Highlight words from a word list

Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Highlight Words from a Word List.

Paul has a document that he needs to check against a word list contained in another document. If the document being checked contains one of the words in the list, then the word in the document (not in the word list) needs to be highlighted by being made bold. The word list is large, on the order of 20,000 words, and Paul is wondering what the best way to do this is.

There are two ways you can proceed. The first is to write your own macro that will do the comparisons for you. If you put the words you want checked into a document named “checklist.doc” in the C: drive, then the following macro can be used:

Sub CompareWordList()
    Dim sCheckDoc As String
    Dim docRef As Document
    Dim docCurrent As Document
    Dim wrdRef As Object

    sCheckDoc = "c:checklist.doc"
    Set docCurrent = Selection.Document
    Set docRef = Documents.Open(sCheckDoc)
    docCurrent.Activate

    With Selection.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Font.Bold = True
        .Replacement.Text = "^&"
        .Forward = True
        .Format = True
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .MatchCase = True
        .MatchWildcards = False
    End With

    For Each wrdRef In docRef.Words
        If Asc(Left(wrdRef, 1)) > 32 Then
            With Selection.Find
                .Wrap = wdFindContinue
                .Text = wrdRef
                .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
            End With
        End If
    Next wrdRef

    docRef.Close
    docCurrent.Activate
End Sub

All you need to do is have the document open that you want checked, and then run the macro. If the document containing the words to check is named differently or in a different location, just change the line that sets sCheckDoc so that it has a different full path name for the document.

Basically, the macro grabs each word from the word list and then does a Find and Replace operation using that word in the document. If you have many, many words in the word list, then the macro can take quite a while to run—20,000 Find and Replace operations is quite a few!

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…

I have a typing field that’s linked to the afinn word list. This is the project i am using: https://github.com/CodingTrain/website/tree/master/CodingChallenges/CC_044_afinn111SentimentAnalysis/P5

The detected words from the list are written below, telling the score of the word.

I want the detected words to be highlighted directly in the typing field. (shades of red for negativ words with a score from -5 to -1 and shades of green for positive words with a score from +1 to +5)

I was not able to create an example that runs in stackoverflow, but here’s an example from github how it works right now:
https://darenr.github.io/afinn/

The piece of code will be used on a website.
The code is using the p5.js library and the afinn wordlist (json file): https://github.com/CodingTrain/website/blob/master/CodingChallenges/CC_044_afinn111SentimentAnalysis/P5/afinn111.json
I normally do design, so i’m really not good in coding. I hope you understand the question.

javascript:

// Daniel Shiffman
// http://codingtra.in
// http://patreon.com/codingtrain
// Code for: https://youtu.be/VV1JmMYceJw


var afinn;

function preload() {
  afinn = loadJSON('afinn111.json');
}


function setup() {
  noCanvas();
  console.log(afinn);

  var txt = select('#txt');
  txt.input(typing);

  function typing() {
    var textinput = txt.value();
    var words = textinput.split(/W/);
    console.log(words);
    var scoredwords = [];
    var totalScore = 0;
    for (var i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
      var word = words[i].toLowerCase();
      if (afinn.hasOwnProperty(word)) {
        var score = afinn[word];
        console.log(word, score);
        totalScore += Number(score);
        scoredwords.push(word + ': ' + score + ' ');
      }
    }
    var scorePar = select('#scoreP');
    scorePar.html('score: ' + totalScore);
    var comp = select('#comparativeP');
    comp.html('comparative: ' + totalScore / words.length);
    var wordlist = select('#wordlistP');
    wordlist.html(scoredwords);

    //console.log(txt.value());
  }
}





function draw() {

}

html:

<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>AFINN-111 demo</title>
  <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"             src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/p5.js/0.8.0/p5.min.js"></script>
  <script language="javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/p5.js/0.8.0/addons/p5.dom.min.js"></script>
  <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="sketch.js">    </script>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>AFINN Sentiment Demo</h1>

  <p>
    Type here:<br />
    <textarea id="txt" cols=50 rows=10></textarea>
  </p>

  <p id="scoreP"></p>
  <p id="comparativeP"></p>
  <p id="wordlistP"></p>

</body>
</html>

Problem:
I need the scored words from the afinn list to be highlighted directly in the typing field. In shades of red (negative words, from -5 to -1) and shades of green (positve words, from +1 to +5)

I hope anyone can help! It would be so much appreciated!

Strongly based on my answer at How to insert a symbol to the beginning of a line for which a word appears?. However, I had to extend the logic to handle multiple color assignments. Syntax is multiple invocations of WordsToNote{space separated list}{color} and then NoteWords{multiple paragraph input}

Macros in the input are limited to style (e.g., textit) and size (e.g., small) changes. Otherwise, only plain text is accepted.

As detailed in the referenced answer, I adapt my titlecaps package, which normally capitalizes the first letter of each word in its argument, with a user-specified list of exceptions. Here, instead of capitalizing the words, I leave them intact. However, I trap the user-specified word exceptions and use them to set a different color.

In this extension of that method, I had to revise two titlecaps macros: titlecap and seek@lcwords.

The method cannot handle word subsets, but it can ignore punctuation.

EDITED to fix bug when flagged word appears with punctuation, and issue with first word of paragraphs.

documentclass{article}
usepackage{titlecaps}
makeatletter
renewcommandtitlecap[2][P]{%
  digest@sizes%
  if Tconverttildedef~{ }fi%
  redefine@tertius%
  get@argsC{#2}%
  seek@lcwords{#1}%
  if P#1%
    redefine@primus%
    get@argsC{#2}%
    protected@edefprimus@argi{argi}%
  else%
  fi%
  setcounter{word@count}{0}%
  redefine@secundus%
  def@thestring{}%
  get@argsC{#2}%
  if P#1protected@edefargi{primus@argi}fi%
  whiledo{value{word@count} < narg}{%
    addtocounter{word@count}{1}%
    if Fcsname found@wordroman{word@count}endcsname%
      notitle@word{csname argroman{word@count}endcsname}%
      expandafterprotected@edefcsname%
           argroman{word@count}endcsname{@thestring}%
    else
      notitle@word{csname argroman{word@count}endcsname}%
      expandafterprotected@edefcsname%
         argroman{word@count}endcsname{color{%
           csname colorromannumeralvalue{word@count}endcsname}%
      @thestringcolor{black}{}}%
    fi%
  }%
  def@thestring{}%
  setcounter{word@count}{0}%
  whiledo{value{word@count} < narg}{%
    addtocounter{word@count}{1}%
    ifthenelse{value{word@count} = 1}%
   {}{add@space}%
    protected@edef@thestring{@thestring%
      csname argroman{word@count}endcsname}%
  }%
  let~SaveHardspace%
  @thestring%
  restore@sizes%
un@define}

% SEARCH TERTIUS CONVERTED ARGUMENT FOR LOWERCASE WORDS, SET FLAG
% FOR EACH WORD (T = FOUND IN LIST, F= NOT FOUND IN LIST)
renewcommandseek@lcwords[1]{%
kill@punct%
  setcounter{word@count}{0}%
  whiledo{value{word@count} < narg}{%
    addtocounter{word@count}{1}%
    protected@edefcurrent@word{%
      csname argromannumeralvalue{word@count}endcsname}%
    deffound@word{F}%
    setcounter{lcword@index}{0}%
    expandafterdefcsname%
            found@wordromannumeralvalue{word@count}endcsname{F}%
    whiledo{value{lcword@index} < value{lc@words}}{%
      addtocounter{lcword@index}{1}%
      protected@edefcurrent@lcword{%
        csname lcwordromannumeralvalue{lcword@index}endcsname}%
%% THE FOLLOWING THREE LINES ARE FROM DAVID CARLISLE
  protected@edeftmp{noexpandscantokens{defnoexpandtmp%
   {noexpandifthenelse{noexpandequal{current@word}{current@lcword}}}}}%
  tmpifhmodeunskipfitmp
%%
      {expandafterdefcsname%
            found@wordromannumeralvalue{word@count}endcsname{T}%
      expandafterprotected@edefcsname colorromannumeralvalue{word@count}endcsname{%
       csname CoLoRcsname lcwordromannumeralvalue{lcword@index}endcsnameendcsname}%
      setcounter{lcword@index}{value{lc@words}}%
      }%
      {}%
    }%
  }%
if P#1deffound@wordi{F}fi%
restore@punct%
}
makeatother
usepackage{xcolor}
newcommandWordsToNote[2]{Addlcwords{#1}edefassignedcolor{#2}%
  assigncolor#1 relaxrelax}
defassigncolor#1 #2relax{%
  expandafteredefcsname CoLoR#1endcsname{assignedcolor}%
  ifxrelax#2elseassigncolor#2relaxfi%
}
newcommandNoteWords[1]{NoteWordsHelp#1parrelax}
longdefNoteWordsHelp#1par#2relax{%
  titlecap[p]{#1}%
  ifxrelax#2elseparNoteWordsHelp#2relaxfi%
}
begin{document}
WordsToNote{foo bar at}{red}
WordsToNote{Nulla dolor nulla}{cyan}
WordsToNote{amet est et}{orange}
WordsToNote{Lorem Ut ut felis}{green}
NoteWords{
textbf{Lorem ipsum dolor foo sit amet, bar consectetuer adipiscing elit}. Ut
purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur
dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget,
consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec vehicula augue eu
neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et
malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo. Cras viverra metus
rhoncus sem. textit{Nulla et lectus foo} vestibulum urna fringilla ultrices.
Phasellus eu tellus sit amet tortor gravida placerat. Integer sapien
est, iaculis in, pretium quis, viverra ac, nunc. Praesent eget sem
vel leo ultrices bibendum. scshape Aenean faucibus. Morbi dolor nulla,
malesuada eu, pulvinar at, mollis ac, nulla. Curabitur auctor semper
nulla. Donec varius orci eget risus. upshape Duis nibh mi, congue eu,
accumsan eleifend, bar sagittis quis, diam. Duis eget orci sit amet orci
dignissim rutrum.

textsf{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet}, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut
purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur
dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget,
consectetuer id, foo vulputate a, magna. Donec vehicula augue eu
neque. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et
malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Mauris ut leo. Cras viverra metus
rhoncus sem. Nulla et lectus vestibulum urna fringilla ultrices.
Phasellus eu tellus sit amet tortor gravida placerat. Integer sapien
est, iaculis in, pretium quis, viverra ac, bar nunc. Praesent eget sem
vel leo ultrices bibendum. Aenean faucibus. Morbi dolor nulla,
malesuada eu, pulvinar at, mollis ac, nulla. Curabitur auctor semper
nulla. Donec varius orci eget risus. Duis nibh mi, congue eu,
accumsan eleifend, sagittis quis, diam. Large Duis eget orci sit amet orci
dignissim rutrum.normalsize
}
end{document}

This is a simpler version of a previous blog post—it doesn’t require you to set up and store a separate file of the words you want to highlight.

I wanted to create a list of vague words (such as some, most, often, frequently, sometimes—words that aren’t explicit or specific enough in technical writing and editing) that a simple Microsoft Word macro could find and highlight for me. I found some macros online that each partly solved the problem, and adapted one from Macropod (Paul Edstein) to suit my purposes as it was the closest to what I wanted. Full thanks to Macropod for this one.

There are several ways you can adapt this macro—I’ve commented some of my ideas in the code. I think the words are case sensitive, so if you want one with a capital (e.g. Some), you should add it as another entry.

NOTE: Copy all the code below to the clipboard—it goes off the page, so don’t type it out as you’ll miss some of it or could make a typo—then paste it into your VBA window.

Sub VagueWords()

' Source: Paul Edstein (Macropod), 8 Aug 2015: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-to-search-and-replace-multiple-wordsletters-in/af4753a0-7afd-433b-910d-a148da66f2bf
' Original macro name: MultiReplace
' Adapted by Rhonda Bracey, Cybertext Consulting, 22 Feb 2020
' You could duplicate this macro with a different name (e.g. LegalWords [for must, shall, etc.]) using a different list of words in the StrFind and StrRepl lists

Dim StrFind As String
Dim StrRepl As String
Dim i As Long

' In StrFind and StrRepl, add words between the quote marks, separate with a comma, NO spaces
' To only highlight the found words (i.e. not replace with other words), either use StrRepl = StrFind OR use the SAME words in the same order in the StrRepl list as for the StrFind list; comment/uncomment to reflect the one you're using
' To replace a word with another and highlight it, put the new word in the StrRepl list in the SAME position as the word in the StrFind list you want to replace; comment/uncomment to reflect the one you're using

StrFind = "very,just,rarely,often,frequently,majority,most,minority,some,perhaps,maybe,regularly,sometimes,occasionally,best,worst,worse,better,seldom,few,many"
StrRepl = StrFind
' StrRepl = "very,just,rarely,often,frequently,majority,most,minority,some,perhaps,maybe,regularly,sometimes,occasionally,best,worst,worse,better,seldom,few,many"
Set RngTxt = Selection.Range

' Set highlight color - options are listed here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.wdcolorindex
' main ones are wdYellow, wdTurquoise, wdBrightGreen, wdPink
Options.DefaultHighlightColorIndex = wdTurquoise

Selection.HomeKey wdStory

' Clear existing formatting and settings in Find and Replace fields
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
    Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

With ActiveDocument.Content.Find
  .Format = True
  .MatchWholeWord = True
  .MatchAllWordForms = False
  .MatchWildcards = False
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .Forward = True
  For i = 0 To UBound(Split(StrFind, ","))
    .Text = Split(StrFind, ",")(i)
    .Replacement.Highlight = True
    .Replacement.Text = Split(StrRepl, ",")(i)
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  Next i
End With
End Sub

For another way to do this, but instead changing the colour of a selected set of words, see https://wordribbon.tips.net/T013773_Changing_the_Color_of_a_List_of_Words.html

Update Oct 2020: A professor has made a YouTube video for his students/colleagues of this in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIg95ETFxMQ

[Links last checked June 2020]

1. 01-13-2021, 07:51 AM

   
   

   #1

   

   
   Forum Contributor
   

   

   ---

   Highlight words from word list macro please
   

   Hi all,

   I have no idea how to write a macro and hope someone can help with the followign.

   I have a list of words in cell A1 example:

   test, tested, participant, new, help, helper

   and I have lots of comments in cell B1 to B1000. How do I write a macro/way of highlighting words in red font in cell B1 to B1000 which are from Cell A1? Any help appreciated. thank you!!

   Thanks,

   R.

   
   

   ---

2. 01-13-2021, 08:53 AM

   
   

   #2

   Re: Highlight words from word list macro please
   

   a quick and simple nonMacro solution is to put your data in a Table and Filter it. in the filtered column you can put things like «Test*» or «*test*» which will do the same thing as a macro. Once your results are displayed, you can color as you like.

   ---

3. 01-13-2021, 08:53 AM

   
   

   #3

   Re: Highlight words from word list macro please
   

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4. 01-13-2021, 08:56 AM

   
   

   #4

   Re: Highlight words from word list macro please
   

   Last edited by Mumps1; 01-13-2021 at 09:00 AM.

   You can say «THANK YOU» for help received by clicking the Star symbol at the bottom left of the helper’s post.
   Practice makes perfect. I’m very far from perfect so I’m still practising.

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5. 01-13-2021, 09:09 AM

   
   

   #5

   Re: Highlight words from word list macro please
   

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