Master Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace tools

We’ve placed a document on our website for you to download and try things out for yourself. To get it, start your web browser and in the Address or Location bar type www.computeractive.co.uk/2223994 and then press Enter. After the web page has loaded, follow the displayed instructions to download FindRepSample.doc. When asked where the document should be saved, click Desktop. Close your browser by clicking the X in its top right-hand corner to reveal an icon for the downloaded document on the Windows Desktop.

Double-click the downloaded document. This launches Word (if it is not already running) and opens the document ready for editing. When it has finished loading you’ll see that it is a homework project that the teacher has returned and at the end of the document is a list of revisions to be made. Some of them involve making 20 or more separate edits and are ideal candidates for Find and Replace. Incidentally, the fast way of getting to the very end of any document in Word is to hold down the Ctrl and End keys together.

Before making any changes to the document it’s a good idea to save it with a new name. That way, if things get messy you’ll be able to abandon your efforts and go back to the original version. Click on the File menu and then click Save As. In the File name panel, where it currently says FindRepSample.doc, type the name ‘My Copy’ and then click Save. Word adds the .doc ending for itself.

The first revision requires changing ‘bosch’ to ‘Bosch’, and as we don’t know where in the document it occurs, we can use the Find command. To use Find, either click on the Edit menu and then on Find, or use the keyboard shortcut combination of Ctrl and F (which means hold down the Ctrl key and then press F). A dialogue box called Find and Replace opens on top of the document being edited. Type bosch into the Find what panel and then click the Find Next button.

Word finds ‘bosch’ and highlights it using white text on a black background. If it has found ‘Bosch’ in the teacher’s notes, click the Find Next button again. Click anywhere outside the Find and Replace dialogue box to indicate that you wish to start editing, and then click on ‘bosch’. Delete the lower-case ‘b’ and type a capital letter in its place. To close the Find and Replace dialogue box, click its Cancel button.

The next edit involves replacing the word ‘Sherriff’ with the word ‘Sheriff’ throughout the document. For this, the Replace command is required. Open its dialogue box by using the shortcut key combination of Ctrl and H or by clicking the Edit menu and then Replace. In the Find what panel type Sherriff and in the Replace with panel type Sheriff. To perform all the replacements automatically, click the Replace All button.

The replacements are made with lightning speed and Word displays a message box showing how many replacements have been made. Click OK to remove this message and then click Close to dismiss the Find and Replace dialogue box. You can now use an almost identical procedure to replace every double speech mark in the document with a single speech mark. If you are successful, Word will tell you it has made 18 replacements.

The next task is to capitalise the word ‘act’ in the phrases ‘Act One’ and ‘Act Two’. Start by closing the Find and Replace dialogue box (if open) and then jump to the beginning of the document by using the shortcut key combination of Ctrl and Home. Summon the Replace dialogue box with Ctrl and H or by using the Replace option on the Edit menu. Click the More button inside the dialogue box, which displays a set of advanced options that can be used when finding or replacing. Notice also that the last pair of Find and Replace terms are redisplayed in the dialogue box.

In the Find what panel type act and in the Replace with panel type Act. Do not click the Replace All button yet: you’ll see why in a moment. When Word makes replacements it normally ignores capitalisation, treating ‘act’ and ‘Act’ as identical words. In order for the replacement to work, it’s essential to tell Word to pay attention to capitalisation by clicking the Match case box, which causes a green tick to be displayed in it.

Even with the Match case option chosen it’s still not safe to use Replace All. So, click the Find Next button instead. Word highlights the word ‘act’ on the first line. This is part of the phrase ‘act Two’ so it’s OK to click the Replace button, which carries out the replacement and jumps to the next occurrence, which is ‘act Two’. Again, it’s OK to click Replace and jump to the next occurrence, but this time, Word highlights the letters ‘act’ inside the word ‘characterises’.

As it is not desirable to change ‘characterises’ to ‘charActerises’, click Find Next to proceed to the next occurrence, which is part of the word ‘extract’. Click Find Next again. Continue in this manner until the end of the document is reached, using Replace or Find Next according to what is found. At the end of the document, if Word asks whether you want to continue searching at the beginning, click No, otherwise click OK.

One of the advanced options in the Find and Replace dialogue box is Find whole words only, and ticking this would have prevented Word finding the letters ‘act’ inside longer words. However, it’s always safer to avoid using the Replace All command unless you’re absolutely certain there is no chance of confusion. The next task is to change words emphasised as bold into italics. Before doing on this, close the Find and Replace dialogue box, and then press Ctrl and Home together to return to the beginning of the document.

Use Ctrl and H to start the Replace procedure. In the Find and Replace dialogue box delete the current contents of the Find now and Replace with panels. Also remove the tick from the Match case box, and from the Find whole words only box if you ticked it earlier. Click in the Find what panel, but don’t type anything because the aim is to search for a particular font format (bold), rather than for a specific word or phrase. Click the Format button near the bottom of the dialogue box. A menu drops down, on which you should click Font. While we’re here, remember the Format and Special buttons: they hold the key to finding (and/or replacing) all manner of document content, from styles to hidden symbols, such as paragraph marks, and are well worth exploring.

In the Find Font dialogue box, select Bold in the Font style panel, and then click OK. Click in the Replace with panel, and then click Format followed by Font. This displays the Replace Font dialogue box, in which you should select Italic in the Font style panel, and then click OK. It’s now safe to use the Replace All command to make 22 replacements of bold with italics. Alternatively, you might choose to use the Find Next and Replace buttons in order to follow the replacements one by one.