Want Wordbasic to delete text between two markers - how is it done?

Assuming you are using Office 2013, you probably won't be using Wordbasic to do this - That was superceded in Office 1997 when vba replaced wordbasic. However, you can do it with a VBA macro but it is best done as a search and replace so I will explain how. If you want to record this as a macro then you will have the code you require.

Open the Find and Replace dialog by pressing Ctrl-H

In the Find what box type the following

(JFG^13)*(Part )

In the Replace with box type the following

\1\2

Turn on Use Wildcards

Click the Replace All button

I missed the fact that JFG was variable. In that case you could change the find string so you are now searching for the following with wildcards turned on

(By*^13)*(Part )

If that still doesn't work for you then you may need to post a larger sample of your content so we can see what the variants actually are.

I'd be inclined to use a wildcard Find/Replace with:

Find = (By [!^13^l]@[^13^l])*[^13^l](Part)

Replace = \1\2

Note that you don't need a macro for this, though having one might be useful if you need to do it often.

I'd be inclined to use a wildcard Find/Replace with:

Find = (By [!^13^l]@[^13^l])*[^13^l](Part)

Replace = \1\2

Note that you don't need a macro for this, though having one might be useful if you need to do it often.

Thanks Paul for the suggestion. When I paste the text directly into the search box (CTRL + H) I just get the message cannot find what you were looking for. I've tried pasted everything after the equals sign, which seems to be the logical thing to do, but I also tried with the equals sign too in desperation. Still no joy. Unless your suggestion is not being displayed properly at my end I'm not sure what is wrong. (I'm seeing exclamation marks, caret, at signs and asterisks). Quite why this formula should work and the significance of all the 13's is a mystery to me, so my fiddling around with the formula isn't going to help. If you paste the data that I originally posted into Word does this formula work for you?  Thanks.

Pauls suggestion is not working because it is looking for a regular space after the 'By'. In your sample content this is actually a non-breaking space and therefore you need to change that space in the Find what to a non-breaking space by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Space

Note that Paul's suggested wildcard string is 'greedy' - it has a tendency to select multiple separate instances with the found content extending from the beginning of the first one to the end of the second one.

The ^13 is a paragraph marker (aka a hard return).

The ^l is an end of line marker (aka a soft return).

Are you sure the search string code I posted doesn't work for you?

Andrew's reference to a non-breaking space, can be accommodated by changing the Find/Replace to:

Find = (By[ ^0160][!^13^l]@[^13^l])*[^13^l](Part)

Replace = \1\2

(and, no, you don't insert the '=' signs).

I'm not sure what his reference to the wildcard string being 'greedy', though, as I haven't been able to get it to span more than one complete expression of the kind you posted. The only way I can get it to span more than one range is with something like:

Entry - 12 June 2012
By  - JFG
Dept - 03
VA code  - 003
Despatched - 17 JUNE 2012
Entry - 12 June 2012
By  - JFG
Dept - 03
VA code  - 003
Part - 03405075
Despatched - 17 JUNE 2012

Note the two paragraphs beginning with 'By', without an intervening paragraph beginning with 'Part'. In this case, all of the bolded content would be counted as a single range. But, then, Andrew's own version is no different.

Paul

Your search string gets greedy if there is any records where the intervening paragraphs have already been removed. If the 'By' paragraph is immediately followed by a 'Part' paragraph then the selected text stretches down to the next 'Part' paragraph.

If you copy ALL the content in the first post and paste it multiple times into a document you will see the difference between my search string and yours. Alternatively, run the replace a second time to see the difference.

As you say, either search string will fail if the trigger paragraphs are not paired up - however there is a difference if any cleanups have already been done.