Hi Tinfanide,

Replacing character-for-character with underscores is easy enough unsing Find/Replace, but:
• underscores are typically not the same width as the other characters you'll be replacing (see https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/...html#post38158 for comparative widths in 12pt TNR). That means one would have to calculate the string width, then substitute however many underscores will give an approximation of that width; and
• things can get very messy where line breaks are involved. In effect, each line has to be processed independently.
Ultimately, a fairly complex macro would be required. If this is for redaction purposes, see: http://redaction.codeplex.com/

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]