Word.Tips.Net Welcome toWord.Tips.Net

Helpful Links

Tips.Net Home
WordTips Home

Ask a Word Question
Make a Comment

Tips.Net Store

WordTips FAQ
WordTips Premium

Learn Access Now
Free Printable Forms

Beauty Tips
Car Tips
Cleaning Tips
College Tips
Cooking Tips
Excel2007 Tips
ExcelTips
Family Tips
Gardening Tips
Health Tips
Home Tips
Legal Tips
Money Tips
Organizing Tips
Pest Tips
Pet Tips
Wedding Tips
Word2007 Tips
WordTips

Advertise on the
WordTips Site

Newest Tips

Arranging Document Windows

Specifying a Backup Location

Controlling Chart Gridlines

Merging Table Cells

Collapsing and Expanding Subdocuments

Zooming With the Keyboard

Initiating a New Search

 

Counting the Instances of a Text String

Summary: Sometimes it is helpful to know how often a particular phrase appears within a document. If you need to know such a count, here's a handy macro you can use to get the desired info. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

When you are working in a large document, you may want to know how many times a particular text string occurs within a portion of the document. One way you can find this information is to create a macro that will examine a selected range of text to see how many instances it contains. Consider the following macro:

Sub CountString()
    Dim MyDoc As String, txt As String, t As String
    MyDoc = ActiveDocument.Range.Text
    txt = InputBox("Text to find")
    t = Replace(MyDoc, txt, "")
    MsgBox (Len(MyDoc) - Len(t)) / Len(txt) & " occurrences of " & txt
End Sub

Select the text you want analyzed and then run the macro. It assigns the selected text to the MyDoc variable (so nothing in the actual document is affected) and then asks you to enter the text string you want to find. The Replace function is then used to replace all the instances of that string within the MyDoc variable. The text, after the replacement, is assigned to the variable t. The length of the "before" text (MyDoc) and the "after" text (t) is compared and the number of replacements calculated.

Tip #3788 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Great Idea! Word is a tool to get what you really want—printed output. This means you need to make sure that Word works as well as possible with your printer, whether it is sitting on your desk or in a room down the hall.
 
Check out WordTips: Printing and Printers today!