Repeating Microsoft Word VBA until no search results found - vba

Question

I've created a MS Word macro that searches for certain text (indicated by markup codes), cuts the text and inserts it into a new footnote, and then deletes the markup codes from the footnote. Now I want the macro to repeat until it doesn't find any more markup codes in the text.
Here's the macro below
Sub SearchFN()
'find a footnote
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "&&FB:*&&FE"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchKashida = False
.MatchDiacritics = False
.MatchAlefHamza = False
.MatchControl = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
'cut the footnote from the text
Selection.Cut
'create a proper Word footnote
With Selection
With .FootnoteOptions
.Location = wdBottomOfPage
.NumberingRule = wdRestartContinuous
.StartingNumber = 1
.NumberStyle = wdNoteNumberStyleArabic
End With
.Footnotes.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Reference:=""
End With
'now paste the text into the footnote
Selection.Paste
'go to the beginning of the newly created footnote
'and find/delete the code for the start of the note (&&FB:)
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "&&FB:"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = False
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchKashida = False
.MatchDiacritics = False
.MatchAlefHamza = False
.MatchControl = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
With Selection
If .Find.Forward = True Then
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
Else
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
End If
.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceOne
If .Find.Forward = True Then
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Else
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
End If
.Find.Execute
End With
'do same for ending code (&&FE)
With Selection.Find
.Text = "&&FE"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchKashida = False
.MatchDiacritics = False
.MatchAlefHamza = False
.MatchControl = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
With Selection
If .Find.Forward = True Then
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
Else
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
End If
.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceOne
If .Find.Forward = True Then
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
Else
.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseStart
End If
.Find.Execute
End With
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
'now repeat--but how??
End Sub

Answer 1

Good question this one, you can loop through the whole document using the Selection.Find.Found result.
What you do is start a search and if you find a result go into a loop only while the Selection.Find.Found result is true. Once you've got through these, you're done. The following code should do the trick nicely for you.
Sub SearchFN()
Dim iCount As Integer
'Always start at the top of the document
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
'find a footnote to kick it off
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = "&&FB:*&&FE"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchKashida = False
.MatchDiacritics = False
.MatchAlefHamza = False
.MatchControl = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
.MatchWildcards = True
.Execute
End With
'If we find one then we can set off a loop to keep checking
'I always put a counter in to avoid endless loops for one reason or another
Do While Selection.Find.Found = True And iCount < 1000
iCount = iCount + 1
'Jump back to the start of the document. Since you remove the
'footnote place holder this won't pick up old results
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.Find.Execute
'On the last loop you'll not find a result so check here
If Selection.Find.Found Then
''==================================
'' Do your footnote magic here
''==================================
'Reset the find parameters
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Text = "&&FB:*&&FE"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchKashida = False
.MatchDiacritics = False
.MatchAlefHamza = False
.MatchControl = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
End If
Loop
End Sub

Answer 2

This can be done without using Do while(lots of extra lines, and space/time wastage), It could be as simple as follows:
Sub SearchFN()
'Start from The Top
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
'Find the first search to start the loop
Do
With Selection.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Text = "&&FB:*&&FE"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindstop
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchKashida = False
.MatchDiacritics = False
.MatchAlefHamza = False
.MatchControl = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
.MatchWildcards = True
.Execute
End With
'If we found the result then loop started
If Selection.Find.Found Then
'' Do your work here
' Always end your work after the first found result
' else it will be endless loop
Else
'If we do not found any then it will exit the loop
Exit Do
End If
Loop
End Sub

Answer 3

The simplest way to do this is to make the function recursive (the function recalls itself). Add this one line to the bottom of your sub or function:
If (Selection.Find.Found = True) then call SearchFN