Find and Replace in Microsoft Word

Advanced find and replace features enable you to search a document according to specified criteria. This includes finding and replacing whole words, text formatted with uppercase text, types of font and paragraph styles. The find and replace function can also find paragraph formatting such as paragraph marks (when the Enter key is pressed for a new paragraph) and indenting (when the tab key is pressed).

1. Open a document containing several paragraphs and pages

2. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click on Replace

3. Click on More

4. Click on the Match Case check box

5. In the Find What text box, type in the word you want to find

6. In the Replace With text box, type in the word you want to replace it with

7. Click on Replace All

8. The search will only find a match that has the same lowercase lettering

9. Save the document and leave it open

Finding Whole Words

Whole words in a document can be found and replaced with other whole words. This is useful if you want to find an exact match of a word in a document and replace it with another. For example, you can search a document for the word “Chapter” and replace every occurrence of that word with “Section”.

1. Display the Find and Replace dialog box

2. In the Find What text box, type in the word you want to find

3. In the Replace With text box, type in the word you want to replace it with

4. Select the Find Whole Words Only check box

5. Click on Replace All

6. Save the document and leave it open

Replacing Types of Font

Documents can be searched for specific font types and replaced with a different kind of font. This is an efficient way of changing fonts within a document and can save time when performing repetitive tasks. For instance, you may want to replace all the Times New Roman formatted text with an Arial formatted text without changing anything else. This can be achieved using the replacing types of font feature.

1. In the Advanced Find and Replace dialog box, under Find, click on Format then Font

2. On the Font tab, choose Times New Roman

3. Click OK

4. In the Find What text box, type in the word or phrase you want to find

5. In the Replace With text box, type in the word or phrase you want to replace it with

6. Click on Replace All

7. Only text that is in the Times New Roman font will be replaced

8. Click on the No Formatting button to remove the format

9. Save the document

Finding Paragraph Marks

When you press the Enter key, paragraph marks appear if the Show/Hide feature is active. Paragraph marks can be replaced with alternative marks such as indents or page breaks. For instance, you may want to replace each paragraph mark with a page break so that paragraphs appear on separate pages rather than together on the same page.

1. Open a document containing paragraph marks

2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, under Find, click on the Special button then Paragraph Mark

3. Click on Find Next

4. Word will search for any paragraph marks in the text

5. Click inside the Replace With text box

6. Select the Special button, then choose Manual Page Break

7. Click on Replace All

8. This will replace paragraph marks with page breaks throughout the document. Each paragraph will be placed on separate pages.

9. Save the document and close it