Finding a Word

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leonard M. Wapner
  • Start date Start date
L

Leonard M. Wapner

Greetings -

How can I find all instances of a given word, without getting other words in
which the given word is embedded? For example, say I want to find all
occurrences of "the".
How can I avoid getting "mathematics", "theme", etc?

Thanks -

Len
 
You can use the "find" dialogue by pressing Ctrl f. Search for

<white space>the<white space>

To tell it to look for the <white space> click on More Special White
Space in the dialogue box. In the Find slot it will appear as ^wthe^w.

It will not locate any occurrences of the such as, "She said, "the wig is on
the table". The first the in the quote will not be tagged. Also, a The
appearing as the first word of a paragraph will not be tagged.

Tom
MSMVP-DTS
 
In the Find dialog, click More, then check the box for "Find whole words
only."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
The things you don't notice even after using Word for years and years
and.......

Much simpler that the way I was doing it!

Tom
MSMVP-DTS
 
Leonard M. Wapner said:
Greetings -

How can I find all instances of a given word, without getting other words in
which the given word is embedded? For example, say I want to find all
occurrences of "the".
How can I avoid getting "mathematics", "theme", etc?
Click to expand...

.... and if you need more control than using "Match whole word only", you
can use wildcard searches:
Check "More > Match wildcards",
Find what: <mathe*> will find all words starting with "mathe" such as
mathematics, mathematical, mathematician.

In the English version, you can also search for "all word forms": Searching
for "is" will then also find "was", "been", "am", ...
This only works with single words as far as I know, and you may need a
macro (for I don't see the option in the Find dialog in my English
Word2003).

Greetings,
Klaus
 
Not to mention that, as you point out, your way wouldn't find "the" preceded
or followed by punctuation.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Tom

In your defence, you could ask the same question that I asked many moons
ago, "What is the purpose of the 'more' button in the F&R dialog?" It isn't
as though the dialog is too large or that the extra options are dangerous:
so why don't they just rearrange the dialog so that it opens up with all the
options present? That would unconfuse about 150 million global users!

Terry Farrell

: The things you don't notice even after using Word for years and years
: and.......
:
: Much simpler that the way I was doing it!
:
: Tom
: MSMVP-DTS
:
: : > In the Find dialog, click More, then check the box for "Find whole words
: > only."
: >
: > --
: > Suzanne S. Barnhill
: > Microsoft MVP (Word)
: > Words into Type
: > Fairhope, Alabama USA
:
: > Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
: > so
: > all may benefit.
: >
: > : >> Greetings -
: >>
: >> How can I find all instances of a given word, without getting other
words
: > in
: >> which the given word is embedded? For example, say I want to find all
: >> occurrences of "the".
: >> How can I avoid getting "mathematics", "theme", etc?
: >>
: >> Thanks -
: >>
: >> Len
: >>
: >>
: >
:
:
 
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