Ctl+F (find) not functioning properly

[MD]

Hi everyone,

I'm using Word 2003.

I rely on the Ctl+F tool constantly to locate specific words in long
documents.
Everything was working as usual until today.
I press ctl+f and the Find and Replace box pops up. Everything seems to
work. But, when I type anything, it comes back with the result "Word has
finished searching the document. The search item was not found." This happens
even when I type words i KNOW are in the document, like "the." It simply
doesn't recognize anything.

I've made sure that I haven't selected a specific bit of text and that my
cursor is at the start of the document. No special boxes are checked in the
"More" options of the Find and Replace box (such as "Match case" or "Find
whole words only").
I tried shutting down the document and reopening. No luck.

Any clue what I may be doing wrong? I must have checked something without
realizing it... or perhaps this is a bug?

Thanks
Marta

 

[MD]

An update: I must have checked a box that says "Format" at the very bottom
without realizing it. When I pressed the one that says "No Formatting",
everything started to work again. Sooo, not sure what happened there but I'm
glad it's working how I'd like it to!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Formatting is the most common issue here, as you've seen; problems can also
be caused by having either "Match case" or "Use wildcards" checked.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org