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#1
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find and replace symbols
Hi,
I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven solution. |
#2
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The Greek Symbols you are replacing are in a different symbol font: so the
replace text is actually using characters that don't have anything assigned in the Symbol Font: hence the little square box. What you need to do is click on the MORE button in the F&R dialog and from the Format list, assign the correct font to the replace text. -- Terry Farrell - Word MVP http://word.mvps.org/ "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... : Hi, : I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far : unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols : with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to : find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But : when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the : symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount : factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address : this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've : never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own : programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven : solution. |
#3
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Terry,
I tried out your suggestion and it works. But I would rather not have the new character in "symbol" font. Let me explain: When I use a greek symbol, I obtain it through Insert - Symbol. When I do that, the inserted symbol 'alpha' has the same font as the rest of the text, in my case Times New Roman. That is, when you highlight it, then go to Format - Font, you see that it's Time New Roman. I want to keep it that way, i.e. when I replace the word "discount" with the sign 'beta', I don't want the 'beta' to be in Symbol font. Why do I care about that as long as the appearance is right? Because my document has some titles, emphases, etc. in Arial. So when I highlight a text and change that to Times New Roman or Arial, I want the 'alpha' withn the highlighted text to remain an 'alpha'. Which I can do when I directly insert it through Insert - Symbol, but not when I bring it in through F&R using your method. Is there a way to retain the "Times New Roman" font of the greek symbols in doing F&R?? "TF" wrote: The Greek Symbols you are replacing are in a different symbol font: so the replace text is actually using characters that don't have anything assigned in the Symbol Font: hence the little square box. What you need to do is click on the MORE button in the F&R dialog and from the Format list, assign the correct font to the replace text. -- Terry Farrell - Word MVP http://word.mvps.org/ "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... : Hi, : I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far : unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols : with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to : find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But : when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the : symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount : factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address : this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've : never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own : programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven : solution. |
#4
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This works for me in Word 2003. If I paste the beta from "(normal text)"
(glyph 03B2) into the "Replace with" box it actually displays as beta, but even if it displayed as a square, I would still expect it to replace correctly (symbols are often not displayed correctly in the dialog itself). But see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Hi, I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven solution. |
#5
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Suzanne,
The problem is *not* that it doesn't display correctly in the dialogue box. The problem is that I get the little square in the text itself. Here are the steps I took and the outcome I got: 1. Do Insert-Symbol to get the symbol beta into the text of the document. 2. Highlight that beta now in the text and copy via Ctrl+C 3. Open the Find and Replace box, go to "Replace with", do Ctrl+V. It shows up in the dialogue box as another weird symbol, (but that's not the problem) 4. Type the word 'discount' in the Find What box. Click on Replace All 5. It replaces all instances of 'discount' with the little square, instead of with beta. I have been to the link that you pointed me to, http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm but this link seems to suggest as solution to write a macro to solve the problem. I am utterly unfamiliar with writing macros and was hoping to find another solution in Word 2002. Thanks for any help on this. Tewodaj "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: This works for me in Word 2003. If I paste the beta from "(normal text)" (glyph 03B2) into the "Replace with" box it actually displays as beta, but even if it displayed as a square, I would still expect it to replace correctly (symbols are often not displayed correctly in the dialog itself). But see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Hi, I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven solution. |
#6
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I don't know whether I'm just lucky or this is something that's been
improved in Word 2003; all I can say is that it works for me as described in that version. What you might try instead is to copy the beta as before, then use ^c (Clipboard contents) in the "Replace with" box. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Suzanne, The problem is *not* that it doesn't display correctly in the dialogue box. The problem is that I get the little square in the text itself. Here are the steps I took and the outcome I got: 1. Do Insert-Symbol to get the symbol beta into the text of the document. 2. Highlight that beta now in the text and copy via Ctrl+C 3. Open the Find and Replace box, go to "Replace with", do Ctrl+V. It shows up in the dialogue box as another weird symbol, (but that's not the problem) 4. Type the word 'discount' in the Find What box. Click on Replace All 5. It replaces all instances of 'discount' with the little square, instead of with beta. I have been to the link that you pointed me to, http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm but this link seems to suggest as solution to write a macro to solve the problem. I am utterly unfamiliar with writing macros and was hoping to find another solution in Word 2002. Thanks for any help on this. Tewodaj "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: This works for me in Word 2003. If I paste the beta from "(normal text)" (glyph 03B2) into the "Replace with" box it actually displays as beta, but even if it displayed as a square, I would still expect it to replace correctly (symbols are often not displayed correctly in the dialog itself). But see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Hi, I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven solution. |
#7
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Suzanne,
Your last idea using ^c finally worked for me!! It replaces discount with 'beta' without making 'beta' a symbol font that would change the character when I highlight it and choose, say, Arial. Thanks a million, this was very helpful! :-) Tewodaj "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: I don't know whether I'm just lucky or this is something that's been improved in Word 2003; all I can say is that it works for me as described in that version. What you might try instead is to copy the beta as before, then use ^c (Clipboard contents) in the "Replace with" box. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Suzanne, The problem is *not* that it doesn't display correctly in the dialogue box. The problem is that I get the little square in the text itself. Here are the steps I took and the outcome I got: 1. Do Insert-Symbol to get the symbol beta into the text of the document. 2. Highlight that beta now in the text and copy via Ctrl+C 3. Open the Find and Replace box, go to "Replace with", do Ctrl+V. It shows up in the dialogue box as another weird symbol, (but that's not the problem) 4. Type the word 'discount' in the Find What box. Click on Replace All 5. It replaces all instances of 'discount' with the little square, instead of with beta. I have been to the link that you pointed me to, http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm but this link seems to suggest as solution to write a macro to solve the problem. I am utterly unfamiliar with writing macros and was hoping to find another solution in Word 2002. Thanks for any help on this. Tewodaj "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: This works for me in Word 2003. If I paste the beta from "(normal text)" (glyph 03B2) into the "Replace with" box it actually displays as beta, but even if it displayed as a square, I would still expect it to replace correctly (symbols are often not displayed correctly in the dialog itself). But see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Hi, I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven solution. |
#8
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I'm glad you had success, but just to correct one misconception: when you
insert a character from a "symbol" font (Symbol, Wingdings, etc.), it is inserted as a field (Word used to make this more obvious, as you could actually toggle the field display and see the field code; you can still explicitly insert a symbol field using Insert | Field) and thus protected from font updating. Try it: insert the beta from the Symbol font using Insert | Symbol (*not* by typing from the keyboard and then applying Symbol from the font box). You will notice that the font displayed does not change; if you continue to type, you'll still be typing in, say, TNR. And if you select all the text and change it to Arial, the beta does not change. I'm not sure how this would work with Finding/Replacing, however. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Suzanne, Your last idea using ^c finally worked for me!! It replaces discount with 'beta' without making 'beta' a symbol font that would change the character when I highlight it and choose, say, Arial. Thanks a million, this was very helpful! :-) Tewodaj "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: I don't know whether I'm just lucky or this is something that's been improved in Word 2003; all I can say is that it works for me as described in that version. What you might try instead is to copy the beta as before, then use ^c (Clipboard contents) in the "Replace with" box. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Suzanne, The problem is *not* that it doesn't display correctly in the dialogue box. The problem is that I get the little square in the text itself. Here are the steps I took and the outcome I got: 1. Do Insert-Symbol to get the symbol beta into the text of the document. 2. Highlight that beta now in the text and copy via Ctrl+C 3. Open the Find and Replace box, go to "Replace with", do Ctrl+V. It shows up in the dialogue box as another weird symbol, (but that's not the problem) 4. Type the word 'discount' in the Find What box. Click on Replace All 5. It replaces all instances of 'discount' with the little square, instead of with beta. I have been to the link that you pointed me to, http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm but this link seems to suggest as solution to write a macro to solve the problem. I am utterly unfamiliar with writing macros and was hoping to find another solution in Word 2002. Thanks for any help on this. Tewodaj "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: This works for me in Word 2003. If I paste the beta from "(normal text)" (glyph 03B2) into the "Replace with" box it actually displays as beta, but even if it displayed as a square, I would still expect it to replace correctly (symbols are often not displayed correctly in the dialog itself). But see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...aceSymbols.htm -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Tewodaj" wrote in message ... Hi, I am using Word 2002 on Windows XP. I have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to use the "Find and Replace" tool to replace greek symbols with other greek symbols in my text (e.g. alpha, etc.). I have managed to find symbols by copying and pasting the symbol into the Find What box. But when I try to replace something, say the word "discount factor" with the symbol for 'beta' by pasting the symbol into the Replace box, "discount factor" instead gets replaced with a little square box. How can I address this problem? Is it at all adressable in Word 2002? A little warning: I've never written word or excel macros so am not familiar with doing my own programming in such applications, so I would much prefer a menu driven solution. |
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