Finding and Replacing Text


Suppose your organization decides to change the name of something like a product, committee, or event. If the name has been referred to only rarely or in only one or two documents, it might not be too much of a chore to find it and change it as necessary. But if the old name was used several times in several documents, the job becomes tedious , and the chances that you will catch every instance become less likely.

With Word, you can easily search a document for specific characters and certain types of formatting. If you want, you can specify replacement characters , either for specific instances that you authorize on a case by case basis, or for all instances in a document.

Finding a Specific Word or Phrase

While typing the FAQ about Redmond BEAT, you left the characters **** as placeholders for information that needed to be added later. Suppose you now want to locate the placeholders so that you can substitute the correct information. In a document as short as the FAQ, you would have no difficulty locating ****. But if the current document was many pages long and several placeholders were involved, you could use the Find command to quickly and easily locate them.

Follow these steps to locate the **** characters and replace them with the correct information:

  1. Press Ctrl+Home to move the insertion point to the top of the FAQ document.

  2. On the Edit menu, click Find .

    Word displays this Find and Replace dialog box:

    click to expand
  3. In the Find what text box, enter **** , and then click Find Next .

    Word searches the document, stopping when it locates the first occurrence of ****.

  4. Click Cancel to close the dialog box.

  5. Type 210 to replace the highlighted placeholder.

  6. Click the Next Find/GoTo button below the vertical scroll bar.

    Word repeats the search using the same Find what text as the previous search, and stops at the second instance of ****. (You can click the Previous Find/GoTo button to go back to the previous instance of the Find what text.)

  7. Replace the selection with Jordan Manufacturing .

Information about  

Customizing or refining your search, page 57

Widening or Restricting a Search

Most of your searches will be as simple as the preceding one was, but you can also refine your searches by clicking the More button in the Find and Replace dialog box to display additional options. You can then either use the options provided, or enter special characters to customize your search. For example, suppose you regularly confuse the two words affect and effect . You can check your use of these words in the FAQ, as follows :

  1. Press Ctrl+Home to move to the beginning of the document.

  2. Click the Select Browse Object button below the vertical scroll bar.

    Word displays the palette of options shown in this graphic:

    These buttons allow you to browse through your document by field, endnote, footnote, comment, section, page, edits, heading, graphic, or table. You can also go to a specific location or search for words or phrases.

  3. Click the Find button to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

  4. Click the More button.

    The Find and Replace dialog box expands to display the search options shown in this graphic:

    click to expand
  5. In the Find what text box, type ?ffect.

    The ? is a wildcard character that stands for any single character. To see a list of other wildcards you can use to find and replace text, along with examples of how to use them, search the index of the Help file for wildcard.

  6. Verify that the Search option is All .

  7. Select the Use wildcards check box.

    This option tells Word to look for any string of characters that matches the search text string, with any character in the position of the wildcard.

  8. Click Find Next to start the search.

    Word stops at the word affects in the second paragraph. (You might need to drag the dialog box by its title bar so that you can see the text.) This instance of affects should be effects .

  9. Click Cancel to close the dialog box, and then change the a to e .

  10. Click the Next Find/GoTo button to repeat the search.

    Word stops at the word effects , which is correct.

  11. Click the Next Find/GoTo button again.

  12. The document contains no other instances affects or effects . so click No when asked if you want to continue the search.

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Jumping to a specific location

You can also use the Go To tab of the Find and Replace dialog box to jump to a specific element in your document. For example, you can move to a specific page, graphic, or heading.

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Editing during a find or replace

You can edit your document in the middle of a find or replace operation without closing the Find and Replace dialog box. Simply click the document window to activate it, make your changes, and then click anywhere in the Find and Replace dialog box to continue the search. Alternately, click the Cancel button to close the Find and Replace dialog box and use the Next Find/GoTo and Previous Find/GoTo buttons below the vertical scroll bar to complete the search without the dialog box in your way.

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Finding and replacing formats

To search for text with an assigned format, click Find on the Edit menu, click the More button to expand the Find and Replace dialog box, click the Format button, and then click Font (for character formats) or Paragraph (for paragraph formats). In the Find Font or Find Paragraph dialog box, specify the format you are searching for, click OK to return to the Find and Replace dialog box, and click Find Next. Word highlights the next text entry with the assigned format. You can use the Replace command to change a particular format. For example, to change all bold text to bold italic, click Replace on the Edit menu, click Format and then Font, click Bold in the Font style list, and click OK. Then click the Replace with text box, click Format, and then click Font. In the Font style list, click Bold Italic, and then click OK. Back in the Find and Replace dialog box, click Find Next, and then click Replace if you want to confirm each change, or Replace All to replace all instances without confirmation.

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Replacing Text

Often, you will search a document for a series of characters with the intention of replacing them. When you need to make the same replacement more than a couple of times, using the Replace command automates the process. As an example, suppose you want to find all the occurrences of National BEAT and change them to USA BEAT . Follow these steps to make the change:

  1. Press Ctrl+Home to move to the beginning of the document.

  2. Click the Select Browse Object button, click Find , and then click the Replace tab.

    You can also click Replace on the Edit menu or simply press Ctrl+H.

    The Find and Replace dialog box opens in its expanded form with the Replace tab displayed, as shown in this graphic:

    click to expand

    Notice that the text and settings from the Find tab have been carried over to the Replace tab.

  3. In the Find what text box, replace the search text by typing National BEAT .

  4. In the Replace with text box, type USA BEAT .

  5. Deselect the Use wildcards check box, click the Less button to shrink the dialog box, and then click Find Next .

    Word highlights the first occurrence of the search text.

  6. Click Replace .

    Word continues the search and highlights the second occurrence.

  7. Click Replace All to replace any remaining occurrences, and then click OK when Word tells you that two replacements have been made.

  8. Click Close to close the Find and Replace dialog box, and then save the FAQ.

    As with the Find command, you can use the Match case, Find whole words only, Use wildcards, Sounds like, and Find all word forms options to refine the search and replace procedure.

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Refining your searches

By using the options available in the Find and Replace dialog box, you can carry out more complicated searches of your Word documents. Use the options in the Search drop-down list to search forward (Down) or back-)ward (Up) from the insertion point, or to search the entire document (All). Select the Match case check box to find only those occurrences of the search text with the exact capitalization specified. For example, find the initials USA and not the characters usa in usability. Select the Find whole words only check box to find only whole-word occurrences of the search text. For example, find the word men and not the characters men in fundamental. Find special characters, such as tabs and paragraph marks, by selecting them from the Special drop-down list. For example, find the paragraphs that begin with Remember by selecting Paragraph Mark from the list and then typing Remember after the ^p characters that Word inserts in the Find what text box. Select the Sounds like check box to find occurrences of the search text that sound the same but are spelled differently, such as there and their. Finally, select the Find all word forms check box to find occurrences of a particular word in any form. For example, if the search text is the word hide, Word will also find hid and hidden.

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Online Traning Solutions - Quick Course in Microsoft Office XP
Online Traning Solutions - Quick Course in Microsoft Office XP
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 116

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