Regex and a Word Find/Replace (even a wildcard one) are quite different. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, Regex can only be used programmatically (e.g. via VBA) and can't take formatting arguments, whereas a Find/Replace (wildcard or otherwise) doesn't require programming (though it can be used with it) and can take formatting arguments. While there is some overlap in syntax between a Word wildcard Find/Replace and Regex, there's a lot that doesn't overlap - including the Regex | separator.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]