The article provided by MiniTool's official website offers a comprehensive overview of the Find and Replace function in Word for newcomers to Microsoft Office. This guide is applicable to the Windows operating system and supports Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, Word Starter 2010, and Word 2007.

About Find and Replace in Word

The Microsoft Word Find and Replace feature is an integrated tool within the Microsoft Office Word application designed for searching, locating, and replacing content. Using this tool, you can efficiently locate specific content and substitute it with your desired text.

Find in Word

In addition to the full Find and Replace Word functionality, Word also includes a simpler search tool to locate specific content within a document. To utilize this feature, click Find under the Home tab’s menu or press the Ctrl F shortcut.

You can search not only for text but also for headings, pages, images, tables, equations, footnotes/endnotes, and comments.

Where Is Find and Replace in Word?

The Find Replace Word option is located in the submenu of the Home menu at the top of the Word window. Specifically, it is found in the Editing section, to the right of the Styles section and on the far right margin unless additional add-ins are installed.

How to Find and Replace in Word?

How to perform find and replace in Word? Follow these steps:

Step 1. While using Word, click Replace on the upper menu to open the Find and Replace dialog box. Alternatively, click the downward arrow next to the Find utility and select Advanced Find to bring up the dialog box. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl H.

Step 2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, enter the content you wish to find into the Find what field.

Step 3. Input the new content you intend to replace the original content with into the Replace with field.

Step 4. Click the Replace or Replace All button.

Replace: This will replace the next matching content with the new content, starting from your current position in the Word document (where the cursor is). If you're at the end of the document, it will begin searching backward to the start of the file.

Replace All: This will replace all matching content with the new content and inform you of the number of replacements made. No confirmation is given before the replacements occur, so ensure your selections are correct before proceeding.

Behind the Replace All button, there is a Find Next button. This is used to locate the next matching content without performing the replacement.

Additionally, you can click the More button in the bottom left corner to expand more advanced settings for the find and replace function.

Search: You can search the target content from the entire document (All, default), starting from the current location (Up), or moving forward (Down).

Match case: Enable case-sensitive searches for content.

Find whole words only: Ensure only complete words are matched, excluding partial matches within other words. For example, if you search for “with,” it will only find the standalone word “with,” skipping words like “within.”

Use wildcards: Utilize wildcards such as * to help find partially matched content. For instance, you can use “with*n” to find “within,” “with the new,” “with column,” and so on in this article.

Sounds like (English): When this option is selected, it will find not only identical words but also words that sound similar to the target word. For example, searching for “at” might also return “it,” “out,” and even “add.” However, this option is only available for English content.

Find all word forms (English): This will retrieve not only the word “match” but also its variations like “matched” and “matches.”

Match prefix: Use this option to find words with the same prefix as the target word.

Match suffix: This allows you to find additional words that share the same suffix as the target word.

Match half/full width forms: Search for content that matches the half/full width forms of the target content.

Ignore punctuation characters: If the target content contains punctuation marks, they will be ignored during the search.

Ignore white-space characters: During the search, any white-space characters in the target content will be disregarded.

Under the Replace advanced settings, you can specify the Format (font, paragraph, tabs, language, frame, style, and highlight) and various Special items (paragraph mark, tab character, caret character, etc.). Additionally, you can remove all formats by clicking No Formatting.

Find vs Replace on MS Word

Generally, Find only locates content that matches the target; whereas Replace not only locates matches but also replaces them with new content. From the Find and Replace dialog, you can switch to the Find tab to set options specifically for finding. Most of the settings are identical to those in the Replace tab.

These are all the details regarding Find and Replace in Word. By now, you should have a deeper understanding of find/replace in Word.

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