Another replace bug

[kyuuta6]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Replacing

(1) Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet ,

with

(2) Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet,

results in:

(3) Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet, ,

When I try to search on (1), it finds the expression, but fails to highlight the space and comma.

I assume there is no workaround for this one, either

 

[John McGhie]

You have to use a bit of science to get "complex" replaces to be reliable.

An important tip that often makes this kind of thing easier is "First search
for what you DON'T want to change, and mark it, then search for what you DO
want to change."

So: First search for:
" Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet, " and replace it with
" Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet#%"

Now search for:
" Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet ," and replace it with:
" Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet#%"

Now search for "#%" and replace with ", "

Spaces are significant: if you want to replace " ," with ", " you have to
specify the space in both the find and replace operations.

In the Word help, search for "wildcards" and you will find that the
Search/Replace is amazingly powerful if you use all the power tools.

Hope this helps

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Replacing

(1) Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet ,

with

(2) Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet,

results in:

(3) Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet, ,

When I try to search on (1), it finds the expression, but fails to highlight
the space and comma.

I assume there is no workaround for this one, either

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[kyuuta6]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, replacing

Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet,

with

Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet,XX

actually replaces

Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet ,

as well. There is perhaps no way around this bug. I've done this sort of replace many, many times in Word 2003 for Windows. No wildcards, no problems

 

[John McGhie]

Not here it doesn't

What did you have in your Find box? Did you remember the space at the end?

Sorry, but it works fine here: no wrong hits at all.

I wouldn't use XX: it is a common letter. If You are going to replace with
markers, make the markers really rare

Cheers

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, replacing

Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet,

with

Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet,XX

actually replaces

Related documents: Manufacturing Standards Sheet ,

as well. There is perhaps no way around this bug. I've done this sort of
replace many, many times in Word 2003 for Windows. No wildcards, no problems

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[kyuuta6]

Thank you for the kind follow-up.

I did a new test, yadda yadda yadda

It turned out the problem is that the "sounds like (Japanese)" box was checked. It's possible that I hit a hot key to cause it to be checked, but I bet it's that language bug attacking again, checking the box because it decided my English document is Japanese

I will try to watch and see if I can come up with a rationale for when Word does that so I can be prepared, though I hope Microsoft takes care of it first.

Sorry for the trouble.

 

[John McGhie]

No, this is not "trouble". This is really valuable information!

If you can get it to happen again, PLEASE re-post with details about how you
think it might have happened.

Microsoft is not going to look at it at all until we can find a reproducible
way to cause the problem. There's not enough hours in the year for them to
test everything, so they rely on us to tell them when there is a problem
they do not already know about.

And this one, they do not already know about

Cheers

Thank you for the kind follow-up.

I did a new test, yadda yadda yadda

It turned out the problem is that the "sounds like (Japanese)" box was
checked. It's possible that I hit a hot key to cause it to be checked, but I
bet it's that language bug attacking again, checking the box because it
decided my English document is Japanese

I will try to watch and see if I can come up with a rationale for when Word
does that so I can be prepared, though I hope Microsoft takes care of it
first.

Sorry for the trouble.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[kyuuta6]

Okay, here's how I get Word to check the "sounds like Japanese" box.

I open a brand new document where the language is set to English. Then, I open the replace box, uncheck "sounds like Japanese", then close the replace box. I open it again, and it's still checked.

In system preferences, my time zone is set for Cupertino; my top language is set for English, the second for Japanese, the third for Français, the fourth for Deutsch; my region is set for the United States, the currency is set for US dollar.

I think that rather than this being a new bug, it's the same old language bug. Word finds another language or region as the second or third item and latches onto that and refuses to stop giving the user grief. Well known to Microsoft in its Word for Windows and Mac versions for years now.

I think the easiest solution is to try out other word processing programs because Microsoft wants to create new functions rather than fixing long-standing bugs.

 

[John McGhie]

I suspect that the problem is that the document has some Japanese
(Double-Byte Character Set) text in it. That probably fires the Japanese
IMEI and gets some strange things to happen.

Bu I'll put this in as a bug.

Cheers

Okay, here's how I get Word to check the "sounds like Japanese" box.

I open a brand new document where the language is set to English. Then, I open
the replace box, uncheck "sounds like Japanese", then close the replace box. I
open it again, and it's still checked.

In system preferences, my time zone is set for Cupertino; my top language is
set for English, the second for Japanese, the third for Français, the fourth
for Deutsch; my region is set for the United States, the currency is set for
US dollar.

I think that rather than this being a new bug, it's the same old language bug.
Word finds another language or region as the second or third item and latches
onto that and refuses to stop giving the user grief. Well known to Microsoft
in its Word for Windows and Mac versions for years now.

I think the easiest solution is to try out other word processing programs
because Microsoft wants to create new functions rather than fixing
long-standing bugs.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[kyuuta6]

Thank you for the follow-up.

Because it's a brand new document, there aren't even any single-byte characters in it.

I said it's an English document based on checking the language setting

 

[kyuuta6]

I looked under tools > language, where Word indicates the language is English.

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, but the language setting can be six places. Which one did you check?

I'm trying to understand where the Japanese IME came from: I don't have it
here, because I don't have any Japanese installed.

Cheers

Thank you for the follow-up.

Because it's a brand new document, there aren't even any single-byte
characters in it.

I said it's an English document based on checking the language setting

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Hmmm... And the document otherwise has no text in it.

If you quit Word and drag your Normal.dotm to the desktop, does anything
change? I am wondering if this is a bad setting that has somehow
transferred itself into your Normal template.

I also have asked the Microsoft developers to have a look at this one. I'll
be in the Microsoft test lab tomorrow, so I will see if I can get it to
reproduce.

Cheers

I looked under tools > language, where Word indicates the language is English.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]