Find and replace Em dash.

[fantasywriter]

Can I use Word's Find and Replace facility to find em dashes in a manuscript?
I've tried typing an em dash into the Find dialogue box but it won't accept
it.

 

[fantasywriter]

Thanks, Stefan. I think I must be a bit dim because it's not working! I hit
NUMLOCK, then held Alt and typed 0151 into the Find dialogue box. I guess
that isn't what you meant because it didn't work.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Did you see my follow-up explaining that you must use the digits on the
numeric keypad?

 

[DeanH]

In addition to Stefan's comments, in the Find/Replace dialog, click on the
More button, Special button - here is listed various speical caharacters that
you can search for (without Wildcards activated), including En and Em dashes.
There is also keyboard sequence of Ctrl+NumLock+- for En, Ctrl+Alt+NumLock+-
for Em, which do work in the Find/Replace dialog.
All the best
DeanH

 

[fantasywriter]

Ok, I did use the numeric kepyad but it still doesn't work. I tried the
special characters in Find but both the en dash and em dash come out the
same, they don't give me a long em dash. Ctrl+NumLock+- doesn't work at all,
and Ctrl+Alt+NumLock+- only gives me an en dash.
Any other ideas, guys?

 

[DeanH]

The - in the Ctrl+ sequence is the minus sign in the number keypad. next to
the + and the *
In the Find box type in ^+ for Em, and ^= for En.
The cap ^ is Shft+6.
DeanH

 

[fantasywriter]

Yep, I was using the minus sign in the number keypad. I've just tried ^+ and
it comes out just as I typed it, it doesn't come out as an Em dash. I have
Vista as my OS, might this be the problem?

 

[DeanH]

The ^+ will find the En dash, it is the Word code for finding the En dash,
did you try and did it find anything, Remember you don't need Wildcards
checked.
DeanH

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Works OK here on Vista32 with Word 2007. Here, all the option checkboxes
in the dialog are unchecked.

Have you definitely got nothing other than ^= or ^+ in the appropriate
boxes?

Another way to insert a replacement is to copy the character you want to
use as the replacement to the clipboard and use ^c in the Replace With box.


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you are using Word 2007, perhaps the problem is that a different font has
an em dash that is shorter than you're looking for? Though I must say that
in Calibri and Cambria the em and en dashes are still quite distinct.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

Yes you can. AFIR, in older versions of Word, the find/replace box could not
display characters beyond basic ascii, so Word provided search codes. For
the em dash, type ^+ in the find what box. You can see more search codes by
clicking more and the special in the find and replace dialog.

In W2003 and 2007, you can use any of the usual methods to put characters
into the regular (not wild card) find and replace boxes.

Pam