Why has the word search started to find random words rather than the one I'm looking for?

I’m a writer and need word search for editing, especially checking for continuity errors, or making sure that I haven’t used a phrase or word too many times before in a book.
Now, when I enter a word to search, it ‘finds’ random words rather than the one I’m searching for.
I’m using LibreOffice version 3.6.7.1 (Build ID 9418c72) on a PPC (pre intel) Mac G5 running OSX 10.5.8 Leopard with extended memory.

Any suggestions? I’m not particularly clued up on the techy bits, so please try to give it in plain English rather than fluent ‘geek’. Thanks.

Maybe some help in Menu/Tools/Options/Language settings - English sentence checking.

Hi

Maybe you are using the Find tool in the Find toolbar (menu View ToolBars Find or Ctrl+F). Default there is no “exact” research . For example if you are looking for “he” it will find “the” or “another”. For an exact search use Edit Find & Replace (Ctrl+H) and check Whole words only.

Furthermore this extension could possibly interest you. I have not tested and could not comment on it.

Sorry If this does not answer your question. In this case can you be more specific about the way you proceed?

Regards

Hi Pierre, thanks for your input. I’m using the wordsearch via the box at the bottom left of the document’s surround. I only tend to look for complete words, like a name or a location, to take me to the right page, so I can check it (I’ve got a pretty good idea what’s going on in my novels) If I choose the word carefully, it should only take me to a couple of places. Occasionally, if I’m doing a first edit of another writer’s work, as a job for my publisher, I’ll use the ‘find all’ facility if there’s a persistent mis spelling of a particular word (or the ‘change all’ to change the ‘stars’ between breaks in the text to the publisher’s preferred style, or to standardise the type of quotation marks if the writer has mixed them by using different computers during his writing) It’s when working on edits for my publisher that the problem becomes a real pain in the arse, as it’s not my work I’m searching.

I looked at the ‘extension’ you suggested, but that’s more for adding to a spell checker’s dictionary. I never rely on spell checkers anyway, and fortunately I can spell pretty well by myself.

Does this help?

Hi - the wordsearch via the box at the bottom is what I called the Find tool in my previous answer. To find complete words use Edit Find & Replace (Ctrl+H) and check Whole words only.