Betalogue

Open a new Word document. Type the following text:

1998-1999	blah
1999-2000	blah

with a tab character between the date range and the “blah” on each line.

Now make a rectangular selection of the date ranges, i.e. holding the Option key down while you are dragging a rectangle over the date ranges:

(For once, never mind the ugly white smears around the selected characters, which are yet another example of Microsoft’s sloppy work. These smears do not exist with a normal selection, only with a rectangular selection. Obviously Microsoft thinks that a little ugliness doesn’t hurt.)

Once this selection is made, bring up the “Find/Replace” dialog box. In “Find what:“, type a dash. In “Replace with:“, type an en dash.

Then click on “Replace All“.

Bam! Application freeze. Every time.

Some days I positively hate Microsoft.

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.