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Finding and Replacing Text

  
     
Overview

MSWord provides a facility that enables you to find and replace specific text in a document. For example, you might have used the word trainees throughout a document and you've now found out that this needs to be replaced with the word students. MSWord allows you to search for the word trainees and replace every instance with the word students.

 
Find and Replace Words Individually

To do an individual search and replace:

  1. Hit Ctrl+F. (The Find and Replace dialogue box will open).
    2.
  2. In the Find what: field, type the word you want to search for, e.g., trainees.
    3.
  3. In the Find and Replace dialogue box, click the Replace tab. (The Replace fields will open).

  1. In the Replace field, type the word that you want to replace the existing word with, e.g., students.

  1. Click the Find Next button. The cursor will move to the next instance of the word and highlight that word on the page.
    2.
  2. Click the Replace button. The word 'trainees' will be replaced the word 'students' and MSWord will move to and highlight the next instance of the word.
    3.
  3. Repeat this activity until you have replaced all instances of the word you want to replace.
  
Check Before Replacing

Check each instance of a word before replacing it. For example, the search described above will highlight the word traineeship as well as trainees during your search. If you hit replace, you will get the word studentship. In each instance, make sure the replacement is what you want.

 
Find and Replace Words Globally

MSWord provides a facility to automatically find and replace all instances of a word in a document at the click of a few buttons. This is called a global find and replace.

Although this is a powerful tool, global find and replace can be dangerous, as it replaces words throughout a document without regard to grammar or context. I rarely, if ever, use global find and replace as I am never absolutely confident that MSWord won't produce unwanted errors in my text.

To do a global find and replace, follow the steps above to find and replace an individual word, but instead of clicking Replace, click Replace All.

Make sure you do a thorough proof-read of a document after you have used global find and replace and before printing or sending a document. The results can be embarrassing!

 
 
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