Find/Replace Default

[MC]

Just about every time I want to do a Find/Replace I want it to be
Current Document All. Is there a way to make Word default to that
preference? It seems to decide all by itself that I should be wanting
Current Document Down every so often, and I practically never want that.

 

[CyberTaz]

Which version of Word is this? I've typically found that the defauslt *is*
All & that's the case in Word 2000 where I am at the moment. I don't have a
Mac available to test on but I thought that Word 2004 did the same - not sure
about 2008.

If worst comes to wors, however, you can just do a Cmd+Home before going to
F&R or acknowledge the prompt to check the rest of the doc if you do start
someplace in the middle.

Regards|:>)
Bob Jones
MVP Office:Mac

 

[MC]

2008, though I got the same behavior in 2004 as well. Just seems to be
random.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

2008, though I got the same behavior in 2004 as well. Just seems to be
random.

Hmmm... In Word 2008 I find that if I have one or more characters
selected, the dialog comes up "Current Document Down", while if there's
an insertion point, the dialog comes up "Current Document All".

Of course, this varies a bit if I *choose* Current Document Up/Down -
Word *should* use the last setting used for a subsequent Find/Replace.

I'll submit a bug report - you may want to do the same via Help/Send
Feedback.

 

[MC]

Hmmm... In Word 2008 I find that if I have one or more characters
selected, the dialog comes up "Current Document Down", while if there's
an insertion point, the dialog comes up "Current Document All".

Of course, this varies a bit if I *choose* Current Document Up/Down -
Word *should* use the last setting used for a subsequent Find/Replace.

I'll submit a bug report - you may want to do the same via Help/Send
Feedback.

Interesting! I wonder if it's a bug or a feature!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Interesting! I wonder if it's a bug or a feature!

I think that's a feature, sort of. Because if you have text selected,
then Find only searches the selection. If you hit Find Next, and it's
done with the selection, then it asks "should I continue?" Well, it has
to continue in one direction or another, so it sets Search Document
Down, which makes sense in context. So I think it's the side effect of
being able to search only selected text, which is a feature.

*Is* accidentally selecting text likely to be the cause of the behavior
you see, MC?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I think that's a feature, sort of. Because if you have text selected,
then Find only searches the selection. If you hit Find Next, and it's
done with the selection, then it asks "should I continue?" Well, it
has to continue in one direction or another, so it sets Search
Document Down, which makes sense in context. So I think it's the side
effect of being able to search only selected text, which is a feature.

Whoops, weak analysis. Nothing to do with continuing after the selection
is searched. To search selected text, it has to start at the beginning
of the selection and search down, so it sets the dialog to reflect what
it's going to do. So, definitely feature, not a side effect.

 

[MC]

Interesting! I wonder if it's a bug or a feature!

I think that's a feature, sort of. Because if you have text selected,
then Find only searches the selection. If you hit Find Next, and it's
done with the selection, then it asks "should I continue?" Well, it has
to continue in one direction or another, so it sets Search Document
Down, which makes sense in context. So I think it's the side effect of
being able to search only selected text, which is a feature.

*Is* accidentally selecting text likely to be the cause of the behavior
you see, MC?[/QUOTE]

It could well be... I canMt remember what I was doing in the past... and
I'll be soaware of it in the future I probably won't have the problem --
assuming it is a problem!

 

[MC]

I think that's a feature, sort of. Because if you have text selected,
then Find only searches the selection. If you hit Find Next, and it's
done with the selection, then it asks "should I continue?" Well, it has
to continue in one direction or another, so it sets Search Document
Down, which makes sense in context. So I think it's the side effect of
being able to search only selected text, which is a feature.

*Is* accidentally selecting text likely to be the cause of the behavior
you see, MC?

It could well be... I canMt remember what I was doing in the past... and
I'll be soaware of it in the future I probably won't have the problem --
assuming it is a problem![/QUOTE]

WEll it may bea fature, but it feels likea bug, and here's why:

If I do a Find/Replace by entering the Find text manually, I get Current
Document All. That's good for what I want 99.9999% of the time.

BUT, let's say I come across a chunk of text in a document that is
repeated many times, I'm goingto Select>Copy before I invoke the
Find/Replace window -- and then I'm going to Paste into the Find space
-- and of course, the chunk of text remains selected in the document,
and therefore I get Current Document Down.

So in order toget Current Document All, I now either have to manually
select it, or wait for the Down operation to conclude and respond to the
prompt asking me if I want tokeep going from the beginning.

No matter which way you slice it, that's extra steps.

Mini Rant:

One of the reasons the WordPerfect Mac afficionados liked WP was because
it never required you to answer unnecessary prompts, and things like
Find/Replace All meant Find/Replace All -- not Find/Replace All Up,
Find/Replace All Down or some other thing.

Word is feature rich, I'll grant you. VERY feature rich. But when that
abundance adds steps all the time, it's a PITA. I just wish you could
have a Prefs option or some such thing that would simplify these things
and eliminate all the unnecessary prompts -- or else customize the
features soyou could havethe default you want.

Min Rant over.

 

[Bill Weylock]

So deselect it before you paste.

WEll it may bea fature, but it feels likea bug, and here's why:

If I do a Find/Replace by entering the Find text manually, I get Current
Document All. That's good for what I want 99.9999% of the time.

BUT, let's say I come across a chunk of text in a document that is
repeated many times, I'm goingto Select>Copy before I invoke the
Find/Replace window -- and then I'm going to Paste into the Find space
-- and of course, the chunk of text remains selected in the document,
and therefore I get Current Document Down.

So in order toget Current Document All, I now either have to manually
select it, or wait for the Down operation to conclude and respond to the
prompt asking me if I want tokeep going from the beginning.

No matter which way you slice it, that's extra steps.

Mini Rant:

One of the reasons the WordPerfect Mac afficionados liked WP was because
it never required you to answer unnecessary prompts, and things like
Find/Replace All meant Find/Replace All -- not Find/Replace All Up,
Find/Replace All Down or some other thing.

Word is feature rich, I'll grant you. VERY feature rich. But when that
abundance adds steps all the time, it's a PITA. I just wish you could
have a Prefs option or some such thing that would simplify these things
and eliminate all the unnecessary prompts -- or else customize the
features soyou could havethe default you want.

Min Rant over.

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[MC]

So deselect it before you paste.

In other words, ANOTHER EXTRA STEP!

 

[John McGhie]

Well, it hasn't changed

The rules are:

1) If your selection is an insertion point (i.e. The cursor with nothing
selected...) when you open the Find or Replace dialog, the default will be
"Current Document All".

2) If you have a selection of one or more characters, the default is
"Current Document Down"

That's not an extra step for me.

Word now has thousands of default, automatic behaviours. Rather than
document them all in a manual the size of a phone book, they try to pick the
most appropriate one each time.

That's always going to be a losing game: there are some defaults I would
love to change that I can't. But the explanations they would have to
document in order to enable users to change these default without a raft of
nasty side-effects is held to be simply too much for most users.

Mac Office 2008 is aimed at users who won't buy a product if the "manual"
exceeds ten pages

Cheers

In other words, ANOTHER EXTRA STEP!

--
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
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[MC]

The rules are:

1) If your selection is an insertion point (i.e. The cursor with nothing
selected...) when you open the Find or Replace dialog, the default will be
"Current Document All".

2) If you have a selection of one or more characters, the default is
"Current Document Down"

That's not an extra step for me.

For me, it all depends on whether I'm trying to replace text I enter
manually (no extra step) or a Selection -- in which case as far as I'm
concerned there's an extra step involved. There are several to choose
from, but one is always necessary.

 

[MC]

Mac Office 2008 is aimed at users who won't buy a product if the "manual"
exceeds ten pages

Funny!