VBA Find and Replace

link - wordmvp.com/FAQs/General/UsingWildcards.htm
link - gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/words_fickle_vba_find_property.html

Find Object

The Find property returns a Find object that you can use to Search a Range.

Selection.Find 
ActiveDocument.Content.Find 

Properties and Methods

Find.Execute

expression.Execute(FindText:="text to find", _ 
                   MatchCase:=, _ 
                   MatchWholeWord:=, _ 
                   MatchWildcards:=, _ 
                   MatchSoundsLike:=, _ 
                   MatchAllWordForms:=, _ 
                   Forward:=, _ 
                   Wrap:=wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue, _ 
                   Format:=, _ 
                   ReplaceWith:=, _ 
                   Replace:=, _ 
                   MatchKashida:=, _ 
                   MatchDiacritics:=, _ 
                   MatchAlefHamza:=, _ 
                   MatchControl:=) 

FindText - Optional Variant. The text to be searched for. Use an empty string ("") to search for formatting only. You can search for special characters by specifying appropriate character codes. For example, "^p" corresponds to a paragraph mark and "^t" corresponds to a tab character. For a list of special characters you can use, see Find and replace text or other items .
MatchCase - Optional Variant. True to specify that the find text be case sensitive. Corresponds to the Match case check box in the Find and Replace dialog box (Edit menu).
MatchWholeWord - Optional Variant. True to have the find operation locate only entire words, not text that's part of a larger word. Corresponds to the Find whole words only check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchWildcards - Optional Variant. True to have the find text be a special search operator. Corresponds to the Use wildcards check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchSoundsLike - Optional Variant. True to have the find operation locate words that sound similar to the find text. Corresponds to the Sounds like check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchAllWordForms - Optional Variant. True to have the find operation locate all forms of the find text (for example, "sit" locates "sitting" and "sat"). Corresponds to the Find all word forms check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
Forward - Optional Variant. True to search forward (toward the end of the document).

Iterating through all occurrences

You can use the Find object's Found property to iterate through several found items instead of checking the return value of Execute everytime.

Dim objFind As Word.Find 
   objFind = objRange.Find 
   objFind.Text = "better" 
   objFind.MatchWholeWord = True 
   objFind.Execute 
   While objFind.Found 
      objFind.Execute 
   End While 

Looping through paragraphs in a document is very slow
If you are looking for certain text always use Range.Find

Replacing HTML tags

If you want to find and replace special characters you may need to prefix them with a back slash

objFind.Text = "\<b\>" 

When the Execute method of the Find object is executed successfully a new Range object is returned

Set objRange = ActiveDocument.Sentences(2) 
objRange.Find.Text = "some text" 
objRange.Find.Execute 

If (objRange.Find.Found = True) Then 
   objRange.Select 
End If 

The following example finds the next double-spaced paragraph after the selection.

With Selection.Find 
    .ClearFormatting 
    .ParagraphFormat.LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpacing.wdLineSpaceDouble 
    .Text = "" 
    .Forward = True 
    .Wrap = wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue 
End With 
Selection.Find.Execute 

This example finds all double-spaced paragraphs in the active document and replaces the formatting with 1.5-line spacing.

With ActiveDocument.Content.Find 
    .ClearFormatting 
    .ParagraphFormat.Space2 
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting 
    .Replacement.ParagraphFormat.Space15 
    .Execute FindText:="", _ 
             ReplaceWith:="", _ 
             Replace:=wdReplace.wdReplaceAll 
End With 

This example steps through the words in myRange (which spans from the beginning of the active document to the end of the selection) and deletes the word "BetterSolutions" (including the trailing space) wherever it occurs in the range.

Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=0, End:=Selection.End) 
For Each aWord In myRange.Words 
    If aWord.Text = "BetterSolutions" Then 
      aWord.Delete 
   End If 
Next aWord 

Finding

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting ?? 
With Selection.Find 
   .Text = "text_to_find" 
   .Replacement.Text = "replace_with_text" 
   .Forward = True 
   .Wrap = wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue 
   .Format = False 
   .MatchCase = False 
   .MatchWholeWord = False 
   .MatchWildcards = False 
   .MatchSoundsLike = False 
   .MatchAllWordForms = False 
End With 

If Selection.Find.Execute = True Then 
End If 

Public Sub DoFindReplace(ByVal sFindText As String, _ 
                         ByVal sReplaceText As String) 
   With Selection.Find 
      .ClearFormatting 
      .Replacement.ClearFormatting 
      .Text = sFindText 
      .Forward = True 
      .Wrap = wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue 
      .Format = False 
      .MatchCase = False 
      .MatchWholeWord = False 
      .MatchWildcard = False 
      .MatchSoundsLike = False 
      .MatchAllWordForms = False 
   End With 

   Do While Selection.Find.Execute 
'keep going until nothing is found
      .Execute Replace:=wdReplace.wdReplaceAll 
   Loop 
'free up some memory
   ActiveDocument.UndoClear 
End Sub 

Finding field codes

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting 
Selection.Find.Text = "^b" - this is a section break 
Selection.Find.Text = "^d" 
Selection.Find.Text = "^p"  - this is a paragraph mark 
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting 
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplace.wdReplaceAll 
Selection.Find.Text = "^L" 
Selection.TypeText Text:="some text" 
Selection.Range.InsertAutoText 

Finding symbols

The first thing you need to do is find out both the font and Unicode number of the character you want to search for and /or replace with. If the character was inserted from the Insert + Symbol dialog, its name won't be displayed in the Fonts list on your toolbar, but you can get at the information by selecting the character and running the following macro:

Sub GetCharNoAndFont()

With Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol)
Debug.Print "Font: " & .Font
Debug.Print "Char number " & .CharNum
End With

End Sub

Press Ctrl+G or select View + Immediate Window to see the results.

In the case of the Delta symbol, that will return:

Font: Symbol
Char number -3996

You can now use the following macros to find the next instance of the Delta symbol (if there is one). As you'll see shortly, it is very straightforward, even if you are a complete programming novice, to customise the following macros for your needs.

Sub FindDeltaSymbols()
'Call the main "FindSymbols" macro (below),
'and tell it what character code and font to search for
Call FindSymbols(FindChar:=ChrW(-3996), FindFont:="Symbol")
End Sub

Sub FindSymbols(FindChar As String, FindFont As String)

Dim FoundFont As String, OriginalRange As Range, strFound As Boolean
Application.ScreenUpdating = False

'set range to return to in case symbol not found
Set OriginalRange = Selection.Range

strFound = False
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = FindChar
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindStop
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False

Do While .Execute 'Keep going until nothing found
If Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol).Font = FindFont Then
'If the correct character was found, exit loop
strFound = True
Exit Do
Else
'Otherwise search again
Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
End If
Loop

If Not strFound Then
'if nothing found, search from the beginning of the document
ActiveDocument.Range(0, 0).Select
Do While .Execute
If Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol).Font = FindFont Then
strFound = True
Exit Do
Else
Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
End If
Loop
End If

End With

If Not strFound Then
OriginalRange.Select
End If

Set OriginalRange = Nothing
Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub

To customise it, all you have to do is to use the GetCharNoAndFont() macro again, to find out what chaacter number and font you need to use; and then change the character number and font used in the FindDeltaSymbols() macro to the correct values for the symbol(s) you want to find.

For example, if you want to find the one-eighth symbol, which is listed under "(normal text)" in the insert symbol dialog, insert the symbol into your document, select it, and run the GetCharNoAndFont() macro. This will return:

Font: (normal text)
Char number 8539

So just by changing the reference to "Symbol" in the FindDeltaSymbols() macro to "(normal text)" instead; and the reference to "-3996" to "8539"; we get the following:

Sub FindOneEigthSymbols()
Call FindSymbols(FindChar:=ChrW(8539), FindFont:= "(normal text)")
End Sub

Use this with exactly the same FindSymbols() macro as before.

Finding and replacing symbols
If you want to do a Find and Replace operation, you will need the character numbers and fonts for both the Find and the Replace characters. As before, you can use the GetCharNoAndFont() macro to obtain this information.

You can then customise the following first of the following macros, which calls the second macro, and in this example replaces all instances of the Delta symbol in your document with Beta symbols. To customise it, just change the character numbers and fonts in the ReplaceAllDeltaSymbolsWithBetaSymbols() macro (but leave the ReplaceAllSymbols() macro as it is):

Sub ReplaceAllDeltaSymbolsWithBetaSymbols()
'Call the main "ReplaceAllSymbols" macro (below),
'and tell it which character code and font to search for, and which to replace with
Call ReplaceAllSymbols(FindChar:= ChrW(-3996), FindFont:= "Symbol", _
ReplaceChar:=-3998, ReplaceFont:="Symbol")
End Sub

Sub ReplaceAllSymbols(FindChar As String, FindFont As String, _
ReplaceChar As String, ReplaceFont As String)

Dim FoundFont As String, OriginalRange As Range, strFound As Boolean
Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Set OriginalRange = Selection.Range
'start at beginning of document
ActiveDocument.Range(0, 0).Select

strFound = False
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = FindChar
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindStop
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False

Do While .Execute
'keep searching until nothing found
If Dialogs(wdDialogInsertSymbol).Font = FindFont Then
'Insert the replacement symbol where the found symbol was
Selection.InsertSymbol Font:=ReplaceFont, _
CharacterNumber:=ReplaceChar, Unicode:=True
Else
Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
End If
Loop

End With

OriginalRange.Select

Set OriginalRange = Nothing
Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub