Word find text in table

In this article, we are glad to show you 3 quick ways to find specific text in your Word tables only.

Utilizing the “Find and Replace”, a built-in function in Word, you can search for and find a specific text in a long document. As you see, this is based on the entire document. How about we limit the searching range to Word tables only? Read on to see details.

Method 1: Find Text in Selection

1. First of all, manually select one or more tables in document.
2. Then click drop-down button next to “Find” command under “Home” tab.
3. Choose “Advanced Find” to open “Find and Replace” dialog box.
4. Enter finding text in “Find what” text box.
5. Click “Find In” tab and choose “Current Selection”.  

Word will find text in your selection only.

Method 2: Find Text in a Table

Besides the usual way, you can choose to run macro to do more customized tasks.

1. First off, put cursor inside a table where you want to find text.
2. Then press “Alt+ F11” to open VBA editor.
3. Click “Normal” on the left column.
4. Then click “Insert” and choose “Module”.
5. Next double click the module to open it.
6. Paste following codes into module:

Sub FindInATable()
  Dim strText As String
 
  strText = InputBox("Enter finding text here: ")
 
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  If Selection.Information(wdWithInTable) = True Then
    With Selection.Tables(1).Range
      With .Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = strText
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Format = False
        .MatchCase = False
        .MatchWholeWord = False
        .MatchWildcards = False
        .MatchSoundsLike = False
        .MatchAllWordForms = False
        .Execute
      End With
      Do While .Find.Found
        .Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
        On Error GoTo handler
        .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
        .Find.Execute
      Loop
    End With
  Else
    MsgBox ("Put cursor inside a table first.")
    Exit Sub
  End If
  handler: Exit Sub
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

1. Lastly, click “Run”. Enter a text inside the input box and click “OK” to proceed.

Method 3: Find Text in All Tables in a Document

1. First and foremost, repeat steps in method 2 to install and run a macro.
2. Next replace that macro with this one:

Sub FindTextsInAllTables()
  Dim strText As String
 
  strText = InputBox("Enter finding text here: ")
 
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  With Selection
    .HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
    With Selection.Find
      .ClearFormatting
      .Text = strText
      .Forward = True
      .Wrap = wdFindStop
      .Format = False
      .MatchCase = False
      .MatchWholeWord = False
      .MatchWildcards = False
      .MatchSoundsLike = False
      .MatchAllWordForms = False
      .Execute
    End With
    Do While .Find.Found = True
      If .Information(wdWithInTable) = True Then
        .Cells(1).Shading.BackgroundPatternColorIndex = wdBrightGreen
      End If
      .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
      .Find.Execute
    Loop
  End With
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

1. Similarly, type searching text inside the input box. And click “OK” to proceed.

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21.04.2020, 13:45

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Sub MMM()
For i = 1 To Word.ActiveDocument.Tables.Count
   For Each C In ActiveDocument.Tables(i).Range.Cells
   If C.Range.Text Like "*AA*" Then MsgBox ("Table #:" & i & Chr(13) & "Row:" & C.RowIndex & Chr(13) & "Column:" & C.ColumnIndex)
   Next
Next
End Sub

1

For Each C In ActiveDocument.Tables(i).Range.Cells

0

Hello — I have a tool to find and replace text within Word documents in a specified folder that I’ve cobbled together, which works pretty well. However, I need to be able to find text within a table in the specified document(s) and then replace text that is three cells to the right of that found text. Alternately, I need to be able to find specific text in the table, then find other specific text in the same row and replace that. Hope that makes sense. Table would look something like this:

Dog | Food | Dish | Water

Cat | Food | Bowl | Milk

Bird | Seed | Bottle | Water

I would want to find the row with «Bird» and then replace «Water» with «Juice». I don’t want to replace the first instance of «Water» (in the «Dog» row); only in the row starting with «Bird.»

Any ideas? My code is below:

Sub FindReplace()

Dim rngStory As Word.Range

Dim pFindTxt As String

Dim pReplaceTxt As String

Dim lngJunk As Long

Dim oShp As Shape

pFindTxt = InputBox(«Enter the text that you want to find.» _

, «FIND»)

If pFindTxt = «» Then

MsgBox «Cancelled by User»

Exit Sub

End If

TryAgain:p

ReplaceTxt = InputBox(«Enter the replacement.», «REPLACE»)

If pReplaceTxt = «» Then

If MsgBox(«Do you just want to delete the found text?», _

vbYesNoCancel) = vbNo Then

GoTo TryAgain

ElseIf vbCancel Then

MsgBox «Cancelled by User.»

Exit Sub

End If

End If

Dim FolderName As String

With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)

.AllowMultiSelect = False

.Show

On Error Resume Next

FolderName = .SelectedItems(1)

Err.Clear

On Error GoTo 0

End With

Dim fso, newFile, folder, files

Set fso = CreateObject(«Scripting.FileSystemObject»)

Set folder = fso.GetFolder(FolderName)

Set files = folder.files

For Each file In files

Documents.Open FileName:=file.Path

Application.DisplayAlerts = False

‘Fix the skipped blank Header/Footer problem

lngJunk = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(1).Range.StoryType

‘Iterate through all story types in the current document

For Each rngStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges

‘Iterate through all linked stories

Do

SearchAndReplaceInStory rngStory, pFindTxt, pReplaceTxt

On Error Resume Next

Select Case rngStory.StoryType

Case 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

If rngStory.ShapeRange.Count > 0 Then

For Each oShp In rngStory.ShapeRange

If oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then

SearchAndReplaceInStory oShp.TextFrame.TextRange, _

pFindTxt, pReplaceTxt

End If

Next

End If

Case Else

‘Do Nothing

End Select

On Error GoTo 0

‘Get next linked story (if any)

Set rngStory = rngStory.NextStoryRange

Loop Until rngStory Is Nothing

Next

ActiveDocument.Save ActiveDocument.Close

Next

Application.DisplayAlerts = True

MsgBox «Done!»

End Sub

Sub SearchAndReplaceInStory(ByVal rngStory As Word.Range, _

ByVal strSearch As String, ByVal strReplace As String)

With rngStory.Find

.ClearFormatting

.Replacement.ClearFormatting

.Text = strSearch

.Replacement.Text = strReplace

.Wrap = wdFindStop ‘Continue

.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceOne ‘All

End With

End Sub

When Peter wants to find a word at the end of a paragraph, he searches for XXX^p and replaces it with YYY^p. This doesn’t, however, find words at the very end of table cells. He wonders how he can search and replace the words at the end of table cells and if there is a special code similar to ^p.

There is no special code similar to ^p (end of paragraph) to indicate the end of a cell. There is a trick you can try, however, that works well for many people.

First, create a unique paragraph style that you will use only for the contents of the cells in your table. Make sure you apply this style to all of the cells within the table. Next, use Find and Replace to search for the style. In the Replace With box, enter the code ^& followed by what you want to add to the end of the cell. Then, step through all occurrences and do your replacements, as desired. The ^& code specifies that you want to replace what you found (the text in the cells formatted with the unique style) with what you actually found.

If you want to replace a specific word in the table cells (XXX) with something new (YYY), you can follow the same steps as above, simply search for any occurrences of XXX using the unique table-cell style and replace it with YYY. You’ll still want to step through the matches and determine if the replacement should be made on a case-by-case basis, but you will be able to make the changes in your table much quicker.

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…