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Is there any way to copy and paste certain words in a Word document into another Word document? Let me explain... I have a 100+ page document that I'm drafting and I need to create an index of defined terms so I'd like to somehow search for all words that are in quotes, copy them and paste them into a list. Is this possible?

Is there some sort of variable I can use (like *) so I can search for "*" and everything will appear highlighted so I can cut and paste?

Originally Posted by Javery Is there some sort of variable I can use (like *) so I can search for "*" and everything will appear highlighted so I can cut and paste?

Yep, that's what you need to do. I'm using Word 2010, so these instructions are for that version:

1. Press Ctrl+F to bring up the Navigation pane
2. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the magnifying glass in the search bar
3. Select 'Advanced Find'
4. Click the "More >>" button to see all options
5. Check "Use wildcards"
6. In the "Find what:" text box, enter "*" (with quotes)
7. Now, click the "Find In" button
8. Select "Main Document"
9. Close the Find and Replace dialog, but don't click anywhere in the document
10. Press Ctrl+C to copy
11. Paste the contents to your destination

Once the text is pasted, each word will have quotes around it. To remove them, pull up the Advanced Find dialog in the new document, enter one double quotation mark in the "Find What" text box and leave the "Replace with" blank. Then click "Replace All."

You could also write a macro to automatically find and copy the words to the clipboard, but this is a non-code way to do it.