>just did it naomi and tried to place the macro into my coding without success. is that what you were suggesting?
>this is the macro verbatim:
>

> Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
>    Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
>    With Selection.Find
>        .Text = ".vmd"
>        .Replacement.Text = "^m"
>        .Forward = True
>        .Wrap = wdFindContinue
>        .Format = False
>        .MatchCase = False
>        .MatchWholeWord = False
>        .MatchWildcards = False
>        .MatchSoundsLike = False
>        .MatchAllWordForms = False
>    End With
>    Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
>

>
>
Most likely these 3 lines are important

.Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindContinue
        .Format = False

You need to find out the value of the wdFindContinue constant first.