VBA Highlight multiple keywords with wildcard from text strings - vba

Question

Any help here would be appreciated please.
The included VBA code almost meets the intended purpose, however, I need a solution that enables the use of wildcards and highlights all parameters contained between "##", "%%" or potentially other special characters (special characters included).
For instance, lets say in the cell range B2:B10 we would find something like:
Checked at ##date1## and ##hour1##
But I want to be able to do a search and highlight using # * # or % * % within a selected determined cell range with the end result (bold being color):
Checked at ##date1## and ##hour1##
Sub HighlightStrings()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim Rng As Range
Dim cFnd As String
Dim xTmp As String
Dim x As Long
Dim m As Long
Dim y As Long
Dim xFNum As Integer
Dim xArrFnd As Variant
Dim xStr As String
cFnd = InputBox("Please enter the text, separate them by comma:")
If Len(cFnd) < 1 Then Exit Sub
xArrFnd = Split(cFnd, ",")
For Each Rng In Selection
With Rng
For xFNum = 0 To UBound(xArrFnd)
xStr = xArrFnd(xFNum)
y = Len(xStr)
m = UBound(Split(Rng.Value, xStr))
If m > 0 Then
xTmp = ""
For x = 0 To m - 1
xTmp = xTmp & Split(Rng.Value, xStr)(x)
.Characters(Start:=Len(xTmp) + 1, Length:=y).Font.ColorIndex = 3
xTmp = xTmp & xStr
Next
End If
Next xFNum
End With
Next Rng
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
Thank you

Answer 1

Okay This seems to work for me. There is a limitation we can work on if required: the phrase to highlight must be padded with spaces on both sides.
Option Explicit
Option Base 0
Sub testreplace()
Dim I As Integer 'Iteration
Dim FlagNum As Integer 'Flag Number
Dim RG As Range 'Whole range
Dim CL As Range 'Each Cell
Dim FlagChar As String 'Flag characters
Dim ArrFlag 'Flag Char Array
Dim TextTemp As String 'Cell Contents
Set RG = Selection
FlagChar = "##"
FlagChar = InputBox("Enter 'Flag Characters' separated by a comma." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Example:" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"##,%%,&&" & vbCrLf & _
"$$,XX", "Flag Characters to Highlight", "##,%%")
ArrFlag = Split(FlagChar, ",")
For Each CL In RG.Cells
TextTemp = CL.Value
For FlagNum = 0 To UBound(ArrFlag)
For I = 1 To Len(TextTemp)
'Debug.Print "<<" & Mid(TextTemp, I, Len(ArrFlag(Flagnum)) + 1) & _
"=" & " " & ArrFlag(Flagnum) & ">>"
If Mid(TextTemp, I, Len(ArrFlag(FlagNum)) + 1) = " " & ArrFlag(FlagNum) Then
CL.Characters(I + 1, InStr(I, TextTemp, ArrFlag(FlagNum) & " ") + _
Len(ArrFlag(FlagNum)) - I).Font.ColorIndex = 3
End If
Next I
Next FlagNum
Next CL
End Sub
Here's an example of it working: