Find and Replace Selected Text or Macro for finding selected text

mrplastic · #1 12-19-2019, 11:28 AM

I regularly have to search in word documents for a list of words and highlight each occurrence of those words. The problem is the list is variable from document to document so I have to copy+paste each word from the list one at a time in the find box and then replace all with highlighting.

Is there a way to set .text for the find function to whatever word(s) have been selected in the document?

The idea that I'm trying to achieve is the following workflow:

1) select word(s)
2) press shortcut key for macro
3) macro highlights every occurrence in the document of the word(s) from step 1, including my selection
4) repeat for every word in the list.

Thank you for any help you might be able to provide!

mrplastic · #2 12-19-2019, 01:05 PM

For context, I'm envisioning the following code but with "sample" replaced by code that will refer to whatever has been selected in the document.

Quote:

Selection.Find.Replacement.Highlight = True
With Selection.Find
.Text = "sample"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

macropod · #3 12-19-2019, 02:15 PM

Try, for example:

Code:

Sub BulkHighlighter()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim j As Long, StrFnd As String, HiLt As Long
HiLt = Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
StrFnd = InputBox("Insert your 'Find' terms with | delimiters, for example:" & vbCr & "the|quick|brown|fox")
With ActiveDocument.Range.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .MatchWholeWord = True
  .MatchCase = False
  .Replacement.Highlight = True
  For j = 0 To UBound(Split(StrFnd, "|"))
    .Text = Split(StrFnd, "|")(j)
    .Replacement.Text = "^&"
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  Next
End With
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = HiLt
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

mrplastic · #4 12-20-2019, 08:09 AM

Hi! Thank you for your help! Unfortunately, I couldn't get this to work.

The other issue is that I'm trying to avoid any message boxes and conduct this task entirely within the document window. When I have preset lists of terms, I have these all plugged into a macro and it highlights them. Now that I have non-standard lists that solution doesn't work.

I'm currently manually entering words into the find & replace window. I'm specifically trying to get the macro to use the words that I select with the cursor in the document as the "find" term to replace with a highlighted version, rather than typing terms into the box.

macropod · #5 12-20-2019, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrplastic

I'm specifically trying to get the macro to use the words that I select with the cursor in the document as the "find" term to replace with a highlighted version, rather than typing terms into the box.

How do you propose to accommodate phrases, as distinct from individual words? My code accommodates words and phrases.

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