Search/Find two words that are not next to each other

[Philos]

This is like a Boolean search; like you search in Google. You search for two
or three words and finds documents with those words, anywhere in the
document. However, in this case, in Word 2003, I am searching for two words
in ONE SENTENCE, anywhere in the sentence. If I am not mistaken this feature
was available in earlier editions of Word. Any solutions?

[CyberTaz]

You might be able to do it with wildcards, such as :

. *word1*word2*.

Starting with the period followed by a space and ending with a period to
indicate that the string be within a sentence. Haven't tested it, but it
ought to work.

Good Luck |:>)

On 8/28/05 4:55 PM, in article
78320130-2BE2-49B1...@microsoft.com, "Philos"

[Philos]

I tried the following
. *Peter*that* It finds these words, and the period preceeding them. But
they are not in one sentence. They are anywhere in the document.
likewise for this
*Peter*that*

"CyberTaz" wrote:

> You might be able to do it with wildcards, such as :
>

> .. *word1*word2*.

[Philos]

In earlier versions of Word, I cannot remeber exactly, but there was a
feature in the search (some type of wildcard), where you entered a number,
lets say, 15 and it would find the two words you are searching for within 15
spaces. Does this help?

"CyberTaz" wrote:

> You might be able to do it with wildcards, such as :
>

> .. *word1*word2*.

[Doug Robbins]

Try including a period after the final * as was suggested.

See the article "Finding and replacing characters using wildcards"
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/UsingWildcards.htm

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP
"Philos" <Phi...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4A14CF9B-BF92-4E6B...@microsoft.com...

[Graham Mayor]

word1?{15,}word2

See http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org

[Philos]

I used the following:
same?{1,}drink
Results: it finds these words anywhere in the document.
I read You articel "Finding and replacing characters using wild cards" It
says,
{n,m} finds text containing between “n” and “m” occurrences of the previous
character or expression; so a{2,3} will find “aa” and “aaa”, but only the
first 3 characters in “aaaa” ).
So I used a second number to limit the previous "?" (any character) to five
times
same?{1,5}drink
Results: it still finds these words anywhere in the document.
What can be done to set a limit of the number of spaces or characters
between the two words in a search?

[Doug Robbins]

same[A-z ]{1,25}drink

in a Wildcard Find will find "same" and "drink" with a maximum of 25
characters (including spaces) between them

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP
"Philos" <Phi...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:2DCC0FBD-0B6C-4B6B...@microsoft.com...

[Philos]

Yes, I did try it with the period. It does not work: it does not limit the
distance between the words that are being searched. The asterisk * between
the words searches for "one or MORE spaces and/or characters." Is there a
way to LIMIT the spaces and/or characters between two words being searched?

[Philos]

Still loking for help. Boolean search is so common and useful ... wouldn't
the Microsoft programmers have thought of it?

"Philos" wrote:

> I used the following:
> same?{1,}drink
> Results: it finds these words anywhere in the document.

> I read You article "Finding and replacing characters using wild cards" It

[Philos]

Doug, thanks you for the help. However, this search will find the words
EXACTLY 25 characters appart. (It will not find them if they are 20
characters apart.)

[Bob Buckland ?:-) At Beautiful Downtown]

Hi Philos,

Some of Word's solutions require a macro rather
than just using the Word user interface. You didn't
mention if you are just searching for those words or
if you have a need to do processing of some type
on them once found, but it sounds like you're
looking to do a conditional search (i.e. if within
a sentence you find 'same' then look for 'drink'
else, stop looking).

Word doesn't really 'think' in terms of sentences.
If you're looking for a particular string within
a given area of your document, then
If you use your cursor to select a word string,
phrase, sentence or paragraph and then do your
Find or Find/Replace Word will generally limit
the initial search to the selected area.

With a sentence selected using Edit/Replace
with Wildcards and a search string of

same*drink*.

and using a replace string of
^& plus [Format] Font Red
did do a search similar to what Google's default is.

=========
<<"Philos" <Phi...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:1E9D6180-5EAF-4960...@microsoft.com...

Still loking for help. Boolean search is so common and useful ... wouldn't
the Microsoft programmers have thought of it? >>

--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx

[Philos]

I am just searching for words. For example I want to find out "he went
fishing in the lake." I search for "fishing" and "lake" to find out where in
the book this event took place. Now, if Word doesn't 'think' in terms of
sentences, does it think in terms of paragraphs? I would settle for earching
two words in the same paragraph.
I do not need to process the words. I am looking though books. For
example, one book has 400K words.