Highlight Words from a Word List

And once again thank you to Allen, and the commenters, for this tip. I use it to highlight use of apostrophied (didn't) words.

Keith 2018-02-19 16:21:58 had a problem with the Find including partial words - I too had this problem.
Resolved it by moving: For Each wrdRef In docRef.Words code-line to immediately before
With Selection.Find statement.
Is this the right thing to do? I'm not sure but it appeared that the original did not reset the match whole words in the F & R box.
Any clarification would be most welcome.

Dear Allen,
I want to highlight the words in the checklist file only that doesn't present in the active document, can you modify your code to do my requirement?
Thanks

Is there any way to pull from a list that is in an Excel workbook instead of another Word document? How would I do that?

I'm an editor, and I would like to use this macro to draw my attention to words that are often used incorrectly or confused for another word, especially homophones which can escape my editorial eye.

I ran the comparewordlist macro as a test, and it highlighted parts of words. For example, I have "less" on my confusables list, and it highlighted the "less" portion of blessings.

I set matchwholeword to true, so I am not sure why this is happening.

Here is the code. Could you point out what I need to change so it only highlights full word matches on my list?

Sub CompareWordList()
Dim sCheckDoc As String
Dim docRef As Document
Dim docCurrent As Document
Dim wrdRef As Object


sCheckDoc = "C:\Users\dsrt1\Google Drive\Katie\Business Beacon Point\Copy editing\Tools\Macros\confusables.docx"
Set docCurrent = Selection.Document
Set docRef = Documents.Open(sCheckDoc)
docCurrent.Activate

With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.Highlight = True
.Replacement.Text = "^&"
.Forward = True
.Format = True
.MatchWholeWord = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWildcards = False
End With

For Each wrdRef In docRef.Words
If Asc(Left(wrdRef, 1)) > 32 Then
With Selection.Find
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Text = wrdRef
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End If
Next wrdRef

docRef.Close
docCurrent.Activate
End Sub

What if the words I want to highlight are all listed in A column of in an excel file ?

I have a similar question. I need to highlight all words in my .doc file that are find in a particular tab of an excel file. Is this possible?

Hello,

I have a similar problem/question :
I would like that the macro highlights only stand-alone words and also stand-alone phrases , as 'work' but not in 'working' or as 'still work' but not in 'still working'. Or another example : 'allen john' but not in 'allen johnson'.
And indeed, also not 'allen' nor 'john' as a separate word.
They also should to be found at the beginning or ending of a phrase.

I hope you can solve this problem,
Thanks,
Johan


Trim(wrdRef) is not working


Sub Test2()

Dim sCheckDoc As String
Dim docRef As Document
Dim docCurrent As Document
Dim wrdRef As String
Dim wrdPara As Paragraph

sCheckDoc = "Alerts.docx"
Set docCurrent = Selection.Document
Set docRef = Documents.Open(sCheckDoc)
docCurrent.Activate

With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.Font.bold = True
.Replacement.Font.ColorIndex = wdRed
.Replacement.Text = "^&"
.Forward = True
.Format = True
.MatchWholeWord = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWildcards = False
End With

For Each wrdPara In docRef.Paragraphs
wrdRef = wrdPara.Range.Text
wrdRef = Left(wrdRef, Len(wrdRef) - 1)
With Selection.Find
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Text = wrdRef
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
Next wrdPara
docRef.Close
docCurrent.Activate

End Sub

Hello.

this function is really interesting. However, it will highligh all single words.
What should I do if I want to highlight a list of strings composed of several words (Like phrasal verb or expression for exemple)
For exemple, I want it to highlight all "Fill out" but leaving alone all "fill" and "out" that are not a part of "Fill out"

Thank you.

Grace,

You are missing a line from the macro:

Set docCurrent = Selection.Document

I didn't check for any other missing lines.

-Allen

Hello!
I'm desperately trying to make this macro work, I've created a new macro, typed it in manually as i've read copy-paste sometimes doesn't work, i've double-checked for any typos and yet when i try to run it, an error pops up, saying this:

Run-time error '91':
Object variable or With block variable not set

and when i try to debug it, it highlights the 9th row of code, the one that says doc.Current.Activate.

i've googled it but I've not idea what to do, honestly, my field of expertise is the opposite of computers. If you could possibly bother to help me out here, I'd be truly grateful.
Thank you so much in advance!

ps: this is my current macro code:

Sub CompareWordLists()
'
' CompareWordLists Macro
'

Dim sCheckDoc As String
Dim docRef As Document
Dim docCurrent As Document
Dim wrdRef As Object

sCheckDoc = "C:\Users\Grace\Documents\Macros\testchecklist.docx"
Set docRef = Documents.Open(sCheckDoc)
docCurrent.Activate

With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.Highlight = True
.Replacement.Text = "^&"
.Forward = True
.Format = True
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWildcards = False
End With

For Each wrdRef In docRef.Words
If Asc(Left(wrdRef, 1)) > 32 Then
With Selection.Find
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Text = Trim(wrdRef)
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End If
Next wrdRef

docRef.Close
docCurrent.Activate


End Sub

Hi all,

Thanks heaps for the macro!
I'm learning coding in visual vba and I was wondering if we could modify this marcro to the form where it can search across multiple word files instead of one?

I applied the macro and it worked perfectly but I have got nearly 100 word documents that need to check against a word list, that means I will have to do the same step 100 times which is quite time consuming & troublesome.

I would appreciate, if you could help me with solving this matter.

Kindest,
Sean

what is the second way?

BRILLIANT Ken,

That worked "straight out of the box" Thank you so much.

Regards Paul

Your problem is that the colour settings are outside the For Each wrdRef loop, they need to be set inside the loop.

Rather than use many Case statements, a neater way is to use an arrays of colour values and use NextColour to index them. Because the array indexes start at 0 NextColor also needs to start at 0. The colour values in the arrays can be obtained from the WdColorIndex enumeration. I suggest that you use the light grey colour instead of white because if the highlighting is removed then the text is invisible.

Dim hColor
Dim tColor
hColor = Array(7, 2, 4, 9, 13, 14, 11) ' etc for additional colors
tColor = Array(1, 16, 1, 16, 16, 1, 1) ' items must match the hcolor items
NextColour = 0

The For Each wrdRef loop now is:

For Each wrdRef In docRef.Words
If Asc(Left(wrdRef, 1)) > 32 Then
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = hColor(NextColour)
With Selection.Find
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Text = Trim(wrdRef)
.Replacement.Font.ColorIndex = tColor(NextColour)
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
NextColour = NextColour + 1
If NextColour > UBound(hColor) Then NextColour = 1
End If
Next wrdRef

I have a document with usually 2 or 3 keywords, sometimes up to 10.
I wanted to highlight each in a different colour.
It seems the code below that I have modified selects every other TestWord, but I cannot see why.
On running the code it was clear black text on some colours was illegible.
My feeble attempt to use white text for some background colours has also failed.
Clearly, I am a baby macro writer~ can you set me straight?
Regards Paul

Sub TestWords()

Dim sCheckDoc As String
Dim docRef As Document
Dim docCurrent As Document
Dim wrdRef As Object
Dim NextColour As Integer
NextColour = 1

sCheckDoc = "C:\Users\user name\Documents\TestWords.doc"
Set docCurrent = Selection.Document
Set docRef = Documents.Open(sCheckDoc)
docCurrent.Activate
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdYellow

With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.Highlight = True
.Replacement.Text = "^&"
.Forward = True
.Format = True
.MatchWholeWord = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWildcards = False
End With

For Each wrdRef In docRef.Words
If Asc(Left(wrdRef, 1)) > 32 Then
With Selection.Find
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Text = Trim(wrdRef)
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End If

NextColour = NextColour + 1
Select Case NextColour
Case Is = 2
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdBlue
Selection.Font.Color = wdWhite

Case Is = 3
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Is = 4
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdDarkBlue
Selection.Font.Color = wdWhite

Case Is = 5
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdDarkRed
Selection.Font.Color = wdWhite

Case Is = 6
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdDarkYellow
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Is = 7
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdGreen
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Is = 8
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdPink
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Is = 9
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdRed
Selection.Font.Color = wdWhite

Case Is = 10
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdTeal
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Is = 11
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdTurquoise
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Is = 12
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdViolet
Selection.Font.Color = wdWhite

Case Is = 13
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdWhite
Selection.Font.Color = wdBlack

Case Else
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdGray50
Selection.Font.Color = wdWhite
End Select

Next wrdRef

docRef.Close
docCurrent.Activate

End Sub

Ken, that works and is EXACTLY what I wanted.
Thank you for such a clear and quick reply.

Paul

To highlight the words in yellow modify the macro as follows:

Immediately before the “With Selection.Find” statement insert the statement:
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdYellow

Replace the statement “.Replacement.Font.Bold = True” with:
.Replacement.Highlight = True

This is almost exactly what I wanted.
The only enhancement is I would like the replaced word to be highlighted yellow not shown in bold.
I lack the VBA skills to go that ~ any guidance gratefully accepted.

The macro will only find words that have a following space which means that it misses words at the end of a sentence or paragraph or words that are immediately followed by a character such as semi-colon.

To fix this change the line:
.Text = wrdRef

to:
.Text = Trim(wrdRef)

When I try to use this macro, it does partial words as well. I'm pretty new to macros and visual basic, but I noticed that it contains the code "matchwholeword = true". Is there a reason this isn't working for me?

So smart. This is excellent, thanks!