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Old 09-17-2021, 09:47 AM
rekent rekent is offline VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words Windows 10 VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words Office 2016
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VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words
 
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Default VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words

I am adding a routine to some VBA code to search for instances of a period that is followed by one space and then [0-9A-z] to identify the start of a new sentence. This is being done to identify instances of one space rather than two between sentences.

However, there are some obvious cases such as abbreviations mid-sentence that require periods, Mrs./Mr./etc. and others that will flag using the wildcard search for the above terms but should not have a double space following the period.

Is it possible to condition a wildcard search to only return results if it does not follow a word found on a delineated list of words?
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Old 09-17-2021, 10:46 PM
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Word is not a typewriter. Sentences should only have one space.The following will remove additional spaces.



Code:
Sub Macro1()
    With Selection.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^032{2,}"
        .Replacement.Text = " "
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindContinue
        .Format = False
        .MatchCase = False
        .MatchWholeWord = False
        .MatchAllWordForms = False
        .MatchSoundsLike = False
        .MatchWildcards = True
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
End Sub
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Old 09-18-2021, 02:35 PM
Peterson Peterson is offline VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words Windows 10 VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words Office 2019
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As someone whose employer's in-house style used to mandate two spaces after a period, I understand the need.

You could certainly write a macro to test each found instance of a potential abbreviation to see if it matches an abbreviation list, but I don't think it's going to be accurate unless you put some effort into figuring out dealing with the abbreviations that could easily come at the end of a sentence:

appt., Ave., corp., dept., et al., etc., Inc., and more

Also, you'd need to figure out two-letter abbreviations, like a.m./p.m., which could also easily come at the end of a sentence. Or not. If your wildcard string finds text followed by a period, you'll need to also need a wildcard string that looks for strings with two periods, e.g., "a.m." and others, and another list of those abbreviations.

You could get partway there by setting Word to show instances of one space after a period -- partway there because it's not fully accurate.
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Old 09-19-2021, 04:22 PM
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This Greg Maxey macro shows a method of dealing with name initials like George W. Bush Space After Sentences
You could expand on that to deal with the other edge cases such as Mr.

You can include grammar check highlights to help spot inconsistencies. See An Automatic Two Spaces after a Period (Microsoft Word)
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Old 09-23-2021, 10:55 AM
rekent rekent is offline VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words Windows 10 VBA wildcard search that only identifies results that do not follow delineated words Office 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmayor View Post
Word is not a typewriter. Sentences should only have one space.The following will remove additional spaces.
Thank you for your opinion on the matter. Your reply was, however, non responsive to the question at hand. When a person (me, in this case) is told how something is expected be done, that is how it is to be done. In this case, that means two spaces between sentences, regardless of personal opinions on the matter.
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