Search and Replace wildcards problem

[Bill Planey]

Hello,

I have a document that came from Windows and I'm on a Mac. Apparently, the
curly quotes didn't survive the "translation" and I am left with other
characters that I need to find and change. The leading quote mark was
changed to "A" and the trailing was changed to "@"...

So that, for example, the original:

"Document Name"

was rendered as

ADocument Name@

The good thing is that the there is always a blank space preceding that "A".

Is this something that can be fixed with the right find/change code?

Many thanks,
Bill Planey

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

The @ presumably always has a blank space following it. To Find "@ ", I
don't think you need any special codes. Just Find and Replace it with the
quotation mark, space. You can type the space right in, it just doesn't show
up.

To find the A in ADocument Name will be a little trickier. What version of
Word are you in? What factors are consistent that you might be able to
search for? E.g., will it always be two capitals in a row? Alternatively,
just search for " A" and don't use Replace All.

By the way, I've sent curly quotes from Mac to Mac and they've not survived.
Zipping the attachment might help, I don't quite remember.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Bill,

This is in case your problem occurs in future, assuming you are now applying
Daiya's fix:

Years ago, this was a constant problem, but not any more. You should not be
experiencing this -- I send/receive to/from PCs all the time and never have
the problem, nor should, because Word files have been the same on both
platforms since Word 97/98 (i.e., there is no "translation").

The problem is pilot error -- someone has jiggled with the settings or is
saving in a non-default format. Get someone else with a PC to send you a
doc; does the problem persist? Yes? -- probably the sender's settings. No?
Probably yours.

To help you further, we would need details of your OS and Word version, and
ditto the other party's.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[Bill Planey]

Unfortunately, the originator of the document is not someone I am allowed to
contact directly in this project. I have already gone through, replacing
one at a time instead of Replacing All.

BTW, are there other such characters that flake out this way? In other
words, what others might I check for that should be something else?

Thanks!
Bill Planey

 

[Clive Huggan]

Bill,

Ah, you're working on Moses' tablets ... ;-)

My distant memory is of Yen currency symbols and "ae" diphthongs -- but it's
so long ago I'm not going to be much use. They will certainly stand out.

Cheers
Clive Huggan
==============

 

[CyberTaz]

Hey gang-

Especially if these are older docs, could there be some sort of font
incompatibility? If they were originally done with some older and perhaps
'unconventional' font, certain characters may not map correctly when
substituted.

Just a thought |:>)

Bill,

Ah, you're working on Moses' tablets ... ;-)

My distant memory is of Yen currency symbols and "ae" diphthongs -- but it's
so long ago I'm not going to be much use. They will certainly stand out.

Cheers
Clive Huggan
==============

-- (e-mail address removed)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Bill:

You can fix this in one hit...

1) Make sure you have Tools>Autocorrect>Autoformat as you Type>"Replace
straight quotes with smart quotes" turned ON.

2) Search for " (a single ASCII quote) and replace with " (the same
character). Replace ALL.

Word performs the substitution from ASCII quotes to typesetters quotes at
insertion time. If the author of the document had Smart Quotes turned off
(because they use Word to write computer code) Word would not have performed
the substitution.

But if you turn Smart Quotes ON, then replace all of the quotes, Word will
switch them for the typesetter's quotes characters for you automatically.

Cheers

Unfortunately, the originator of the document is not someone I am allowed to
contact directly in this project. I have already gone through, replacing
one at a time instead of Replacing All.

BTW, are there other such characters that flake out this way? In other
words, what others might I check for that should be something else?

Thanks!
Bill Planey

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Bill,

The document came from WordPerfect, and used a special font for smart quotes and other symbols.
Since that font ("WP Typographic Symbols") is missing, you get those other characters.
Maybe if you search for the font, it'll be easier to find the characters you need to fix.

OTOH, in some Windows Word versions, you can't reliably search for the character *and* the font when it's a symbol font.
Not sure what works on the Mac, especially with converted WordPerfect files which often act up strangely.

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Bill Planey]

John,

I think you misunderstood my request. I wasn't asking to replace straight
quotes with curly ones, I was trying to pattern match a situation where the
quotes (straight or curly, who knows) were _already_ substituted for an "A"
(leading) and an "@" (trailing). I guess the fact that they differ means
they _were_ curly. But they were substituted in the file that I received to
work with.

Thanks,
Bill Planey

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Sorry Bill:

You're right, I didn't read the question closely enough.

As Klaus says, you will need to search for the specific character and FONT
to find them. Even though they have come in with a WordPerfect font you do
not have installed, the font name will still be in your document and you can
use Find/Replace as I indicated to fix them all in one hit.

Cheers

John,

I think you misunderstood my request. I wasn't asking to replace straight
quotes with curly ones, I was trying to pattern match a situation where the
quotes (straight or curly, who knows) were _already_ substituted for an "A"
(leading) and an "@" (trailing). I guess the fact that they differ means
they _were_ curly. But they were substituted in the file that I received to
work with.

Thanks,
Bill Planey

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410