Word 2k7 sp1, searching for '@^p' takes forever

[Mike Burroughs]

Just installed Office 2K7 SP1 and many of my macros crapped out (they worked
fine in 2k3 and 2k7). It seems that searching for strings such as ' ^p' and
'@^p' take forever (as in never) even the target string is only a few lines
away.

Is there some new option that I don't want the default setting?

thanks, Mike

 

[Graham Mayor]

There are some differences in the vba that is used by 2007 from that used in
2003. There is nothing that should affect a simple search for ^p, but
without the rest of your code it is impossible to guess what the problem
might be. e.g.

Sub ReplaceExample()
With Selection
.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
With .Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
'**********************
.Text = "^p"
.Replacement.Text = "@@@@@"
'**********************
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
End With
End Sub

works instantly

Post your code and questions relating to it in the vba forum.


--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Mike Burroughs]

Graham,

Thanks for looking at this, but I think that I need to state the problem
more succinctly.

If you attempt to search for the string '^p^p' in a word document, the
program seems to go into an infinate loop. Ditto the string ' ^p'.

Now if you use the string ' ^13', you get better results. However if you're
trying to kill blank line by replacing '^p^p^p' with '^p^p', you get the
rotating circle (replacement for the hourglass, I suppose).

I probably muddied the water by mentioning macros, but that is where I first
noticed the problem.

Mike Burroughs

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you want to kill blank paragraphs then use a wildcard search for

^13{1,}
replace with ^p

http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm

Nor should there be a problem with the search that you have described. Does
it do that if you start Word in its safe mode (hold the CTRL key whilst
starting Word). If not then rename normal.dotm to normal.dotm.old and
checkout what add-ins you have that may be interfering.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Mike Burroughs]

Graham,

This would seem to be a rather simple problem that appeared with sp1.
When searching for the string '^p^p', all I get is the rotating busy signal.

As I said, this problem didn't exist with Word 2k3 or 2k7. It is new with
2k7 sp1.

Did MS put in some kind of option that needs to be cleared?

Mike

 

[Graham Mayor]

sp1 seems to be causing lots of grief all round. I haven't bothered to
update mine yet and probably won't until reports come back that the problems
have been fixed.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Mike,

There was a problem in Word 2007 beta 2 with replacing ^p^p with ^p going into a loop. I don't recall if I retested it in Word 2007
release version, but the reproduction steps at the time were fairly simple.

1. Create a new blank document.
2. Type space then enter
3. Press F4 eight times
(alternative steps 2 and 3, just hit the enter key 8 times.
4. Ctrl+H to bring up the find/replace dialog
5. Find what: ^p^p
6. Replace with ^p

In doing this in a new document in Word 2007 SP1 I didn't see the looping problem. Does the problem only occur in certain
documents?

What I do get using a document but nothing with blank paragraphs (enter key only) is that occasionally, Word wiped out the double
paragraphs but reported it made zero changes.

In other reports where ^p search issues have come up (from Word 97 forward <g>) the text in the documents wasn't something typed
but were either fixed length records or from a text file.

A workarounds in those cases when searching for a blank line were to instead of searching for
a space followed by ^p
search instead
for ^p followed by a space. [also search for ^t for blank lines containing only a tab character).
The problem there only seemed to occur if ^p was the last character in a search/replace.

Another was to first search for ^p and replace it with ^p. That seemed to cleanup the document and then the desired, now 2nd
search would work.

================
Graham,

This would seem to be a rather simple problem that appeared with sp1.
When searching for the string '^p^p', all I get is the rotating busy signal.

As I said, this problem didn't exist with Word 2k3 or 2k7. It is new with
2k7 sp1.

Did MS put in some kind of option that needs to be cleared?

Mike >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Mike Burroughs]

Bob,

Thanks, that last suggestion that you made to first replace ^p with ^p does
the trick. Everything then works as it used to (in Word 2003 and Word 2007
w/o sp1).

Don't know what the problem is... and now I don't care.

again, thanks,

Mike Burroughs