How to cancel a find & replace command "midstream"?
 

Once a month I need to update a dozen or so files that contain around 500 or
so external links. For reasons I cannot go into, I cannot simply use the
Edit-Links-Change_Source solution. Instead I have to use the "find & replace"
function.

As long as I have not made any filename typos in the "find & replace" query,
this works fine. But as the filenames are complex, occasional typos are
inevitable. In such cases, a dialog box appears prompting to either locate
the non-existent file, or to cancel.

The problem is that with 500 links, I appear to be forced to click the
"cancel" button 500 times in order to then be able to "undo" and correct the
filename in the "find & replace" command. The only way I seem to be able to
avoid this laborious is to kill the Excel application/process using Task
Manager. Of course this means that any other unsaved Excel files that I have
open are also killed.

As the Esc key doesn't seem to work, is there a more efficient way of
halting the bad "find & replace" order from continuing?

How to cancel a find & replace command "midstream"?
 

Hi Matt,

To be on the safe side and speed up the process without any possible
mistake,
I would create a macro to avoid all the problems ...

HTH
Cheers
Carim

How to cancel a find & replace command "midstream"?
 

Hit CTRL+Break

--
Regards,
Dave


"Matt from GVA" wrote:

Once a month I need to update a dozen or so files that contain around 500 or
so external links. For reasons I cannot go into, I cannot simply use the
Edit-Links-Change_Source solution. Instead I have to use the "find & replace"
function.

As long as I have not made any filename typos in the "find & replace" query,
this works fine. But as the filenames are complex, occasional typos are
inevitable. In such cases, a dialog box appears prompting to either locate
the non-existent file, or to cancel.

The problem is that with 500 links, I appear to be forced to click the
"cancel" button 500 times in order to then be able to "undo" and correct the
filename in the "find & replace" command. The only way I seem to be able to
avoid this laborious is to kill the Excel application/process using Task
Manager. Of course this means that any other unsaved Excel files that I have
open are also killed.

As the Esc key doesn't seem to work, is there a more efficient way of
halting the bad "find & replace" order from continuing?

How to cancel a find & replace command "midstream"?
 

I have tried this at home using Excel 2007, but it doesn't work. I will try
again on my work PC tomorrow (Excel 2003).

Rgds
Matt

"David Billigmeier" wrote:

Hit CTRL+Break

--
Regards,
Dave


"Matt from GVA" wrote:

Once a month I need to update a dozen or so files that contain around 500 or
so external links. For reasons I cannot go into, I cannot simply use the
Edit-Links-Change_Source solution. Instead I have to use the "find & replace"
function.

As long as I have not made any filename typos in the "find & replace" query,
this works fine. But as the filenames are complex, occasional typos are
inevitable. In such cases, a dialog box appears prompting to either locate
the non-existent file, or to cancel.

The problem is that with 500 links, I appear to be forced to click the
"cancel" button 500 times in order to then be able to "undo" and correct the
filename in the "find & replace" command. The only way I seem to be able to
avoid this laborious is to kill the Excel application/process using Task
Manager. Of course this means that any other unsaved Excel files that I have
open are also killed.

As the Esc key doesn't seem to work, is there a more efficient way of
halting the bad "find & replace" order from continuing?

How to cancel a find & replace command "midstream"?
 

Dave - I have also tried on my work pc (Excel 2003), and can confirm that
CTRL+BREAK doesn't work here either. Have I misunderstood your suggestion?

"David Billigmeier" wrote:

Hit CTRL+Break

--
Regards,
Dave


"Matt from GVA" wrote:

Once a month I need to update a dozen or so files that contain around 500 or
so external links. For reasons I cannot go into, I cannot simply use the
Edit-Links-Change_Source solution. Instead I have to use the "find & replace"
function.

As long as I have not made any filename typos in the "find & replace" query,
this works fine. But as the filenames are complex, occasional typos are
inevitable. In such cases, a dialog box appears prompting to either locate
the non-existent file, or to cancel.

The problem is that with 500 links, I appear to be forced to click the
"cancel" button 500 times in order to then be able to "undo" and correct the
filename in the "find & replace" command. The only way I seem to be able to
avoid this laborious is to kill the Excel application/process using Task
Manager. Of course this means that any other unsaved Excel files that I have
open are also killed.

As the Esc key doesn't seem to work, is there a more efficient way of
halting the bad "find & replace" order from continuing?