Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Pay Attention to Case when Searching for ASCII Codes.

Pay Attention to Case when Searching for ASCII Codes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 1, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


You may already know that you can search for most anything when you are using Word's searching tool. One of the things for which you can search is any character's ASCII code. What you may not know is that searching for an ASCII code is not case sensitive.

What does this mean? When you search for an ASCII character such as ^0065 (the capital letter A), you should not expect Word to only return the letter A; it also matches with the lowercase letter a, which is an ASCII code of ^0097. This anomaly only happens when searching for alphabetic characters.

To get around the problem, make sure you utilize the Match Case check box, the same as you would if you were looking for letters instead of ASCII codes. In other words, if you only want ^0065 to match with an uppercase A, then you should make sure that Match Case is selected before doing your search.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1517) 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: Pay Attention to Case when Searching for ASCII Codes.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Copying Formats

Want to copy a format from one place to another without taking your hands off the keyboard? It's easy to do if you apply ...

Discover More

Determining the Upper Bounds of an Array

When working with variables in a macro, you may need to know the upper boundary dimension for an array. This can be ...

Discover More

Problems with Default Workbook and Worksheet Templates

You can create a default template for both your workbooks and worksheets. These should be placed in the XLSTART folder, ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Quick and Dirty Paragraph Count

Need to know how many paragraphs are in a document? You can use Word's Find and Replace feature to get a count quickly.

Discover More

Searching for Special Characters

When using the Find and Replace feature of Word, you can search for more than plain text. You can also search for ...

Discover More

Searching for Text that Does Not Have a Certain Format

You can easily use Find and Replace to find text that has a particular format to it. Most people don't know you can use ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is seven minus 2?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.