Find a replace text between a space and a colon (Word 2006)

Question

I am on Word 2006.

I need to find and replace all the several sequences of characters between a space (next comes an uppercase letter) and a colon before the next space. For example, the text in bold:

You usually do? Lupin: It's just the football...

resulting in the following text:

You usually do? It's just the football...

I've been trying with wildcards but cannot come up with the right combination. Maybe a macro is needed instead?

Thnx.

Answer 1

Use Word’s wildcard Find and Replace; no macro is required.

Assuming the pattern is:

<space><UPPERCASE...any characters...>:

and you want to change or remove the text between the space and the colon, do this (Word for Windows):

1. Press Ctrl+H to open Replace.
2. Select More and check Use wildcards.
3. In Find what, enter:

      ([ ])([A-Z]@)(:)
   

   Explanation (per Word wildcard rules):
   • [ ] – a literal space.
   • [A-Z] – any uppercase letter.
   • @ – one or more occurrences of the preceding expression.
   • (:) – the colon, captured as a separate group.
4. In Replace with, enter what is needed. Examples:
   • To delete the text between the space and the colon but keep the space and colon:

          \1\3
     

     \1 = the space, \3 = the colon.
   • To replace that text with a fixed word (for example, X):

          \1X\3
     

5. Click Replace or Replace All.

If on macOS Word, open Advanced Find & Replace, check Use wildcards, and use the same patterns in Find what and Replace with.

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References:

• Find and replace text in Word