Check if the first word of previous paragraph is the same as the next paragraph.

Hi,
I'm Daniele from Italy.

I thank you for the possibility you give to me to ask in this forum. I try to be as clear and short as possible. Forgive me for my simple English.

I'm a transcriber. I listen audio and I transcribe. The kind of transcription is a dialogue, like an interview. This is the output:

SPEAKER ONE - Bla bla bla.
SPEAKER TWO - Bla bla bla.
SPEAKER ONE - Bla bla bla.
SPEAKER TWO - Bla bla bla.

...and so on...

During the job I have to type really fast, almost in realtime, and could happen I confuse the speaker, and I press the wrong shortcut to insert the speaker name, like this:

SPEAKER ONE - Bla bla bla.
SPEAKER ONE - Bla bla bla.
SPEAKER ONE - Bla bla bla.
SPEAKER TWO - Bla bla bla.

This is a mistake I cannot check using Spellchecker. Basically if the first 9 characters of a paragraph are the same of the first 9 characters of the next paragraph, for sure I made a mistake.

Once I finished to type, is it possible to check the whole document with a macro? To check if the the first 9 characters of a new paragraph are the same of the first 9 characters of the next paragraph. This for all the paragraph, and inform me when it matches, so I can fix.
Let me also say that until the speaker doesn't change, I don't press ENTER, so the paragraph is always the same. Only when the new speaker speaks, I change paragraph pressing ENTER, so each new paragraph correspond to a new speaker.

I thank yoy very very much foro any suggestion.

Good holidays!

Daniele.

Could probably be more efficient, but seems to work for your example:

Code:

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Sub ScratchMacro()
'A basic Word macro coded by Greg Maxey, http://gregmaxey.com/word_tips.html, 12/26/2017
Dim strPattern1 As String, strPattern2 As String
Dim oRngCompare As Range, oRng As Range
  strPattern1 = "SPEAKER ONE"
  strPattern2 = "SPEAKER TWO"
  Set oRngCompare = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(2).Range
  oRngCompare.Start = ActiveDocument.Range.Start
  On Error GoTo lbl_Exit
  Do
    If InStr(oRngCompare, strPattern1) <> 1 Then
      Set oRng = oRngCompare.Paragraphs(1).Range
      oRng.Collapse wdCollapseStart
      oRng.MoveEnd wdCharacter, Len(strPattern1)
      oRng.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
    End If
    If InStr(oRngCompare.Paragraphs(2), strPattern2) <> 1 Then
      Set oRng = oRngCompare.Paragraphs(2).Range
      oRng.Collapse wdCollapseStart
      oRng.MoveEnd wdCharacter, Len(strPattern2)
      oRng.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
    End If
    oRngCompare.MoveStart wdParagraph, 2
    oRngCompare.MoveEnd wdParagraph, 2
    If oRngCompare.Paragraphs.Count < 2 Then Exit Sub
  Loop
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub
End Sub

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I thank you very much Greg for your fast and useful reply.

I forget to tell one thing. In my example I've used "SPEAKER ONE" and "SPEAKER TWO". But this is just an example, because these words in each document are replaced with the name of the speakers. And in one document there are a lot of different speakers. So a real example could be:

TESTIMONE ROSSI M. - Bla bla bla
DOTT. BIANCHI S. - Bla bla bla
GIUDICE - Bla Bla bla
AVV. VERDI - Bla bla bla

and so on. I cannot insert into the macro a specific name of a paerson, because for each document it changes. But for sure if the following paragraph has the first 9 letters like the previous one, it is an error. Like this

TESTIMONE ROSSI M. - Bla bla bla
DOTT. BIANCHI S. - Bla bla bla
DOTT. BIANCHI S. - Bla Bla bla
AVV. VERDI - Bla bla bla

Paragraph 3 is for sure a mistake, because it is the same as paragraph 2. The spaker changes, because I pressed ENTER for a new paragraph. But I've inserted the same name as the previous paragraph, so I made a mistake. During fast typing can happens that I don't recognize, above all after hours of job. If I could check with a macro once finished the document, would be really useful.

Thanks again.

Daniele.

Daniele,

Try this. I think I will flag a repeated speaker but in some case it might flag the first instance rather than second.

Code:

---

Sub ScratchMacro()
Dim oRngPar As Range
Dim oRngCompare As Range
Dim bRngPar As Boolean
  Set oRngPar = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(2).Range
  Set oRngCompare = ActiveDocument.Paragraphs(1).Range
  On Error GoTo lbl_Exit
  bRngPar = True
  oRngPar.Collapse wdCollapseStart
  oRngPar.MoveEnd wdCharacter, 9
  oRngCompare.Collapse wdCollapseStart
  oRngCompare.MoveEnd wdCharacter, 9
  Do
    If oRngPar.Text = oRngCompare.Text And Not bRngPar Then
      oRngPar.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
    ElseIf oRngPar.Text = oRngCompare.Text And bRngPar Then
      oRngCompare.HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
    End If
    If oRngPar.InRange(ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.Last.Range) Then Exit Do
    bRngPar = Not bRngPar
    oRngPar.Move wdParagraph, 1
    oRngPar.MoveEnd wdCharacter, 9
    oRngCompare.Move wdParagraph, 1
    oRngCompare.MoveEnd wdCharacter, 9
  Loop
lbl_Exit:
    Exit Sub
End Sub

---

You could just use a wildcard Find, where:
Find = ^13([A-z]@>)[!^13]@^13\1
The last-highlighted word will the be same as the first-highlighted word. No macros required.

Paul,

Yes, I suppose for the example she gives that should work. If the names changes as she indicates, then with this case not so well:

Tom Smith blah, blah
Tom Taylor blah, blah
Tom Taylor blah, blah
Tom Taylor blah, blah
Tom Smith blah, blah
Tom Taylor blah, blah
Tom Smith blah, blah

I'm not completely clear on what your expression is actually doing so can't suggest how or even guess if it could be adapted to for cases when the first word is identical but not problematic as in this case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gmaxey

I suppose for the example she gives that should work. If the names changes as she indicates, then with this case not so well

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That could easily-enough accommodated by changing the expression to look for a match of the first two words, for example:
Find = ^13([A-z.]@ [A-z]@>)[!^13]@^13\1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gmaxey

I'm not completely clear on what your expression is actually doing

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The updated example looks for a paragraph break ^13 followed by two words ([A-z.]@ [A-z]@>), spans anything else in the paragraph

[!^13]@^13, followed by the same first two words in the following paragraph \1.

Paul,

Yes that makes sense. Thanks. I have a feeling that blah, blah may actually be lengthy text in some cases so I've plugged your expression into a macro for her:

Code:

---

Sub ScratchMacro()
'A basic Word macro coded by Greg Maxey, http://gregmaxey.com/word_tips.html, 12/27/2017
Dim oRng As Word.Range
Dim oRngDup As Word.Range
  Set oRng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With oRng.Find
      .Text = "^13([A-z.]@ [A-z]@>)[!^13]@^13\1"
      .MatchWildcards = True
      While .Execute
        Set oRngDup = oRng.Duplicate
        oRng.Select
        With oRngDup
          .Start = oRngDup.Paragraphs(3).Range.Start
          .Collapse wdCollapseStart
          .MoveEnd wdWord, 2
          .HighlightColorIndex = wdRed
        End With
        oRng.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
      Wend
    End With
lbl_Exit:
  Exit Sub
End Sub

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