WD: How to Search for Special Characters When Pattern Matching

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This article was previously published under Q122758

SUMMARY

If you select Pattern Matching in the Find or Replace dialog box, the following special characters cannot be used in the Find What text box:

   Character     Meaning
   ---------     -------

   ^p            Paragraph mark
   ^e            Auto-numbered endnote reference mark
   ^d            Field
   ^f            Auto-numbered footnote reference mark
   ^b            Section break
   ^w            White space (one or more spaces)

When Use Pattern Matching is selected, Word uses an entirely different search engine. This alternative search engine is not designed to search for the special characters listed above.

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WORKAROUND

To find the characters listed above when you have Use Pattern Matching selected, use the following substitutes in the Find What box:

   Standard      Substitute        Meaning
   --------      ----------        -------

   ^p            ^13               Paragraph mark (see Note 1)

   ^e            ^2                Auto-numbered endnote reference mark
                                   (see Note 2)

   ^d            (see Note 3)      Field

   ^f            ^2                Auto-numbered footnote reference mark

   ^b            ^12               Section break or page break (see Note 4)

   ^w            <space>{1,}       White space (see Note 5)

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Notes

Works in Word for Windows only. There is no equivalent substitute in Word for the Macintosh.
When using these substitutes, it is not possible to differentiate between endnote and footnote reference marks.
There is no equivalent substitute for ^d (Field).
When using ^12 to search for section breaks, page breaks will also be found by this pattern. Thus, ^12 is a limited substitute for ^b.
For the substitute of ^w (white space), "<space>" means that a space character should precede the "{1,}". Do not type out "<space>" in the Find What text box.

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MORE INFORMATION

For information about this issue in later versions of Word, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176776 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/176776/EN-US/ ) WD: Searching for Special Characters When Use Wildcards Selected

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APPLIES TO

Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Word 6.0a
Microsoft Word 6.0c
Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
Microsoft Word 95a
Microsoft Word 6.0 for Macintosh
Microsoft Word 6.01 for Macintosh

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kbhowto kbualink97 KB122758

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Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

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