Searching for anything BUT a particular character

  • Thread starter Thread starter Idaho Word Man
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Idaho Word Man

I have a very large document (currently 644 pages) that was written by a
flatulent weasel who thinks punctuation is only for liberal arts majors and
other wimps. One of his very common errors is to omit periods at the end of
paragraphs.

Is there any way to search for "*^p" where * stands for any character BUT a
period? If I could systematically search for all paragraphs that end with
anything but a period I could make sure I don't miss any instances of this
error. (I've already deleted Space^p and Space-Space^p.)

I'm still using Word 2003 on XP Professional.

Thanks,

Fred
 
Turn on wildcard searching and use the search term

([!.])^13

and the replacement term

\1.^p

The expression [!.] means "any character that isn't a period". See
http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Thanks. You've just opened up a new world of possibilities for me.

Jay Freedman said:
Turn on wildcard searching and use the search term

([!.])^13

and the replacement term

\1.^p

The expression [!.] means "any character that isn't a period". See
http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
I have a very large document (currently 644 pages) that was written
by a flatulent weasel who thinks punctuation is only for liberal arts
majors and other wimps. One of his very common errors is to omit
periods at the end of paragraphs.

Is there any way to search for "*^p" where * stands for any character
BUT a period? If I could systematically search for all paragraphs
that end with anything but a period I could make sure I don't miss
any instances of this error. (I've already deleted Space^p and
Space-Space^p.)

I'm still using Word 2003 on XP Professional.

Thanks,

Fred
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi Jay.
I use this find formula all the time but I wonder if you can help with an
extention of this wildcard use.
How can I get this to not just to ignore Periods (Full Stop) immediately
followed by paragraph mark, but also Question Marks and Colons at the same
time?
Many thanks for your assistance.
DeanH

Idaho Word Man said:
Thanks. You've just opened up a new world of possibilities for me.

Jay Freedman said:
Turn on wildcard searching and use the search term

([!.])^13

and the replacement term

\1.^p

The expression [!.] means "any character that isn't a period". See
http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
I have a very large document (currently 644 pages) that was written
by a flatulent weasel who thinks punctuation is only for liberal arts
majors and other wimps. One of his very common errors is to omit
periods at the end of paragraphs.

Is there any way to search for "*^p" where * stands for any character
BUT a period? If I could systematically search for all paragraphs
that end with anything but a period I could make sure I don't miss
any instances of this error. (I've already deleted Space^p and
Space-Space^p.)

I'm still using Word 2003 on XP Professional.

Thanks,

Fred
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi Dean,

You can list as many characters as you like within the square brackets. If
any of them are "special" wildcards as described in Graham's article, they
have to be preceded by a backslash to say you're searching for the actual
character and not things that match the wildcard; in your case, only the
question mark is in that class. So the search term would be

([!\?.:])^13

to ignore any question mark followed by a paragraph mark, any period
followed by a paragraph mark, or any colon followed by a paragraph mark.

I can't quite tell from your question whether you also want to ignore
question marks and colons that are *not* followed by a paragraph mark. I
don't think that can be combined with the previous search term in one
expression.
Hi Jay.
I use this find formula all the time but I wonder if you can help
with an extention of this wildcard use.
How can I get this to not just to ignore Periods (Full Stop)
immediately followed by paragraph mark, but also Question Marks and
Colons at the same time?
Many thanks for your assistance.
DeanH

Idaho Word Man said:
Thanks. You've just opened up a new world of possibilities for me.

Jay Freedman said:
Turn on wildcard searching and use the search term

([!.])^13

and the replacement term

\1.^p

The expression [!.] means "any character that isn't a period". See
http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

Idaho Word Man wrote:
I have a very large document (currently 644 pages) that was written
by a flatulent weasel who thinks punctuation is only for liberal
arts majors and other wimps. One of his very common errors is to
omit periods at the end of paragraphs.

Is there any way to search for "*^p" where * stands for any
character BUT a period? If I could systematically search for all
paragraphs that end with anything but a period I could make sure I
don't miss any instances of this error. (I've already deleted
Space^p and Space-Space^p.)

I'm still using Word 2003 on XP Professional.

Thanks,

Fred
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
That is it, Jay, "you're the man"
You got the message spot-on.
I always forget about the slash to denote multiple "individual" characters,
that precede a paragraph mark.
Many thanks
DeanH

Jay Freedman said:
Hi Dean,

You can list as many characters as you like within the square brackets. If
any of them are "special" wildcards as described in Graham's article, they
have to be preceded by a backslash to say you're searching for the actual
character and not things that match the wildcard; in your case, only the
question mark is in that class. So the search term would be

([!\?.:])^13

to ignore any question mark followed by a paragraph mark, any period
followed by a paragraph mark, or any colon followed by a paragraph mark.

I can't quite tell from your question whether you also want to ignore
question marks and colons that are *not* followed by a paragraph mark. I
don't think that can be combined with the previous search term in one
expression.
Hi Jay.
I use this find formula all the time but I wonder if you can help
with an extention of this wildcard use.
How can I get this to not just to ignore Periods (Full Stop)
immediately followed by paragraph mark, but also Question Marks and
Colons at the same time?
Many thanks for your assistance.
DeanH

Idaho Word Man said:
Thanks. You've just opened up a new world of possibilities for me.

:

Turn on wildcard searching and use the search term

([!.])^13

and the replacement term

\1.^p

The expression [!.] means "any character that isn't a period". See
http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

Idaho Word Man wrote:
I have a very large document (currently 644 pages) that was written
by a flatulent weasel who thinks punctuation is only for liberal
arts majors and other wimps. One of his very common errors is to
omit periods at the end of paragraphs.

Is there any way to search for "*^p" where * stands for any
character BUT a period? If I could systematically search for all
paragraphs that end with anything but a period I could make sure I
don't miss any instances of this error. (I've already deleted
Space^p and Space-Space^p.)

I'm still using Word 2003 on XP Professional.

Thanks,

Fred
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