‘Ibid.’ is an abbreviation for ‘ibidem‘ (‘in the same place’).

The full stop in ‘ibid.’ is therefore obligatory. But it can be dashed hard to spot.

To automate the search (in MS Word), hit Cntrl-F to bring up the Find/Replace box, enable Wildcards, and enter:

ibid[!.]

in the find box.

This little string finds instances of ‘ibid’ that are not followed by a full stop.

What I will do when IT-driven civilization comes to an end, and we have to return to copy-editing entirely by eye, I don’t know. For the moment, let’s live a little.

Live, and use wildcard strings.