In Microsoft Word, you can quickly bold everything before a colon (:) using Find & Replace with wildcards.
Method: Use Find & Replace (wildcards)
• Press Ctrl + H to open Find and Replace
• Click More >>
• Check Use wildcards
In “Find what”:
([!:]@):
In “Replace with”:
\1:
• Click inside Replace with, then click Format → Font → Bold
• Click Replace All
What this does?
• ([!:]@) → matches all characters up to (but not including) the colon
• : → keeps the colon
• \1 → reuses the matched text
• Formatting applies bold only to the part before the colon
Notes
• Works best when each line has only one colon
• If you have multiple colons per line, it may grab more than you expect
• Always test with Find Next before Replace All
Method 2: making text bold before colon char
Assume that we have a word document as below:
Definition 1: Description 1
Definition 2: Description 2
Definition 3: Description 3
And you want to make the text bold before a colon (:) punctuation on each line in a Microsoft Word document as shown below:
Definition 1: Description 1
Definition 2: Description 2
Definition 3: Description 3
Steps to make texts bold before colon characters
1. First, open search and replace box in Microsoft Word. You might click Ctrl+F buttons, and then click the triangle at theright side of the search bar to access Replace functionality.
2. In the search box, enter
^13(*:)
This searches for a return character, followed by a sequence of characters ending in a colon.
3. Enable "Use wildcards" after clicking More >> button.
4. In the replace box, enter
^p\1
The ^p replaces the return character with a return character, and the \1 matches what was found in the brackets in the search pattern.
5. Then, choose Formatting/Font/Bold after clicking More >> button.
6. Lastly, click Replace All button...
