Word VBA does no recognise the star (anything) symbol?

[CaptainCsaba]

Hi!
This actually appeared in Word VBA. I have a code that changed text tot other text. The problem is the text is almost always the same, there is one word inside it that always differs so I tried to use the * symbol and it does not work.

Sub ChangeText()

With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = "Mary had two little *^p in her basket"
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.Text = "Johnny had three little *^p in his basket"
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll, Forward:=True, _
Wrap:=wdFindContinue
End With


End Sub

(^p is a paragraph end symbol)

If i put something like "apples" in the place of * it works fine but like this it does not. No matter what is inside the place of "*" it should work and change the beginning of the sentence. Even Microsoft says this on their official site:

"For example, a midsummer * dream will return results that contain the exact phrase, a midsummer night’s dream."

Does anybody has an idea what I should use instead of * to indicate to VBA that anything could be there?

 

[Fluff]

You cannot use things like ^P when using wildcards

 

[Macropod]

This actually appeared in Word VBA. I have a code that changed text tot other text. The problem is the text is almost always the same, there is one word inside it that always differs so I tried to use the * symbol and it does not work.

Try:

Sub ChangeText()
With Selection.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Text = "Mary had two little (*^13) in her basket"
  .Replacement.Text = "Johnny had three little \1 in his basket"
  .Forward = True
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .MatchWildcards = True
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End Sub

You cannot use things like ^P when using wildcards

Not entirely true. One can't use ^p as a Find expression, but it can be used as a Replace expression. Numerous other special 'Find' expressions and 'Replace' expressions also exist for wildcard Find/Replace operations.

 

[CaptainCsaba]

Try:

Sub ChangeText()
With Selection.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Text = "Mary had two little (*^13) in her basket"
  .Replacement.Text = "Johnny had three little \1 in his basket"
  .Forward = True
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .MatchWildcards = True
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End Sub

Not entirely true. One can't use ^p as a Find expression, but it can be used as a Replace expression. Numerous other special 'Find' expressions and 'Replace' expressions also exist for wildcard Find/Replace operations.

Hey!

I tried using it but did not work unfortunately. It runs without an error but noting happens.

 

[Macropod]

The code will work just fine for the content you described in post 1. Do note that wildcard finds are case-sensitive and, of course, if your find text has non-breaking spaces, tabs, etc., you have to provide for that in the code, too.

 

[CaptainCsaba]

True! Had to check again but now it works, thank you!