VBA search and replace with wildcards: using \ (backslash) in replace string also containing numbers (error: 5623) - vba

Question

Premiss:
I have a word document with a lot of { LINKS ... } to an excel document to be able to generate word documents easier. When i move these documents to a new directory i want to update all links with the new dir and possibly a new excel docname as well.
Problem:
I have found on stackoverflow and other sites a vba/macro that mostly does what i need. The problem arises when i do a wildcard .find .replace where the replace text contains \ and the dirname has numbers.
Code:
Public Sub planer_fix_data_link()
Dim rngStory As Word.Range
Dim pFindTxt As String
Dim pReplaceTxt As String
Dim lngJunk As Long
Dim oShp As Shape
'Pattern to find with wildcards as i don't always know the last location
pFindTxt = "LINK Excel.Sheet.12*xlsx"
TryAgain:
pReplaceTxt = InputBox("New excel filename", "Malldata filnamn")
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
currPath = ActiveDocument.Path
'links need double for some reason
currPath = Replace(currPath, "\","\\")
'text to replace with
pReplaceTxt = "LINK Excel.Sheet.12 """ & currPath & "\\" & pReplaceTxt & ".xlsx"
Application.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
'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
Application.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
End Sub
Public Sub SearchAndReplaceInStory(ByVal rngStory As Word.Range, ByVal strSearch As String, ByVal strReplace As String)
With rngStory.Find
.ClearFormatting
'.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.MatchWildcards = True
.Text = strSearch
.Replacement.Text = strReplace
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End Sub
current dir is something like C:\Users\\Dropbox\Project\1. planning\\
Easy reproduction
as my code uses the same engine as the standard search and replace one can easily reproduce the problem by starting a new word doc typing in
C:\\Users\\testuser\\Dropbox\\Project\\test\\testproject\\excelfile.xlsm
And the do a wildcard search and replace with
C:*.xlsm
as search and
C:\\Users\\testuser\\Dropbox\\Project\\1. Planning\\testproject\\excelfile.xlsm
as replace
I figure i need some way of escaping my backslashes but i just cant find a way to do that

Answer 1

Okay this gets a little more complex you need to replace the backslashes with the ascii eqivalent ^92. However as you have numbers as well then they become a problem if they follow a \ so need converting to ascii as well.
So use a function to convert the replacement string to the correct format like below
Function convert(inp As String) As String
Dim ret As String
Dim char As String
ret = ""
For i = 1 To Len(inp)
char = Mid(inp, i, 1)
If char = "\" Or (char >= "0" And char <= "9") Then
ret = ret + "^" + Format(Asc(char))
Else
ret = ret + char
End If
Next i
convert = ret
End Function