Missing full stops and semicolons at end of paragraphs in Word 2010

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I am trying to quality control some updated house style documents and wondered whether there was a quick way of checking for missing full stops (or semi-colons for lists) at the end of paragraphs or to just highlight the paragraph marks that have no punctuation. Thanks Shelley

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What is a “full stop”?

If you know exactly what character should (or should not) be in a certain spot, you can do a manual search for those characters. You could also do a Find-and-Replace, to replace the incorrect characters with the correct ones.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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A full stop is what I call a period. (Like the one at the end of the previous sentence.)

I do not know how to search for everything except a certain character.

Turning ondisplay of non-printing formatting marksmay help.

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A full stop is what I call a period. (Like the one at the end of the previous sentence.)

I was thinking more along the lines of CR-LF (carriage return – line feed). You could likely search for that, since it is a specifically-defined character string.

I do not know how to search for everything except a certain character.

I guess I was unclear — I meant to say search for specific characters, whether they are the ones you want to keep or the ones you want to eliminate.

Turning ondisplay of non-printing formatting marksmay help.

Ah! Reveal Codes! I’ve been looking for Reveal Codes for years in Word, and all this time it was right in front of me.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Hi
I worked on a series of punctuation fix tools a year or two ago. My focus was to apply and correct punctuation in bulleted lists, especially styles that used “;” or “,” and want the second to last line to have “; and” inserted and the last line ending in “.”. I found doing this to be a pain, especially when I had to edit the list and then reapply the “,and” rules. With the tool, all you need to do is hit a shortcut key anywhere in the list and the rule format is correctly reapplied to the list – it saves a great deal of low value editing time.

I don’t leave many body text paragraphs without a training “.” character. What I do find is that when I use tables to quickly record information, I often forget the “.” and may leave an extra blank line at the end of the cell. I developed another tool which adds the “.” to cell paragraphs if it is missing, and removes these blank lines for each of the selected cells in a table. This is a real time saver as it can process an entire table in one keystroke.

In both cases the tools step through each paragraph checking the last character. This isn’t as slow as it may sound. One of the challenges is determining the boundaries of a bulleted list so only that list is processed, especially in document with numbered paragraphs. As always, doing this in the context of table cells also has its challenges, because Word uses hidden characters to denote cell boundaries.

I have added the driving loop for the punctuation fix and table format code below to give some idea of the processing. There are other supporting routines not shown because because there is a lot of exception handling. You can download the full routines for free at DocumentProductivity. There are many other word editing enhancements also available there.

Code:

[SIZE=1]Private Sub wrkPunctFix(iPara As Long, ilastPara As Long, iMethod As Integer)
‘=========================================================================================================================
[B]‘Fixes the punctuation for the paragraph and format type passed[/B]
‘Release 09 Aug 2014 Martin Coomber documentproductivity.blogspot.co.nz
‘Deletes trailing and, then deletes any existing punctuation
‘Then adds the punctuation characters required for each rule
‘=========================================================================================================================
    Dim iChar As Integer
    Dim rPara As Range
    Dim sInputVal As String
    Dim bDeleteWrongTerminatingChar As Boolean
    
    Set rPara = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(iPara).Range
      
    ‘Process the start of the Para
    If iMethod = 3 Then
       rPara.Characters(1).Select
        If Selection.Range.Case = wdLowerCase _
        Then Selection.Range.Case = wdUpperCase
    End If
    
    ‘Now process text at the end of the line – works for end table cell too
    iChar = rPara.Characters.Count – 1 ‘dont process end of para character
    While rPara.Characters(iChar).Text = ” ”
        rPara.Characters(iChar).Select
        Selection.Delete ‘ but does not seem to delete the last space in a para
        iChar = iChar – 1 ‘ Handle blanks at end and table cChars
    Wend
   
    ‘Delete and
    rPara.Characters(iChar).Select
    Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-3
    If Selection.Text = ” and” Then
        Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
        iChar = iChar – 4
    End If
    
    ‘Delete terminating character
    If InStr(“.;, “, rPara.Characters(iChar).Text) > 0 Then
        rPara.Characters(iChar).Select
        Selection.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
        iChar = iChar – 1
    End If
    
    rPara.Characters(iChar).Select
    Select Case iMethod ‘ now add characters
        Case 1 ‘;
            If iPara  (ilastPara) Then Selection.InsertAfter “;”
            If iPara = (ilastPara – 1) Then Selection.InsertAfter ” and”
            If iPara = (ilastPara) Then Selection.InsertAfter “.”
        Case 2 ‘,
            If iPara  (ilastPara) Then Selection.InsertAfter “,”
            If iPara = (ilastPara – 1) Then Selection.InsertAfter ” and”
            If iPara = (ilastPara) Then Selection.InsertAfter “.”
        Case 3 ‘.
            Selection.InsertAfter “.”
        Case 4 ‘ on last line only
            If iPara = (ilastPara) Then Selection.InsertAfter “.”
    End Select
    
    If iPara = ilastPara Then ‘Position cursor at end
        ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(ilastPara).Range.Characters.Last.Previous.Select
        Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
    End If
    
End Sub

===============================
Format each cell in a range
==============================

For Each cCell In rSelect.Cells
While wrkCellRemoveTrailingBlankLines(cCell) ‘ clean up cell
Wend
‘Skip cells in Row 1 ‘
If cCell.ColumnIndex >= iColStart And cCell.ColumnIndex 1 Then
For Each pPara In cCell.Range.Paragraphs
iCnt = iCnt + 1
StatusBar = “Smart Format ” & iCnt

iChar = pPara.Range.Characters.Count – 1 ‘dont process end of para character
If iChar > 0 Then
While pPara.Range.Characters(iChar).Text = ” ”
pPara.Range.Characters(iChar).Select
Selection.Delete ‘ but does not seem to delete the last space in a para
iChar = iChar – 1 ‘ Handle blanks at end and table cChars
Wend
End If
If iChar >= 1 Then ‘ check if not a blank line
pPara.Range.Characters(iChar).Select
bAddPeriod = True
If bAddPeriod And InStr(“.:;?!,”, Selection.Text) > 0 Then bAddPeriod = False
If bAddPeriod And Selection.Range.Bold 0 Then bAddPeriod = False
If bAddPeriod Then
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-2
If Selection.Text = ” or” Then bAddPeriod = False
End If
If bAddPeriod Then
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
If Selection.Text = ” and” Then bAddPeriod = False
End If
If bAddPeriod Then Selection.InsertAfter “.”
‘ handle and/or
End If ‘ test for not a blank line
Next pPara
End If ‘test for skip cols/rows
Next cCell
rSelect.Select[/SIZE][/CODE]

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***

Ah! Reveal Codes! I’ve been looking for Reveal Codes for years in Word, and all this time it was right in front of me.

For more, see Shift+F1 Reveal Formatting.

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For more, see Shift+F1 Reveal Formatting.

Very useful stuff, Charles!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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For more, see Shift+F1 Reveal Formatting.

Very useful stuff, Charles!

Thank you.

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You could do a wildcard Find, where:
Find = [!^13.:;?!]^13
This will highlight any paragraph that doesn’t end with .:;? or !

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Thank you Macropod, this is probably what I need as I can add this wildcard search to my highlight macro. I have set my highlight macro to show any punctuation missing in pink, digits in yellow and everything else in green (please see the attached document).

I am trying to insert at the beginning of the macro to first delete white space after paragraphs so that the macro does not highlight any punctuation already present.

Is there also a way to tell the macro to only highlight if there is one space after a fullstop/question mark and ignore if there are already two spaces.

The reason for this macro is to perform quality control checks only and not to find and replace anything, only to highlight the mistakes in the documents so I can visually see what is wrong and make a report.

Code:

Sub DPU_QAHighlightPunctuation()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim strFnd As String, i As Long
With ActiveDocument.Range.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Forward = True
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .MatchCase = False
  .MatchWholeWord = True
  .MatchWildcards = False
  .MatchSoundsLike = False
  .MatchAllWordForms = False
  .Replacement.Text = “^&”
  .Replacement.Highlight = True
  Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdYellow
   .MatchWildcards = True
  .Text = “[0-9[]^0145^0146^0147^0148]{1,}”
  .Replacement.Text = “^&”
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
 .Text = “[ ]([,:;.)])”
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdGreen
   .Text = “([.?])[  ]”
   .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
   Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdPink
   .Text = “([!^13.:;?!]^13)”
   .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
 ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
  With Selection.Find
    .ClearFormatting
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting
    .Replacement.Highlight = False
    .Text = “^d”
    .Replacement.Text = “”
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindContinue
    .Format = True
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  End With
  ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

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I am trying to insert at the beginning of the macro to first delete white space after paragraphs so that the macro does not highlight any punctuation already present.

Is there also a way to tell the macro to only highlight if there is one space after a fullstop/question mark and ignore if there are already two spaces.

Try:

Code:

Sub DPU_QAHighlightPunctuation()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
With ActiveDocument.Range.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Forward = True
  .Format = False
  .Execute
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .MatchWildcards = False
  .Replacement.Highlight = False
  'Delete fields
  ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
  .Text = "^d"
  .Replacement.Text = ""
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
  'Highlight digits, square backets & smart quotes
  .Text = "^p^w"
  .Replacement.Text = "^p"
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  .MatchWildcards = True
  .Replacement.Highlight = True
  Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdYellow
  'Highlight digits, square backets & smart quotes
  .Text = "[0-9[]^0145^0146^0147^0148]{1,}"
  .Replacement.Text = "^&"
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  'Highlight spaces followed by punctuation
  .Text = "[^s ]([,:;.)])"
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdGreen
  'Highlight punctuation not followed by two ordinary spaces
  .Text = "([.?])[^s ][! ]"
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdPink
  'Highlight characters other than paragraph breaks or punctuation followed by a paragraph break
  .Text = "([!^13.:;?!]^13)"
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

PS: You really should comment your code, so you’ll know what each part does later on.
Note: I deleted your final Find/Replace as it doesn’t actually do anything.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Hi all, I would like to update my missing punctuation macro further with the following:

1. ignore paragraphs/headings in bold text;
2. ignore instances of paragraphs that end with semi-colons and the words ‘or’ and ‘and’ e.g. ‘; or’ or ‘; and’

Is this at all possible to include in the coding below please. Many thanks

Code:

‘is there any punctuation missing’
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdPink   
.Text = “([!^13.:;?!]^13)”
   .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

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You could do a wildcard Find, where:
Find = [!^13.:;?!]^13
This will highlight any paragraph that doesn’t end with .:;? or !

Hi Macropod
Is there a way of also ignoring any bold text before a paragraph mark, I’m struggling with the coding for this.
Thanks Shelley

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It occurs to me that the Grammarly Add-In for Word and Outlook may well provide this functionality as well.

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Hi Charles, thanks for the reply but I have absolutely no idea what that means unfortunately – I am not a coder I simply quality control documents for house style and have put together a highlight macro which quickly shows me what is wrong with the document in a variety of colours – the particular bit I’m looking to update is highlighting where missing punctuation is in pink but I want it to ignore any text in bold which are usually clause headings and also when paragraphs end with
; or / ; and – thanks Shelley

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I thought that Grammarly sounded interesting, so I downloaded the install file. A while later, I got an email informing me of the “plans”. They range from about $12 a month (paid annually) to $30 a month (paid monthly).

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See Grammarly for Office. I am confident it will find most punctuation anomalies.

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See Grammarly for Office. I am confident it will find most punctuation anomalies.

Hi Charles
Thanks for this, unfortunately my company have put administration restrictions on anything being downloaded so I am unable to use this. Thanks anyway – Shelley

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Good luck with your macro solution, then.

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