macro to find and replace the case of different characters in a two-column table

Anonymous
2016-06-24T10:32:23+00:00

Hi team,

Currently I am working with this macro

Sub ReplaceFromTableList()

Dim oChanges As Document, oDoc As Document

Dim oTable As Table

Dim oRng As Range

Dim rFindText As Range, rReplacement As Range

Dim i As Long

Dim sFname As String

Dim sAsk As String

    sFname = "C:\Users\Win7\Desktop\macro.docx" 'The table document

    Set oDoc = ActiveDocument

    Set oChanges = Documents.Open(FileName:=sFname, Visible:=False)

    Set oTable = oChanges.Tables(1)

    For i = 1 To oTable.Rows.Count

        Set oRng = oDoc.Range

        Set rFindText = oTable.Cell(i, 1).Range

        rFindText.End = rFindText.End - 1

        Set rReplacement = oTable.Cell(i, 2).Range

        rReplacement.End = rReplacement.End - 1

        With oRng.Find

        .ClearFormatting

        .Replacement.ClearFormatting

        .Execute FindText:=rFindText.Text, _

                 MatchWildcards:=True, _

                 ReplaceWith:=rReplacement.Text, _

                 Replace:=wdReplaceAll

    End With           

    Next i

    oChanges.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges

lbl_Exit:

    Exit Sub

End Sub

This macro finds terms in the first column of a table and replaces them by those on the second column, and it enables you to use wildcards as follows

([Hh])owever \1wv.
<([Aa])s well as> \1wa.

Yet, in some pairs the first character of the first column is not the same as the first one of the second column, as in

expression xprss.

Therefore, I have two questions, namely

a) whether it is possible to use wildcards to somehow carry out an operation which would transmit the upper/lower case of the first character of the first column into the first character of the second column, so that both coincide

b) whether, if such an operation is not possible using wildcards, the macro I am working with (or even a completely different one) could be modified so that my purpose can be succesfully achieved.

I'd very much appreciate any ideas on the alternatives I have.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Answer accepted by question author
Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2016-07-03T00:54:16+00:00

In that case, use:

With Sheets(1).Range("A1")

    For i = 0 To .CurrentRegion.Rows.Count

        For k = 0 To 1

            For j = 1 To .Offset(i, k).Characters.Count

                If IsNumeric(Left(.Offset(i, k), 1)) Then

                    GoTo Nextj

                End If

                If Asc(Left(.Offset(i, k), 1)) > 64 And Asc(Left(.Offset(i, k), 1)) < 90 Then

                    GoTo Nextj

                End If

                If Asc(Mid(.Offset(i, k), j, 1)) > 96 And Asc(Mid(.Offset(i, k), j, 1)) < 123 Then

                    .Offset(i, k) = Left(.Offset(i, k), j - 1) & UCase(Mid(.Offset(i, k), j, 1)) & Mid(.Offset(i, k), j + 1)

                    Exit For

                End If

Nextj:

            Next j

        Next k

     Next i

End With

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Answer accepted by question author
Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2016-06-26T02:05:53+00:00

I've made some minor revisions to the previous code, so both macros should now run without error.

Regarding the formatting, unless you use a 4-column table, there's really no reliable way of knowing whether the formats found in the cells are important to the Find/Replace operation. How would one tell, for example, whether the absence of a bold font means the content to be found is not to be bolded, or that bolding is inconsequential? Separate columns to designate the applicability of font attributes for both the Find and the Replace would be required. the following macro envisages such a table, where the presence of content in the 3rd & 4th columns dictate whether the font format is to be taken into account for the Find (column 3) or applied to the Replace (column 4); if the cell has content, the formatting there is applied to the Find and/or Replace, as applicable.

Sub ReplaceFromTableList()

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Dim Doc As Document, Rng As Range, i As Long, Tbl As Table

Dim sFname As String, StrFnd As String, StrRep As String

sFname = "C:\Users\Win7\Desktop\macro.docx" 'The table document

Set Rng = ActiveDocument.Range

Set Doc = Documents.Open(FileName:=sFname, Visible:=False)

Set Tbl = Doc.Tables(1)

With Rng.Find

  .MatchWildcards = True

  .Wrap = wdFindContinue

  For i = 1 To Tbl.Rows.Count

    .ClearFormatting

    .Replacement.ClearFormatting

    StrFnd = Split(Tbl.Cell(i, 1).Range.Text, vbCr)(0)

    StrRep = Split(Tbl.Cell(i, 2).Range.Text, vbCr)(0)

    .Text = StrFnd

    .Replacement.Text = StrRep

    If Split(Tbl.Cell(i, 3).Range.Text, vbCr)(0) <> "" Then

      Set FntFnd = Tbl.Cell(i, 4).Range.Characters(1).Font

      .Font.Bold = FntFnd.Bold

      .Font.Italic = FntFnd.Italic

      .Font.Underline = FntFnd.Underline

    End If

    If Split(Tbl.Cell(i, 4).Range.Text, vbCr)(0) <> "" Then

      Set FntRep = Tbl.Cell(i, 4).Range.Characters(1).Font

      With .Replacement

        .Font.Bold = FntRep.Bold

        .Font.Italic = FntRep.Italic

        .Font.Underline = FntRep.Underline

      End With

    End If

    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

    .Text = LCase(StrFnd)

    .Replacement.Text = LCase(StrRep)

    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

  Next i

End With

Doc.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges

Application.ScreenUpdating = True

End Sub

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-25T08:02:43+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    a) when trying to run the first code a run-time error '424' message pops up saying an object is required and the next line is highlighted in green

    sFname = " " 'The table document

    b) The terms in the table are going to be found most commonly in lowecase, so perhaps it's more efficient to use lowercase as the default case in the tables, which is how my tables currently look.

    Also, as you provided in the thread Find and Replace small caps, the macro's default behaviour, regarding the terms in the second column, must be leaving the rest of their formatting (style, size, font, etc.) unaltered, i.e. just as it is in each term of the second column.

    c)I'd like to know which part of the code specifies that the macro takes into account that it's not the first character of <As well as>, namely, the character '<' (U+003C), but the second one which is to be correlated to the first character of awa.

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  2. Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-06-25T08:50:03+00:00

    Well, if you have:

    sFname = " " 'The table document

    that isn't what's in the code I posted.

    As for "The terms in the table are going to be found most commonly in lowercase", that really isn't relevant - the code needs to test for both cases and the most efficient way of doing that is via the LCase conversion.

    Finally, the Find & replace formats are determined by:

    FntFnd = oTable.Cell(i, 1).Range.Characters.First.Font

    FntRep = oTable.Cell(i, 2).Range.Characters.First.Font

    If you want to use a character other than the first, change .First to (#), where # is the character index. That said, there is no good reason why the format of < (or any other character) can't be used for this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-06-25T09:24:24+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    The complete line is the second one of the following excerpt

    Dim sFname As String, StrFnd As String, StrRep As String

    sFname = "C:\Users\Win7\Desktop\macro.docx" ''The table document

    Set Rng = ActiveDocument.Range

    but I do not know what the run-time error '424' is due to or how to solve it either.

    The character '<' (U+003C) is actually used as the wildcard for 'beginning of word', so I'd like to know whether the code takes this into account and automatically skips to the second character when the first character is (U+003C).

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