How to detect symbol/special character code.

[Jeff Ingman]

I often find symbols in MS documents I'd like to remove or replace with
something else.

Is there a way to detect the underlying code of a symbol or special
character to use for "Search and Replace"?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Usually, if you copy one of the target characters to the clipboard, you can
paste it into the Find what: field and it will work just fine.

Many special characters can also be inserted into Find what: or Replace
with: by clicking the More>> button in the Find and Replace dialog box, and
then clicking Special.

 

[Jeff Ingman]

Thanks for the post Herb.

I use your suggestion below when it works... but I sometimes run across
symbols that do copy/paste into the search/replace boxes.

And in the case I ran across this morning I could not find a specific symbol
in the "special characters' box... (which I do not find in Excel by the
way... only in Word).

The character looked like a little squre box... but the sides were either
missing or very faint... sort of like a square bullet but it was something
else.

jeff

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

If you know the character code for it, you can search using ^[character
code] (e.g., ^0124). If you don't have any idea how it was inserted and if
it doesn't survive pasting, then it's hard to know what to tell you. You
might try looking at the Insert Symbol offerings to see if you can figure
out what the character code for it is.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Jeff Ingman]

Thanks Herb...

Another poster suggested I use the "Code=" function to get the number for
the code I want to replace. The number returned is 13. But when I enter
"^013" in the replace box and hit replace... I get a message saying Excel
cannot find any data to replace.

If you know the character code for it, you can search using ^[character
code] (e.g., ^0124). If you don't have any idea how it was inserted and if
it doesn't survive pasting, then it's hard to know what to tell you. You
might try looking at the Insert Symbol offerings to see if you can figure
out what the character code for it is.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks for the post Herb.

I use your suggestion below when it works... but I sometimes run across
symbols that do copy/paste into the search/replace boxes.

And in the case I ran across this morning I could not find a specific
symbol
in the "special characters' box... (which I do not find in Excel by the
way... only in Word).

The character looked like a little squre box... but the sides were either
missing or very faint... sort of like a square bullet but it was something
else.

jeff

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Excel's Find/Replace works differently... Usually ^013 would correspond to a
paragraph break. =Code(cell address) returns the code only of the first
character in a string. So, it would find the code for the odd character only
if it were the only or first characer in the cell.

If you can put just that character into a cell and then evaluation it, you
can try searching. Let's say the code is "114". Rather than searching for
^114, click in Find what:, turn NumLock on, hold down the Alt key, and type
114 (on the number pad). It will insert the character that corresponds to
that code (and it might look differently, since font formatting isn't
performed in the Find what: text field, so you'll likely see the ANSI/ASCII
character from the basic set.

If this techniques works within Excel, you might try pasting the mystery
character(s) from Word into Excel, using CODE to determine the value, and
then try either ^code or the Alt+entry method for inserting it into Word's
Find what: box.

If this doesn't get you what you want, you might try
microsoft.public.excel.misc or one of the other Excel groups.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks Herb...

Another poster suggested I use the "Code=" function to get the number for
the code I want to replace. The number returned is 13. But when I enter
"^013" in the replace box and hit replace... I get a message saying Excel
cannot find any data to replace.

If you know the character code for it, you can search using ^[character
code] (e.g., ^0124). If you don't have any idea how it was inserted and
if
it doesn't survive pasting, then it's hard to know what to tell you. You
might try looking at the Insert Symbol offerings to see if you can figure
out what the character code for it is.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks for the post Herb.

I use your suggestion below when it works... but I sometimes run across
symbols that do copy/paste into the search/replace boxes.

And in the case I ran across this morning I could not find a specific
symbol
in the "special characters' box... (which I do not find in Excel by the
way... only in Word).

The character looked like a little squre box... but the sides were
either
missing or very faint... sort of like a square bullet but it was
something
else.

jeff

:

Usually, if you copy one of the target characters to the clipboard,
you
can
paste it into the Find what: field and it will work just fine.

Many special characters can also be inserted into Find what: or
Replace
with: by clicking the More>> button in the Find and Replace dialog
box,
and
then clicking Special.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


I often find symbols in MS documents I'd like to remove or replace
with
something else.

Is there a way to detect the underlying code of a symbol or special
character to use for "Search and Replace"?