Find and replace Em dash.

[fantasywriter]

Can I use Word's Find and Replace facility to find em dashes in a manuscript?
I've tried typing an em dash into the Find dialogue box but it won't accept
it.

 

[fantasywriter]

Thanks, Stefan. I think I must be a bit dim because it's not working! I hit
NUMLOCK, then held Alt and typed 0151 into the Find dialogue box. I guess
that isn't what you meant because it didn't work.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Did you see my follow-up explaining that you must use the digits on the
numeric keypad?

 

[DeanH]

In addition to Stefan's comments, in the Find/Replace dialog, click on the
More button, Special button - here is listed various speical caharacters that
you can search for (without Wildcards activated), including En and Em dashes.
There is also keyboard sequence of Ctrl+NumLock+- for En, Ctrl+Alt+NumLock+-
for Em, which do work in the Find/Replace dialog.
All the best
DeanH

 

[fantasywriter]

Ok, I did use the numeric kepyad but it still doesn't work. I tried the
special characters in Find but both the en dash and em dash come out the
same, they don't give me a long em dash. Ctrl+NumLock+- doesn't work at all,
and Ctrl+Alt+NumLock+- only gives me an en dash.
Any other ideas, guys?

 

[DeanH]

The - in the Ctrl+ sequence is the minus sign in the number keypad. next to
the + and the *
In the Find box type in ^+ for Em, and ^= for En.
The cap ^ is Shft+6.
DeanH

 

[fantasywriter]

Yep, I was using the minus sign in the number keypad. I've just tried ^+ and
it comes out just as I typed it, it doesn't come out as an Em dash. I have
Vista as my OS, might this be the problem?

 

[DeanH]

The ^+ will find the En dash, it is the Word code for finding the En dash,
did you try and did it find anything, Remember you don't need Wildcards
checked.
DeanH

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Works OK here on Vista32 with Word 2007. Here, all the option checkboxes
in the dialog are unchecked.

Have you definitely got nothing other than ^= or ^+ in the appropriate
boxes?

Another way to insert a replacement is to copy the character you want to
use as the replacement to the clipboard and use ^c in the Replace With box.


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you are using Word 2007, perhaps the problem is that a different font has
an em dash that is shorter than you're looking for? Though I must say that
in Calibri and Cambria the em and en dashes are still quite distinct.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org