Click Find All to display the search results in the Search panel. When you are searching within selected text, the found search terms are not highlighted in the document. The selected text can be a single block of text, or multiple selections of text in different places in the currently opened document. Find in Selected Text: Confines the search to the text that’s currently selected in the active document.This option is not available when the Use Regular Expressions option is selected you must explicitly write your regular expression to ignore whitespace. For example, with this option selected, "this text" would match "this text" but not "thistext". Ignore White Spaces: Treats all whitespace as a single space for the purposes of matching.Match Whole Word: Limits the search to text that matches one or more complete words.For example, a search for the b\w*\b dog will match both the black dog and the barking dog. Use Regular Expressions: Causes certain characters and short strings (such as ?, *, \w, and \b) in your search string to be interpreted as regular expression operators.For example, if you search for the brown derby, you will not find The Brown Derby. Match Case: Limits the search to code/tag/text that exactly matches the case of the text you want to find.Try it, if you want, but you will probably delete the "replace periods with a period and two spaces" entry shortly after the try.Use the following filters to expand or limit your search: You can, if you desire, cause AutoCorrect to replace every period you type with a period followed by two spaces, but this can lead to some very bizarre typing experiences. Thus, AutoCorrect entries cannot utilize spaces, so you cannot use AutoCorrect to search for a period followed by a space and replace it with a period followed by two spaces. Why? Because AutoCorrect uses the space character as a signal to trigger checking what was just typed. Another thing to note about this macro is that it corrects any sentences ending in a period, question mark, or exclamation point it will not catch and correct any sentences that end in a quote mark.įinally, just in case you are curious, you cannot effectively use AutoCorrect to change end-of-sentence spacing. Replacement.Text line so there is only one space in the replacement string. If you want to alter the macro so that it ensures all your sentences have only a single space at the end, you can simply change the. It will replace any number of spaces at the end of a sentence with two spaces: For those of you who want to automate the process of using search and replace, the following VBA macro is quite handy. The techniques to do this have been covered in other issues. If you want to do mass replacements of your end-of-sentence spacing, the best thing to do is to use the search and replace capabilities of Word. When you then right-click on the flagging, you can choose to correct the spacing for that occurrence. Now the grammar checker will flag any sentences that don't conform to your preference with a green wavy underline. Click on OK to close the Word Options dialog box.Click on OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.Use the drop-down list to indicate how many spaces you prefer between your sentences.
(The wording will vary by version of Word and the setting may be quite a ways down in the dialog box.) Scroll through the options until you find the Spaces Required Between Sentences drop-down list or the Space Between Sentences drop-down list.Word displays the Grammar Settings dialog box. Click the Proofing option at the left side of the dialog box.In Word 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.) (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. There are still things you can do, however.įirst of all, you can configure Word's grammar checker to flag any end-of-sentence spacing that doesn't match your preferences. Word does not provide an "automatic two spaces" setting, as is available in WordPerfect. That being said, the purpose of this tip is to explain how you can adjust your typing for the spacing you prefer. (Tom, I trust you will make your own educated decision about whether two spaces after a period is really necessary in this day and age.) There are, quite honestly, good reasons to do such spacing, and equally good reasons to not do it. I'm not going to get into considerations of what is right or wrong when it comes to spacing between sentences. It is interesting that every time a question about inter-sentence spacing comes up, I receive a flurry of messages indicating either that two spaces is a good idea or that two spaces represents poor form. Tom asked if there is a way to configure Word so it automatically places two spaces after each period, as can be done in WordPerfect.