Replacing Two Characters in MS Word

Replacing Two Characters in MS Word: Removing < > with Wildcard Feature

Microsoft Word is a powerful word processing tool used by millions of people around the world. One of its many features is the ability to search for and replace specific characters or strings of text. This can be particularly useful when dealing with documents that contain special characters or formatting that needs to be removed. In this article, we will cover the steps to replace two characters (< and >) in MS Word using the wildcard feature.

Why Replace Characters in MS Word?

There are many reasons why you might need to replace characters in MS Word. For example, you may have received a document that contains special characters or formatting that you don't want to keep. Or, you may need to replace a specific character or string of text that appears frequently throughout the document. Whatever the reason, MS Word's search and replace feature can help you quickly and easily make the necessary changes.

Using the Wildcard Feature to Replace Characters

MS Word's wildcard feature allows you to search for and replace more complex patterns of text than the standard search and replace feature. To replace the two characters (< and >) using the wildcard feature, follow these steps:

1. Open the document you want to edit in MS Word.

2. Press Ctrl+H to open the Replace dialog box.

3. In the "Find what" box, enter the following pattern:

   <*>

   This pattern searches for any sequence of characters that starts with "<" and ends with ">", including any characters in between. The "*" character is a wildcard that matches any sequence of characters.

4. In the "Replace with" box, enter the following pattern:

   *

   This pattern replaces the entire sequence of characters with whatever was matched between the "<" and ">" characters. If there were no characters between the two characters, it will be replaced with an empty string.

5. Click "Replace All" to replace all occurrences of the pattern in the document.

In this article, we covered the steps to replace two characters (< and >) in MS Word using the wildcard feature. By using the wildcard feature, you can quickly and easily replace complex patterns of text in your documents. Here are the key takeaways:

• MS Word's search and replace feature can be used to remove unwanted characters or formatting from a document.

• The wildcard feature in MS Word allows you to search for and replace more complex patterns of text.

• To replace the two characters (< and >) using the wildcard feature, enter the following pattern in the "Find what" box:

  <*>

  And enter the following pattern in the "Replace with" box:

  *

References

• Book: Microsoft Word 2019 for Dummies.

• Article: "How to use wildcards in Word" by Microsoft Support.

• Online Resource: "Using wildcards in Word" by Microsoft.