Find a replace text between a space and a colon (Word 2006)

Question

Find a replace text between a space and a colon (Word 2006)

JMGN 0

I am on Word 2006.

I need to find and replace all the several sequences of characters between a space (next comes an uppercase letter) and a colon before the next space. For example, the text in bold:

You usually do? Lupin: It's just the football...

resulting in the following text:

You usually do? It's just the football...

I've been trying with wildcards but cannot come up with the right combination. Maybe a macro is needed instead?

Thnx.

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1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Use Word’s wildcard Find and Replace; no macro is required.

Assuming the pattern is:

<space><UPPERCASE...any characters...>:

and you want to change or remove the text between the space and the colon, do this (Word for Windows):

Press Ctrl+H to open Replace.
Select More and check Use wildcards.
In Find what, enter:
```
   ([ ])([A-Z]@)(:)
```
Explanation (per Word wildcard rules):
- [ ] – a literal space.
- [A-Z] – any uppercase letter.
- @ – one or more occurrences of the preceding expression.
- (:) – the colon, captured as a separate group.
In Replace with, enter what is needed. Examples:
- To delete the text between the space and the colon but keep the space and colon:
```
     \1\3
```
  \1 = the space, \3 = the colon.
- To replace that text with a fixed word (for example, X):
```
     \1X\3
```
Click Replace or Replace All.

If on macOS Word, open Advanced Find & Replace, check Use wildcards, and use the same patterns in Find what and Replace with.

References:

Find and replace text in Word