End of cell character for searching and replacing in a table?

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pjs - 15 May 2008 18:13 GMT

(Using Word 2003 and Windows XP)

I have a table full of numbers (22.3 88.5 45.7 ...)

I'd like to add a % sign at the end of each (22.3% 88.5% 45.7% ...)

If this were text, I know I could replace ^t with %^t. But I can't find the
caret or other code for the cell end. I tried ^n, which is the column break,
but no luck. I know I could also convert the table to text, do the ^t replace
above, and convert back to a table, but I thought I'd see if there's a
within-table search I could learn.

Thanks,

pjs

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Klaus Linke - 15 May 2008 20:33 GMT

Hi pjs,

The bad news: You can't search for the end.of-cell-marker.

The good news: You probably don't need to.

Select the table or column in which you want to replace.
Search for the paragraph style that's applied (... other formatting might
work as well), leaving "Find what" empty, and put ^&% in "Replace with".

Regards,
Klaus

> (Using Word 2003 and Windows XP)
>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> pjs

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pjs - 15 May 2008 20:48 GMT

Klaus --

Very interesting. Worked like a charm. Two questions:

1) Any idea why you can't search for end of cell characters?

2) Why does ^&% work?

Thanks for the solution,

pjs

> Hi pjs,
>
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> >
> > pjs

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Klaus Linke - 15 May 2008 21:16 GMT

> 1) Any idea why you can't search for end of cell characters?

No ... Seems just like some technical decision that was made way back in
Word 1 or 2 by the designers.
Probably it was just simpler to avoid the complexities that would arise.

> 2) Why does ^&% work?

When you search for a style or formatting in a table, Word matches the text
cell by cell.
^& in "Replace with" re-inserts the matched text... The only thing left to
do is to add the % sign, to get the result you want.

> Thanks for the solution,

You're welcome!
Klaus

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