Finding and Replacing Text

To help you find text, Word offers a handy Find feature. Not only can this Find feature search for a word or phrase, but it also offers a Replace option so you can make Word find certain words and replace them with other words automatically.

Using the Find command

The Find command can search for a single character, word, or a group of words. To make searching faster, you can either search an entire document or just a specific part of a document. To use the Find command, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab and then click the Editing icon and then click the Find command. The Find and Replace dialog box appears.
2. Click in the Find What text box and type a word or phrase to find.
3. (Optional) Click the More button and select any additional options, as shown:

   Match Case:
   Finds text that exactly matches the upper- and lowercase letters you type.
   
   Find Whole Words Only:
   Finds text that is not part of another word. Searching for on will not find words like onion.
   
   Use Wildcards:
   Lets you use the single character (?) or multiple character (*) wildcards, such as searching for d?g, which will find dog or dig; or b*t, which will find but, butt, or boost.
   
   Sounds Like:
   Searches for words based on their phonetic pronunciation such as finding elephant when searching for elefant.
   
   Find All Word Forms:
   Finds all variations of a word, such as finding run, ran, and running

4. Click one of the following buttons:

   Find All:
   Searches the entire document
   
   Find Next:
   Searches from the current cursor location to the end of the document

5. Click Find Next to search for additional occurrences of the text you typed.
6. Click Cancel to make the Find and Replace dialog box disappear.

Using the Find and Replace command

Rather than just find a word or phrase, you may want to find that text and replace it with something else. To use the Find and Replace command, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home tab and then click the Editing icon and then click the Replace command. (You can also press Ctrl+H.) The Find and Replace dialog box appears.
2. Click in the Find What text box and type a word or phrase to find
3. Click in the Replace With text box and type a word or phrase to replace the text you typed.
4. (Optional) Click the More button and choose any additional options. Click one of the following buttons:

   Replace All:
   Searches and replaces text throughout the entire document.
   
   Replace: Replaces the currently highlighted text.
   
   Find Next:
   Searches from the current cursor location to the end of the document.

   Click Find Next to search for additional occurrences of the text you typed.
5. Click Cancel to make the Find and Replace dialog box disappear.