How to Find and Replace Text in Word? Word Find and Replace Tool

The Word Find and Replace Tool locates in the document the occurrences of the word or phrase to be found and, through a dialog box, allows you to replace the occurrences of the phrase with new text, all at the same time, or one at a time selectively.

For example, suppose that in a long document you have written the word “Word” a considerable number of times, but later decide to complement the idea by placing the phrase “(word processor)” close to it; Instead of looking and remedying in exactly the same words on each sheet, utilizing the Find and Replace Text apparatus in a solitary activity, you can alter all the sheets in your document.

How to Find and Replace Text in Word?

To search the entire document, run the Find command ; but if you want to limit the search to a certain area; first select the text and then run the command:

To run the Find command :

1. Open the Edit menu .

2. Select the Search command .

3. In the dialog box, write the word or words to find.

4. Press the More button , so that the dialog box expands showing the following options:
Search : Select from the drop-down list: the All option to search the entire document, Forward to search from the insertion point to the end of the document, and Back to search from the insertion point position to the beginning of the document.

Match uppercase and lowercase letters: Click on the box to place the mark and word search making a distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters entered in the Search box.
Whole words: Check the box so that word finds only whole words that are not part of a longer word.
Use wildcard characters: Check the box and select in the Special button , the wildcard characters that optimize the search for words.

Format : Select one or more formatting characteristics such as: font, style and paragraph formatting, so that Word searches based on them. The chosen characteristics will be placed under the Search box .

5. After specifying the characteristics of the search, press the button Find next . Word will start the search and stop when it finds a match, which will appear highlighted in the document and with the dialog box still open.

6. When finding the first match, you will have two options:

• Press the Find Next button to locate the next match.
• Press the Cancel button to stop the search and return to the text.

Note: If you want to replace the found word with a new text, click on the Replace tab in the dialog box that is still open and follow the instructions detailed below.

7. If you decide to continue searching and Word reaches the end of the document, a message will appear with the option to continue the review in the remaining part of the document.
8. After Word finishes searching the entire document, it displays a message that the search is complete.

9. Press the OK button to close the message.
10. The dialog box will remain open, to close it press the Cancel button.

Word Find and Replace Tool

Find command and the Replace command work together; the first searches for the word or phrase and the second replaces it with the replacement word. So if you run the Find command first , from the same dialog box you can run the Replace command ; although you can also run it independently by following these steps:

To replace a text:

1. Open the Edit menu .
2. Select the Replace command .
3. In the dialog box write the word or phrase to search for and the text that will replace it
4. Press the More button , so that the dialog box expands showing the following options:
   Search Options: Find, Match upper and lower case, Whole words, Use wildcard characters. Refer to the section How to find text? on this same sheet to see the explanation of each characteristic.
   Replacement Options:
   Format: Sets the font format, style and character format that will be applied to the replacement text.
5. After specifying the search and replace characteristics, click the Find Next button . Word will start the search and stop when it finds a match, which will appear highlighted in the document and with the dialog box still open.
6. When Word finds the first match, you have three options:
   * Press the Replace button to replace the found word with the replacement text.
   # Press Click Replace all, to replace all the occurrences of the searched word with the replacement text at the same time.
   * To locate the next match Click on the Find Next button.
7. If you want to stop the search and return to the text, press the Cancel button .
   Complete the following exercise, which consists of finding and replacing text in a Word document.