In this lesson, you'll learn how to search for specific text in your document, and how to automatically replace each occurrence of it with new text.
You can have Word for Windows search through your document to find occurrences of specific text. For example, you are writing a 40 page report and want to edit the section on the New York Sales Office. You'll quickly find it by searching for "New York." Word's default is to search the entire document. If there is text selected, the search will be limited to the selection. To search for text, follow these steps:
Plain English: Search Template The search template is a model for the text you want to find.
Figure 15.1
The Find dialog box.
Now, you can do one of two things:
If, after searching only part of the document, Word for Windows reaches the start of the document (for an upward search) or the end of the document (for a downward search), you are given the option of continuing the search from the other end of the document. Once the entire document has been searched, a message to that effect is displayed.
Use the Replace command to search for instances of text, and to replace them with
new text. Imagine that you're almost finished with your 400-page novel, and decide
to change the main character's name from Brad to Lance. This command will save you
a lot of work! The Replace dialog box is shown in Fig- ure 15.2.
Figure 15.2
The Replace dialog box. Make entries in this dialog box as follows:
Timesaver Tip: Deleting Text To delete the target text, leave the Replace With box blank.
If you select Find Next, Word will highlight the first occurrence of the template in the document. You now have three options:
Timesaver Tip: Saving Time To save typing, use abbreviations for long words and phrases. Later, use Replace to change them to final form.
Panic Button: Recovery! If you make a mistake replacing text, you can recover with the Edit Undo Replace command.
In this lesson, you learned how to search for and optionally replace text. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to use Word for Windows templates.
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