To enter Unicode characters by their hexadecimal value (without having to trawl through Word’s fair-weather-friend symbol-entry interface): Enter the hexadecimal value for the Unicode symbol, position cursor at the end of the string, and press alt-X. This toggles between the character and the unicode value.

This regular expression finds whole words of 2 to 8 (inc.) capital letters. This is one way of going through a document fairly quickly and finding all the acronyms (and initialisms) in it. I’m sure there’s a better way to do it, but this is one way, at least.
Open Find box, check Use Wildcards, and [...]

Regular expressions provide a language for searching and editing strings of characters. They can be invaluable for academic editing.
In MS Word, simple regular expressions are called “wildcards.” Used with care, these can save an editor time and keyboard strokes. You can enable them by Cntrl-F to bring up the Find/Replace dialogue box, clicking “More >>” [...]

Regular E

When track changes is enabled, MS Word transposes characters when using the wildcard string (a.k.a. regular expression):
Find \(([0-9]{4})\)
Replace with . \1.
The aim of the string is to transform, e.g. Hart, Keith (1973) to Hart, Keith. 1973.
But when track changes is on it produces Hart, Keith1973..
The only way to work around this that I [...]