Find and Replace Function in Microsoft Word
When you’re working in a long document, you’ll often need to search for a particular word, phrase, or object.
Word’s Find feature lets you quickly locate pretty much any part of a document, from a word or phrase to a special character (such as a paragraph mark), from direct formatting (such as bold) to style formatting, from text in a particular language to an object (such as a picture).
Find’s sister feature, Replace, lets you replace text, formatting, or styles, either one instance at a time or all instances in a single sweep.
Find Text
What you’ll probably want to search for first is text—for example, a word that you know occurs in the part of the document to which you want to turn your attention. Word lets you search for text on its own or text with formatting.
To find text, follow these steps:
1. If the word or phrase appears in the part of the document you’re using, select it, and then copy it.
By copying the word or phrase, and then pasting it into the Find dialog box, you can save time and avoid typing mistakes.
You might also copy the word or phrase from another source—for example, from an e-mail message or from a workbook.
2. Press CTRL-F or choose Home | Editing | Find. Word displays the Find And Replace dialog box with the Find tab foremost.
The first time you open the Find And Replace dialog box in a Word session, you see the small version without the Search Options area. Click the More button to display the rest of the dialog box.
The next time you open the dialog box, Word displays the full version.
3. In the Find What text box, type or paste the search text. To paste, right-click and then choose Paste from the context menu, or press CTRL-V.
For advanced searches, you can use wildcards—special characters that match a range of characters.
Word remembers the details of searches you’ve performed in this session. To retrieve an earlier search, click the drop-down arrow on the Find What text box and choose the search from the list. Word lists the searches in reverse order, so the latest search is first.
4. In the Search drop-down list, choose the search direction: All, Down, or Up.
Word selects all at first, which makes Find search all of the document. Normally, you’ll want to leave All selected.
If you want to search downward first, choose Down. When it reaches the end of the document, Word prompts you whether to continue searching at the beginning.
Similarly, you can search Up and have Word prompt you to continue when it reaches the start of the document. For example, you would search upward if you needed to find the previous instance of the search term.
5. Choose options for the search in the Search Options area. Word lists the options you’ve chosen under the Find What text box.
Match Case Select this check box to make Word find only instances of the search text that have the same capitalization as you entered. For example, you might want to replace all instances of “Division” with “Department” but leave any instances of “division” (all lowercase) untouched.
Find Whole Words Only Select this check box to make Word find the search text only when it’s a whole word rather than part of another word. For example, you might want to find “other” but not “otherwise,” “brother,” or “another.” Word makes this check box unavailable if the search text includes a space.
Use Wildcards Select this check box if you want to use wildcards. See the section “Perform Advanced Searches with Wildcards and Pattern Matching,” later in this chapter, for details.
Match Prefix and Match Suffix Select the Match Prefix check box if you want to find the search text only at the beginning of a word. For example, you might want to find “fast” in “fastener” but not in “breakfast.” Select the Match Suffix check box if you want to find it only at the end of a word—for example, to find “after” in “hereafter” but not in “afterward.”
Ignore Punctuation Characters Select this check box to make Word ignore any punctuation that occurs within the search string. For example, with this check box selected, searching for “oh mama” finds “Oh, Mama” and “Oh! Mama”; with the check box cleared, the search doesn’t find these two examples.
Ignore White-Space Characters Select this check box to have Word ignore spaces and tabs that appear in matches for the search string. If you clear this check box, any extra tabs or spaces prevent Word from finding instances that otherwise match the search string.
6. Start the search. For example, click the Find Next button.
Find Next Click this button if you want to make Word locate and select the next instance of the search text. (If you choose Up in the Search drop-down list, Word finds the previous instance—the next one up in the document.) You can then edit that instance.
Find In To find and select all instances of the search text, click the Find In drop-down button, and then choose which part of the document to search: Main Document, Headers and Footers, or Text Boxes in Main Document. This option lets you get an overview of how often, and where, the search text appears in the document (or in the headers and footers, or in the text boxes). Word maintains the selection when you close the Find and Replace dialog box, but as soon as you move the insertion point, the selection disappears.
Reading Highlight To make Word highlight all instances of the search text, click the Reading Highlight drop-down button, and then choose Highlight All. Word maintains the highlighting when you close the Find And Replace dialog box and move the insertion point, so this option lets you work through the found items at your leisure. To remove the highlighting, open the find dialog box if you’ve closed it, and then choose Reading Highlight | Clear Highlighting.
7. When you’ve found what you were looking for, click the Close button to close the Find And Replace dialog box.
Instead of closing the Find And Replace dialog box, you can also work in the document while the dialog box is open: Click in the document, and edit as usual. Click in the dialog box to return to it. Alternatively, press CTRL-TAB to move the focus between the dialog box and the document. Leaving the Find And Replace dialog box open can be handy, but you may find it gets in the way—and Word provides an easy way to continue the same search once you’ve closed the dialog box. When you perform the search, Word sets the Browse Object To Find, which turns the Previous and Next buttons at the foot of the vertical scroll bar into Previous Find/GoTo and Next Find/GoTo buttons. To search for the previous or next instance of the search term, click one of these buttons, or press the corresponding keyboard shortcuts, CTRL-PAGE UP and CTRL-PAGE DOWN.
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