Shelley Lou, Vivka
While a "Find and Replace" solution might be defined for this problem, I think it would be fairly complex. I sense that the amount of text to check is not in the range of say War and Peace so this method may work:
Code:
Sub InsertTab_Before_FirstInstance()
Dim arrWords
Dim oCol As New Collection
Dim lngIndex As Long
Dim lngPar As Long
Dim oWord As Range
'Define the words to trigger first instance.
arrWords = Split("means|includes|any|has", "|")
'Add first instance words to a keyed collection. Note-once added, the same word can't be added again.
For lngIndex = 0 To UBound(arrWords)
oCol.Add arrWords(lngIndex), arrWords(lngIndex)
Next lngIndex
'Look at each paragraph
For lngPar = 1 To ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Count
'Look at each word starting with first word
For Each oWord In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(lngPar).Range.Words
On Error Resume Next
'Attempt to add word to collection
oCol.Add Trim(oWord), Trim(oWord)
If Err.Number = 0 Then
'If you can add it, there will be no error. Remove the word
oCol.Remove oCol.Count
Else
'If you can't then it is a first instance word. Prefix the tab
If oWord.Characters.First.Previous = " " Then oWord.Characters.First.Previous.Delete
oWord.InsertBefore Chr(9)
Err.Clear
GoTo Next_Par
End If
Next oWord
Next_Par:
Next lngPar
lbl_Exit:
Exit Sub
End Sub