Find and Replace "find what text"

kfs · #1 09-01-2014, 07:51 PM

In a long list of references, I'm trying to find each instance of a calendar year and replace it with that same year enclosed by parentheses. For example, find "1991" and replace with "(1991)"; find "2007" and replace it with "(2007)". I have no problem finding the years, but can't seem to crack the code on replacing and inserting the parens.

macropod · #2 09-01-2014, 08:20 PM

You could use a wildcard Find/Replace, where:
Find = <[0-9]{4}>
Replace = (^&)
The < and > tell Word the number can't be part of a larger string (e.g. 5 digits), whilst the [0-9]{4} tells Word to find a 4-digit string. The Replace expression tells Word to insert ( and ) either side of the found content, which is indicated by the ^&.

kfs · #3 09-01-2014, 08:36 PM

OK, thanks. I see that works when I turn "Track Changes" off. When "Track Changes" is on, it returns the year followed by (). Not sure why, but am happy with the fix. Thanks again!

macropod · #4 09-01-2014, 08:50 PM

Your original post didn't mention anything about track changes. To work with those, you'd need to use a macro that, instead of replacing the found string, inserts the brackets before & after:

Code:

Sub Demo()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument.Range
  With .Find
    .ClearFormatting
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting
    .Text = "<[0-9]{4}>"
    .Replacement.Text = ""
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindStop
    .Format = False
    .MatchWildcards = True
    .Execute
  End With
  Do While .Find.Found
    .InsertBefore "("
    .InsertAfter ")"
    .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
    .Find.Execute
  Loop
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

kfs · #5 09-02-2014, 03:54 PM

OK, thanks again

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