How to bold a whole line in Word based on a word or character on the line

Yancx · #1 03-21-2018, 07:16 AM

Charles Kenyon · #2 03-21-2018, 10:56 AM

First, I am assuming that, in Word jargon, you mean a paragraph, rather than a line. If not, you should!
2.1 Why you should not press Enter at the end of every line

For someone who has done a few of these, it becomes second nature. For the rest, it is a bit complex.

First Stage - Create and use a Style
You should use a style to handle your formatting. I would recommend that you use one of the built-in heading styles because these have other advantages.
Why use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles? by Shauna Kelly
You can modify the formatting of that style to meet your needs.

In the alternative, you could create your own paragraph style.

Stage 2: Replace
Use Ctrl+H to give you the replace dialog.

00 deleteme 2.png

At first, it will not look like the one shown above. Start by pressing the "More" button. It will turn into the "Less" button that is shown.
Check the box for Use Wildcards.
In the Find what window, type: +*^13
Click in the replace window but do not type anything.
Instead, click on the Format button and choose Styles.
Pick your style.
Click on the Replace All button.

If everything turns bold, press undo (Ctrl+Z) and write back. You don't have paragraphs. This is easily remedied, but one thing at a time.

Charles Kenyon · #3 03-21-2018, 11:01 AM

One of the advantages of using a built-in heading style is shown in the screenshot. They show up in the Navigation Pane (and in tables of contents).

Yancx · #4 03-21-2018, 11:34 AM

Thank you Charles,
That worked. What does the ^13 mean in the formula +*^13? I tried to apply the same formula with the following change to it, \*^13 to make the next line, \---The Best Of 3 Dog Night also in the same format as previous but with the font size the next smaller but that didnt work. Thank you for your help.

Charles Kenyon · #5 03-21-2018, 12:49 PM

The ^13 is for the paragraph mark when using Wild Card option.

Use a different style for the second line. If I used Heading 1 for the first, I would use Heading 2 for the second. Again, these styles can be modified to look the way you want.

The \ is a special character that means I really want to search for the next character even though it otherwise would mean something else in a wildcard search.
The asterisk means any series of characters. If you wanted to actually search for an asterisk, you would use \*.

So, you would search for:
\\---

Finding and replacing characters using wildcards
Replace using wildcards
Using wildcards

Wildcard use is a bit arcane. I am finally getting a slight grasp of it.

Yancx · #6 03-21-2018, 01:58 PM

Charles, Thank you!

Charles Kenyon · #7 03-21-2018, 04:48 PM

You are welcome.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
MS Word Horizontal Line Disappears after pressing Enter from end of line	MikeWhite	Word	5	01-20-2017 03:39 PM
Splitting Word Document based on line content	TwiceOver	Word VBA	23	10-12-2015 02:01 PM
macro to add brackets to each line and add single quotes to each word in the line	bracketandquotes	Word VBA	17	02-16-2015 03:51 PM
Format Bold in one line makes all lines bold	Nitte	Word	2	02-07-2013 12:34 AM
character per line problems in Word 2007	JLStreet	Word	0	02-13-2008 06:50 AM