Word loses its info box after a large replace

[Madawc]

I've got Microsoft Word 2002. I've been using Word to study a large file that contains errors. To make the records line up in blocks of 100, I have been replacing the spaces with an underscore. (Without this it breaks for 'words'.)

After doing a large replace - 22,486 spaces replaced - I found that the document was no longer displayed. Moreover, all of the word documents were inaccessible. (I had four open at the same time.) I could not get to the 'Info Box' that showed the number of replaces, and had one of Microsoft's standard [OK] buttons that you are obliged to click before being allowed to do anything else.

After a bit of trial and error, I found that if I used [Alt][Tab] to get to [Word], it would show me the information box and kindly permit me to click the [OK] button. But I can't see why it didn't stay with the original document in the first place.

Can anyone please cast any light on this? Or suggest some way round?

PS. I am aware that there are other tools for looking at files. For instance Crystal could do a lot of processing on a text file. But I wanted something that I could mark with highlighters and maybe send to someone who might not have the relevant software tool.

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Crystal 10 & 11.5 with Windows XP

 

[TonyJollans]

This is complete guesswork but it may well be a memory issue. Amongst other things it does, Word will keep track of every change so that it can be undone - with 20K changes (and four documents open), you could be (or Word could be) asking for a lot of resources. If you give it time, it might get there eventually - or it might be worth doing the first half of the file, maybe clearing the undo stack (needs VBA), and then doing the second half - some trial and error might be needed.

Enjoy,
Tony

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