A program to highlight words in a word document - vb.net

Question

I want a VB program that will allow me to put words into a text box on VB, (preferably those words are saved when closing the program so they are there for next time) have those words split more than likely with the s.Split to allow for multiple words, for example “famine”, “viewing”, “article”
That's the first part, the second part is I want the program to read the text in any open word document and those words in the text box, that are also in the word document will be highlighted. If it can't be done so it can read any open word document, then is it possible to make it able to attach a word document for it to read?
I want a program that you can write multiple words on, then have those words become highlighted in any word document.

Answer 1

I have been wrote this snippet time ago, it will teach you how to find and highlight word/phrases using Regular Expressions, you could easily adapt it to a WORD document reading, then the most important part of the problem would be solved with this:
#Region " [RichTextBox] FindNext RegEx "
' [ FindNext RegEx ]
'
' //By Elektro H#cker
'
' Examples :
'
' RichTextBox1.Text = "Hello World!, Hello World!, Hello World!"
'
' FindNext(RichTextBox1, "hello", FindDirection.Down, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase, Color.LightBlue, Color.Black)
' FindNext(RichTextBox1, "hello", FindDirection.Up, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase, Color.Red, Color.Black)
'
' Private Sub RichTextBox_Enter(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) ' Handles RichTextBox1.Enter
' ' Restore Selection Colors before search next match.
' sender.SelectionBackColor = DefaultBackColor
' sender.SelectionColor = DefaultForeColor
' End Sub
Public Enum FindDirection As Short
Up = 0
Down = 1
End Enum
' FindNext
Private Sub FindNext(ByVal [Control] As RichTextBox, _
ByVal SearchText As String, _
ByVal Direction As FindDirection, _
Optional ByVal IgnoreCase As System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions = System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.None, _
Optional ByVal Highlight_BackColor As Color = Nothing, _
Optional ByVal Highlight_ForeColor As Color = Nothing)
If [Control].TextLength = 0 Then Exit Sub
' Start searching at 'SelectionStart'.
Dim Search_StartIndex As Integer = [Control].SelectionStart
' Stores the MatchIndex count
Dim matchIndex As Integer = 0
' Flag to check if it's first find call
Static First_Find As Boolean = True
' Checks to don't ommit the selection of first match if match index is exactly at 0 start point.
If First_Find _
AndAlso Search_StartIndex = 0 _
AndAlso Direction = FindDirection.Down Then
Search_StartIndex = -1
First_Find = False
ElseIf Not First_Find _
AndAlso Search_StartIndex = 0 _
AndAlso Direction = FindDirection.Down Then
First_Find = False
Search_StartIndex = 0
End If
' Store the matches
Dim matches As System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection = _
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Matches([Control].Text, _
SearchText, _
IgnoreCase Or If(Direction = FindDirection.Up, _
System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.RightToLeft, _
System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.None))
If matches.Count = 0 Then First_Find = True : Exit Sub
' Restore Highlight colors of previous selection
[Control].SelectionBackColor = [Control].BackColor
[Control].SelectionColor = [Control].ForeColor
' Set next selection Highlight colors
If Highlight_BackColor = Nothing Then Highlight_BackColor = [Control].BackColor
If Highlight_ForeColor = Nothing Then Highlight_ForeColor = [Control].ForeColor
' Set the match selection
For Each match As System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match In matches
matchIndex += 1
Select Case Direction
Case FindDirection.Down
If match.Index > Search_StartIndex Then ' Select next match
[Control].Select(match.Index, match.Length)
Exit For
ElseIf match.Index <= Search_StartIndex _
AndAlso matchIndex = matches.Count Then ' Select first match
[Control].Select(matches.Item(0).Index, matches.Item(0).Length)
Exit For
End If
Case FindDirection.Up
If match.Index < Search_StartIndex Then ' Select previous match
[Control].Select(match.Index, match.Length)
Exit For
ElseIf match.Index >= Search_StartIndex _
AndAlso matchIndex = matches.Count Then ' Select last match
[Control].Select(matches.Item(0).Index, matches.Item(0).Length)
Exit For
End If
End Select
Next match
' Set the current selection BackColor
[Control].SelectionBackColor = Highlight_BackColor
' Set the current selection ForeColor
[Control].SelectionColor = Highlight_ForeColor
' Scroll to Caret/Cursor selection position
[Control].ScrollToCaret()
End Sub
#End Region
Also here you can see a video demostration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWRMdlC5DH8