FM's limit to number of search and replace operations query

[Shlomo Perets]

Rob,

You wrote:

>I am in the final stages of a manuscript and trying to resolve matters like
>spaces after colons and punctuation. I thought I knew all the tricks, but
>when I do the Search and Replace with more than 3,500 operations in one
>file, FM crashes. I would not have thought FM would have limits (thought in
>fact it looped until it had done everything)  so I am blaming myself. Small
>1 to 3499 opeartions go well.
>
>running XP and FM7.2 with updates.


Find/Change operations may cause a crash when there are many replacements 
(internal error: 8004, 8442924, 4906935, 4903184). For example, in chapter 
2 of the sample Ecology book provided with FrameMaker, replace a space with 
a space (the same operation is successful in FrameMaker 7.2).
Workaround: add the following line in the [Preferences] section in 
maker.ini (see issue #1555297 in FrameMaker 8.0's ReadMeFirst.html)
ClearHistorySpecial=On
After adding this entry, the History palette will be cleared when a global 
Find/Change action is executed, and the global Find/Change action cannot be 
undone.

I encountered this with FM8.0 where the workaround is to add 
a  ClearHistorySpecial=On  entry to the make.ini file, after which the 
History palette is cleared when a global Find/Change action is executed.

I did not encounter this in FM7.2, even when the number of replacements was 
much higher than 3500.

How about using a number of Search/Replace actions (eg use separate 
search/replace actions in individual chapters and avoid book-wide searches, 
or apply separate actions to selected areas in a file)?

[ See background information by Michael Mueller-Hillebrand at 
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/?13@912.dPfqiv8AaaB@.3c05a417/0 ]


Shlomo Perets

MicroType, http://www.microtype.com * ToolbarPlus Express for FrameMaker
FrameMaker/Acrobat training & consulting * FrameMaker-to-Acrobat 
TimeSavers/Assistants