J.R. Johnson

I code sometimes. I also write. Occasionally the two come together.

As I’ve mentioned, coding helps me find new ways to think about my work. Here’s a new Applescript I whipped up to highlight instances of “to be” in my drafts, as well as certain filler words that don’t add much to the text. Open your document in MS Word, then run the following code. The selected words will be replaced with bold versions of themselves.

Alter the list as necessary, or use this as an example of how to do a list-based loop in Applescript (hint: the “repeat” line is key;). Enjoy!

set my_word_list to {"am", "are", "be", "been", "being", "felt", "had", "has", "have", "heard", "is", "looked", "was", "wasn't", "were", "weren't"}
repeat with each_word in my_word_list
	set FindWordsToReplace to each_word as text
	tell application "Microsoft Word"
		set GetTxt to find object of selection
		tell GetTxt
			clear formatting
			set its content to FindWordsToReplace
			tell its replacement
				clear formatting
				set its content to FindWordsToReplace
				tell its font object
					set bold to true
				end tell
			end tell
			execute find wrap find find continue replace replace all with match forward and match whole word without match case
		end tell
	end tell
end repeat