# Have you ever had this happen in Microsoft Word? (search & replace problem) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979 "2009-04-22T16:04:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/21 "2009-04-22T20:12:08Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#): > > It’s fun. The most challenging Word project I ever did was build, from scratch, a map of [Collegetown](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ithaca,+ny&ie=UTF8&ll=42.438075,-76.480744&spn=0.010436,0.019269&z=16) in Ithaca, New York, solely with Word drawing objects, showing all the businesses in the area. I was really proud of that one. 🆒 Holy crap! At least you didn’t have to do [Cayuga Heights](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ithaca,+ny&ie=UTF8&ll=42.460447,-76.48819&spn=0.01944,0.026479&t=h&z=15). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/22 "2009-04-22T20:30:00Z")
If you are willing to send it to me, I will play with it a little. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/23 "2009-04-22T20:31:30Z")
Many thanks to all who answered! I obviously found a work-around before I opened this thread, but I’ve been playing with it all morning (and checked a couple of helpful pages on the web). I’ve found that saving the document as a Rich Text file, closing Word, & re-opening it has gotten ride of the corruption. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/24 "2009-04-23T02:05:11Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Granted, this was [del]in 1995[/del] a while ago, so Word may have improved. Well, that’s really the problem. They keep tinkering with it so they fix one thing and introduce a new problem. > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’ve found that saving the document as a Rich Text file, closing Word, & re-opening it has gotten ride of the corruption. Congratulations! I’ll add that my list of trix & tips. ---
**Author:** ![Jimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@Jimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimpy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/25 "2009-04-23T08:04:50Z")
Word, especially in the older days could take a while to replace, I did a reformatting of a project guttenburg book (actually a few) so it would would look better on my pda, basically I made a macro that took all double paragraph marks, made them a special symbol, took all single paragraph marks made them a space and then took the special symbol and made it a double paragraphs again. In a long book, this could take hours and it would look like word was frozen, but it wasn’t. It is quite a bit quicker now (perhaps because my computer is quicker and has waaaaay more memory. But it can still take time. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/26 "2009-04-23T11:17:33Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Many thanks to all who answered! > > I obviously found a work-around before I opened this thread, but I’ve been playing with it all morning (and checked a couple of helpful pages on the web). I’ve found that saving the document as a Rich Text file, closing Word, & re-opening it has gotten ride of the corruption. I had thought that a simple “save as” might work. Word often appends your changes to the end of a file, keeping internal pointers to the various snippets. As “save as” will reorder all the pieces in continuous order. This might have fixed the problem. I had a few other ideas as well. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/27 "2009-04-23T15:23:54Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I had thought that a simple “save as” might work. That was one of the fixes I tried. It didn’t work till I changed the file type to RichText and back again. In the process the size of the file got chopped in half, so there was almost certainly some corruption in the original. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/28 "2009-04-23T15:25:55Z")
> [@Jimpy](#): > > Word, especially in the older days could take a while to replace, I did a reformatting of a project guttenburg book (actually a few) so it would would look better on my pda, basically I made a macro that took all double paragraph marks, made them a special symbol, took all single paragraph marks made them a space and then took the special symbol and made it a double paragraphs again. In a long book, this could take hours and it would look like word was frozen, but it wasn’t. It is quite a bit quicker now (perhaps because my computer is quicker and has waaaaay more memory. But it can still take time. I have done the exact same thing you describe above and have experienced it. This was qualitatively different. At first I thought it was a search & replace problem, but as I fiddled with it, it became clear that simply SEARCHING for the word “master” would cause a freeze once I got to a certain point in chapter 5. It didn’t matter if I was searching up or searching down; it was a problem with that paragraph–a corrupted packet, someone said on a rival board. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979/29 "2009-04-23T17:02:23Z")
Ahhhh the joys of “Reveal Codes”. [Gazes fondly into middle distance] I have regularly maxed out the memory of a computer using the Word Find/Replace function. Much to my surprise, the biggest help was changing the View setting from Print Layout to Draft. Worked like a charm. If you’ve got a corruption in your document somewhere, one of the best ways to wipe it is to Find/Replace your paragraph marks to manual line breaks. Use [Replace] [More] [Special]. Save, then change them back. This is a last resort if you’ve got a lot of specialized formatting in the doc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-this-happen-in-microsoft-word-search-replace-problem/493979.md?page=1)