr><td title="Title 1">col1</td><td>col2</td><td>col3</td></tr>
<tr><td title="Title 2">col1</td><td>col2</td><td>col3</td></tr>
<tr><td title="Title 3">col1</td><td>col2</td><td>col3</td></tr>
</table>

^{Note: It doesn't matter it's HTML, that kind of operation can apply to any format, so I'm not interested in HTML parsers.}

Where I'd like to copy all values of title into separate column, so the expected result is:

<table>
<tr><td title="Title 1">col1</td><td>col2</td><td>col3</td><td>Title 1</td></tr>
<tr><td title="Title 2">col1</td><td>col2</td><td>col3</td><td>Title 2</td></tr>
<tr><td title="Title 3">col1</td><td>col2</td><td>col3</td><td>Title 3</td></tr>
</table>

My plan is to find all td title using global command (g) and execute normal commands:

1. Copy quoted text (f"lyt").
2. Find </td></tr> (/<.td><.tr>, <CR>?).
3. Append <div> (a<div>, <Esc>?)
4. Paste yanked text (p).
5. Append </div> (a</div>, <Esc>?)

But I don't know how to simulate presses of Enter and Escape after search or text appending.

I've tried this:

:g/td title/norm f"lyt"/<.td><.tr><CR>f>a<td><Esc>pa</td><Esc>

but it doesn't work, because <CR> and <Esc> aren't recognised as keystrokes.

Although it works when I insert these keystrokes manually while typing the command by using Control-V, then Control+Enter (^M) or Control+Escape (^[).

Is there any alternative method where I can insert those keystrokes without using Control-V?

Answer 1

exec the norm command. From :h :norm:

An alternative is to use :execute, which uses an
expression as argument.  This allows the use of
printable characters to represent special characters.

Example: 
        :exe "normal \<c-w>\<c-w>"

Note the usage of double quotes and the \ before < for the special characters.

Your example would translate to something like:

:g/td title/ exec 'norm f"lyt"/<.td><.tr>' . "\<CR>f>a<td>\<Esc>pa</td>\<Esc>"

Here, I have used single quotes for the initial part of the command, both because it has " inside, and because single quotes give you a literal string without interpretation. Then, double-quoted strings where you need <CR>, <Esc> to be interpreted.