Replacing Quoted Text with Italics with WordBasic

In many word processors, an author may call out material with quote marks. For instance, the first time a term is introduced, the author may enclose the term in quote marks. In Word, however, you can call out information with italics. Manually changing quoted material to italics can be very time consuming, however. The following WordBasic macro, QuotesToItalics, will check the current paragraph for quoted material. If there is any, it will delete the quotes and change the text between the quotes to italics. If the quote marks are unbalanced (there is an opening or closing quote mark with no corresponding closing or opening quote mark), then the quote mark is ignored and no changes are made. The macro will work with either regular quotes or smart quotes.

Sub MAIN
If ExtendMode() Then Cancel
Redo = - 1
While Redo
    ParaDown 1, 1
    CharRight
    ParaUp 1, 1
    P$ = Selection$()
    Ptr = InStr(P$, Chr$(34))
    If Ptr = 0 Then
        Ptr = InStr(P$, Chr$(147))
    End If
    If Ptr > 0 Then
        CharLeft
        CharRight Ptr
        ParaDown 1, 1
        P1$ = Selection$()
        Ptr1 = InStr(P1$, Chr$(34))
        EndChar$ = Chr$(34)
        If Ptr1 = 0 Then
            Ptr1 = InStr(P1$, Chr$(148))
            EndChar$ = Chr$(148)
        End If
        If Ptr1 > 0 Then
            CharLeft
            EditClear - 1
            ExtendSelection EndChar$
            Cancel
            FormatFont .Italic = 1
            CharRight
            EditClear - 1
        Else
            CharRight
            Redo = 0
        End If
    Else
        CharRight
        Redo = 0
    End If
Wend
End Sub