Word 2007 hangs in Replace All

[LOOKinHEREnet]

I have a problem with word 2007 B2TR when using relace all, with ^? in the
replace and a space in the replace with, the progress bar completes and then
word 2007 hangs and uses all resourses in task mgr. Error reporting doesn't
catch it and I have to end Word with task mgr. I am trying to get rid of
excessive returns in a document.

 

[Jay Freedman]

If you're really using the code ^? in the Find What box, you've made a
mistake -- that code represents "any character". You should be
searching for ^p which represents a paragraph mark.

I did report a bug in B2 before the Tech Refresh, where a search
expression that contained two or more ^p codes would hang Word for
about 30 seconds and then leave it in an unstable state. That bug was
fixed in B2TR.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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[LOOKinHEREnet]

In Replace special ^v is what comes up when you select replace paragraph
character, the ^p should be part of replace special or replace special needs
more choices to choose from. ^p did the job quickly.

Bill

 

[Jay Freedman]

It's confusing (but it's exactly the same as in Word 2003):

- The code ^v finds the actual character ¶ (ASCII 182), which is a
printable character, mostly used in legal documents as a symbol for
the word "paragraph". In Replace > Special, it's labeled as "Paragraph
Character".

- The code ^p finds the paragraph mark at the end of each paragraph,
which is not printable and is normally invisible (although it looks
like ¶ when you display nonprinting characters). In Replace > Special,
it's labeled as "Paragraph Mark".

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.