Find and Replace
Here we go over how to automatically find and replace text in Word.
The Find and Replace feature lets you specify a word or phrase, and have the computer replace it with the text of your choice. By selecting the Replace feature from the Edit menu, a dialog box appears. Here you can specify the text you want to find, and the text you want to replace it with.
To find a particular word or chunk of text, you can search the document using CTRL+F. If you want to limit your search to a selected area, highlight that area and then execute the Find command.
To use the Find and Replace feature,
- 1.Click Edit > Replace from the menu.
- 2.Or, press CTRL+H.
- 3.In the Find what box, enter the text you want to search for.
- 4.In the Replace with box, enter the new text that you want.
- 5.Click Find Next, Replace, or Replace All.
Activity: In the article that you typed, the word river has been used too many times in the fourth paragraph. Find the third and the fourth repetitions of the word and replace with waterways and watercourses.
TIP: The Find and Replace feature gives you different options to search for a specific word. You can specify,
- Match case: E.g., if you type in ‘DIN’, Word will look for words, which are written in all caps. Any other variation of the word, e.g., Din, din, or dIN, will not show up in the search.
- Find Whole Words Only: Word will search for the complete word ‘din’. It will not show words that might have ‘din’ as a part of the spelling. E.g., ‘including’
- Use Wildcards: This option will locate any word with din in it. E.g., ‘including’
- Sounds like: This option will pick up all the words that sound like ‘din’, irrespective of the case.
Try our interactive lesson.
