Replacing Quoted Text with Italics

In many word processors, an author may call out material with quote marks. For instance, the first time a term is introduced, the author may enclose the term in quote marks. In Word, however, you can call out information with italics. Manually changing quoted material to italics can be very time consuming.

The following macro, QuotesToItalics, checks the current paragraph for quoted material. If there is any, it deletes the quotes and changes the text between the quotes to italics. If the quote marks are unbalanced (there is an opening or closing quote mark with no corresponding closing or opening quote mark), then the quote mark is ignored, and no changes are made. The macro works with either regular quotes or smart quotes.

Sub QuotesToItalic()
    Dim Redo As Boolean
    Dim Ptr As Integer
    Dim Ptr1 As Integer
    Dim P As String
    Dim P1 As String

    If Selection.ExtendMode Then Exit Sub
    Redo = True
    While Redo
        Selection.StartOf Unit:=wdParagraph, Extend:=wdMove
        Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdParagraph
        P = Selection.Text
        Ptr = InStr(P, Chr(34))
        If Ptr = 0 Then Ptr = InStr(P, Chr(147))
        If Ptr > 0 Then
            Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdMove
            Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=Ptr
            Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdParagraph
            P1 = Selection.Text
            Ptr1 = InStr(P1, Chr(34))
            If Ptr1 = 0 Then
                Ptr1 = InStr(P1, Chr(148))
                EndChar = Chr(148)
            Else
                EndChar = Chr(34)
            End If
            If Ptr1 > 0 Then
                Selection.MoveLeft Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=2, _
                  Extend:=wdMove
                Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter
                Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, _
                  Count:=Ptr1 - 1, Extend:=wdExtend
                Selection.Font.Italic = True
                Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdMove
                Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter
            Else
                Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdMove
                Redo = 0
            End If
        Else
            Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Extend:=wdMove
            Redo = 0
        End If
    Wend
End Sub

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9502) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Replacing Quoted Text with Italics.