Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 20, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Heidi has fifteen documents, each comprised chiefly of one long table. She needs to create a macro to search row-by-row and somehow highlight (either by shading, bolding, changing font, etc.) any row that doesn't have a parenthesis character anywhere in the row. Alternatively, she can also highlight rows that do contain a parenthesis character—she just needs to be able to distinguish between rows that do and rows that don't.
There are many ways that such a macro could be approached, but one that searches for an opening or closing parenthesis is relatively easy. The following example will do the search, row by row, and if either character is found, it will highlight the row by making the background yellow.
Sub HilightRows() Dim TargetText1 As String Dim TargetText As String Dim oRow As Row Dim iCol As Integer 'initialize the target characters to find TargetText = "(" TargetText1 = ")" 'Make sure we're in a table If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) Then 'Clear all the old shading Selection.Tables(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorWhite 'do all the rows For Each oRow In Selection.Tables(1).Rows If InStr(oRow.Range.Text, TargetText) > 0 Then _ oRow.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorYellow If InStr(oRow.Range.Text, TargetText1) > 0 Then _ oRow.Shading.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorYellow Next oRow End If End Sub
Note:
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (568) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Noting Table Rows Containing a Character.
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