"Find" command crashes

[aryev]

I am running Word 2007 on XP Pro. (I believe I have Office Service Pack 1
installed.)

The Find command will send the CPU to 100% in my big (huge) documents
sometimes. Sitting and waiting does not help. Before I figured out that
hitting Esc will free the computer again, I would have to reboot.

Here's the thing--whether or not the search hangs seems to depend on the
word I'm searching for. I've been playing around with it (that almost counts
as doing work, right?) and I seem to have learned that if there are no
instances or only a few, no problem. If there are many the process crashes.

Can this be right? More to the point, since my work sometimes relies on me
finding the many instances of frequent words, is there a fix?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Does the problem still happen if Word is started in safe mode? To start in
safe mode, hold down the Ctrl key as Word is starting, then click Yes to the
safe mode prompt.

 

[aryev]

Thanks for your quick reply.

Yes, it still happens in safe mode. I have just now tested it, and the
program hangs on precisely the same words as in normal mode.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Aryev,

There are a few odd things that seem to cause this in Word 2007. Some can appear random and there are some criteria that are a bit
harder to pin down.

Is it only in a 'Find' operation or in a 'Replace'?

What is the exact Find criteria (and Replace if applicable) that you're using?

Is it in any document or only certain ones?

Does the document contain more than one language?

What editing languages are enabled in
Office Button=>Word Options=>Popular=>Language Settings ?

Does the document use Auto-hyphenation and/or use 'Justify'(Home tab)?

=====================
Thanks for your quick reply.

Yes, it still happens in safe mode. I have just now tested it, and the
program hangs on precisely the same words as in normal mode. <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Klaus Linke]

There seem to be some issues in Word2007 that cause Find and Replace to hang
if there are optional hyphens in the document.

If you make a backup copy, and delete all optional hyphens (replace ^- with
nothing), do the propblems disappear?

Two consecutive optional hyphens seem to be especially problematic. Maybe
it's enough to replace ^-^- with ^- ...

Regards,
Klaus

 

[aryev]

Thanks, Bob. I will try to answer your questions in order.

The same word triggers the problem with both "Find" and "Replace".

One word that hangs up a particular document every single time is "uncles."
Also "dark." Very common words such as "the" will work, however. (At least
they work today.) I stated previously that I thought the problem had
something to do with the relative frequency of the word, but now this seems
doubtful.

The problem has happened in various documents, though they are all quite long.

The document does contain more than one language.

I have English, Japanese, and Spanish enabled as editing languages, though
my primary editing language is set as English.

Auto-hyphenation is turned off, and Justify is not enabled.

In response to Klaus: I attempted to replace all my hyphens, but "Replace
All" froze the program. And the document is far too long to do it manually.

Am I right in thinking this is still a mystery bug that no one really
understands?

Thanks, gentlemen.

Aryev

 

[Klaus Linke]

In response to Klaus: I attempted to replace all my hyphens, but
"Replace All" froze the program. And the document is far too long
to do it manually.

Am I right in thinking this is still a mystery bug that no one really
understands?

Right. I've seen it in a couple of my documents.
There seem to be some problematic texts that throw Find (and Replace) into
an endless loop.
Those problematic texts contain optional hyphens.

Word will find the search text fine if it's above such a problematic text,
or if the insertion point is in the same paragraph with the search text.
But it'll hang if the search text is below.

That's pretty much all we've figured out up to now, as far as I've seen.

Replacing optional hyphens has worked for me up to now. If it hangs too, you
might try to replace using wildcards:
Find what: ([!^13])^31
Replace with: \1

Not sure it'll work, but it seems worth a try. It should make sure Word
tries to match inside a paragraph only, which seems to work fine.
Or try searching bottom to top...

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Aryev,

You're correct, it's not entirely clear what is causing the looping within Word in some searches in Word 2007 during a Find or
Find/replace operation, double punctuation seems to do it in a number of cases.

If you have a blog/website/MS Skydrive/Office Live Workspace and can post a link to a document where you're seeing this it may be
helpful. If Klaus advanced find works having a 'before' and 'after' version of the document would help as well.

I wasn't able to find a situation where 'uncles' alone did it, so it may be something that is in context where something that Word
hits before it gets there is looping it.

============
Thanks, Bob. I will try to answer your questions in order.

The same word triggers the problem with both "Find" and "Replace".

One word that hangs up a particular document every single time is "uncles."
Also "dark." Very common words such as "the" will work, however. (At least
they work today.) I stated previously that I thought the problem had
something to do with the relative frequency of the word, but now this seems
doubtful.

The problem has happened in various documents, though they are all quite long.

The document does contain more than one language.

I have English, Japanese, and Spanish enabled as editing languages, though
my primary editing language is set as English.

Auto-hyphenation is turned off, and Justify is not enabled.

In response to Klaus: I attempted to replace all my hyphens, but "Replace
All" froze the program. And the document is far too long to do it manually.

Am I right in thinking this is still a mystery bug that no one really
understands?

Thanks, gentlemen.

Aryev >>

--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*