reversing italic to _italic_

[Travis]

Hi, All,

I have a novel I want to be able to save as plain text for those without Word or
Adobe Reader. This naturally strips out all the italics, which I would like to
replace with _italic_.

"AutoFormat" has a specific option for replacing "*Bold* and _italic_ with real
formatting" but it offers nothing to reverse the process.

I can Search italic and do the job manually, but it's 200 pages ... In Search and
Replace, "Wildcards" looked promising, as did monkeying with a "[Not] Emphasis"
Style, but, no dice. I'm using Word 2000 in WinXP Home.

Any ideas?

I'll check back, but please email me at travis at charbeneau dot net if you have a
solution.

Many thanks,


Travis

 

[Beth Melton]

You should be able to use Find/Replace for this:

- Find: (leave text box blank)
Format: Italic
- Replace: _^&_
Format: Not Italic
- Turn on "Find whole words only"
- Click Replace All

To specify the formats click the "More" command at the bottom of the
dialog box and then click the Format/Font command. You should see
Italic and Not Italic in the Font Style list.

In the Replace text string ^& refers to the "Find What" text string
(found under the Special command).

Your replacement text will be the Find What string with an underscore
at the beginning and end, and the Italic format will be removed.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Travis,

Just replace italic formatting with _^&_

To do that, open the "Find > Replace" dialog.

In "Find what:", hit Ctrl+i, or go to "More > Format > Font" and check
"italic".
Leave the "Find what" box empty.

In "Replace with", type an underscore, then click on "Special > Find what
text" to insert ^&, then type another underscore.
Or simply type in "_^&_".

You might remove the italic formatting while you're at it: Hit Ctrl+i twice
in "Replace with:".
The text below the "Replace with" box will change to "Font: Not italic".

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Travis]

Thanks so much, Beth, Klaus, and Gary (who wrote directly)

putting _^&_ in the "Replace with" field nailed it!

And now, _le deluge_, as I bombard this unfortunate group with further RYFM-type
questions.

Just kidding, I hope.

Thanks again!

Travis