removing periods from a list of numbers

[fogharty]

I have several documents that contain tables, with each row heading
numbered anywhere from 1-30 (not automatically numbered). I would like
to find a find and replace that will remove the period . after each
number so that:
1.
2.
10.
30.
becomes
1
2
10
30

I can do a wildcard search [0-9](.) and that will find the . and the
preceeding number, but I can't find a "Replace with" that will work.

I can't just remove all . because there is text within the tables, and
that will remove all the periods.

I can choose a column at a time to remove the . but that is
time-consuming. I would like to edit the entire document at once.

I'm on Word 98, OS 9.2.2.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I have several documents that contain tables, with each row heading
numbered anywhere from 1-30 (not automatically numbered). I would like
to find a find and replace that will remove the period . after each
number so that:
1.
2.
10.
30.
becomes
1
2
10
30

I can do a wildcard search [0-9](.) and that will find the . and the
preceeding number, but I can't find a "Replace with" that will work.

I can't just remove all . because there is text within the tables, and
that will remove all the periods.

I can choose a column at a time to remove the . but that is
time-consuming. I would like to edit the entire document at once.

I'm on Word 98, OS 9.2.2.

Well, since you have more than 10 columns, it would be less time-consuming
to do 10 searches for "0.", "1.", "2." etc, and replace with "0", "1", "2".

It would also be possible to write a macro or AppleScript, but the time it
would take to write it would also probably be more time-consuming than 10
search & replace operations.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
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[fogharty]

Yes, you're right. I could record a macro. I just thought there was a
slick trick in the find and replace that would do it faster. (I'm not
very skilled at using wildcards.)
Thanks

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Yes, you're right. I could record a macro.

No, this is one you couldn't record. Recording can never do "conditional
code" - IF - nor use variables. The sort of Macro or script you'd need here
would do the wild card [0-9](.) search, set a variable to the result, and
then remove the period from the result, setting the replacement to the new
result, all in a loop. That can't be recorded.

I just thought there was a
slick trick in the find and replace that would do it faster. (I'm not
very skilled at using wildcards.)

I don't believe so, but I'm not an expert either. I don't think there's any
way of specifying "lose the period, keep the rest of the result" with just
wildcards in the Replace field. It's just a matter of lopping off the last
character of the result, and would be pretty easy in a macro.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
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otherwise.

 

[Elliott Roper]

I have several documents that contain tables, with each row heading
numbered anywhere from 1-30 (not automatically numbered). I would like
to find a find and replace that will remove the period . after each
number so that:
1.
2.
10.
30.
becomes
1
2
10
30

I can do a wildcard search [0-9](.) and that will find the . and the
preceeding number, but I can't find a "Replace with" that will work.

find ([0-9]).
replace \1
(It looks like you put the parentheses around the wrong thing.)
Replace all then removes every . that follows a digit and leaves other
..'s alone. The \n syntax replaces the expression in the nth () with
whatever value was found.
I confirmed this in v.X
Sorry, but I don't have 98 to test it there.

 

[CyberTaz]

Can't remember if MacWord supports this or not, and am not in MacVille
at the moment, but if the columns of numbers don't contain any other
text...

Try clicking at the top of one column to select it, then Cmd+click
(maybe Ctrl+click) at the top of the others. If you can select all the
non-consecutive columns at once, run your Find&Replace to get rid of
the dots.

Just a thought |:>)

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

find ([0-9]).
replace \1
(It looks like you put the parentheses around the wrong thing.)
Replace all then removes every . that follows a digit and leaves other
.'s alone. The \n syntax replaces the expression in the nth () with

whatever value was found.

That's good! I forgot about that \no stuff (in fact I hardly ever knew it,
maybe read it once a long time ago).

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
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[Elliott Roper]

find ([0-9]).
replace \1
(It looks like you put the parentheses around the wrong thing.)
Replace all then removes every . that follows a digit and leaves other
.'s alone. The \n syntax replaces the expression in the nth () with

whatever value was found.

That's good! I forgot about that \no stuff (in fact I hardly ever knew it,
maybe read it once a long time ago).

Heh! Had I been using a *proper* editor, I would have typed
<n^ed.$;-d>$$ without even thinking, and the job would have been done.
It was first written for a PDP-1 about 40 years ago. That's progress
for ya.
PS. Don't ask!
;-)

 

[aa]

I am using microsoft office 2004 for macintosh. This version of word is very
different from office x for mac word. Especially comment function is very
difficult. When I was working with office x word, I can easily see the
comments in my document. Comments were signed with yellow color, but now the
comments are marked with bracket. And I can't trace the comments in a long
document. When I was working with office x word, I can move in reviewing
pane and in document text, cursor was moving to the relevant comment. Now it
isn't. I have to look for the relevant comment along the text.
Note. I don't want to use balloons to display changes. Because I want to see
the document in normal view.

 

[Steven Allison-Bunnell]

This is a ³me, too² to say that I¹m having a lot of trouble with the
comments in Office 04.

Even with balloons turned on, they disappear in the middle of typing into
them. They come and go randomly if you¹re working in the reviewing pane. You
start a comment and then the balloon won¹t stay visible long enough to type
into it. If you keep typing and then look at the reviewing pane, the text is
there after all. Typing and deleting text from them is VERY slow (even on
1.5GHz PowerBook G4).

It seams like the comment bubbles are fairly half-baked and a major
performance problem.

Has anyone else seen this and been able to clear it up by a reinstall or
something?

I¹m running OS 10.4.2 with all of the Office 2004 updates applied.

Thanks

When I was working with office x word, I can move in reviewing pane and in
document text, cursor was moving to the relevant comment. Now it isn't. I have
to look for the relevant comment along the text.
Note. I don't want to use balloons to display changes. Because I want to see
the document in normal view.

I don¹t know if this addresses your issue, but if you put your cursor next
to a comment bracket and it turns from the i-beam to the arrow, you can then
control click and choose ³edit comment² from the context menu. Then the
cursor will go to the end of the comment, either in the bubble or the
reviewing pane.

 

[Shawn Larson [MSFT]]

This is a ³me, too² to say that I¹m having a lot of trouble with the comments
in Office 04.

Even with balloons turned on, they disappear in the middle of typing into
them. They come and go randomly if you¹re working in the reviewing pane. You
start a comment and then the balloon won¹t stay visible long eno ugh to type
into it. If you keep typing and then look at the reviewing pane, the text is
there after all. Typing and deleting text from them is VERY slow (even on
1.5GHz PowerBook G4).

It seams like the comment bubbles are fairly half-baked and a major
performance problem.

Has anyone else seen this and been able to clear it up by a reinstall or
something?

I¹m running OS 10.4.2 with all of the Office 2004 updates applied.

Thanks




I don¹t know if this addresses your issue, but if you put your cursor next to
a comment bracket and it turns from the i-beam to the arrow, you can then
control click and choose ³edit comment² from the context menu. Then the cursor
will go to the end of the comment, either in the bubble or the reviewing pane.

Steven,

Are you seeing Comments Œdisappear¹ with any document? Is there anything
particular with documents that Comments are disappearing? Pictures?
Tables?
Is it a matter of editing the Comment in the Reviewing Pane and the
corresponding marked text or balloon is not visible in the document Œabove¹
the Reviewing Pane?

What version of Mac Word 2004 are you working with? If you go to the Word
menu, choose About Word, you¹ll see ³Word 11.1 (040910)², or something to
that affect.

Shawn Larson
M
Mac Word Test

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[Daiya Mitchell]

Re the first poster (aa)--I totally agree. The basic interface for viewing
comments is not very good.

Re the second poster (steven)--I think you are having a very different
problem and this is not a "me too" at all. It sounds like your computer is
having problems displaying the balloons, which is generally caused by a lack
of power--which may be due to not enough memory, or a graphic-heavy document
that Word is having problems drawing on the screen, or possibly other
factors.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Steven-

Daiya¹s remark about system resources is probably more on track than you may
think. If you are still running your stock RAM of 512MB, which may sound
like a lot, but you¹d be surprised how minimal it is by today¹s standards.
While you have Word (only) running, go to your Utilities folder & launch the
Activity Monitor, select the System Memory readout & take a look at the Used
value. Then open the file you referred to in your post & go back to the
Activity Monitor again.

Also, I recall that certain PBs had video performance issues (although I
think it may have been just the 1.67MHz model), so you may want to check out
the Apple site to see if there is a graphics update for your model.

Regards |:>)

 

[Steven Allison-Bunnell]

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I¹m on a 1.5 GHz PowerBook (FW800) with 1.5 GB RAM, running Tiger 10.4.2,
with everything all tuned up (regular system maintenance, etc). It runs
Quartz Extreme just fine, so video performance is not an issue.

Word version is 11.1

I monitor my CPU loading and memory usage pretty closely and avoid having
too many swap files processor-hogging processes.

I would agree that comments often sort of bog down ‹ there¹s often a delay
in starting a new comment, etc., and yes, redrawing the screen seems to take
a while.

It would seem that Word should be able to run well on this system.

The file I was having trouble with is one long table that spans about 10
pages and has about 8 rows and three columns. There are perhaps a dozen
photos in it. The file originated from a Windows version of Word (the
compatibility checker doesn¹t report any issues).

I have not been able to see this extreme behavior of balloons refusing to
display after creating a comment with a file created from scratch on my
computer, and the balloons seem to work OK. So maybe it¹s a file problem.

Is there any way to save a file over again in a way that would strip out old
junk and make it cleaner? (Besides a regular Save As...)?

Thanks a lot,
Steve

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Steve,

I don¹t know if what I¹m about to recommend will help you with your comment
problems; this is more in answer to your last question about stripping out
old junk. There are three things that could help streamline things.

1. To make sure the table is going as smoothly as possible, select the
entire table (and only the table); go to Table> Convert> Convert table to
text. Then immediately, without changing anything, Table> Convert> Convert
text to table. If the table was suffering from any kind of corruption, that
will clear it.

2. To make sure the document itself is ³clean², select the entire document
*except* the very last paragraph mark, copy and then paste into a blank, new
Word document. (Doing just a Save As won¹t do the trick; the ³junk² is tied
to the last paragraph mark.)

3. To speed things up, divide the table into, say, three tables and
recombine them when you¹re finished making changes.

HTH,

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

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