How can I get find/replace to work again in MS Word 2003?

May 16, 2007 5:02 PM

Find and replace has stopped working on MS Word 2003 using MS XP Pro. Whatever shall I do?

It was working a couple of months ago, and I relied on it extensively for a translation project.

Any ideas on how to make it work again?

posted by KokuRyu to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Describe what you mean by "stopped working."

Assuming the dialog box still opens, underneath "Find what:" are there any options listed? Turn those off. You may need to click the More pushbutton to find the options.
posted by grouse at 5:22 PM on May 16, 2007

Press Ctrl-H. What happens? What part of it fails?
posted by aye at 5:22 PM on May 16, 2007

Hi there.

Here's what happens:

1) copy text from word doc that I want to replace
2) press ctrl-h
3) paste in the text i want to replace
4) click the "replace all" button (with nothing - I'm just removing certain words)

Word then says that it has found (0) instances of the text that I want to find/replace (neither find nor replace work), even though I copied the text right from the document.

Like I said, this is a recent thing...
posted by KokuRyu at 8:59 PM on May 16, 2007

It would be helpful to post a couple of screenshots of this process so we can see what is going on.
posted by grouse at 1:28 AM on May 17, 2007

My gut tells me that you've got some formatting options selected. Press ctrl-H again, and then press the More button. Then press the No Formatting button. Press Less and continue on as normal.
posted by solid-one-love at 2:14 PM on May 17, 2007