Although, one gain would be to learn some new methods in Word VBA. I've also got a fair bit to do, so once finished it'll be used enough to warrant the effort. Yes, you're onto it...I have an ADO connection to Excel and store the names there (names + designation and the particular format used). I isolate each "name" correct if necessary, and add to Excel if not already there. Allows a match of each new instance, replacing only those needing it. Becoming less as I move through the doc. LOL It works for me! (But I'd never used Word VBA until now, so that's the nightmare part). Thought I'd lost a whole days work because didn't know to enable macros....