"Replace all" within a selection (Word 2007)

[paulkaye]

I realise that I must be doing something different each time, or possibly that my observations are incorrect, but it SEEMS that if I select text and then perform a 'replace all', sometimes Word replaces all instances in the entire document, and sometimes it ends the process with something like "Word has finished checking the selection. Would you like to check the rest of the document?" (I don't remember the exact text.)
Am I going mad, or am I doing something slightly different to get these different results?
Thanks in advance,


Paul

[macropod]

Hi Paul,

If you have some content selected that does not match the Find text when you execute a Find/Replace with 'ReplaceAll', Word will ask you whether to continue with the rest of the document after it's finished procesing the selected range.

If you have a range selected that matches the Find text when you execute a Find/Replace with 'ReplaceAll', Word will ask you whether to continue from the beginning once it's finished processing from there to the end of the document.

If nothing is selected, Word processes the whole document without asking.

[paulkaye]

Hi Paul,
Strange - what I seem to be observing is that despite having a portion of the document selected, the 'replace all' function replaces all instances throughout the entire document.
Paul

[macropod]

Hi Paul,

That suggests your Find expression matches whatever is already selected - as per the 2nd scenario I described. Although I haven't tested it exhaustively, it may also be that the prompt only occurs if other examples do exist before wherever the insertion point is located (ie Word looks ahead before deciding whether to give the prompt).

[paulkaye]

I'm still not sure this matches what I'm experiencing. Could it be that I need to "find" the first instance within the selection before "replacing all" within the selection?

[macropod]

No, you shouldn't need to do that. In fact, doing so messes up the Find/Replace by changing the selection to the first found expression. From then on, the second scenario I posited takes over.