Finding Text

The Find command lets you search for a word or phrase buried somewhere within your file. To use the Find command, follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+F. The Find and Replace dialog box appears, displaying the Find tab.
2. Click in the Find What text box and type the word or phrase you want to find.
3. (Optional) Click the More button to expand the Find and Replace dialog box. The More button expands the Find and Replace dialog box so you can fine-tune your search to make sure you don't wind up finding irrelevant text by mistake.
4. (Optional) Select one of the following check boxes:
   

   Match Case:
   Use this to find Bill but not bill.
   
   Find Whole Words Only:
   Use this to find cat but not words like catastrophe or bobcat.
   
   Use Wildcards:
   Use this to find parts of text, such as all words that being with ma, by typing ma* in the Find What text box. This would find words such as fail and fattening. (This option is available only in Word.)
   
   Sounds Like:
   Use this to find words phonetically, such as searching for elephant by typing elefant in the Find What text box. (This option is available only in Word.)
   
   Find All Word Forms:
   Use this to find variations of a word such as sings, singing, and sang. (This option is available only in Word.)

5. Click Find Next and repeat this step to continue searching your file.
6. Click Cancel when you are done.

If you select a chunk of text, you can make Office 2007 search within your selected text only, rather than your entire file.

Finding and Replacing Text

The Find and Replace command lets you substitute text throughout a file. You could search and replace a phrase like Nokia Set is Beautiful with the phrase Nokia Set is Amazing. To use the Find and Replace command, follow these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+H. The Find and Replace dialog box appears and then click in the Find What text box and type the text you want to find.
2. Click in the Replace With text box and type the text you want to appear instead.
3. (Optional) Click the More button and select one or more check boxes.
4. Click Find Next. Office 2007 finds the first occurrence of the text you typed and then click Replace or Replace All.
   The Replace command lets you review each word before you replace it to make sure that is what you really want to do. The Replace All command replaces text without giving you a chance to see whether it is correct or not. When using the Replace All command, be aware that Office 2007 may replace words incorrectly. For example, in addition to replacing MikeJ with Neil, Office 2007 might also replace all occurrences of Mike John with Neilson, which is probably something you do not want to do.
5. Click Close when you are done.

Closing a Window

To close a window, you can either click on that window's Close box or click the Office Button and then click Close. For a faster alternative, just press Ctrl+W and this closes the current window right away.

If you have not saved the contents of the current window, Office 2007 displays a dialog box asking if you want to save your data before it closes your window.