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: Finding Long Sentences.
Bruce is looking for some way to have Word automatically mark long sentences in a document. For instance, he may want to have those sentences with more than 20 words marked in some color so that they are easily located.
Fortunately, Word maintains a Sentences collection, accessible through VBA, that consists of each sentence in a document. You can examine each item in this collection (each individual sentence) to determine if it is longer than your desired length. The following macro provides an example of how this is done.
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: 
Sub Mark_Long()
Dim iMyCount As Integer
Dim iWords As Integer
If Not ActiveDocument.Saved Then
ActiveDocument.Save
End If
'Reset counter
iMyCount = 0
'Set number of words
iWords = 20
For Each MySent In ActiveDocument.Sentences
If MySent.Words.Count > iWords Then
MySent.Font.Color = wdColorRed
iMyCount = iMyCount + 1
End If
Next
MsgBox iMyCount & " sentences longer than " & _
iWords & " words."
End Sub
Notice that each sentence is examined, and if it is longer than the desired length (defined by the variable iWords) then the sentence is changed to a red font color. This makes it easy to examine the document and discover which sentences exceed the length you specified.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3381) 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: Finding Long Sentences.
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2017-07-18 10:48:05
Kylie
Hi
It worked fantastically, but how do I now get rid of the red text? Is there something I can add to the code to have it turn back to black text once I edit it to under 20 words? Thanks
2016-05-16 19:31:18
Peter Thomas
This may be useful. I have had trouble over the last couple of years getting documents to preview in Windows explorer. Searching on the Internet leads me to believe I'm one of many. Today I solved my problem and it may be useful to others: - This is for Word 2016
1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click to the View tab.
3. Click on Preview Pane.
4. Go to the right hand side and click Options.
5. Click on the selection that drops down.
6. In the Folder Options dialogue box click on View
7. Scroll down and click the check-box for "Show preview handlers in preview pane".
8. Click Apply and OK. The preview for will now show in the Preview Pane of Windows Explorer.
I hope this can be of value to you and your readers.
Cheers
Peter Thomas
pfthomas@aapt.net.au
2015-04-22 08:13:47
Doug P
Just wanted to say thanks - this is great.
I'm an academic with a bad habit of writing long sentences and love the simplicity & flexibility of this.
Thanks for making and sharing this, you've made something that is useful. I hope you derive some satisfaction from knowing that!
Doug.
2013-11-13 04:16:50
Wende
Hi,
I am experiencing the same problem as beyondnerd. Is there a way to exclude puctuation marks from the sentence?
Please please help!
2013-04-24 16:47:23
beyondnerd
I just noticed a problem. The value of MySent.Words.Count seems to include the number of words plus the number of punctuation marks (commas, quotation marks etc.).Consequently the following 19 word sentence (for example) is marked as having over 20 words.
After the yellow sun goes down, beyond the horizon, the quick brown fox jumps over the fat lazy dogs.
Is there a way to get the actual word (not including punctuation count)for each sentence? The word count function on the review tab gets the correct count.
2013-04-15 01:49:40
beyondnerd
Very helpful, thank you
2013-03-03 10:38:36
Hi, Allen. I´m having problems with this macro, because my Word 2007 doesn´t understand "'Set number of words". In Visual Basic, it´s highlighted in red, as other commands I´ve found in Jack Lyon´s Macro Cookbook. Is it due to my version of MS Word? Will it work in more recent versions of the program, like Word 2010? Thank you!
2012-11-23 05:58:41
Sam Hale
Really useful, thanks!
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.
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