I have not tested the other office products, but at least in Word, the find
and replace wildcards are very powerful but are missing a detail that would
make certain tasks much easier: the ability to say that the previous
character or expression can match zero or more times. very often I need to
run the same replacement multiple times just to catch cases where extra
spaces can appear or not, etc. and if I do so in the wrong order it can be
messy. An alternative would be a new character that would mean 'match the
previous character or expression zero or one times' and that could be
combined with the "@" or "{}" characters.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

See http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm
[ ]{1,}
replace with
space
will remove duplicate (or more) spaces

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Davidgro wrote:
I have not tested the other office products, but at least in Word,
the find and replace wildcards are very powerful but are missing a
detail that would make certain tasks much easier: the ability to say
that the previous character or expression can match zero or more
times. very often I need to run the same replacement multiple times
just to catch cases where extra spaces can appear or not, etc. and if
I do so in the wrong order it can be messy. An alternative would be
a new character that would mean 'match the previous character or
expression zero or one times' and that could be combined with the "@"
or "{}" characters.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the "I Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the
button, follow this link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft
Web-based Newsreader and then click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

Yes, but duplicates are not a problem. I frequently need to find Optional
spaces/elements. (In fact on the page you link you also complain of the same
issue)

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm
[ ]{1,}
replace with
space
will remove duplicate (or more) spaces

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org

Agreed, but your original example appeared to have been served by the
sequence quoted. It is something you are going to have to work around I'm
afraid.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Davidgro wrote:
Yes, but duplicates are not a problem. I frequently need to find
Optional spaces/elements. (In fact on the page you link you also
complain of the same issue)

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

See http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm
[ ]{1,}
replace with
space
will remove duplicate (or more) spaces

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

Agreed, but your original example appeared to have been served by the
sequence quoted...

I guess I did word it badly. By "extra spaces" I meant individual spaces
where they aren't needed, not duplicates. Unfortunately there doesn't seem
to be an Edit Post option.

It is something you are going to have to work around I'm
afraid.

That's why this is a suggestion to MS. I'm temped to call it a bug, but it
might be harder to code than it looks, so I figure that makes it a feature
request.

The Microsoft forum to which you posted runs on the back of Usenet and the
Word newsgroups, which most regular contributors here access directly
(http://www.gmayor.com/MSNews.htm ). To what extent Microsoft monitors the
forum I cannot say.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Davidgro wrote:
"Graham Mayor" wrote:

Agreed, but your original example appeared to have been served by the
sequence quoted...

I guess I did word it badly. By "extra spaces" I meant individual
spaces where they aren't needed, not duplicates. Unfortunately there
doesn't seem to be an Edit Post option.

It is something you are going to have to work around I'm
afraid.

That's why this is a suggestion to MS. I'm temped to call it a bug,
but it might be harder to code than it looks, so I figure that makes
it a feature request.

Supposedly MS are committed to taking notice of and responding to Suggestion
posts that get some unspecified number of votes.

--
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.

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
The Microsoft forum to which you posted runs on the back of Usenet and the
Word newsgroups, which most regular contributors here access directly
(http://www.gmayor.com/MSNews.htm ). To what extent Microsoft monitors
the
forum I cannot say.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Davidgro wrote:
"Graham Mayor" wrote:

Agreed, but your original example appeared to have been served by the
sequence quoted...

I guess I did word it badly. By "extra spaces" I meant individual
spaces where they aren't needed, not duplicates. Unfortunately there
doesn't seem to be an Edit Post option.

It is something you are going to have to work around I'm
afraid.

That's why this is a suggestion to MS. I'm temped to call it a bug,
but it might be harder to code than it looks, so I figure that makes
it a feature request.