Microsoft Word’s wildcard search is one of the most powerful tools available to editors, but many editors either avoid it altogether or use only its simplest functions. In this practical webinar, participants will learn how to use wildcards to identify and correct recurring problems across an entire document.
Through live examples, Chris will demonstrate how to find patterns rather than individual words, including inconsistent number formats, duplicated words, incorrectly formatted dates, spacing and punctuation problems, capitalization inconsistencies, and recurring house-style violations. He will also explain how to build searches safely, test expressions before replacing text, and avoid changes that introduce new errors.
The examples will be designed for reuse, so editors can adapt them to different documents and client requirements. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how wildcard expressions work, a collection of practical examples and the confidence to begin building searches of their own.
Chris Ryder works as Senior Analytical Linguist at Intelligent Editing. Chris is involved with researching the quirky behaviour of English to help build better and more comprehensive styles in PerfectIt as well as accurate and consistent prompts for Draftsmith. Before that, he worked in academia, where he undertook research into some pretty niche areas of how language is used. Chris especially likes studying the “mechanics” of language, including grammar, phonetics and syntax. His friends have described him as a “word nerd”, which he likes because it’s a phonemic minimal pair.