VBA MS-Word: Is it possible to replace text with wildcard?

Question

Is it possible to replace the text that was found using wildcard and replace it with wildcard also? for example FindText:="(^13{2}*^13)", Forward:=True, MatchWildcards:=True, then replace it with wildcard like this replacewith:="(^13{2}*^11)" . Is it possible?

Answer 1

The entire discussion in Comments is unclear, but I understand that you need to replace only part of the search term, and retain another part. Yes, that's possible by defining expressions in the search term. For example:

Find: "(^13{2}*)^13" Replace: \\1^11

An expression is defined using parentheses. You can have multiple expressions in the "Find" text. Refer to an expression and have Word use it in the replacement using backslash+index, where index is the number (location) of the expression in the Find text. In the above example, taken from your question, there is one expression, so \\1.

Answer 2

I am not a word developer, but just done this, not complete solution, but a good starting point??? : Text was "Nathan testing Nathan testing"

        dim x as find    

    Selection.WholeStory

            Set x = Selection.Find
 x.Find.ClearFormatting
            x.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
            With x
                .Text = "Na*han"
                .Replacement.Text = .Text
                .Forward = True
                .Wrap = wdFindAsk
                .Format = False
                .MatchCase = False
                .MatchWholeWord = False
                .MatchAllWordForms = False
                .MatchSoundsLike = False
                .MatchWildcards = True
            End With

            x.Execute
            x.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceOne