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Thread: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

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    Obeah Man, Mischief Maker, Lord of Bees Skald the Rhymer's avatar
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    Default Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    I'm working on a book. Not the one I've posted about on the Dope a zillion times--an entirely different one, already sold. The manuscript's about 220 pages & 75,000 words long, and divided into 16 chapters.

    Per my editor's request I decide to change the way a minor character in the novel is referred to. For the sake of argument, let's say he was called Shipmaster and I want to call him Captain instead. Every time I do a global search & replace for those terms, the search hangs and the document gets frozen, forcing me to task manager my way out. I open the document again and try to do the search manually--that is, I have Word query me each time it gets to Shipmaster for an approval. It works for until it gets to chapter 5, at which point the search hangs and the program crashes again. I decide to simply search for shipmaster without enabling the replace function, instead typing in captain each time; the same thing happens. I try beginning the search from end of the document & going backwards; the same thing happens. Eventually I cut the document into 3 pieces--saving chapters 1-4 in one file, 5 in a file by itself, and 6 through 16 in a third file; at last I'm able to make it work, and then I reassemble the document.

    Out of curiosity I did a search & replace on the main character and love interest, changing Richie to Fonzie and Joanie to Chachi. The names appear much more often than shipmaster did, but there was no such problem. I went back to the orginal document and tried to search & replace on master by itself; it hung up on chapter 5 again, the first time that master appeared by itself in the story.

    Has anybody ever had anything like this happen before? Can anybody explain it?
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)

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    Elephant TheFlame's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    This is a WAG (I don't recall this ever happening to me):

    Do you have 'Find Whole Words Only', or any of the other advanced options, ticked? Have you tried ticking/unticking it to see what effect it has?
    I didn't make the world this way, it was like this when I got here

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    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    I think the technical term for that is "glitch."

    (That actually is my serious answer - Word's a good programme, but weirdnesses like that do seem to come bundled with it.)

  4. #4
    Obeah Man, Mischief Maker, Lord of Bees Skald the Rhymer's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by TheFlame
    This is a WAG (I don't recall this ever happening to me):

    Do you have 'Find Whole Words Only', or any of the other advanced options, ticked? Have you tried ticking/unticking it to see what effect it has?
    Not at first; there was no need. While experimenting with possible resolutions I tried that. I also tried copying & pasting to antoher document, and the problem remained. However, when I opened an unrelated document of similar length & did an S & R for the exact same word combo, nothing happened.

    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    I think the technical term for that is "glitch."

    (That actually is my serious answer - Word's a good programme, but weirdnesses like that do seem to come bundled with it.)
    Oh, I know. My question is mostly idle, as I found a work-around before opening the thread.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)

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    Oliphaunt Baldwin's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    My guess is that it has something to do with formatting attached to one or more instances of "Shipmaster". (Have you previously used Track Changes on this document, by any chance? If that's done repeatedly, sometimes odd problems pop up.)

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Word had a problem in similar situations (such as spellcheck) if the target in question was inside a formfield and there was a tab immediately preceding said formfield. Doesn't sound likely in this situation, but I throw it out there anyway just in case. If this is the case, there is a VB workaround, but it's easier to just format the document properly.

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    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Have you peeked at the document with reveal codes on? Maybe you've got something stuck in there.

  8. #8
    Obeah Man, Mischief Maker, Lord of Bees Skald the Rhymer's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Have you peeked at the document with reveal codes on? Maybe you've got something stuck in there.


    Since when does Word have a reveal codes option? That's one of the things I miss about WordPerfect.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)

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    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    You likely have a paragraph in your fifth chapter with a corrupted packet. Word stores packets with each paragraph that basically describe the paragraph's attributes and the attributes of their contents. Check to see whether there is any sort of formatting applied to the particular "master" or "shipmaster" that is giving you a problem. If so, remove it, save, and then reapply. Try again with the S&R.

  10. #10
    XJETGIRLX
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by Skald the Rhymer
    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Have you peeked at the document with reveal codes on? Maybe you've got something stuck in there.


    Since when does Word have a reveal codes option? That's one of the things I miss about WordPerfect.
    Since as far back as I can remember! Look for the pilcrow (paragraph symbol) on the standard toolbar, next to the document map.

  11. #11
    Obeah Man, Mischief Maker, Lord of Bees Skald the Rhymer's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Many thanks to all who answered!

    I obviously found a work-around before I opened this thread, but I've been playing with it all morning (and checked a couple of helpful pages on the web). I've found that saving the document as a Rich Text file, closing Word, & re-opening it has gotten ride of the corruption.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)

  12. #12
    Obeah Man, Mischief Maker, Lord of Bees Skald the Rhymer's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by XJETGIRLX
    Quote Originally posted by Skald the Rhymer
    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Have you peeked at the document with reveal codes on? Maybe you've got something stuck in there.


    Since when does Word have a reveal codes option? That's one of the things I miss about WordPerfect.
    Since as far back as I can remember! Look for the pilcrow (paragraph symbol) on the standard toolbar, next to the document map.

    :: snorting ::

    You call THAT reveal codes? I know about the pilcrow, and it ain't no reveal codes, baby. Not to the degree WP did.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)

  13. #13
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by XJETGIRLX
    Quote Originally posted by Skald the Rhymer
    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Have you peeked at the document with reveal codes on? Maybe you've got something stuck in there.


    Since when does Word have a reveal codes option? That's one of the things I miss about WordPerfect.
    Since as far back as I can remember! Look for the pilcrow (paragraph symbol) on the standard toolbar, next to the document map.
    I thought that this thread was resolved, so I didn't reply. XJET is quite right that hitting the mirrored P shows the formatting codes.

    Back in my very early days of desktop support where people had problems with docs, we used to switch that on, then select the entire doc apart from the final paragragh marker and the last char in the doc. Copy, paste into new doc, problem gone. I never bothered to find out why it worked - it just did. I imagine there is hidden formatting crap between the last character and the last pilcrow which isn't visible even if you have everything showing. Omitting that marker from the copy omitted whatever the problem was, it seems.
    Anything is possible if you use enough lubricant.

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    Elephant TheFlame's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Slight hijack:

    That thing that looks like a backwards lower-case 'p' and puts a symbol where you've done a carriage return is called a "pilcrow"?
    I didn't make the world this way, it was like this when I got here

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    Elephant
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Skald, you should join my Happy Days incest slash-fic club. I don't think we have any stories with a nautical theme yet.


  16. #16
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by TheFlame
    Slight hijack:

    That thing that looks like a backwards lower-case 'p' and puts a symbol where you've done a carriage return is called a "pilcrow"?
    Yessir.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilcrow
    Anything is possible if you use enough lubricant.

  17. #17
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    I always work in Word with my pilcrow on (thanks for the name, JETGIRL) - I wish it revealed as many codes as WordPerfect, too, but it gives me a fighting chance of knowing what's going on. As a secretarial type, I always think it's funny when I open a document someone else has created, and for example, instead of using tabs they use spaces ("Why don't these ever line up properly?").

  18. #18
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    I always work in Word with my pilcrow on (thanks for the name, JETGIRL) - I wish it revealed as many codes as WordPerfect, too, but it gives me a fighting chance of knowing what's going on. As a secretarial type, I always think it's funny when I open a document someone else has created, and for example, instead of using tabs they use spaces ("Why don't these ever line up properly?").
    It's considerably less funny when some macaroon has done this in a company template that you're expected to use. It's even worse when you correct it and they're all like, "why have you messed up my formatting?"

    Arsehole.
    Anything is possible if you use enough lubricant.

  19. #19
    Elephant TheFlame's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Rock out with your pilcrow out!
    I didn't make the world this way, it was like this when I got here

  20. #20
    Obeah Man, Mischief Maker, Lord of Bees Skald the Rhymer's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Quote Originally posted by McNutty
    Skald, you should join my Happy Days incest slash-fic club. I don't think we have any stories with a nautical theme yet.


    Embarrrasingly, I had to read this several times before I realized what you were talking about.
    "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon." (Chesterton)

  21. #21
    Clueless but well-meaning Hatshepsut's avatar
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & r

    "Pilcrow," eh? Well, that's going to go into my collection of "very cool words I never get to use," along with gems such as litotes and pleonasm.

  22. #22
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem)

    Don't forget aglet.
    I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.

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