Replacing text in Word footnotes

I have a long document which includes about 2,400 footnotes. I have been
asked to put a full stop/period at the end of each one, but do not want
to do this manually. The obvious way to do this is to use the ?replace?
function in Word (I use Microsoft Word 2002 in XP), but I cannot
persuade it to do what I want. My question is how to get around this so
that I can insert the 2,400 full stops/periods automatically.

In the Replace dialogue box I have put ^p (i.e. paragraph mark) in the
Find What box and .^p in the Replace With  box. If I apply this to
normal text in a document it does what I would expect ? it inserts the
full stop/period at the end of each paragraph without problem. However,
if I try the same thing within the footnotes area it finds the paragraph
mark alright but does not replace anything when asked to do so. I have
also tried copying .^p into the Clipboard and then writing ^c into the
Replace With box, but the result is the same. Perhaps I have missed
something that would allow this replacement to take place

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Clarification of Question by englishresearcher-ga on 03 Feb 2004 14:01 PST

Thanks for these constructive comments. I didn't mention that I also
tried setting up a macro, but after crashing Word three times in a
row, decided that I was out of my depth. Very frustrating! I managed
to do 700 full stop manually in half an hour this evening, so perhaps
this is the answer.

Here's a way you might be able to do it:

Go to your Footnotes (on each page or document or whatever) then go to
the end of #1.

Add the stop.

Then use the Down Arrow key to tab down to the next Footnote. This
should take you to the end of that one, too.

Then add the stop, and so on.

Not what you had in mind ... but it's the best way that I can find.

Of course, I am not using Word 2002 [2000] or XP [WIN98SE] ...

No ... The Down Arrow key only goes to the end of the next Footnote if
it's shorter.

Sorry!

Hi englishresearcher,

I'm hesitant to say so, but I have a feeling you're experiencing a
Microsoft bug. You've tried the standard things and I've tried a few
further ideas too, but to no success.

Here are a few further ideas that you may find useful though.

Firstly, in the Find and Replace dialog window, there is an checkbox
to enable 'Highlight all items found in...'. The default is 'Main
Document' but you can change this to 'Footnotes'. Clicking Find Next
cycles through them nicely, but replace doesn't work.

It is possible to search by style, and footnotes are automatically and
handily formatted with a unique style, known as Footnote Text. This is
another way you can easily search just within the footnotes, but again
replace doesn't work.

I went a step further and created a macro to search within the
footnotes only, with the intention of editing it to include a FOR X=1
TO 2400, NEXT X loop (something I've done many times before, outside
of footnotes) but yet again it falls down.

I will look further into this but I'm beginning to believe that there
is no easy solution to your problem. Have you tried applying the
latest service pack to Office? If it is indeed a bug, the service
packs may have fixed it.

Best of luck,

Poe

Well... looking at your problem I think that the only way is making a
macro.. i think it's a MS Word Bug (jejejeje). Making a Macro that
read the style of the text (selecting it, and add a dot before the
last ^p) will work :)