Find and replace apostrophe

[FJ]

Hi, I have inherited a huge document that I must edit. Is there any way that
I can globally replace a curly quote apostrophe before every number? I want
to replace it with another curly quote apostrophe but curling in the opposite
direction. (I hope that made sense!) I've tried using wildcards to find and
replace but so far it hasn't worked. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Can
anyone tell me the exact syntax I would need for the Find and Replace dialog
box? Thanks in advance for any help or information.

 

[Jay Freedman]

You don't need to use wildcards (but it won't change anything if you
do). One thing you do need to do first, though: Go to Tools >
AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat As You Type and turn off the "smart
quotes" option. The reason is that as soon as your replacement
happens, the AutoFormat would change them back again.

To do the replacement (assuming you need to change left quotes ‘ to
right quotes ’ ), use the code ^0145 in the Find What box and
^0146 in the Replace With box.

When you're done replacing, you can turn the "smart quotes" option on
again. It won't affect quotes that are already in the document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Helmut Weber]

Hi FJ,

it is probably the autocorrect options, that interfere.
Tools, Autocorrect Options,
Autoformat as you type,
uncheck: Straight quotes with smart quotes,

then like this:

search for:
^0146([0-9])

replace with:
^0145\1

or:
search for:
^0145([0-9])

replace with:
^0146\1


--
Greetings from Bavaria, Germany

Helmut Weber, MVP WordVBA

Win XP, Office 2003
"red.sys" & Chr$(64) & "t-online.de"

 

[FJ]

Hi, Jay, thanks for your response. The reason I needed the wildcards is
because I wanted to make sure that I only changed the apostrophes in front of
the numbers. I wanted to leave the ones in front of letters alone. It
didn't occur to me to turn off the smart quotes option. That was definitely
part of the problem.

Thanks again!

 

[FJ]

Hi, Helmut, thanks for your response. I copied and pasted what you suggested
into the Find and Replace box and it worked perfectly. I'll definitely
have to remember this in the future. Thanks so much for your help.