[Solved] Search document with multiple words @ one time?

[Staceyhy]

Using the writer function, I would like to know if there is a way to search a written document with multiple words - say about 50 at one time? I'm taking an online writing class and we have a list of words that are "banned" and I need to find a way to simply check the document for any errant banned words before submission.

Thanks for any help you can provide. Open Office 3.2.1 on Windows 7

S.

[acknak]

I don't know anything about it, but it seems like this would be a perfect use for OOo's grammar check extension ("Language Tool"). I have no idea if LT provides any easy way to give it a list of "banned" words, but it might.

BTW, I'd be curious to see the list, if it's ok to post it.

[FJCC]

You might also enter the banned words in the Tools-> Autocorrect Options -> Replace list and use some easily recognized set of characters (e.g XXXXX) as the Replace With text. Then the banned words would get flagged as you type. Of course, this would flag the words in every thing you type, but maybe that would be good training.

[Staceyhy]

The Autocorrect Option did a great job - thanks so much!

[Staceyhy]

I don't know anything about it, but it seems like this would be a perfect use for OOo's grammar check extension ("Language Tool"). I have no idea if LT provides any easy way to give it a list of "banned" words, but it might.

BTW, I'd be curious to see the list, if it's ok to post it.

They are mainly boring passive verbs, adjectives and phrases. I'd be hesitant to post them though as the professor may consider the list itself copyrighted...

[acknak]

No problem.

[floormat]

Thank you for this. I have been looking for years on how to do this. This will save me so much time. I could never find out how to do this on Word. I am so glad there was another program that could do this.

2 more questions.

Is there a way to do this for different variations of a word? like instead of doing dog|doggy|doggie is there a way to do this so just dog would cover all 3? misspellings, abbreviations, hyphens and other things for each can be consuming and sometimes missed or forgotten.

Also is there a way to search from the end of the document to the front instead of front to end?

Thanks for all of your help.

[John_Ha]

Welcome to the forum.

This is an ideal application for a macro. Record a macro while doing the search with all the banned words and place it as an icon on the toolbar. It is now one click to do the search. If you used Find All, you could do lots of things with Replace All such as colour the found words red, replace the word dog with XXdogXX so you could easily find it later, and so on.

Another way to do it easily would be to use AutoHotkey to store the search argument which is presumably hundreds of characters long. Store it as, say, zzbanned. Now when you type zzbanned in the Search box, AutoHotkey automagically types in the several hundred characters.

Another way is to use AutoHotKey like AutoCorrect in AOO, where it watches for typos like "thnaks ", and replaces it with "thanks " as you type. You can download a file with hundreds of common typos which you could edit to list all your banned words such that, say, you change "dog" to "XXdogXX".

Is there a way to do this for different variations of a word? like instead of doing dog|doggy|doggie is there a way to do this so just dog would cover all 3?

Not that I can think of easily (you can do anything in a macro if you know how) as you want to find dog, doggie and doggy but not dogma or dogmatic.

One way would be to edit the Standard Dictionary to remove the roots and/or all the banned associated endings so that banned words were flagged as misspelt. This is not for the faint hearted and not supported (which means don't ask for help when it goes wrong) and you would need to re-do it every time the dictionary was updated. See Re: Use only custom dictionaries? and [Solved] Removing "statue" from base standard dictionary. A thought - you could create a copy of the Standard Dictionary where you remove the banned words. Now either find a way of adding it as an extra dictionary called Banned; or stop AOO, replace the proper dictionary file with your edited one, start AOO, and do the spellcheck.

is there a way to search from the end of the document to the front instead of front to end?

Tick Backwards after clicking More options.

As a new poster you will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the OOo v3.3 Writer Manual. When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function.

[floormat]

To be honest the macro suggestions are a little bit beyond me at this point and the dictionary editing well just sounds frightening at them moment. Perhaps i'll be able to take a bite of it later as I grow.

I tried the backwards click yesterday and it didn't work. Today it did. I dunno. At least it works now.

Thank you for the wisdom you have been able to offer.

[RusselB]

To my knowledge, whether you search forwards or backwards, when the search is complete you are given the option to continue the search, thus a second search should find anything that the first one missed.
I, for one, prefer to ensure that the cursor is at the top of my document before initiating a search.

[John_Ha]

Searches start at the cursor location and progress forward unless the Backwards is ticked. When they reach the end of the document they ask if you wish to continue from the opposite end. If you highlight a selection only that selection is searched.