How to use Find command to search entire Word document?

[Guest]

Using Word 2003 as part of Office on Windows XP, the "Find" command is
expected to find all occurrences of a selected word within the whole
document. My document includes text boxes and when I search from the
beginning for a particular word , the find function will find the word in a
Text Box and then never leave that Text Box to search the rest of the
document. After finding the word in the text box and I click "Find Next", a
message says "Word has finished searching the text box". When I click find
next it does not search the rest of the document but rather keeps trying to
re-search that same text box. What about the rest of the document?

 

[Stefan Blom]

Make sure that the insertion point is outside the text box when you
click Edit | Replace. In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the
More button, and make sure that "Search" is set to "All." Now, Word
should find all occurrences of the word in question.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[Guest]

Stefan, What you wrote makes perfect sense and that is exactly what I have
been doing. But everytime it finds the search word within a text box, it gets
stuck in that box and will not leave that box and go on to search the rest of
the document. The text box is like a black hole to the Find command. Thanks
for your input however.

 

[CyberTaz]

I've not tested this in 2003, but I believe it works the same as in Mac
Word. If so, you are being deceived

When you first run a Find Word checks the _entire_ text layer of the doc
*first*, then it checks any Text Boxes & the H/F layer is checked *last*. If
what you are searching for is found in a text box (assuming the item isn't
in the H/F) Find will navigate into that box and will go on to the next
*only* if the content exists in another box. Otherwise it stays right there
& issues the message. It will *not* dump you back into the text layer.
However, if the last occurrence is found in the H/F or the text layer you're
presented with a _different_ message that indicates that the entire doc has
been checked.

BTW - Perhaps a bug, but I've also found that if you use the Browse Objects
button to restart a Find it will *not* include text boxes _or_ H/F, it only
browses the text layer - go figure %>\

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Guest]

I wish it worked the same way as my old Mac (OS9). On the PC with Office 2003
it apparently does not work that way. It does not search the entire text
layer of the document before delving into the text boxes. The search Find
Word exists near the end of the document yet it finds the one in an earlier
text box first and then won't leave the text box. Even if I initialze the
Find Command beyond the Text Box, it jumps right back into the Text Box to
find the one there again and won't go to another text box or to search word
near the end of the document. I'm at my wit's end with this and will probably
recreate this inventory document that I have to search for various words
frequently and just find a way to create the document without Text Boxes
since clearly there's a bug in the Find command for documents with Text Boxes.
Thanks, SteveB