[duxuser] Re: Word and Wildcards (and UEB Telephone Numbers)
- From: Jean Menzies <jemenzies@xxxxxxx>
- To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:38:06 -0700
Wow. This is indeed wild! Definitely a keeper post. I've never used wild cards
in Word, so many thanks to both George and Susan for this.
This might be something worth adding to the Working with Word help files.
Jean
"Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes, Art is knowing which ones
to keep."
--Scott Adams
----- Original Message -----
From: George Bell
To: duxuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 9:27 AM
Subject: [duxuser] Word and Wildcards (and UEB Telephone Numbers)
If you are a Unified English Braille (UEB) user, read on. If not, read on
anyway. This could be useful.
Once in a blue moon, I find out about something which gets me quite excited,
and that is exactly what happened this week courtesy of Susan Christensen. (And
I hope I've spelled your last name correctly!) It's such a neat trick that I'm
sure many Word users may well find it invaluable in your day to day
transcription. I'll explain what my problem was, but if you need to do
anything different, it's up to you to do more research.
My problem related to telephone numbers.
The mechanics are relatively simple. A "hard space" in DBT (Alt +F2), in
place of the space, will prevent numbers going over two lines, and in the case
of UEB will produce the required dot 5.
In Word, this is called a "non-breaking space" (Ctrl + Shift + Space)
DBT will see these non-breaking spaces when it imports a Word file, and will
put the required ['] code for a hard space into the text.
That's fine, but what if you have a Word Document with around a hundred
telephone numbers in it? You will very quickly find in Word that you can't
just look for number space number, and replace with number non-breaking space
number. Here's the solution.
In Word's Search and Replace dialog, in the "Find what:" field, carefully
enter the following:
([0-9]) ([0-9])
What we have here are two Expressions. Groups of Expressions are contained in
Parenthesis, and a single Expression is contained within Square Brackets. So
in this case we are looking for a number between zero and nine. Note I said
"two expressions", which is what appears here, but with a regular spacebar
space between them.
Now let's look at the "Replace with:" box into which we type: (Honest, it's
not as bad as it looks!)
\1^s\2
The backslash one, simply says replace with the same number found in the
first expression above.
Circumflex s is Word's code for a non-breaking or hard space.
The backslash two, says replace with the same number found in the second
expression.
Now now for the vitally important bit. (which you'll be sure to forget first
time round)
Click on the "More" button in the Search and Replace dialog.
Now check the box marked, "Use wildcards".
Now you can click "Replace", or if you are confident, "Replace All".
Don't be surprised if you don't actually see anything on screen. Click on
Show/Hide and you will now see what looks like a degree sign (a tiny
superscript circle) in place of the space between numbers.
DBT will now import the file and add the hard space codes as we require.
MANY THANKS AGAIN SUSAN - you've saved me a great deal of time, so I guess I
can afford to take time out now for a cup of tea.
George.
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