I was sleepwalking while deleting pictures one-by-one in a document — not remembering there was a faster and easier way to do this. First, I tried copying and pasting the image in the find/replace tool, but no luck. I knew there was a way to do it as I recalled discovering this process a long time ago.

After searching — surprisingly longer than I expected — I found the answer. Too simple.

1. Do Find and Replace (CTRL+H) in Microsoft Word.
2. Enter ^g in the “Find what” box.
3. Enter whatever you want to replace with in the “Replace with” box or leave blank to simply delete all the images.
4. Click “Replace All.”

Deleting floating graphics requires a macro. This solution also comes from the Google Groups post.

In managing a big family weekend, I used Excel to track everything from invitations to RSVPs. I tried to create a macro to do something, but deleted it after figuring out it wouldn’t do what I wanted. Yet, every time I opened the workbook, Excel asked if I wanted to run macros as shown in the below image.

What the hey? I deleted the macro. Why are you asking, Excel? So I thought the macro wasn’t deleted. I opened the Macro dialog box (Tools > Macro > Macros), which showed NOTHING indicating no macros existed in this workbook.

OK, so why are you giving me these macro messages? If I can’t find an answer to a Microsoft problem, I post the problem in the Microsoft forums where MVPs often provide the answer. This time, I lucked out on finding the solution myself (which doesn’t happen often as I guess I find the rare problems). Here are the steps I used since my situation didn’t need to do all the steps shown in the solution — the only folder that appeared as the Microsoft Excel Objects.

1. Save a back-up of the file and work from the back-up. If it works, you can save the back-up over the original file.

2. Right-click any tab and select View Code.

3. Double-click the first item in the Microsoft Excel Objects folder.

4. Press Ctrl+A to select everything (even if nothing shows) and press Delete.

5. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until completed for all items in the Microsoft Excel Objects folder.

6. Close the Visual Basic Editor.

7. Save the workbook.

Open the workbook again and the Macro message should be gone for good.

If you have a modules folder, expand it (click Modules folder once to expand) and right-click the module. Select Remove Module. Excel asks if you want to export it — up to you. Repeat the steps for all modules. Once done, do Steps 6 and 7.

I’m editing an eBook that requires special formatting for every story. Naturally this was a good fit for a macro. The first macro did all the steps, but fumbled on the call outs. Better idea: create two macros with the second one covering the call outs. This worked like a charm… until I closed Word and opened it the next day. The macros and the buttons on the toolbar representing the macros were gone.

I tried again a few times, studying the properties and options closer each time to no avail. Went to Microsoft to search the knowledgebase and found a possible solution: Word does not save changes or you receive an error message in an Office program after you install Adobe Acrobat 7.0. Reading the title, it didn’t sound like the right thing, but further scanning revealed “When you change the workspace in Microsoft Word, the changes are not saved when you quit Word. These changes to the workspace include the following examples: You create a macro…”

Bingo. Let’s hope it works. I deleted the bad macro (the first one I created) that kept reloading every time and created the two macros and a button for each. Did a Save All and now it’s come up two days in a row. Adobe Acrobat 7 looks like the culprit for a few problems. Every time I run it, Adobe wants to download updates, but I’m not sure I should let it.

Update: It worked. All you need to do is “Save All” by pressing and holding the Shift key, then select File menu and click Save All.

Today is a very special day. It’s my baby’s third birthday. Happy birthday, little guy!