Pawing?

[Doglover]

When someone is 'pawing over a document' - This surely cannot be the right spelling of the word, can it? Yet, I can't think that poring or pouring are better. Perhaps my brain is seizing up with the quarantine or it's just age. What does everyone think?

[Gerri Attrick]

I would have said it is "poring" over a document. (To pore over means to study carefully).

Mind you, I quite like the idea of pawing over something. Do your dogs read your books. ;)

[Maggie Ann]

Yes. Poring.

pore1
[ pawr, pohr ]
verb (used without object), pored, por·ing.
to read or study with steady attention or application: a scholar poring over a rare old manuscript.
to gaze earnestly or steadily: to pore over a painting.
to meditate or ponder intently (usually followed by over, on, or upon): He pored over the strange events of the preceding evening.

[MHodmann]

It is poring, as Gerri says.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/poring?s=t

[Doglover]

I would have said it is "poring" over a document. (To pore over means to study carefully).

Mind you, I quite like the idea of pawing over something. Do your dogs read your books. ;)

I have a puppy at the minute and she seems to want to imitate my typing on my laptop. I can't get it out until she is asleep!

Now you've all said poring, I can see where that is the right one. What other meaning can one give to that word? I wonder why I couldn't see it before? Perhaps old age and puppy dogs don't really mix.

[okey dokey]

to my mind,  "poring" means that I am reading or studying a document.
But once I put my hands on it to correct spelling or move words around, then I am "pawing" over it.