If you use a wildcard expression but forget to check the "Use wildcards" box, it
simply won't find anything. But if the box is checked and the expression isn't
correctly formed according to the wildcard rules, then you get a message box
saying that the search expression isn't valid. From geotso's post, I gathered
that he saw the message box.
--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ:
http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all
may benefit.
On Sat, 8 Mar 2008 13:17:34 -0600, "Suzanne S. Barnhill"
wrote:
I also tried [ ]{2,} and found it didn't work because I'd forgotten to check
"Use wildcards." When I did check it, the expression worked without the
brackets, and it's all too easy to get so wrapped up in figuring out the
right search term that you forget to check the box; I'm guessing that's the
OP did.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
"Jay Freedman" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:23:26 +0200, geotso wrote:
then, "Suzanne S. Barnhill" climbed to the rostrum and said:
I would start by using wildcards to replace any number of spaces with a
tab,
And what is the expression for this, please?
I've tried " {2,}" (no quotes - starting empty space) and Word (2007)
warns
me that the expression is not valid.
That expression works in my copy of Word 2007, and it should work in
yours. If
you can't make it work, then try surrounding the space character (but not
the
{2,}) in square brackets:
[ ]{2,}
Also, in your initial post you mentioned that the name and time may be
separated
by an assortment of spaces and tabs. You can replace the whole lot in one
wildcard search by using the expression
[ ^9]{2,}
That is, the space is still in the brackets, plus the numeric code for a
tab
character (see http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm for a
list of
codes).
then use Table | Convert | Table to Text, separating at tabs. If the
Replace
operation results in multiple tabs between elements, replace those with
a
single tab before converting.
Once again, what is the expression for "multiple tabs"?
I've tried "^t{2,}" (no quotes) with the same as above results...
Thank you very much
To search for multiple tabs, use an expression like the one above with the
^9
code, but leave out the space character. As explained in Graham's article,
codes
such as ^t and ^p don't work in the Find What box of a wildcard search,
only in
the Replace With box (and in both boxes for a non-wildcard search).
--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so all may benefit.