Debian Woody VI (6.1.18)

[Chris Robinson <list@triumph2005.com>]

Hi

I wonder if anyone can help me?  I am trying to "VI" a file that appears 
to have control characters.
They appear as bold "~U|" and bold " | |", without the ".

I have tried seaching for these characters, with ":/~U" and :/| and 
:/ctrlvM etc.  But it appears as if they do not exist.

Is there any way to search and replace these characters?

I Have also search for vi web pages but to no avail.

Regards

Chris