Easily change words in text?

Hang of Thursdays · Mar 4, 2005

Go to:

EDIT

FIND

Click on the replace tab. Go from there.

You should be able to do a "change all", automatically, but that might leave you with some odd punctuation artifacts.

cwfgal · Mar 4, 2005

There is a search and replace function in Word in the "Edit" menu. Go to "find" and then choose the "replace" tab. Type in the word you want the program to find in the first box and the word you want to replace it with in the second. Then I would look at the "more" menu at the bottom of that box and choose (if appropriate)"match case" and/or "find whole words only." Otherwise the program might replace a string of letters inside a word. For instance, I did a search once for the name "Andy" to replace it with "Bob" and didn't check the whole words or match case boxes. All the Andy occurrences were changed to Bob but then words like randy, dandy, and sandy came out as rBob, dBob, and sBob.

You can also go through the work one find at a time by using the "find next" button. That lets you view each change before it's made and edit as needed.

Beth

Tilda · Mar 4, 2005

Writing Again · Mar 4, 2005

Just one of the reasons I love computers.

Nateskate · Mar 4, 2005

Just one additional point to remember. (I've used this feature a few times)

If you change Tom to Bill.

You do as they said: Hit "Replace All"

But things you might forget. You not only have to replace Tom to Bill, but every variation of the name you used: Tom's to Bill's, Tommy to Billy. Otherwise, you'll end up with an absolute mess on your hands.

I did that with fantasy nations which give you more headaches than you can imagine.

Lets say you have a Nation call Bill. And the people are called The Billites. There are: Bill, Bill's, Billites Billites' ...etc. You can't forget any variation, or you end up with absolute confusion. "Who are the Tomites?"

Maryn · Mar 4, 2005

I've had similar problems, Nateskate. I changed Judith to Elizabeth, no problem--but Judy, Jude, and the interrupted dialogue, "No, Ju-- Stop!" didn't fly.

Depending on what you're changing, you can also change things you didn't mean to.

Lets say you have a Nation call Bill. And the people are called The Billites. There are: Bill, Bill's, Billites Billites' ...etc. You can't forget any variation, or you end up with absolute confusion.

There's also the possibility of creating tomions of tomboards, characters in restaurants examining the tom of fare or gesturing to the waiter for their toms... you get the idea.

Maryn

JanaLanier · Mar 4, 2005

I once did a global replacement of "blaster" for "gun" (a change I have since changed back, since "blaster" is way too Star Wars-ish).

I got some great lines out of it, like "I've only just beblaster."

Nateskate · Mar 4, 2005

Maryn said:
I've had similar problems, Nateskate. I changed Judith to Elizabeth, no problem--but Judy, Jude, and the interrupted dialogue, "No, Ju-- Stop!" didn't fly.

Depending on what you're changing, you can also change things you didn't mean to. There's also the possibility of creating tomions of tomboards, characters in restaurants examining the tom of fare or gesturing to the waiter for their toms... you get the idea.

Maryn

Oh what a wicked web we weave, when we try a global solutiuon! Hopefully we catch it in the re-write.

Here's another problem I ran into with Epic Fantasy. Use of two spellings of the same name "Dwarfs" Dwarves". I don't have Dwarves or Dwarfs in the story, but you get the gist.

I made up a name for so many things. Once in awhile, I would "Add" the variations to the spell checker, so it wouldn't pick up the error that I had two spellings of the same name.

Tilda · Mar 4, 2005

stormie · Mar 4, 2005

Tilda,

Glad you brought this matter up. A few years ago, after being half way through my manuscript, I decided to change the protaganist's name. I didn't know about the Microsoft Word feature of "find" and "replace." Took a day to go through the whole thing and I was not a happy person. Finally, somehow I realized about that feature and now, of course, I always use it. But as others have said, be careful and reread.

Steve 211 · Mar 5, 2005

One way to not get mixed up, as with "beblaster," is to put spaces before and after the word, like " gun ", and then do variations, like " gun," and " gun's" and so on. But while it works, it's time consuming.

What's cool is that, in just looking at the Replace box, I happened to see the "find whole words only" option.

I tried it out and it works great. Take this:

bob went to the store.

i went with bob.

i went with bob, joe, and harry.

we bobbed for apples.

we went to bob’s.

we went on a bobsled.

"do you know bob?"

"bob is a jerk."

If "Bob" was capitalized, a "match case" works great - changes only the name Bob. But even if they're lower case, as with "gun," you just click on that "find whole words only" and it works perfect: all variations of punctuation and placement in the sentence work with it, and the other words aren't changed.

bill went to the store.

i went with bill.

i went with bill, joe, and harry.

we bobbed for apples.

we went to bill’s.

we went on a bobsled.

"do you know bill?"

"bill is a jerk."

maestrowork · Mar 5, 2005

put a space before the word... and I think there's an option to match only the entire word, and not partial... so you don't change "Bobblehead" to "Jasonblehead."

CACTUSWENDY · Mar 5, 2005

OK, any idea how to take a word out of the dictionary that you have added to it?

Thanks ahead of time.....

Jonathon Michaels · Mar 5, 2005

CACTUSWENDY said:
OK, any idea how to take a word out of the dictionary that you have added to it?

Try this:

Click on Tools, then on Options, then on the Spelling & Grammar tab.

There should be a button under the first set of checkboxes that says "Custom Dictionaries." Click on that.

Most people unknowingly use custom.dic, the default. Highlight it if it isn't already, and click on Modify.

Your custom list of words (thankfully not the whole word dictionary, that's another file) should come up. Now simply highlight the word you'd like to delete and click on the Delete button.

Hope that helps, if you have any problems just do this: :Hammer:

If you can't afford a new computer, I guess a reply here will work too.

Jonathon

Jamesaritchie · Mar 6, 2005

Rite of Pasage

Jonathon Michaels said:
Try this:

Click on Tools, then on Options, then on the Spelling & Grammar tab.

There should be a button under the first set of checkboxes that says "Custom Dictionaries." Click on that.

Most people unknowingly use custom.dic, the default. Highlight it if it isn't already, and click on Modify.

Your custom list of words (thankfully not the whole word dictionary, that's another file) should come up. Now simply highlight the word you'd like to delete and click on the Delete button.

Hope that helps, if you have any problems just do this:

If you can't afford a new computer, I guess a reply here will work too.

Jonathon

I read "Rite of Passage" and enjoyed it. It caught by eye because about ten or twelve years ago I sold a short story to "InSights" with the same title.

pepperlandgirl · Mar 6, 2005

I changed a character's name from "Faith" to "Hope" using the global search and replace.

Since you're all writers, I'm sure you can imagine quite easily the mess I had on my hands as a result.

Jonathon Michaels · Mar 6, 2005

Jamesaritchie said:
I read "Rite of Passage" and enjoyed it. It caught by eye because about ten or twelve years ago I sold a short story to "InSights" with the same title.

Thanks! I'm thinking of touching it up a bit and expanding it into a full-length work. Sort of a Harry Potter meets Johnny Torch sorta thing. Haven't decided for sure yet on the details but it's on my "to-do" list.

Maryn · Mar 6, 2005

stormie said

A few years ago, after being half way through my manuscript, I decided to change the protaganist's name. I didn't know about the Microsoft Word feature of "find" and "replace." Took a day to go through the whole thing and I was not a happy person.

Not nearly as time consuming as my friend in a critique group. Her husband surprised her with a new computer, but she was not enthusiastic because moving to it meant retyping her entire novel into it. Nobody had ever told her about copy, paste, or diskettes, the poor thing. For a little while, I was a hero...

Maryn

PattiTheWicked · Mar 8, 2005

Changing Names

Tilda said:
I am an impulsive writer, and every now and then I find myself in a situation where I need to change a character's name or a placename.

The biggest problem I had was about 50 pages into my WIP, I realized that the character who was supposed to be the MC's brother actually worked better as a sister. Changing Scott to Samantha was easy, using Find and Replace, but going back and changing all the "his" "her" and "he"s to the female equivalent was a bear.

I'm just happy I figured it out at page 50, instead of say, page 350.

James D. Macdonald · Mar 8, 2005

Don't forget, as one of your last steps, to read the whole darned thing, out loud, off hardcopy.

Birol · Mar 8, 2005

JanaLanier said:
I once did a global replacement of "blaster" for "gun" (a change I have since changed back, since "blaster" is way too Star Wars-ish).

I got some great lines out of it, like "I've only just beblaster."

Or you could just hit "More" button on the Find/Replace popup. That gives you lots more options to limit what it finds and how it replaces? One of these options is a little checkbox for "Find Whole Words Only" that completely eliminates the above problem.

There's also options to change formatting. For instance if you had used italics to show the text you wanted italicized and your publisher wanted it underlined instead, there's a "Format" button that lets you change this.

Easily change words in text?

Tilda

Hang of Thursdays

useless info sponge

cwfgal

On the rocks

Tilda

Writing Again

Living Life In The Sandbox

Nateskate

Maryn

I Tried

JanaLanier

Snarling Cur

Nateskate

Tilda

stormie

storm central

Steve 211

Here and There

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

CACTUSWENDY

An old, sappy, and happy one.

Jonathon Michaels

The Elvis of Webmasters

Jamesaritchie

pepperlandgirl

American Aquarium Drinker

Jonathon Michaels

The Elvis of Webmasters

Maryn

I Tried

PattiTheWicked

Unleashing Hell.

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Birol

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