Global replace all in Word using the clipboard?

October 10, 2009 2:38 PM

How can I (quickly) globally replace text in word with a footnote (or anything from my clipboard)?

I have a document that is hundreds of pages long, and has certain phrases that are made repeatedly, and I need to make edits to those repeated phrases. In most cases, this is not a problem. I can get pretty far just by using "Replace All", typing the phrase I need to change in the first box, and the new text in the bottom.

But I'm running into problems when I get phrases with footnotes in them. I can find phrases with footnotes just fine using ^f, but you can't replace that way. The best solution I've got so far is to type a unique phrase in the replace window (like qqqq), and then manually search for each instance of the phrase and replace with a footnote copied from my clipboard. But this means I need to do this search about 80 times each time it comes up. Is there some way to do a global search and replace, where the replace uses whatever is in my clipboard?

posted by kingjoeshmoe to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

Best answer: I found it I found it! This book taught me that ^c is an undocumented symbol in word, that will replace text with whatever is in the clipboard. This is exactly what I needed. Mods, feel free to delete, or leave up if you think others will find this useful.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 3:04 PM on October 10, 2009