Find and replace (FnR) wildcards for Microsoft Word

?= Any 1 character

 *=Any string of characters

@ any number of repeats of the previous character

<=the beginning of a word

 >=the end of a word

{n}=n repeats of the previous char

{n,}=at least n repeats

 {n-m}= between n and m repeats

[ ] marks a set of characters

 A - used inside this means an ascending range between the two hyphenated characters

 A !, only valid at the set’s start, means ‘any character except’.

() groups the expressions and indicates the order of evaluation. It is used with the n wildcard to rearrange expressions. The result of the 1^st () pair is represented by 1, the next pair 2 and so on.

The easiest way to use a special character as a literal, eg to find a {, use the ASCII code instead. ASCII codes are specified in ANY sort of search with the ^.

= ^92                   {=^123                   }=^125                   ?=^63
*=^42                   [=^91                    ]=^93                    ^=^94
@=^64                   <=^60                   >=^62

To find some relevant information in Word’s help file, go to Contents > Editing and Sorting text > Finding and Replacing Text.

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