UNDO AutoFormat creations

[riprap1951]

Hello, All
I've got about 45 pages of data in Word tables. When the tables were
created, I had chosen to use the AutoFormat symbol described as 'change
hyphens to dash', then 'attach a greater-than sign to the right end of
the dashes', resulting in a right-facing arrowhead.
Now I need to UNDO that AutoFormat creation because I'm exporting
that table-data to Excel spreadsheets, and Excel doesn't seem to handle
that symbol well (Excel converts it to a lowercase "a" with a grave
accent imposed above it.)
I can't figure out how to UNDO that custom symbol! What I've already
tried: Gone to Tools > AutoCorrect Options > AutoCorrect, and selected
the above-mentioned sign and deleted it from the list of choices. Also
went to AutoFormat tab and un-selected "replace hyphens with dash".
Same with AutoFormat As You Type > Replace as you type.
I've also experimented w/ the "Find and Replace" dialog in Edit
menu--but since I can't make the 'hyphen-converted-to-dash' symbol to
place into the Find box, it's got me baffled....
I've un-selected that option everywhere I can think of, saved the
document, closed and reopened it---and I still can't manage to UNDO
that symbol!

Any help would be much appreciated [

terry b.

 

[anon k]

Find-and-replace will do it. You'll need to type the dash into the find
box. I'm using a notebook keyboard so can't check this, but I think
that the keystroke is ctrl-shift-minus or something like that. You need
to use the numeric keypad minus key for that.

If the various keystroke combinations all fail (or if you don't have a
convenient numeric keypad) then copy and paste the dash from your body text.

Otherwise, you can find and replace the grave a in Excel, if it doesn't
appear elsewhere in your text.