Find Dialogue Box

[SF]

I want to find various words in a document using the following method:
I will copy a word to my clipboard, and then:
Create a macro to take that word from the clipboard and find it in the text
of a Word document.


Here's my problem:

When I double click the REC macro button and then paste the selected word
into the "Find" dialogue box, that word gets permanently embedded into the
macro code!

So if I stop the macro, then manually select another word, and copy it to
the clipboard, and then run the macro . . . .
it goes and finds the old word!
Because that word is in the macro code----regardless of what I copy to the
clipboard next!

I sure hope this makes sense.
More importantly, I sure hope someone understands what I mean.
(More importantly, still, I sure hope someone can give me an answer . . . .


I think what I need is a variable, MyString As String
Then copy the selected text into MyString
Then set:

With Selection.Find
.Text = MyString

But I tried this and it doesn't work.
I think the variable (MyString) has to be converted to something in quotes.


SF

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Use:

Dim wdtoFind As String
wdtoFind = Selection.Text
Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:=wdtoFind, MatchWildcards:=False,
Wrap:=wdFindStop, Forward:=True) = True
MsgBox "Found " & wdtoFind & "."
Loop
End With


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[SF]

Thank you, Doug, but it didn't work.

It threw me into a "loop of death".
Every time I hit okay on the message box, it went and found another instance
of whatever it was looking for (which wasn't what was on the clipboard, by
the way). I couldn't get out of the loop.
Pressing ESC didn't work and I could not click on anything because the only
window I had access to with the cursor was the msg box. And it wouldn't go
away. Kept popping right back up. One good thing: every time it popped up,
it had selected another instance of the search item. The first time I ran
it, it was the letter "A", and the next time it was a paragraph mark. I
haven't tried it again.

Reboot fixed everything, though.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

What do you want to do when you find the word?

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[SF]

Hey! I'm glad you asked.

Let me explain the whole thing. Maybe you can suggest a method better than
the way I'm going about it.

WindowsXP SP2
Word 2000

I wrote a 400-page novel (95,000 words). But I did not apply any styles to
the document. All text was directly formatted:
Chapter headings
Epigraphs
Subheadings
Time stamps
Etc.

So when I learned what Styles were and how they work, I made a copy of the
document and did a select all and Ctrl + Spacebar.
Then I went through it and put in Styles for all the above-mentioned items.

Now everything is nicely Styled . . . . . except for the italicized words!

There are hundreds and hundreds of words in the original document that are
italicized.
(For example: "The couple crossing the street sensed that the approaching
car was <purposely> trying to run them down!"
Where the word <purposely> is in italics.

So I want to open the old doc and the new doc.
Then search in the old doc for an italicized word or phrase and copy it to
the clipboard.
Then I want to make the new doc the ActiveWindow and search for the plain
text that matches the italics text in the old doc.
Then I want to set the new text to italics.

I can do it manually, one word or phrase at a time by the above method but
each word takes a couple dozen clicks, and I saw real quick how that would
not be a good idea for a few hundred words.

Oh, and one more thing . . . . .

In the above example the word <purposely> is not an extremely common word,
so the search would probably find the correct instance of the word in the
new doc.
But take the case in the following example:

"No, not this one, I want <that> one."

If there is a lot of intervening text, then the search may find half a dozen
"that"s before coming to the correct instance of "that".
So I can't make the macro do a "Replace All". I have to click the macro for
each one. And if it finds the incorrect instance of the string, that's fine
with me. I'll just ask it to search again until it comes to the right place.

Sure hope I didn't wear you out reading all this.
(But like I said, glad you asked. . . .

SF

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Yes, you have created yourself a bit of a chore. The code I gave you would
allow you to find all instances of a selected word in the same document,
though it can be changed to handle the word being on the clipboard and even
the swapping from one document to the other. However, the chore part comes
from not all instances of the Word needing to be changed. This means that
you are going to have to be presented with message box for each instance of
the found word asking if you want it to be italicsed or not and I am not
sure that will be much easier than doing it by using the Edit Replace dialog
manually

But here's the code for it (Note, after copying the word to the clipboard,
you will need to switch to the document to which you want to apply the
formatting before running the macro.)

Dim MyData As DataObject
Dim wdtoFind As String
Dim Response

Set MyData = New DataObject
MyData.GetFromClipboard
wdtoFind = MyData.GetText

Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:=wdtoFind, MatchWildcards:=False, _
Wrap:=wdFindStop, Forward:=True) = True
Response = MsgBox("Do you want to italicise this instance of " &
wdtoFind, vbYesNo)
If Response = vbYes Then
Selection.Font.Italic = True
End If
Loop
End With


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[SF]

I put Your macro inside a simple sub, i.e.:

Sub ChangeToItalics()
(pasted your code)
End Sub

I ran the macro, but I get a compile error that says "User defined type not
defined"
and the first line of code is highlighted:
Dim MyData As DataObject

Do I need something more?

 

[Tony Jollans]

You need to add a reference to the MS Forms 2.0 object library

 

[SF]

Ooops, that's a little over my head.
I don't know what a reference is, nor a Forms object library for that
matter.
Am I in over my head?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

In the Visual Basic Editor, select References from the Tools menu and scroll
down through the list until you come across the "Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object
Library" and the check the box in front of it.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[SF]

I don't have "Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library" in the list!!

 

[Greg]

Just add a userform to your project (you don't have to use it) and the
forms library will then be available in the references.

 

[SF]

Okay. Thanks Greg.
(Good Heaven's, you're up early. . ..

 

[SF]

Okay, Doug, one last problem, I think.
I can tell we're almost there.

Sometimes the macro puts me in an endless loop.
If I say "No" that's not the word I want to italicize, then it will find the
next instance of that word.
Okay so far.
Then, if I say "Yes", the word gets italicized, but I don't drop out of the
loop.
It just goes to the next instance of the same word and asks again.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

That is why I said the following in my response of 10/25:

Yes, you have created yourself a bit of a chore. The code I gave you would
allow you to find all instances of a selected word in the same document,
though it can be changed to handle the word being on the clipboard and even
the swapping from one document to the other. However, the chore part comes
from not all instances of the Word needing to be changed. This means that
you are going to have to be presented with message box for each instance of
the found word asking if you want it to be italicsed or not and I am not
sure that will be much easier than doing it by using the Edit Replace dialog
manually


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[SF]

Let me explain a little more fully.

I open both documents, doc1 and doc2
I create a macro that will find italics and paste the text to the clipboard
then activate doc2 window.
I insert your code next (except declarations which I put at the top).
I run the macro.
It finds the first instance of italics in doc1 and takes me to the same word
in doc2 then displays msg box.
I say "Yes".
The word gets italicized in doc2 and the macro stops.

Perfect! That's exactly what I want.

But, in another trial, if I say "No" to that first message box, it goes to
the second instance.
So far so good, . . . but then. . . .if I say "Yes" to that second message
box, the word gets italicized, but then the macro doesn't stop! It keeps
going whether I say "Yes" or "No" and keeps finding the next instance. And I
can't make it stop. I get that little "error" beep whenever I click on
anything else. It only recognizes the "Yes" or "No". The only way out is to
re-boot.

All I want is for the macro to stop and hold its place after each run, no
matter whether I say yes, or no!
Then All I have to do is click the macro button again and it will find the
next instance.
In fact I really don't need the message box at all. Clicking the macro
button to proceed to the next instance of the word is pretty much the same
thing as answerying no. Then, when the correct search word is found and
selected in the second document, I'll just click the Italicize button.
Botta-Bing!

I tried fiddling with the code to avoid the loop, but I just screwed
everything up. I don't know enough about this stuff.

Please help, I'm not trying to be difficult. Really.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

That is the way it was designed to work. What if there is more than one
instance of the Word that you want to italicise?

In the case where you said "yes" there must have only been one instance of
that Word in the document.

If you only want the oppotunity to italicise one instance of the word, then
use:

Dim MyData As DataObject
Dim wdtoFind As String
Dim Response

Set MyData = New DataObject
MyData.GetFromClipboard
wdtoFind = MyData.GetText

Selection.HomeKey wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
Do While .Execute(FindText:=wdtoFind, MatchWildcards:=False, _
Wrap:=wdFindStop, Forward:=True) = True
Response = MsgBox("Do you want to italicise this instance of " &
wdtoFind, vbYesNo)
If Response = vbYes Then
Selection.Font.Italic = True
Exit Do
End If
Loop
End With


--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[SF]

Thanks, Doug.

Your macro works just fine!

I am one happy camper.