Hi Doug,

Thanks for your reply. I"m trying to incorporate your changes into my macro
but getting stumped - I haven't used these in a while and are trying to
learn as I go. Here's my current macro that's working well showing the
find/replace dialog boxes for the merge fields. I just can't work out where
to insert your suggestions - are you able to let me know the appropriate
place to make your modifications?

Many thanks,
Andrew

-------------------

Public Sub BatchReplaceAnywhere()

'Macro by Doug Robbins - 1st March 2004
'with additional input from Peter Hewett
'to replace text in all the documents in a folder

Dim FirstLoop As Boolean
Dim myFile As String
Dim PathToUse As String
Dim myDoc As Document
Dim rngstory As Word.Range
Dim FindText As String
Dim Replacement As String

' Get the folder containing the files
With Dialogs(wdDialogCopyFile)
If .Display <> 0 Then
PathToUse = .Directory
Else
MsgBox "Cancelled by User"
Exit Sub
End If
End With

'Close any documents that may be open
If Documents.Count > 0 Then
Documents.Close Savechanges:=wdPromptToSaveChanges
End If

FirstLoop = True

If Left(PathToUse, 1) = Chr(34) Then
PathToUse = Mid(PathToUse, 2, Len(PathToUse) - 2)
End If

myFile = Dir$(PathToUse & "*.doc")

While myFile <> ""
'Get the text to be replaced and the replacement
If FirstLoop = True Then
FindText = InputBox("Enter the text that you want to replace.", "Batch
Replace Anywhere")
If FindText = "" Then
MsgBox "Cancelled by User"
Exit Sub
End If
Tryagain:
Replacement = InputBox("Enter the replacement text.", "Batch ReplaceAnywhere
")
If Replacement = "" Then
Response = MsgBox("Do you just want to delete the found text?",
vbYesNoCancel)
If Response = vbNo Then
GoTo Tryagain
ElseIf Response = vbCancel Then
MsgBox "Cancelled by User."
Exit Sub
End If
End If
FirstLoop = False
End If

'Open each file and make the replacement
Set myDoc = Documents.Open(PathToUse & myFile)
ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
' Fix the skipped blank Header/Footer problem
MakeHFValid
' Iterate through all story types in the current document
For Each rngstory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
' Iterate through all linked stories
Do
SearchAndReplaceInStory rngstory, FindText, Replacement
' Get next linked story (if any)
Set rngstory = rngstory.NextStoryRange
Loop Until rngstory Is Nothing
Next
ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
ActiveDocument.PrintPreview
ActiveDocument.ClosePrintPreview
'Close the file, saving the changes.
myDoc.Close Savechanges:=wdSaveChanges
myFile = Dir$()
Wend
End Sub

Public Sub SearchAndReplaceInStory(ByVal rngstory As Word.Range, _
ByVal strSearch As String, _
ByVal strReplace As String)
'This routine supplied by Peter Hewett
Do Until (rngstory Is Nothing)
With rngstory.Find
.ClearFormatting
.Replacement.ClearFormatting
.Text = strSearch
.Replacement.Text = strReplace
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
Set rngstory = rngstory.NextStoryRange
Loop
End Sub

Public Sub MakeHFValid()
'And this too
Dim lngJunk As Long
' It does not matter whether we access the Headers or Footers property.
' The critical part is accessing the stories range object
lngJunk = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers(1).Range.StoryType
End Sub