Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Occurrences of a Text String within a Document.
Marc is looking for the fastest, most efficient way—within a macro—to determine a count of how many times a particular text string occurs within a document. Unfortunately there is no way to do this with a simple command or two; instead you need to "step through" a document using the Find and Replace feature of Word.
First, make a temporary copy of your document so that you don't run the risk of messing up your original document. Then use a variable in your macro to count the number of times the desired text gets replaced, and increment the variable every time a replacement occurs. In the following example, the number of times will end up in the variable Replacements. You can then use the value or convert the value to a string to display it.
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
Sub CountReplacements
Dim Replacements As Integer
Replacements = 0
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = InputBox("Enter the text you want to find:")
.Replacement.Text = InputBox("Enter the replacement text:")
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceOne
Do Until Not .Found
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceOne
Replacements = Replacements + 1
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Loop
If Replacements <> 0 Then
MsgBox _
"" & .Text & " has been replaced " & _
CStr(Replacements) & " times with " & _
.Replacement.Text
Else
MsgBox .Text & " was not found in the document/selection."
End If
End With
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 (11941) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Occurrences of a Text String within a Document.
Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!
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2017-06-24 20:05:24
Isabel Leonard
There's an easier way to count occurrences of a text string within a document. 1) Copy the document. The new doc will be temporary. 2) Replace the text string by any character, such as @. Word will tell you how many times this was done. 3) Delete the temporary document.
2017-06-07 01:33:30
Thanks for your daily nugget - a wonderful service.
But today ('Occurrences of a text string'), I wonder if I've misunderstood something.
Because if I want to check how many occurrences of, eg, Jones, Jones & Co I've got in a text, I turn off Tracking, put Jones, Jones & Co into both the search and the replace boxes, and hit Replace all.
This then tells me the number of times Jones, Jones & Co was replaced.
And I turn Tracking back on again (if it was off in the first place).
What I'm uncertain about, though, is whether a phrase like Jones, Jones & Co counts as a Text String ... ?
2014-04-20 05:33:06
Surendera M. Bhanot
Tough at times there is no solution without Macros and Macros work fine at other instances. Macros are not universal in nature and cannot be employed in all the cases.
In-build capabilities of the application are rather more effective and universal. I void macros and rely more on in-build capabilities. Thanks to Mabel for one such capability of word.
2014-04-20 00:19:23
sarma
This is a good macro I was looking for.
Instead of entering required text string in the inputbox, please suggest a way so that the macro picks up a selected string automatically and counts the occurrences.
I tried but failed to set the selection to a variable.
Regards,
Sarma
2012-07-23 13:25:01
Mark Gordon
I created a document using
=rand(10)
ran the code above with the inputs Insert and Inserted and the results incorrectly reported 9 instances instead of 8
looking at the document the first paragraph now read
"On the Inserteded tab, the"
The macro found the first word twice.
Users have to be careful with what they select as the replace text
repeating the steps but uing "zzzz" (or something that is not already in the document) as the replacement text yielded the correct results
2012-07-23 10:56:22
mabel
There's also a non-macro way of counting the instances of a given string: Go to Home > Find > Advanced Find > In the "Find what" box, white your string, click on the "Reading Highlight" button and in the drop-down select "Hightlight All". This will display in the same dialog box the number of times the string appears in your document and hightlight where it appears in the document.
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