I am trying to get rid of the AOL "time stamp" in a logged instant
message conversation using MS Word 2000. I cannot figure out how to do
this using wildcard function in search/replace. Here is an example of
how one line of the text appears:

Toone 1223 [12:46 AM]:

The following line has a different time and will look like this:

Toone 1223 [12:47 AM]:

I need to get rid of the time stamp and close up the spaces on ALL
lines so the final result looks like this on all lines:

Toone 1223:

HELP! Thank you.

mikegene...

MS Word 2000 allows wildcards in search and replace, however, the
brackets are used in wildcard searches and that makes it a little
trickier, but it can be done.

In MS Word, go to Edit -> Replace
If you do not see a checkbox labled "Use Wildcards" click on the
button labeled "More"
This will bring up a check box list.  Click on the box next to "use
wildcards"
In the field labled "Find What" type in "12:** AM" (just like that,
without the quotes.  Be sure and put a space between the last * and
AM) and leave the "Replace With" field empty.
Hit find and it will bring up all the instances where the time begins
with a 12 and ends with AM and if you hit replace, it will delete
these occurances.

Now, you should have all your text looking like this:

Toone 1223 []: 

To remove the brackets, uncheck the "use wildcard" box
In the "Find What" field type in " []" NOTE: There is a space before
the []
Hit find or replace all and it will remove the brackets and bring the
colon back to the name so that it should now look like:

Toone 1223:

Thank you for your question and if you need any further clarification,
please let me know.

Regards,

-THV

Search Strategy:
None

Reference:
MS Word 2000 Help

Totally excellent answer. Thank god for experts!

I am glad you got your problem worked out.  Thanks for the rating!

-THV