Sub EtAlElisionSharman()
' Paul Beverley - Version 02.03.15
' Crop multi-authors to a given number before 'et al'

maxAuthors = 4
delimiter = ")"
warningColour = wdYellow
okAsIsColour = wdGray25
nameHighlightColour = wdTurquoise

For Each myPar In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
  refText = myPar.Range.Text
  delimiterPosn = InStr(refText, delimiter)
  If delimiterPosn = 0 Then
    If InStr(refText, Chr(9)) > 0 Then myPar.Range.HighlightColorIndex = warningColour
  Else
    myText = Left(refText, delimiterPosn)
    If Len(myText) - Len(Replace(myText, ",", "")) >= maxAuthors Then
      myPar.Range.Select
      myStart = Selection.Start
      veryStart = myStart
      myEnd = Selection.End
      veryEnd = myEnd
      doHighlight = False
      remaingText = myText
      For i = 1 To maxAuthors - 1
        commaPos = InStr(remaingText, ",")
        Selection.End = Selection.Start + commaPos
        If doHighlight = True Then
          Selection.Range.HighlightColorIndex = nameHighlightColour
          doHighlight = False
        Else
          doHighlight = True
        End If
        Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
        remaingText = Mid(remaingText, myPointer)
      DoEvents ' Debug.Print myPointer, remaingText
      Next i
    Else
      myPar.Range.HighlightColorIndex = okAsIsColour
    End If
  End If
Next myPar

End Sub