Microsoft Word 2010 : Proofing a Document - Finding and Replacing Text

One of the most common mistakes in writing is to use one word when you actually meant to use another. For example, you might use “Tim” throughout a document when you should be referring to “Tom.” Or you might repeatedly mistype a word—such as typing “fine” instead of “find.” Word’s spelling or grammar checker may not always pick up such mistakes.

But in these situations, you don’t have to read the entire document to find your mistake(s). Word can locate any piece of text in a document and can also replace it with any other text you specify. You can replace a single instance of the text or every occurrence in the document.

Finding Text

The Find command lets you search for a character, word, phrase, number, or other text string. You can also select options that refine text searches to yield more accurate results.

The following sections show you how to find text by using Word’s Navigation task pane, which opens when you issue the Find command. You can also find text (and formats and special characters) by using the Find and Replace dialog box.

Searching for a Specific Piece of Text

Suppose that you want to find a specific word in a document. Here’s how:

Refining a Text Search

Using Word’s Find Options, you can set more specific criteria for finding text. For example, you can search for words that match the case of the text you type in the Search Document box or words with a certain prefix. Here’s how to access the Find Options:

1.	Click the drop-down arrow at the right end of the Search Document box.
2.	From the drop-down menu, click Options, as shown in Figure 2. The Find Options dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 2. The Find Options drop-down menu in the Navigation task pane. Figure 3. Setting options for conducting a text search. Here, only the default options are selected.
3.	In the Find Options dialog box, clear or select the check boxes that will give you the most accurate results for the current search.
4.	If you want to make your selections the default settings, click the Set as Default button.
5.	Click OK and continue your search as described in the preceding section.

Finding Text with the Find and Replace Dialog Box

The Navigation task pane is new to Word 2010. If you have used a previous version of Word, you may prefer to use the old, familiar Find and Replace dialog box rather than the Navigation task pane. If you’re new to Word, you may prefer the Find and Replace dialog box because it puts all your options in one place and allows you to search for items the Navigation pane can’t, such as special characters and formats.

Searching for Text on the Find Tab

You can use the dialog box’s Find tab to search for text. Here’s how:

1.	On the Home tab, click the Replace button. (Alternatively, press Ctrl+H.) The Find and Replace dialog box opens.
2.	Click the Find tab.
3.	Click the More button. The dialog box expands to display more options, as shown in Figure 4. (Notice that the More button now says Less; you can click it to hide these additional search options.) Figure 4. The Find tab, expanded to display all its search options.
4.	Click the Find What box and type the text string you want to find.
5.	Click the Search drop-down arrow, and choose the direction you want to search in, starting from the insertion point’s current location.
6.	In the Search Options section, select any of the options that will improve the accuracy of your search.
7.	Click the Find In drop-down arrow and select the part of the document to search. By default, Word searches the main body of the document, but you can search the document’s headers, footers, and text boxes, if applicable.
8.	Click Find Next to locate the first occurrence of the text after the insertion point. Word finds the text and highlights it. You can click this button repeatedly to move from one instance of the text to the next.
9.	Click Cancel to close the dialog box when you finish with your search.

Highlighting All Occurrences of Search Text

Normally, when you use the Find and Replace dialog box to search for text, Word highlights the current occurrence of the text. When you jump to the next (or previous) occurrence of the text, Word highlights it. However, you can tell Word to highlight every instance of the text in the document; that way, you can close the dialog box and view every matching piece of text as you read through the document. Here’s how:

To clear the highlighting, take the following steps:

Searching for Special Characters

In addition to text, Word can search for special characters in a document.  Here’s how to search a document for special characters:

1.	Open the Find and Replace dialog box; then click the Find tab.
2.	Click the More button to display the Search Options section of the dialog box.
3.	Click the Special drop-down arrow to view a list of special characters, as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5. Searching for a special character in the Find tab.
4.	Click the type of character you want to find. You can repeat this step to tell Word to search for a series of characters. You can also type characters or words among the special characters to pinpoint your search. For example, you might select Tab Character from the Special list and then type the word The immediately after it in the Find What box. This tells Word to find instances of tab stops followed by The and makes for faster searching than searching for either tabs or The alone.
5.	Click Find Next to locate the first occurrence of the character after the insertion point. Word finds and highlights the character. You can click this button repeatedly to move from one instance of the character to the next.
6.	Click Cancel to close the dialog box when you finish searching.

Replacing Text

Word’s Replace feature is just an extension of the Find feature. That’s why they share the same dialog box. Notice that the Replace tab looks just like the Find tab but has an extra box where you can type your replacement text.

Finding and Replacing Text in a Document

After you master the art of finding text, replacing text involves just a few more easy steps. Here’s a quick example that proves the point:

1.	Open the Find and Replace dialog box; then click the Replace tab.
2.	Click in the Find What box and specify the text (or special character) you want to find and replace.
3.	In the Search Options section of the dialog box, select any options that might increase the accuracy of your search.
4.	Click in the Replace With box and specify the text (or special character) you want to use as the replacement Your dialog box should resemble the one shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. Specifying options for replacing a word in a document.
5.	Click the Find Next button to find the first instance of the search text. (If you want to skip any instance of the text without replacing it, click the Find Next button again to go to the next instance.)
6.	Click the Replace button to replace that instance of the search text with the new text. Word then jumps to the next instance of the text.
7.	Keep clicking either Replace or Find Next to replace or skip each subsequent occurrence of the text until you reach the end of the document. Alternatively, you can click the Replace All button to find and replace every occurrence of the text in your document at the same time.
8.	When you finish, click the Close button.

Be careful when using the Replace All feature. If you don’t set your search options just right, Word may replace text you don’t mean to change. For example, if you want to replace one whole word with another whole word, be sure to check the Find Whole Words Only check box. Otherwise, Word will replace every occurrence of the search text, even if it is part of another word. So, if you want to change the name “Tom” to “Tim,” Word may change “Tomorrow” to “Timorrow” and do similar kinds of damage throughout your document.