Now, there are about two ways you can find and replace text in MS Word:
Two Ways to Find And Replace Text in MS Word
- Using the View Tab in the Ribbon
- Using the Shortcut Key
Both of these methods will be covered in this guide down below. We also made sure to include a few intermediate procedures to better filter your search results.
Method 1: Using the View tab in the Ribbon
Step 1. Open up your MS Word document.
Step 2. Open up the Navigation pane.
Open up the View tab on the ribbon. You’ll find this near the top and center area of your MS Word window. From there, tick the Navigation pane checkbox in the Show group. T
Step 3. Launch the Find and Replace tool.
Click the magnifier icon in the right-most side of the search field found at the top of the Navigation pane. Once you’ve accessed the drop-down menu, look for and click on Replace. The Find and Replace pop-up window will be displayed.
Step 4. Find and Replace text.
Now that you’re there, simply fill out the necessary fields below.
- In the Find What: field, type the text that you want to find.
- In the Replace With: field, type the replacement text.
Click Replace to replace one-by-one or Replace All to replace all at once. Click Find Next if you want to scan through the search results and have an idea of where they are in your document. Finally, click Cancel if you want to close the Find and Replace window.
You can type words, phrases, or even sentences in the Find what: and Replace with: fields. Also, you can replace the text with specific capitalization, punctuations, and other characters.
To give you an example, we will replace ‘golem’ with ‘Golum’s’.
Here’s the result.
And that’s it! You’ve just replaced a text using the Find and Replace tool in MS Word. To learn more about other features of the Find and Replace tool, go ahead and skip to Customizing Options when Finding and Replacing Text in MS Word.
Method 2: Using a shortcut key.
Step 1. Open up your MS Word document.
Step 2. Launch the Find and Replace tool.
On your keyboard, press the CTRL + H keys.
This will display the Find and Replace pop-up window.
Tip: This shortcut key also works with Google Docs.
Customizing Options when Finding And Replacing Text in MS Word
MS Word has a lot of other things in store for us. The Find and Replace tool has a pool of options to make searches more sophisticated.
This can come in handy most especially when the results include several irrelevant texts.
Now, there are a few ways to customize your search by clicking the More >> button found on the lower-left corner of the Find and Replace Tool in MS Word.
This will expand the Find and Replace window and provide you with several checkboxes to further filter your search.
Here’s a quick rundown of when to use them.
Search
Use this when you want the search direction from your cursor, whether upwards or downwards.
Match case
Use this when you want to find and replace words with specific capitalization.
Find whole words only
Use this when you want to find and replace words as a whole and not as a part of another word. For example, find “call”, and you’ll get “call” but NEITHER “caller”, nor “called”, nor “calling”.
Use wildcards
Use this when you want to find and replace words as a whole and as a part of another word. For example, find “call”, and you’ll get either “called”, or “calling”, or “caller”.
Sounds like
Use this when you want to find and replace words that sound alike. For example, find “call”, and you’ll get “cool”, “coal”, but NEITHER “ball” nor “tall”.
Find all word forms
Use this when you want to find and replace all VERB forms of a word. For example, find “call”, and you’ll get “called”, “calling”, but NOT “caller”.
Match prefix
Use this when you want to find and replace words with the same beginnings. For example, find “re” and you’ll get “recall”, “repay”, or “rebuild”.
Match suffix
Use this when you want to find and replace words with the same endings. For example, find “all” and you’ll get “ball”, “tall”, or “call”.
Ignore punctuation characters
Use this when you want to find and replace words while ignoring punctuations. For example, find “callers” and you’ll get both “callers” and “caller’s”.
Ignore white-space characters
Use this when you want to find and replace words while ignoring the spaces in between. For example, find “calling the caller” and you’ll get “callingthecaller”.
Conclusion
You have finally reached the last section of this article. We hope you found this article helpful!