Can't search for---

macropod · #1 09-24-2016, 11:52 PM

That really depends on what types of dashes you're working with. Some of these might superficially look the same:
- − ― – —

but they actually consist of a:
• hyphen
• minus sign
• horizontal bar
• en-dash
• em-dash
To cater for all these possibilities you could use a wildcard Find, where:
Find = ^t[\-\−\―\–\—]{3}

billob · #2 09-25-2016, 09:16 AM

Hi Paul:

Thank you for your response.

This is absolutely crazy!

Sorry to say, I could not make what you sent work.

Today my Find --- (the the lower half of the underscore key) works just fine like
I thought it should have in the first place.

Now for the toughie?

I have several thousand lines with "several words in between" Always on one line.
How can I find lines that have only one " ?

macropod · #3 09-25-2016, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billob

Sorry to say, I could not make what you sent work.

As indicated in my previous post the expression is for a wildcard Find. Did you check the use wildcards option?

Quote:

Originally Posted by billob

I have several thousand lines with "several words in between" Always on one line.
How can I find lines that have only one " ?

You could use a macro such as:

Code:

Sub TestQuotes()
Dim oPara As Paragraph
For Each oPara In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
  With oPara.Range
    If (Len(.Text) - Len(Replace(.Text, Chr(34), vbNullString))) Mod 2 <> 0 Then
      .Select
      MsgBox "Selected paragraph has unmatched plain quotes", vbExclamation
      Exit Sub
    End If
    If Len(Replace(.Text, Chr(147), vbNullString)) <> Len(Replace(.Text, Chr(148), vbNullString)) Then
      .Select
      MsgBox "Selected paragraph has unmatched smart quotes", vbExclamation
      Exit Sub
    End If
  End With
Next
End Sub

The above macro checks each paragraph for any unmatched double-quote characters. Mixes of straight & smart quotes aren't assumed to balance each other – there must be balancing pairs (e.g. "xxx" or “xxx”).

For PC macro installation & usage instructions, see: http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm
For Mac macro installation & usage instructions, see: http://word.mvps.org/Mac/InstallMacro.html

billob · #4 09-26-2016, 09:02 AM

Hi Paul:

Thanks again for your help.

Yes, The wildcard box was the first thing I checked for when it did not work.

That said, it worked perfectly today.

I have been using this Find function for umpteen years and it has always had a
way of sometimes not finding something I know is there. When this happens, I test by asking it to find any alpha or numeric character that I am currently viewing and if it comes up 'no find' I shut down Word and then reboot.

If I simply restart Word, when I click find, the last thing I searched for will still
be there, Hence the Reboot.

Having never used Word's Macro thing I'll have to give it a try.

Many years ago I was fairly successful with Excel Macros.

Cheers,
Billob

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