Knowledge Base

WD98: "Replace With" Format Incorrect with Recorded Macro

Article ID: 181843

Article Last Modified on 6/17/2005

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q181843

SYMPTOMS

When you run a macro that was recorded to find and replace formatting, the "Replace With" formatting will be applied to the text located at the insertion point.

CAUSE

When you use the Find or Replace commands on the Edit menu, you can specify formatting by choosing that formatting item from one of the built-in toolbars.

For example, to find all paragraphs formatted for center alignment, follow these steps:

In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the Find What box.
Click the Center Alignment button on the Formatting toolbar.

This will apply center alignment as a search criteria.

When you record a macro to perform these steps, the action of clicking the formatting button is recorded as part of the Edit or Replace command, as expected. However, these actions are also recorded as separate commands in the macro. When you run the recorded macro, this results in the Replace With formatting being applied to the area where the search begins.

For example, if you have the following text in your document

   This is paragraph one that is left-aligned.
               This is paragraph two that is center-aligned.
   This is paragraph three that is left-aligned.

and, for this example,

The search criteria in the recorded macro for Find What is set to Center Alignment.
The Replace With criteria is set to Right Alignment.
The insertion point is in the first paragraph prior to running the macro.

the result will format both paragraphs one and two with right alignment, as in the following example:

                          This is paragraph one that was left-aligned.
                          This is paragraph two that was center-aligned.
This is paragraph three that is left-aligned.

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.

Method 1: Use the Format Button in the "Find and Replace" Dialog Box

In the Find And Replace dialog box, use the Format button to set the Find What and Replace With criteria. (The Format button is located at the bottom of the "Find and Replace" dialog box.)

Method 2: Edit the Recorded Macro and Remove the Extra Commands

You can remove or disable the formatting commands that were applied when you recorded the macro.

To edit the macro, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
In the list of available macros, select the macro to edit.
Click Edit.

In the Visual Basic Editor window, scroll through the macro until you see commands similar to the following:

      Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter
      Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphRight
      Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
      Selection.Find.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter
      Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
      Selection.Find.Replacement.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = _
         wdAlignParagraphRight
      With Selection.Find

Comment the two lines of code prior to Selection.Find.ClearFormatting by adding an apostrophe at the beginning of the lines.

Example:

      'Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphCenter
      'Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphRight
      Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

On the File menu, click "Close and Return to Microsoft Word."

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the products listed at the beginning of this article.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

173707 OFF97: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

163435 VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

Additional query words: wordcon vb vba vbe

Keywords: kbbug kbmacro kbmacroexample kbdtacode kbpending KB181843

Microsoft KB Archive/181843

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