Automatically Inserting Brackets

Many different documents have many different requirements for their construction. For instance, you may have a document where it is necessary to put certain recurring words within brackets so that they stand out. (Some technical manuals use this convention to designate keystrokes, such as the [Enter] key.)

If you have a need such as this, you might find it helpful to simply type your text and then go back and later add the brackets. This is where a macro can come in handy to do the adding for you. For instance, you could select the word (double-click on it) and then run a macro that would add the brackets. The following macro will easily accomplish this task:

Sub AddBrackets()
    Dim iCount As Integer
    iCount = 1
    While Right(Selection.Text, 1) = " " Or _
      Right(Selection.Text, 1) = Chr(13)
        Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1, _
          Extend:=wdExtend
        iCount = iCount + 1
    Wend

    Selection.InsertAfter "]"
    Selection.InsertBefore "["
    Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=iCount
End Sub

The macro compensates for any spaces or paragraph marks at the end of your selection. When you are done running it, the insertion point is left at the end of the original selection. You can assign your macro to either a keyboard shortcut or to a custom toolbar tool.