Conditional hyphens can cause Word 2007 SP1 Find & Replace..

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the info!

I was a bit obscure in my posts: Word often hangs for me even if there are
no double optional hyphens (soft hyphens), only single ones.
My work-around right now is to replace all of them with some other Unicode
character, or delete them if possible.

When there's some time (next weekend?), I'll do some testing with your
"STEPS TO REPRODUCE" and then try to file a bug report.

Thanks again,
Klaus


"Neil Cumfer" <nsc RemoveThis @legis.lpitr.state.sc.us> wrote:
>I don't think the problem is in the document at all. It worked fine
> before applying Service Pack 1. Locating the portion in the document
> where the bug strikes can help with creating a workaround.
>
>> If I cut the soft hyphen (either by itself, or with some more text
> following
>> it) and then use "Undo", that fixes the problem for the moment, too.
>> But if I close and re-open the file, the problem reappears.
>
> I have seen something similar too.
>
> When reproducing the bug as described in an earlier message ...
>
>> STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
>> 1. Open the identified affected version of Word.
>> 2. (Optional for readability, does not affect test case) On the Home
> tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide to show formatting marks.
>> 3. Type the word "Test"
>> 4. Press the Enter key
>> 5. Press the Tab key
>> 6. Press the Enter key
>> 7. Press Ctrl+- (Control + Hyphen) twice.
>> 8. Press the Enter key
>> 9. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Replace.
>> 10. For 'Find what', enter "Test", and for 'Replace with', enter
> "Testing"
>> 11. Click Replace All.
>> 12. Observe that Word stops responding. Task Manager can be used to
> verify that Word is consuming as much CPU as possible (up to 100%)
>
> ... I noticed that I can copy the first conditional hyphen to the
> clipboard and paste it between the two consecutive conditional hyphens,
> then delete the first conditional hyphen, and suddenly the Replace All
> button will work without causing Word 2007 SP1 to freeze.
>
> I have developed a workaround for my problem files. I have discovered
> that if I replace each space character with a space character, it will
> trick Service Pack 1 into letting me perform the replacement that
> otherwise would cause Word 2007 SP1 to freeze up. This workaround does
> not work for the document with the two conditional hyphens, however.
>
> It appears to me that something in SP1 is causing the Find and Replace
> Dialog Box to become corrupted (or possibly something in SP1 is causing
> Word 2007 to corrupt some documents when it opens them).
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Neil
>
> "Klaus Linke" <info RemoveThis @fotosatz-kaufmann.de> wrote in message
> news:ej6WPrF3IHA.2332@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> After a bit more testing, I'm not sure any more whether BiDi language
>> support has much to do with the problem.
>> Tables don't seem to, either.
>>
>> I stripped a doc that hang when using "Find" down as much as possible.
>> I saved in Word2003 XML format.
>>
>> Then I cut the optional hyphen that caused the problem, and pasted it
> in
>> again.
>> The problem went away ("Find" didn't hang any more).
>>
>> I saved that "repaired" file, too.
>>
>> If I cut the soft hyphen (either by itself, or with some more text
> following
>> it) and then use "Undo", that fixes the problem for the moment, too.
>> But if I close and re-open the file, the problem reappears.
>>
>> Comparing the broken and repaired files, the only difference was in
> some
>> rsid elements (revision save ids, such as w:rsidP="########").
>> They're expected since I "revised" the file, but apart from them, the
> files
>> (especially the optional hyphen <w:softHyphen/>) looked the same.
>>
>> Really weird...
>>
>> Klaus
>>
>
>

Hi Neil,

FWIW, repeating the 'Steps to Reproduce', even with the unlikely document content <g>, Word 2007 SP1 doesn't hang for me on doing
the replace.

It's possible that there's something in the documents that Word is 'seeing' that does this. Do you have webpage/blog/Office Live
Workspace/file share site, etc that you can use to provide a link to a .docX document that you're seeing this in?

If you start Word 2007 in safe mode (hold ctrl key while starting Word and repeat the 'steps to reproduce' do you get the same hang?

One of the possibilities in the original messages in this thread is that it may be related to specific language settings or with a
mix of Left-to-Right and Right-to-left languages being involved in a document.

What is the build level for Word 2007 (Alt, F, I, R)?

=========
<<"Neil Cumfer" <nsc.TakeThisOut@legis.lpitr.state.sc.us> wrote in message news:%23AJRztI3IHA.5088@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
I don't think the problem is in the document at all. It worked fine
before applying Service Pack 1. Locating the portion in the document
where the bug strikes can help with creating a workaround.

> If I cut the soft hyphen (either by itself, or with some more text
following
> it) and then use "Undo", that fixes the problem for the moment, too.
> But if I close and re-open the file, the problem reappears.

I have seen something similar too.

When reproducing the bug as described in an earlier message ...

> STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
> 1. Open the identified affected version of Word.
> 2. (Optional for readability, does not affect test case) On the Home
tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide to show formatting marks.
> 3. Type the word "Test"
> 4. Press the Enter key
> 5. Press the Tab key
> 6. Press the Enter key
> 7. Press Ctrl+- (Control + Hyphen) twice.
> 8. Press the Enter key
> 9. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Replace.
> 10. For 'Find what', enter "Test", and for 'Replace with', enter
"Testing"
> 11. Click Replace All.
> 12. Observe that Word stops responding. Task Manager can be used to
verify that Word is consuming as much CPU as possible (up to 100%)

... I noticed that I can copy the first conditional hyphen to the
clipboard and paste it between the two consecutive conditional hyphens,
then delete the first conditional hyphen, and suddenly the Replace All
button will work without causing Word 2007 SP1 to freeze.

I have developed a workaround for my problem files. I have discovered
that if I replace each space character with a space character, it will
trick Service Pack 1 into letting me perform the replacement that
otherwise would cause Word 2007 SP1 to freeze up. This workaround does
not work for the document with the two conditional hyphens, however.

It appears to me that something in SP1 is causing the Find and Replace
Dialog Box to become corrupted (or possibly something in SP1 is causing
Word 2007 to corrupt some documents when it opens them).

Thanks again.

Neil >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Hi Bob,

The problem started immediately after installing Service Pack 1 ...
since it doesn't happen to everybody, it could be a faulty install, but
Microsoft won't let you reinstall or uninstall the service pack. I have
repaired the entire installation of Office 2007 to no avail.

Also, the problem manifests itself in safe mode.

I don't think the right-to-left languages are involved, my only enabled
language is English (US).

In my mind, the problem is that the Find and Replace dialog box is in a
corrupt state. The service pack attempted to fix many problems with
various languages ... maybe a certain language has to be installed in
order for the service pack to install correctly.

My build is Word 2007 (12.0.6212.1000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
(hmm I see that the service pack is for 6213 but I have 6212)

You can download a .doc file from our website
http://intranet.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/hupdate.htm ... just
about any link in the "2008 Issues" section (the May 6 issue is one of
the shortest http://intranet.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/8n17.doc).

These documents don't have hyphens but they do have paragraphs beginning
with tabs and Word freezes (for me) when I try to replace ^p^w with ^p

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Neil

"Bob Buckland ?" <75214.226(At Beautiful Downtown)compuserve.com>
wrote in message news:#6npRm53IHA.3500@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Hi Neil,
>
> FWIW, repeating the 'Steps to Reproduce', even with the unlikely
document content <g>, Word 2007 SP1 doesn't hang for me on doing
> the replace.
>
> It's possible that there's something in the documents that Word is
'seeing' that does this. Do you have webpage/blog/Office Live
> Workspace/file share site, etc that you can use to provide a link to a
..docX document that you're seeing this in?
>
> If you start Word 2007 in safe mode (hold ctrl key while starting Word
and repeat the 'steps to reproduce' do you get the same hang?
>
> One of the possibilities in the original messages in this thread is
that it may be related to specific language settings or with a
> mix of Left-to-Right and Right-to-left languages being involved in a
document.
>
> What is the build level for Word 2007 (Alt, F, I, R)?
>
> =========
> <<"Neil Cumfer" <nsc.RemoveThis@legis.lpitr.state.sc.us> wrote in message
news:%23AJRztI3IHA.5088@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> I don't think the problem is in the document at all. It worked fine
> before applying Service Pack 1. Locating the portion in the document
> where the bug strikes can help with creating a workaround.
>
> > If I cut the soft hyphen (either by itself, or with some more text
> following
> > it) and then use "Undo", that fixes the problem for the moment, too.
> > But if I close and re-open the file, the problem reappears.
>
> I have seen something similar too.
>
> When reproducing the bug as described in an earlier message ...
>
> > STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
> > 1. Open the identified affected version of Word.
> > 2. (Optional for readability, does not affect test case) On the Home
> tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide to show formatting marks.
> > 3. Type the word "Test"
> > 4. Press the Enter key
> > 5. Press the Tab key
> > 6. Press the Enter key
> > 7. Press Ctrl+- (Control + Hyphen) twice.
> > 8. Press the Enter key
> > 9. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Replace.
> > 10. For 'Find what', enter "Test", and for 'Replace with', enter
> "Testing"
> > 11. Click Replace All.
> > 12. Observe that Word stops responding. Task Manager can be used to
> verify that Word is consuming as much CPU as possible (up to 100%)
>
> ... I noticed that I can copy the first conditional hyphen to the
> clipboard and paste it between the two consecutive conditional
hyphens,
> then delete the first conditional hyphen, and suddenly the Replace All
> button will work without causing Word 2007 SP1 to freeze.
>
> I have developed a workaround for my problem files. I have discovered
> that if I replace each space character with a space character, it will
> trick Service Pack 1 into letting me perform the replacement that
> otherwise would cause Word 2007 SP1 to freeze up. This workaround
does
> not work for the document with the two conditional hyphens, however.
>
> It appears to me that something in SP1 is causing the Find and Replace
> Dialog Box to become corrupted (or possibly something in SP1 is
causing
> Word 2007 to corrupt some documents when it opens them).
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Neil >>
> --
>
> Bob Buckland ?
> MS Office System Products MVP
>
> *Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
>
>

OK, the "steps to reproduce" were posted a while back by somebody else,
it seems that when some people follow the steps they can see the
problem,
but when other people follow the steps they can't.

"Klaus Linke" <info RemoveThis @fotosatz-kaufmann.de> wrote in message
news:eWLXmSR3IHA.4448@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Hi Neil,
>
> Thanks for the info!
>
> I was a bit obscure in my posts: Word often hangs for me even if there
are
> no double optional hyphens (soft hyphens), only single ones.
> My work-around right now is to replace all of them with some other
Unicode
> character, or delete them if possible.
>
> When there's some time (next weekend?), I'll do some testing with your
> "STEPS TO REPRODUCE" and then try to file a bug report.
>
> Thanks again,
> Klaus
>
>
> "Neil Cumfer" <nsc RemoveThis @legis.lpitr.state.sc.us> wrote:
> >I don't think the problem is in the document at all. It worked fine
> > before applying Service Pack 1. Locating the portion in the
document
> > where the bug strikes can help with creating a workaround.
> >
> >> If I cut the soft hyphen (either by itself, or with some more text
> > following
> >> it) and then use "Undo", that fixes the problem for the moment,
too.
> >> But if I close and re-open the file, the problem reappears.
> >
> > I have seen something similar too.
> >
> > When reproducing the bug as described in an earlier message ...
> >
> >> STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
> >> 1. Open the identified affected version of Word.
> >> 2. (Optional for readability, does not affect test case) On the
Home
> > tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide to show formatting
marks.
> >> 3. Type the word "Test"
> >> 4. Press the Enter key
> >> 5. Press the Tab key
> >> 6. Press the Enter key
> >> 7. Press Ctrl+- (Control + Hyphen) twice.
> >> 8. Press the Enter key
> >> 9. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Replace.
> >> 10. For 'Find what', enter "Test", and for 'Replace with', enter
> > "Testing"
> >> 11. Click Replace All.
> >> 12. Observe that Word stops responding. Task Manager can be used to
> > verify that Word is consuming as much CPU as possible (up to 100%)
> >
> > ... I noticed that I can copy the first conditional hyphen to the
> > clipboard and paste it between the two consecutive conditional
hyphens,
> > then delete the first conditional hyphen, and suddenly the Replace
All
> > button will work without causing Word 2007 SP1 to freeze.
> >
> > I have developed a workaround for my problem files. I have
discovered
> > that if I replace each space character with a space character, it
will
> > trick Service Pack 1 into letting me perform the replacement that
> > otherwise would cause Word 2007 SP1 to freeze up. This workaround
does
> > not work for the document with the two conditional hyphens, however.
> >
> > It appears to me that something in SP1 is causing the Find and
Replace
> > Dialog Box to become corrupted (or possibly something in SP1 is
causing
> > Word 2007 to corrupt some documents when it opens them).
> >
> > Thanks again.
> >
> > Neil
> >
> > "Klaus Linke" <info RemoveThis @fotosatz-kaufmann.de> wrote in message
> > news:ej6WPrF3IHA.2332@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> >> After a bit more testing, I'm not sure any more whether BiDi
language
> >> support has much to do with the problem.
> >> Tables don't seem to, either.
> >>
> >> I stripped a doc that hang when using "Find" down as much as
possible.
> >> I saved in Word2003 XML format.
> >>
> >> Then I cut the optional hyphen that caused the problem, and pasted
it
> > in
> >> again.
> >> The problem went away ("Find" didn't hang any more).
> >>
> >> I saved that "repaired" file, too.
> >>
> >> If I cut the soft hyphen (either by itself, or with some more text
> > following
> >> it) and then use "Undo", that fixes the problem for the moment,
too.
> >> But if I close and re-open the file, the problem reappears.
> >>
> >> Comparing the broken and repaired files, the only difference was in
> > some
> >> rsid elements (revision save ids, such as w:rsidP="########").
> >> They're expected since I "revised" the file, but apart from them,
the
> > files
> >> (especially the optional hyphen <w:softHyphen/>) looked the same.
> >>
> >> Really weird...
> >>
> >> Klaus
> >>
> >
> >
>

Hi Neil,

Yes, in those files I do get the issue. Word 2007 has trouble, going into a 100% CPU, use when the Replace dialog looks for two
consecutive formatting code sequences, such as ^p^p or ^p^w

It can usually handle either of those separately but not the pair in some cases. That was the case here,
http://www.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/8n17.doc
but so far none of the previous workarounds (i.e. replace ^p with ^& or first replacing ^p with text such as 'FRED', then do the
^p^w or FRED^w replace) has worked on that file, even when saved as XML, so I'm still looking at them and hopefully others might do
so as well.

The dialog doesn't hang the system for me (i.e. while it won't respond to the mouse trying to close the dialog it does seem to
respond to cancelling by the Esc key in most cases) and eventually the progress dialog on the bottom of the screen does start to
creep forward.

=================
<<"Neil Cumfer" <nsc.RemoveThis@legis.lpitr.state.sc.us> wrote in message news:OTdJP2D4IHA.2336@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Hi Bob,

The problem started immediately after installing Service Pack 1 ...
since it doesn't happen to everybody, it could be a faulty install, but
Microsoft won't let you reinstall or uninstall the service pack. I have
repaired the entire installation of Office 2007 to no avail.

Also, the problem manifests itself in safe mode.

I don't think the right-to-left languages are involved, my only enabled
language is English (US).

In my mind, the problem is that the Find and Replace dialog box is in a
corrupt state. The service pack attempted to fix many problems with
various languages ... maybe a certain language has to be installed in
order for the service pack to install correctly.

My build is Word 2007 (12.0.6212.1000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
(hmm I see that the service pack is for 6213 but I have 6212)

You can download a .doc file from our website
http://intranet.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/hupdate.htm ... just
about any link in the "2008 Issues" section (the May 6 issue is one of
the shortest http://intranet.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/8n17.doc).

These documents don't have hyphens but they do have paragraphs beginning
with tabs and Word freezes (for me) when I try to replace ^p^w with ^p

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Neil >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Hi Bob,

Thanks for fooling around with it.

As a workaround for this particular file, I can replace every space
character in the document with another space (I use ^0032 in the find
box and a space in the replace box). That seems to temporarily remove
the corruption in the dialog box and can be followed by a successful
replacement of ^p^w

I have also discovered that the escape key will restore order (might
have to wait a couple of second), but if you click on the Cancel button
or the X in the upper right corner, that title bar of the dialog box
will change to Not Responding ... I guess the reports have been
misleading because it is not actually Word that is hanging but the
dialog box

I have been using ^p^w for years and never had a problem with it until
Service Pack 1 for Word 2007

I think we might have explored this bug as far as anybody on the outside
can go ... of course, all you readers are welcome to prove me wrong

Neil


"Bob Buckland ?" <75214.226(At Beautiful Downtown)compuserve.com>
wrote in message news:e1hLDTQ4IHA.2332@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi Neil,
>
> Yes, in those files I do get the issue. Word 2007 has trouble, going
into a 100% CPU, use when the Replace dialog looks for two
> consecutive formatting code sequences, such as ^p^p or ^p^w
>
> It can usually handle either of those separately but not the pair in
some cases. That was the case here,
> http://www.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/8n17.doc
> but so far none of the previous workarounds (i.e. replace ^p with ^&
or first replacing ^p with text such as 'FRED', then do the
> ^p^w or FRED^w replace) has worked on that file, even when saved as
XML, so I'm still looking at them and hopefully others might do
> so as well.
>
> The dialog doesn't hang the system for me (i.e. while it won't respond
to the mouse trying to close the dialog it does seem to
> respond to cancelling by the Esc key in most cases) and eventually the
progress dialog on the bottom of the screen does start to
> creep forward.
>
> =================
> <<"Neil Cumfer" <nsc DeleteThis @legis.lpitr.state.sc.us> wrote in message
news:OTdJP2D4IHA.2336@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi Bob,
>
> The problem started immediately after installing Service Pack 1 ...
> since it doesn't happen to everybody, it could be a faulty install,
but
> Microsoft won't let you reinstall or uninstall the service pack. I
have
> repaired the entire installation of Office 2007 to no avail.
>
> Also, the problem manifests itself in safe mode.
>
> I don't think the right-to-left languages are involved, my only
enabled
> language is English (US).
>
> In my mind, the problem is that the Find and Replace dialog box is in
a
> corrupt state. The service pack attempted to fix many problems with
> various languages ... maybe a certain language has to be installed in
> order for the service pack to install correctly.
>
> My build is Word 2007 (12.0.6212.1000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
> (hmm I see that the service pack is for 6213 but I have 6212)
>
> You can download a .doc file from our website
> http://intranet.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/hupdate.htm ... just
> about any link in the "2008 Issues" section (the May 6 issue is one of
> the shortest
http://intranet.scstatehouse.net/reports/hupdate/8n17.doc).
>
> These documents don't have hyphens but they do have paragraphs
beginning
> with tabs and Word freezes (for me) when I try to replace ^p^w with ^p
>
> Thanks for any help you can provide.
>
> Neil >>
> --
>
> Bob Buckland ?
> MS Office System Products MVP
>
> *Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
>
>