I am trying to give instructions to students on how to search for
prepositional phrases, which can often be changed or deleted to improve
prose. For instance, if they search for €œa [word] of€� they can find €œa number
of€� (which can be replaced with "many") and "a variety of" (which can be
replaced with "different") and so on and so forth. The problem, as noted in
some of the other posts, is that a search for "a * of" finds every instance
of "a" after "of" no matter how many words come in between. Is there a way I
can do a search that limits the number of separate words that * can find? I
tried limiting it to one word between "a" and "of" by searching for "a *
of" but that didn't work.

What you're looking for is 'a' plus a space, plus one or more non-spaces,
plus a space, plus 'of' --

a [! ]{1,} of

You need to check 'Use wildcards' for this to work.



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
I am trying to give instructions to students on how to search for
prepositional phrases, which can often be changed or deleted to improve
prose. For instance, if they search for "a [word] of" they can find "a
number
of" (which can be replaced with "many") and "a variety of" (which can be
replaced with "different") and so on and so forth. The problem, as noted
in
some of the other posts, is that a search for "a * of" finds every
instance
of "a" after "of" no matter how many words come in between. Is there a way
I
can do a search that limits the number of separate words that * can find?
I
tried limiting it to one word between "a" and "of" by searching for "a *
of" but that didn't work.

Thanks so much, that worked perfectly! And I see that I can search for
strings with two words in between by searching "a [! ]{1,} [! ]{1,} of". I
don't suppose there is any way of searching for "a" and "of" with one to
three words in between?

"Jezebel" wrote:

What you're looking for is 'a' plus a space, plus one or more non-spaces,
plus a space, plus 'of' --

a [! ]{1,} of

You need to check 'Use wildcards' for this to work.



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
I am trying to give instructions to students on how to search for
prepositional phrases, which can often be changed or deleted to improve
prose. For instance, if they search for "a [word] of" they can find "a
number
of" (which can be replaced with "many") and "a variety of" (which can be
replaced with "different") and so on and so forth. The problem, as noted
in
some of the other posts, is that a search for "a * of" finds every
instance
of "a" after "of" no matter how many words come in between. Is there a way
I
can do a search that limits the number of separate words that * can find?
I
tried limiting it to one word between "a" and "of" by searching for "a *
of" but that didn't work.

Unfortunately, Word's wildcard method (it's a subset of what are documented
elsewhere as 'regular expressions') is not so powerful.



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
Thanks so much, that worked perfectly! And I see that I can search for
strings with two words in between by searching "a [! ]{1,} [! ]{1,} of". I
don't suppose there is any way of searching for "a" and "of" with one to
three words in between?

"Jezebel" wrote:

What you're looking for is 'a' plus a space, plus one or more non-spaces,
plus a space, plus 'of' --

a [! ]{1,} of

You need to check 'Use wildcards' for this to work.



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
I am trying to give instructions to students on how to search for
prepositional phrases, which can often be changed or deleted to improve
prose. For instance, if they search for "a [word] of" they can find "a
number
of" (which can be replaced with "many") and "a variety of" (which can
be
replaced with "different") and so on and so forth. The problem, as
noted
in
some of the other posts, is that a search for "a * of" finds every
instance
of "a" after "of" no matter how many words come in between. Is there a
way
I
can do a search that limits the number of separate words that * can
find?
I
tried limiting it to one word between "a" and "of" by searching for "a
*
of" but that didn't work.

Yes. Years ago I edited in the word processing program AmiPro and I remember
its search and replace feature as being so much stronger than Word's. Alas,
it did not survive Microsoft.

"Jezebel" wrote:

Unfortunately, Word's wildcard method (it's a subset of what are documented
elsewhere as 'regular expressions') is not so powerful.



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
Thanks so much, that worked perfectly! And I see that I can search for
strings with two words in between by searching "a [! ]{1,} [! ]{1,} of". I
don't suppose there is any way of searching for "a" and "of" with one to
three words in between?

"Jezebel" wrote:

What you're looking for is 'a' plus a space, plus one or more non-spaces,
plus a space, plus 'of' --

a [! ]{1,} of

You need to check 'Use wildcards' for this to work.



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
I am trying to give instructions to students on how to search for
prepositional phrases, which can often be changed or deleted to improve
prose. For instance, if they search for "a [word] of" they can find "a
number
of" (which can be replaced with "many") and "a variety of" (which can
be
replaced with "different") and so on and so forth. The problem, as
noted
in
some of the other posts, is that a search for "a * of" finds every
instance
of "a" after "of" no matter how many words come in between. Is there a
way
I
can do a search that limits the number of separate words that * can
find?
I
tried limiting it to one word between "a" and "of" by searching for "a
*
of" but that didn't work.