Online Trick

This VBA procedure (1) Searches words ("Str1", "Str2",..) and adds commentboxes to it and (2) changes the initials used in the box:

Sub CommentBox()

    Dim range As range
    Dim i As Long
    Dim TargetList
    Dim cm As Comment
    
    TargetList = Array("Str1", "Str2")
    
    For i = 0 To UBound(TargetList)
    
    Set range = ActiveDocument.range
    
    With range.Find
    .Text = TargetList(i)
    .Format = True
    .MatchCase = False
    .MatchWholeWord = True
    .MatchWildcards = False
    .MatchSoundsLike = False
    .MatchAllWordForms = False
        
    Do While .Execute(Forward:=True) = True

        Set cm = range.Comments.Add(range:=range, Text:="Hallo")
        cm.Author = "InternalName"
        cm.Initial = "Initials"
        
        Loop
    
    End With

    Next

With ActiveDocument.Styles("Kommentartext").Font
        .Size = 12
        .Bold = True
        .Italic = True
        .Color = wdColorBlue
End With

End Sub

Quite often I need to re-format citations in my texts, i.e., missing brackets around the year of a publication. In MS Word I simlpy solve such issues with the find and replace option using wildcards. I.e. for the issue with years without brackets:

short cut crtl-h
then put ([1-2][0-9]{3}) in the find-box and
(^&) in the replace box
hit 'replace' and you're done

The find string will search for any 4-digit number starting with 1 or 2 followed by 3 digits between 0 and 9 and will be replaced by the same number put inbetween round brackets. Note that the brackets in the find-string denote a token which then can be referenced by the string ^& in the replace step.

Here's a quick tip for anyone wishing to export results, say a regression table, from R to MS Word:

require(R2wd)

# install packages required
# install software RCOM, RDCOMClient 
# (I had to restart the R-Session after the above step to get it work)

wdGet()

# Regression:
data(iris)
mod <- lm(Sepal.Length ~ Species, data = iris)
regr_tab <- data.frame(summary(mod)$coefficients)
colnames(regr_tab) <- colnames(summary(mod)$coefficients)
regr_tab[ ,4] <- ifelse(regr_tab[ ,4] < .001, "< 0.001", 
                        ifelse(regr_tab[ ,4] < .01, "< 0.01", 
                        round(regr_tab[ ,4], 3)))

# print table to doc in word-default format:
wdTable(format(regr_tab), autoformat = 1)

wdSave("Regression.doc")     # save file 
wdQuit()                     # close file

ps: Also check odfWeave
- this also seems to be a very useful resource!

I present a macro that I wrote for re-formatting scientific species names (it is common to use italic fonts for that) in a Word file. Therefore I used a database of central European species names - this is compared with the words in my file and matches are re-formatted...

(download template)

Note: If you download the template you will need to use your own database and change the path in the script... Else you may contact me for the text-file with species names...

For your own word list: use a tab-delimited txt-file with unique strings without capitalization, like:

yourtextfile.txt:
-------------------------------
one
two
three
...
-------------------------------

Code:

'macro name: ReformatListMatches
'purpose: compares words from document with words from file
'author: kay cichini
'date: 2012-01-04
'licence: cc by-nc-sa

'specifications:
'before running the macro, add a commandbar called "mycombar" and assign the macro "ReformatListMatches" to it,
'run line 8 one time, then disable it, then save file to a template (.dot) and store it at your templates' folder.
'if you don't want a command bar, just skip the above part and don't run line 8!

Sub ReformatListMatches()

'CommandBars("mycombar").Controls(1).TooltipText = "calls procedure that re-formats words that match word list"
'this sets tooltip info, run this only once (!!), otherwise you will be asked to save changes to the dot file
'everytime you close a word doc.

time_start = Timer()

If MsgBox("Re-format matches?" & vbLf & " " & vbLf & "..may take some time" & vbLf & "..be patient! (the active window will be temporarily invisible to speed up process)", vbOKCancel + vbQuestion, "SpKursiv") = vbOK Then
 
Dim vntArrWords As Variant
Dim lngI As Long
Dim strText As String
Dim strPathFile As String
Dim lngFN As Long
 
strPathFile = "C:\LogoXP\SP_words_tab.txt"
'the database with names to compare
 
lngFN = FreeFile
Open strPathFile For Binary As lngFN
 strText = Space(LOF(lngFN))
 Get lngFN, 1, strText
Close lngFN
 
System.Cursor = wdCursorWait
 
vntArrWords = Split(strText, vbCrLf, -1, 1)

ActiveWindow.Visible = False

With ActiveDocument.Content.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Forward = True
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .Format = True
  .MatchCase = False
  .MatchWholeWord = True
  .MatchWildcards = False
  .MatchSoundsLike = False
  .MatchAllWordForms = False
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.Text = "^&"               'replaces match with the original string (but with new format!)
  .Replacement.Font.Italic = True        'here i determine the new format
  For lngI = 0 To UBound(vntArrWords)
    .Text = Trim(vntArrWords(lngI))
    .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  Next
End With

ActiveWindow.Visible = True

time_end = Timer()

MsgBox "finished!" & vbLf & "(calculation time (mm:ss) = " & time_end - time_start & ")"

Else: Exit Sub
End If

End Sub

BTW: just found a similar tutorial at http://www.garyradley.com/vbatutor/tut4.htm