Cool!  Not real sure why the code has to do three finds but then VBA is not my strong point. Glad you had your son was around to help out.

It sounds like you've found a solution to your problem but I still wanted to put a plug in for the software I have used when writing scripts. Celtx is an open source software that is a GREAT tool for scriptwriting! I don't know that it will highlight a single character's lines for you but it does SOOOOOO much other stuff that I would still strongly urge you to take a look at it.

When I used it we just did the same thing I've done in many theater productions. During our table read each actor highlights their lines as we're going. Okay, I always go through my script before hand just so I'm ready but you get the idea. I guess I didn't see it as an inconvenience as it's the way I've done it in the past.

In any case give Celtx a look and best of luck with your production!

I wonder what the time difference is: more time spent vs less time spent.

Is coding a macro more time-consuming than manually highlighting by individual actors, or the other way around?

Good question Na!

That macro was recorded, you just turn on the macro recorder and do the motions and it writes the code.  It only took a few minutes. I don't know how to write whole code but I can go in and tweak it to do something slightly different after recording. The hard part is to think of a way to do the formats in a relative fashion so that they will work on any script. I found that using key strokes and short cuts rather than using the mouse work better in recording macros. I found the VBA code to add the input box on line, you can find lots of code that way,and my son figured out how to insert it in the recorded code.  It is always little symbols that cause the problems so he tried several variations until one worked.  Dumb luck but it worked.

Also I really wanted it grey shading and my son said to print in grey scale and the yellow highlight is light grey just like I wanted. He is so smart.

Shawn, I had another find and replace to inset blank spaces after the name. It may have to do with me leaving the find dialogue box and going to choose the highlight color and returning to the find box. 

That's great to know: so if I were creating a new play (or some anonymous person was and came across this site) I could happily know I could spend a couple of minutes following your instructions and save myself/actors a lot of bother manually highlighting.

Very useful indeed!