A client's name changes, a product gets rebranded, a date moves. Find and Replace fixes every instance in one pass, and it's how careful people make last-minute changes without missing one.
Step by step
- Press Ctrl+H to open the Replace tab of Find and Replace.
- Type the word or phrase in Find what.
- Type the new text in Replace with.
- Choose Replace to change them one at a time, or Replace All to change every match.
Tips & troubleshooting
- Select More to match case or whole words only, so replacing "art" doesn't change "start".
- Ctrl+F opens the Navigation pane search when you only want to find text.
- Made a mistake? Ctrl+Z undoes the whole Replace All.
Options that prevent accidents
Click More in the dialog to reveal the search options. Two of them stop most Replace All disasters.
- Match case: finds Bill but not bill, so a name isn't confused with an invoice.
- Find whole words only: replaces art without touching start or party.
- Use Replace and Find Next for the first few matches before you trust Replace All.
- Ctrl+Z undoes a Replace All in one step if the count looks wrong.
Clean up formatting with special codes
The Special button inserts codes for characters you can't type. A few replacements fix most messy documents.
- Two spaces to one: type two spaces in Find what and one in Replace with. Run it until Word reports no replacements.
- Empty lines: find ^p^p and replace with ^p to remove blank paragraphs.
- Line breaks from pasted emails: find ^l and replace with a space.
- Tabs: ^t finds tab characters.
- Any digit: ^# finds a number, useful for checking every figure in a document.
Replace formatting, not just words
Find and Replace can change how text looks. Click in Find what, choose Format, Font and pick, say, Bold. Click in Replace with and choose Format, Font, Italic. Leave both text boxes empty and choose Replace All: every bold phrase becomes italic. The same approach swaps one style for another or highlights every occurrence of a term. Click No Formatting afterwards, or the setting stays in place for your next search.
Replace in part of a document
Select the section first, then press Ctrl+H. Word replaces within the selection and asks whether to continue with the rest of the document. Answer No.
In Word for Mac the shortcut is Control+H.